Category: Technology & Applications

Your Next Amazon Delivery Will Be By?—USPS Van, UPS Truck, Cargo Bike, Robot or a Drone. Delivery Logistics Now Manned But Soon Unmanned?

Stand by. Your next home delivery of an online order could by several means.
By van vs Bike vs Drone vs Robot or Person   Which means to be used?
Accelerated by COVID 19. Home delivery is now essential to public & companies.
Delivery may be a combo of truck, bike and even drone.
How Fetch works [ an example] -Receives & stores packages from any carrier at its facility.
Notifies given resident. Resident then uses the Fetch app to schedule a delivery.
Fetch delivery person will bring the package directly to the resident’s door.

AI, Drones, & Machine Learning Making 4 Day Work Week Possible. Changing the Nature of Work & Jobs; Impact on Economy & Worker Function in Question.

How do you like the idea of working just 4 days a week?

Employees clock eight fewer hours over four days for no less pay in pilot study

Kickstarter company embraces remote work during initial stage of the pandemic

Crowdfunding company allowed employees to clock 8 fewer hours over 4 days for no less pay,

What Builds a Great Country Economy? Can Combo of Market & Managed Capitalism Provide an Economy That is Fair & Balanced? Leaves No One Behind?. Maybe.

Has capitalism really been adopted by countries like China?
Three global business trends that have impacted Capitalism:
1) Technology-driven transformation
2) Reinvention of office work
3) Increased attention to social and environmental goal
Source of business value in the 20th century was access to capital.
Now different? More access to natural resources, investment in infrastructure now essential.
Providing technology to control financial & actual capital is giving countries an edge.

World Has Drinking Problem: Desalination of Sea Water Being Used to Provide Needed Freshwater; Air to Water Technology Producing Fresh Drinking Water

Water to Water technology now desalinating sea water.
Literally an ocean of opportunity to create fresh drinking water.
Air-To-Water generation has achieved the right scale, capacity, and cost.
Emerging technology converts air humidity to water.
Problem with Desalination method, reverse osmosis, is still expensive.
Requires a great deal of electricity to push water through a filter.
Costly to treat the water to kill microbes and to replace the filters.
Means gradual acceptance and utilization of new sources of water.

Pay For What You Did- Not What Underwriters Predicted You Might Do. Vehicle Insurance Rates to Be Based on Driver Behavior From Machine Learning Apps

Vehicle Insurance rate setting now based on how you drive & behave.
Driving behavior data is being gathered directly from insured vehicles.
Age & credit scores no longer used to determine underwriting premiums
Data gathering from autonomous vehicles sensor data used to evaluate risk.
Insurers offer discount if can use & provide telematics gathered driving data.
Enables use of telematics, AI, & Machine Learning in claims processing.

Cities Developing One Public Safety Organization as Whole New Way to Combine Police, Fire, Crime Prevention, Emergency, & All City Services

Cities creating Public Safety Departments to combine all City Services.
Communities need & want protection, prevention, public safety, & policing.
There are efforts in some states & cities to defund & reduce police departments.
Meantime several cities have created combined public safety departments as solution.
Consolidating police, fire, & emergency medical services into one department–Not defunding Police. 
Getting to the root of law and order by going after the cause of crime & rioting.

Not Solid Yet; Solid State Batteries Have 50% Greater Energy Density, More Range. Lower Cost, Lighter, & Faster Charge Time But Battery Packs For Cars Are Far From Ready Even With Big Promise

Things are not solid yet with solid state batteries for EVs.
Solid-state batteries promise to offer greater energy density compared to lithium batteries.
Not yet being used in the production of mass-market cars ’til at least 2023;
Companies are mostly working on the technology of solid state batteries at the cell level.
And the batteries are expected to be significantly higher priced than lithium-ion.
Ford & BMW led a $130M Series B investment round in solid-state battery startup. So this is the future.

Self-Optimizing Plants Becoming Reality As AI & SW Take Over; Leads to More Productivity, Less Cost, & Probably Fewer Workers; Retraining Now Paramount

Asset Performance Optimization tool suite for manufacturing sector now in use.
This Asset optimization software will lead to self-optimizing plants.New refineries, chemical plants, & processes designed & built from ground up.
Will use optimization tools devices such as sensors, monitors, industrial controllers, control valves.
OT Setup around the plant in order to sense, monitor and control the process.
Asset optimization software being used in capital intensive businesses including manufacturing;
Such as upstream oil and gas production, refining, chemicals, & big pharma.

Turns Out We Are Not Getting More Done By Working All The Time. Here are 6 Habits or Practices That We Should Adopt Now; Daily Shots of Mental Focus.

The way we work and where has changed.
Pandemic has forced us in doors and in front of Keyboards.
The tendency has been to just keep working most of the time.
People have found it hard to focus on tasks & be productive during Pandemic.
What to do with, how, & when sometimes was & is disruptive & unproductive.
As people go back to the office & working at home, this is new approach to work.
Perhaps, there is a major change in way we work at home & how we now spend our time.
See Six ways to quickly adapt to the forthcoming Post Pandemic Period.

Reset Point for Global Lithium Market Causing Rising Prices; Mining Sources Become Sold Out So Prices Hold; Market Grows; U.S. Builds Charging Stations.

There is a limited global supply of Lithium for EV batteries.
Pent up demand for EVs caused by COVID now coming about.
Prompts more mining for lithium will be in Europe & U.S. starting to initial mine.
Presently every global operating mine is “sold out” for the future.
Trouble is much of American lithium is too expensive to pull out of the ground

Dealer Creates In-house Tech School Training Department as Pipeline for New Technicians & Teachers; Prep to Service Hi Tech Vehicles

Innovative Dealer Trains it own Technicians. Made them teachers.
Sought to solve dealership’s continued recruiting and turn over challenges.
Solved the problem by making Techs in-house  teachers.
Program Increased the certification levels of techs in the dealership.
Core idea allows techs to teach helps bring new technicians into the business.
Built its own pipeline of highly trained technicians.

Are You Obsolete? Pandemic or not, Need for Massive Re-skilling & Retraining of Workers, Even those in Tech; Absence of Auto Skilled is Crisis in the Making .

As the auto industry transitions to EVs and Self Driving, new worker skills are going to be needed.
Auto is immersed in a digital revolution.
Need for companies & dealers to transform their operations with retrained employees.
Must retrain or hire newly qualified employees in technology & automation.
Re-skilling required for jobs that face high automation potential.

United Spending $1Billion for Electric Air Taxis as Seeks to Reduce Carbon Foot Print by 2050 & Build Back Travel Volume Post COVID

How you get to a metro airport in the next 5 years is probably not going to be in your car. How do you get to the Airport in Next 3 years? Take an Air Taxi from remote lot.
Major airlines like United are planning to buy flying taxis to shuttle people off airport & to plane.
The means the cost of environmental travel to weigh heavily on consumers and the eco conscious.
Passengers will park off airport & E-air taxi to terminal and their jet fueled flight, even to & from suburban areas. .

No More Waiting for Those Appraiser Photos of Car Accidents. Phone App Immediately Sends Claim & Photo of Accident Scene to Insurance Company

Car Insurers can now use AI, Machine Learning, & computer vision technology.
Vehicle Accident Claims Management is changing.
Major vehicle insurance companies processing claims on Apps immediately..
USAA is example using Alphabet of major underwriter adoption.
Probably means a new & different role for human vehicle appraisers.

Remote Work Increasing Due to COVID 19; Transforming City, Prices & People; Some offices Not Needed; Untethered Work Force & Management Adapting;

The impact of COVID 19 is transforming how we get work done.
Major shift from centralized home office to remote work going on;
Going to the main corporate office becoming thing of the past;
Teleworkers setting up telecommuting process & liking it.
Some new telecommuters may even leave the city altogether;
Teleworking setups mean fewer grueling commutes & time saving;
Telework is now accepted & trusted as part of work culture & society fabric

Telematics Based Insurance Using Driving Data & Driver Behavior in Connected Cars to Predict Accident Risk & Claim Frequency; Offer Cheaper Policy Rates;

The way that vehicle insurance rates are determined & quoted is changing. Have changed?
Policy holders are allowing underwriters to track, measure, & store their driving behavior & vehicle usage.
So User Based Vehicle Insurance is growing market in risk management.
Driving data from connected cars providing actual mileage use & behavior.
This data from new financial technology is enabling insurance companies to offer lower underwriting rates.
Your driving is being watched and recorded so put away your cell phone. Watch the road.

Finding the Right Fit; A Tough Test to Hire Your Best Candidates. Here Are Some Fresh Guidelines on How To Find Great People for Your Great Company

Finding, hiring, leading, and developing people is one the leading challenges of entrepreneurs and company founders.
The skill is not only to attract but determine in a short period of time if the individual sitting in front of you is the right fit.
Many startups and high-growth companies do not have a planned, structured and methodical process for evaluating prospective talent .
Some do not even have clear objectives other than “we need bodies; get them in here and hurry.
So it critical to the success of an enterprise to have a way, means, and systems of bringing the people & their skills on board.
Here are some solid guidelines from a very successful founder-entrepreneur and university business instructor, Mike Pochan. Carnegie Mellon’s Finest.

Car Collisions Produce Used Car Parts & Exports; Copart Sells Totaled Cars Online; Builds Crashed Car E-commerce & Salvaging Profits

It took vision & business acumen to see how junkyard cars were sale-able.
Willis Johnson saw a need & filled it with an e-commerce platform that made him a Billionaire.
The sale of the damaged vehicle is done entirely online by Copart. COVID has peaked revenue,
Further, some totaled vehicles become drive-able & repairable when sold overseas or other countries.
Copart did $2B in sales in 2020 from 234 lots and their stock jumped 150%,

Sorry, Your Genes Control Sequencing, Not You–But Knowing Your Genome Can Make Your Future Care Precise & Targeted Just for You Alone.

Collaborative Research involving the combined resource of a large medical firm & a university is focused on a Genetic medicine project
that is seeks to deliver care based on genomic medicine. This emerging field is called Genetic or precision medicine.
UCLA Medical & Regeneron have set up a exome genetic sequencing reach agreement.
Will focus on sequencing a collection of blood & tissue samples as part of genotyping effort.
Regeneron has developed World’s largest genetic database so is leading the field; UCLA has its own leadership position in medical technology..

You are Very Successful; You Are a Board Member? And Still Nobody Really Listens to Your Advice. Whadayado?

Even if you are a successful investor & innovator, other management people may not really listen to your advice and experience.
Getting people listen to you can often be challenging.
So what about the counsel in this book for directors on corporate boards?
How is being on a company management team like being on a Corporate Board?
Getting attention, inclusion, & credibility applies to company boards, management meetings, committees, & even consultants.
Rarely is the role of directors & even consultants spelled out by companies.

Data Grab: GM Selling Insurance Based on Vehicle-Driver Data

GM Onstar is getting into vehicle insurance underwriting.
GM knows from years of previous under writing that big challenge is to know the driver habits of the policy holder.
So is leveraging data generated by cars to re-establish its auto-insurance business.
This will provide rating data for car-insurance based remote tracking of drivers’ behavior.
So can set rates based on data that other competitors do not have.
GM or Onstar then uses this driver behavior data to set lower insurance rates.

California “Baggage” Isn’t Carried by Entrepreneur on One Way Texas Trip

No longer– California Here I Come. Rather many long time residents of the State of California & their companies are moving out of state.
VC and mid sized companies are moving to places considered to not have California constraints.
Texas deemed to provide new & better opportunities without the problems & “baggage” California seems to have.
An Op Ed in the WSJ prompts this digestion & discussion of California issues that is worthy of action by the state government.

Biden Still Wary of Silicon Valley Big Tech

Get Biden Techy. Now there is an opportunity for a Biden presidency to integrate Silicon Valley technology into administration..
Seems to be a need to examine & position anti-trust, social media, digital divide, & big tech’s size.
Domestic surveillance & misinformation are major concerns of Big tech leadership & the Biden team.

Hacked Again & Have Only Half Cyber Cops Needed

Cyber threats & attacks have alarmed system & corporate management nationally.
Major cybersecurity hubs are & have been set up to deal wth cyberthreats.
More Leadership & investment needed to protect against unauthorized access to data centers & systems.
Obstacles that are slowing action– regulations, budget growth & corporate boards.
Business & security leaders being urgently challenged to change approach.
Cybersecurity and risk aversion have become a major business decision for Corporate America

Remote Work, AI Robots, & VR to Rule

An AI Robot might be able to do your job but you can be in control.
The Work Robot will still be controlled by skilled humanoids who trained the learned robots.
Combined impact of COVID 19, Robotics, knowledge workers at home, & telepresence to change how work is done,
Telepresence will enable service sectors jobs to be transitioned to trained AI Robots using new technology