When Cruise Automation’s cars recently began coming to a stop jamming up San Francisco streets senior wireless and automotive executives worldwide began shifting uneasily in their suites. In spite of demanding that General Motors build them an expensive telematics control unit (TCU) with four-carrier (at the time) connectivity,… Read More
Author: Roger C. Lanctot
Wireless Carrier Moment of Truth
Ecomotion: Engendering Change in Transportation
Prioritizing gender-related behavior in the analysis of transportation patterns may change planning priorities and accelerate a transition to more sustainable mobility solutions. That is the finding of a report compiled by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in Tel Aviv, Israel and shared at the Women in Mobility summit… Read More
Connecting Everything, Everywhere, All at Once
The automotive industry is rapidly coming to the realization that connecting cars is about so much more than simply adding a modem, an antenna, and a bit of software. Connecting cars and connecting car owners with an attractive connectivity value proposition may be two of the most difficult things the industry has ever attempted.… Read More
Radiodays Europe: Emotional Keynote
One doesn’t expect to get emotional at the kickoff keynote for an industry event, but Radiodays Europe 22 flipped the script with live music and a bulletin from Ukrainian broadcasters beamed in from a bunker in Ukraine. The bunker broadcast followed speeches from Swedish and Finnish broadcasting executives including … Read More
Taxis Don’t Have a Prayer
Ever since the emergence of Uber and DiDi and Gett and Yandex and all the rest of the app-based ride hailing operators I have been worried about taxis. I had a sneaking suspicion that the ride hail operators were exploiting a loophole that put taxis at a disadvantage creating a mortal threat.
My suspicions were borne out by taxi driver… Read More
The Jig is Up for Car Data Brokers
The same week that John Oliver took on the topic of privacy on his HBO program “Last Week Tonight,” one of the leading automotive data brokers – Otonomo – became the target of a class action lawsuit in California. While Oliver detailed the creepiness of everyday privacy violations on computers, mobile phones, and connected televisions,… Read More
ITSA – Not So Intelligent Transportation
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) passed last year in the U.S. earmarks billions of dollars that can be used for the deployment of potentially life-saving C-V2X car connectivity technology. The U.S. Department of Transportation and state DOTs are poised to commence that spending, but one thing stands in the … Read More
OnStar: Getting Connectivity Wrong
One of my pet beefs with the car industry is that car makers, on the whole, have failed to agree among themselves as to what basic vehicle connectivity ought to consist of. From car maker to car maker prices vary, bundles vary, free periods of service access vary and the variations get worse between model years as offers change and … Read More
Tesla: Canary in the Coal Mine
The automotive industry is tied up in knots over cybersecurity. Consumers expect their cars to be secure. Car makers spend millions on securing cars, but don’t know how, what, or if to charge consumers for security.
Meanwhile, most cyber penetration reports to organizations such as the Auto-ISAC are related to enterprise attacks. … Read More
Chip Shortage Killed the Radio in the Car
“In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind we’ve gone too far.” – “Video Killed the Radio Star” – The Buggles
I discovered within days of driving home my new BMW X3 last fall that I was a victim of the much ballyhooed chip shortage. Among the features “deleted” from … Read More
Real men have fabs!