CES 2019 Stormy Weather for IBM

CES 2019 Stormy Weather for IBM
by Roger C. Lanctot on 02-03-2019 at 12:00 pm

Ginni Rometty, chairman, president and CEO of IBM was kind enough to take on the task of an hour-long keynote at CES 2019 in Las Vegas last week. She used the opportunity to highlight three areas of computational innovation at IBM – deep data, broad AI and quantum systems – with the help of three partners: Delta Airlines, Wal-Mart… Read More


OnStar Missing the Florence Boat

OnStar Missing the Florence Boat
by Roger C. Lanctot on 09-13-2018 at 12:00 pm

Here we go again. A hurricane is closing in on the U.S. East Coast and General Motors’ OnStar connected car team – now part of something called Global Connected Consumer Experience – is AWOL.

While mandatory evacuations have been ordered and two-way highway connections to the coast have been switched to single… Read More


What GM Can Learn from Tesla

What GM Can Learn from Tesla
by Roger C. Lanctot on 01-28-2018 at 7:00 am

General Motors has had wireless connections to its cars for more than 21 years, thanks to Project Beacon, better known as OnStar, now operated as Global Connected Consumer Experience. OnStar has likely saved hundreds of lives, if not thousands, by summoning emergency responders to the scenes of crashes where airbags deployed.… Read More


Driver Distraction? Don’t Look at Me!

Driver Distraction? Don’t Look at Me!
by Roger C. Lanctot on 10-06-2017 at 7:00 am

The Automobile Club of America’s (AAA) ongoing battle with driver distraction, among other issues such as drowsy driving and teen driving, turns a new page with a report flagging 23 of 30 tested in-vehicle infotainment systems as demanding that drivers pay a high or very high level of attention when performing tasks with… Read More


Eclipse 2017: Drive All Night!

Eclipse 2017: Drive All Night!
by Roger C. Lanctot on 08-24-2017 at 7:00 am

The reports are coming in now that Apple is working on self-driving car technology in support of developing shuttle buses – not unlike the dozen or so other companies like Local Motors and Navya working on the same idea. The message is clear that the only way to reduce traffic and congestion is to get human beings to pack themselvesRead More


Your Car Sucks Data

Your Car Sucks Data
by Roger C. Lanctot on 08-07-2017 at 12:00 pm

“Cars Suck up Data about You. Where Does It All Go?” This was the ill-informed headline in the NYTimes last month. The headline echoes the thoughts of Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich (“Just one autonomous car will use 4,000 GB of data/day” – NetworkWorld) and Barclay’s Brian Johnson (“AnRead More


Tesla’s Cat in the Bag

Tesla’s Cat in the Bag
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-18-2017 at 8:00 pm

Some day soon, maybe this year or next, Tesla Motors is going to let the cat out of the bag that its cars are not only connected but are also subject to remote control. Remote control isn’t the sort of feature that consumers look for in their personal transportation, so it isn’t likely to be something Tesla is going to bring… Read More


MWC 2017: The 5G Emperor’s New Clothes

MWC 2017: The 5G Emperor’s New Clothes
by Roger C. Lanctot on 03-03-2017 at 10:00 pm

A very odd phenomenon is sweeping the automotive and wireless industries and was in full flower at MWC 2017. The onset of 5G connectivity has wireless carriers excited over the high bandwidth, low latency and high availability applications inherent in this new network technology – to say nothing of network slicing for targeted… Read More


The Privacy Delusion

The Privacy Delusion
by Roger C. Lanctot on 09-28-2016 at 7:00 am

Why do we think we have privacy in our cars? Why does the government believe there is an interest in preserving privacy in cars? Can we just get over it? One of the least private places known to mankind – outside of the Internet – is the car!

But our transportation regulators in the U.S. and their counterparts at the European Commission… Read More