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Humans Not Ready for Primetime

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020

https://www.flickr.com/photos/automobileitalia/30430513415/

It’s not just self-driving or any of the other “DDIY (don’t do it yourself) tech that isn’t ready for primetime.

It’s humans.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system was one of the probable causes of a fatal 2018 crash into a concrete barrier. In addition, the safety board said the driver was playing a mobile game while using Autopilot before the crash, and investigators also determined he was overly confident in Autopilot’s capabilities.

“Overly confident,” huh. Well, duh.

Who ever heard of a human who wasn’t, at the least, confident that the tech they spent their money, especially expensive tech, wouldn’t do what they expected.

“In this crash we saw an over-reliance on technology, we saw distraction, we saw a lack of policy prohibiting cell phone use while driving, and we saw infrastructure failures, which, when combined, led to this tragic loss,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the end of the hearing on Tuesday. “We urge Tesla to continue to work on improving their Autopilot technology and for NHTSA to fulfill its oversight responsibility to ensure that corrective action is taken where necessary. It’s time to stop enabling drivers in any partially automated vehicle to pretend that they have driverless cars.”

Even driverless cars tell drivers to stay alert, as do “Autopilot.”

Of course, doctors have been telling people to eat more veggies for decades and you know how well that’s worked.

Say the word “auto” to anyone and they will hear “you don’t have to do anything, X does it for you.”

Real pilots know better.

Image credit: Automobile Italia

Golden Oldies: Entrepreneurs: Tesla Hack

Monday, March 2nd, 2020

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30998987@N03/16642738584

Poking through 14+ years of posts I find information that’s as useful now as when it was written.

Golden Oldies is a collection of the most relevant and timeless posts during that time.

In August 2016 I wrote Self-driving Tech Not Ready for Primetime and a month later Tesla was hacked. But, as you’ll find out tomorrow, hacking isn’t the only problem — humans are actually way higher on the problem scale. While it’s not easy, hacking dangers can be minimized, but fixing humans is impossible.

Read other Golden Oldies here.

I’ve been writing (ranting?) about the security dangers of IoT and the connected world in general.

Security seems to be an afterthought— mostly after a public debacle, as Chrysler showed when Jeep was hacked.

GM took nearly five years to fully protect its vehicles from the hacking technique, which the researchers privately disclosed to the auto giant and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the spring of 2010.

Pity the half million at-risk OnStar owners.

A few days ago Tesla was hacked by Chinese white hat Keen Team.

“With several months of in-depth research on Tesla Cars, we have discovered multiple security vulnerabilities and successfully implemented remote control on Tesla Model S in both Parking and Driving Mode.”

They hacked the firmware and could activate the brakes, unlock the doors and hide the rear view mirrors.

Tesla is the darling of the Silicon Valley tech set and Elon Musk is one of the Valley gods, but it still got hacked. And the excuse of being new to connected tech just doesn’t fly.

And if connected car security is full of holes, imagine the hacking opportunities with self-driving cars.

The possibilities are endless. I can easily see hackers, or bored kids, taking over a couple of cars to play chicken on the freeway at rush hour.

Nice girls don’t say, ‘I told you so’, but I’m not nice, so — I told you so.

Image credit: mariordo59

Unfake Fake News

Tuesday, February 13th, 2018

https://www.flickr.com/photos/katmere/5009827752/Fake news. People everywhere in the US and in all walks of life are talking about it.

There’s no question that fake news is subversive, whether created by humans or driven by AI.

But what about unfake fake news as served up by mainstream and new media alike?

Think you’ve never seen it?

Sure you have.

Frequently in financial reporting.

From CNBC: Twitter rockets more than 20 percent after the company reports first-ever net profit.

From BI: Snap crushed Wall Street’s revenue targets in its fourth quarter, as it filled its Snapchat app with more ads than ever and tapped into a broader group of consumers.

From US News: Tesla Finally Gives Investors Good Earnings News.

Wow! Based on the above headlines they look like great bets to contribute to your retirement.

Maybe.

But before investing your hard-earned dollars you might want to see what the same information looks like sans spin, hype and OMG.

Consider the information, often buried in euphoric media hyperbole, kind of like the fine print in a warranty or lease.

From Recode: Achieving profitability was one of the company’s [Twitter] main goals in 2017, and one of the big reasons it laid off 9 percent of its workforce in late 2016, and then sold off its developer business and shut down its video app Vine. Investors like profitable companies, and so do potential acquirers.

From TechCrunch: Snapchat’s big redesign will reach all users during Q1 2018, up from 40 million users currently. It was due to be fully rolled out by now but that has been delayed following poor reception in countries like the U.K., Australia and Canada. Amongst some of the first users to review the update, 83 percent of App Store reviews were negative, citing a confusing interface, ads mixed into the message inbox via Stories and people who don’t follow you back getting pushed into the Discover section.

From the New York times: The company [Tesla] lost $1.96 billion for the full year of 2017, nearly three times its loss of $675 million in 2016. The company has never made a full-year profit since it went public in 2010.

So what would unfake/unspun headlines look like?

KG sent along some hilariously accurate examples.

Caveat emptor, indeed.

Image credit: Kate Mereand-Sinha

If the Shoe Fits: Regulations and George Hotz

Friday, November 4th, 2016

A Friday series exploring Startups and the people who make them go. Read all If the Shoe Fits posts here

5726760809_bf0bf0f558_mStartups love to rail against regulations, claiming they stifle innovation.

Uber and Airbnb are two of the most aggressive fighting them, not to mention the loudest.

What do you think?

Do you believe that eliminating/diluting regulations would provide the necessary boost to bring innovations to fruition?

Uber and Airbnb brazenly ignored regulations and, when that didn’t work, took their fight to the court of public opinion, lobbied for legal change and sued.

Would eliminating regulations have made Theranos’ blood tests work and produced a better outcome for its customers?

Autonomous and semi-autonomous cars are another battlefield.

And for all its high-profile supporters, millions of people around the globe are concerned with safety —  with good reason.

Obviously, regulations aren’t all bad, especially when when the cost of ignoring or eliminating them could be measured in lives lost.

Regulations are something that startup CEOs need to deal with and most do.

Most, but not George Hotz.

When he received a letter from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found a third option — turn tail and run.

Comma.AI, a startup run by famous hacker George Hotz, has shut down its project dedicated to building a Tesla-like semi-autonomous driving system after a warning from the federal government. (…)  The cancellation was prompted by a letter Comma.AI received from the , which asked the startup to provide information to ensure the product’s safety or face civil penalties of up to $21,000 a day.

Considering the product was a $1000 DIY semi-autonomous kit the market would likely be huge.

It seems reasonable to me to ask for proof it was safe, just as Theranos was asked for proof.

However, unlike Theranos’ CEO, Hotz didn’t dance, blow smoke or wave mirrors — he turned tail and claimed a pivot.

Would much rather spend my life building amazing tech than dealing with regulators and lawyers. It isn’t worth it. -GH 2/3

— comma ai (@comma_ai) October 28, 2016

Maybe when you’re 27 and best known for hacking an iPhone as a teen and a PlayStation 3 a few years later that’s what you do when faced with authority.

Image credit: HikingArtist

Entrepreneurs: Tesla Hack

Thursday, September 22nd, 2016

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30998987@N03/16642738584I’ve been writing (ranting?) about the security dangers of IoT and the connected world in general.

Security seems to be an afterthought— mostly after a public debacle, as Chrysler showed when Jeep was hacked.

GM took nearly five years to fully protect its vehicles from the hacking technique, which the researchers privately disclosed to the auto giant and to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in the spring of 2010.

Pity the half million at-risk OnStar owners.

A few days ago Tesla was hacked by Chinese white hat Keen Team.

“With several months of in-depth research on Tesla Cars, we have discovered multiple security vulnerabilities and successfully implemented remote control on Tesla Model S in both Parking and Driving Mode.”

They hacked the firmware and could activate the brakes, unlock the doors and hide the rear view mirrors.

Tesla is the darling of the Silicon Valley tech set and Elon Musk is one of the Valley gods, but it still got hacked. And the excuse of being new to connected tech just doesn’t fly.

And if connected car security is full of holes, imagine the hacking opportunities with self-driving cars.

The possibilities are endless. I can easily see hackers, or bored kids, taking over a couple of cars to play chicken on the freeway at rush hour.

Nice girls don’t say, ‘I told you so’, but I’m not nice, so — I told you so.

Image credit: mariordo59

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