Category Archives: Singularity

I dont like to think about the past too much, Wolfgang Puck confesses early in the Disney+ documentary Wolfgang, a red flag that were not going to encounter much in the way of intense self-scrutiny in the scant 78 minutes that follow. A fairly vapid and shallow affair, even by the low standards of the celebrity bio-doc subgenre, Wolfgang provides copious archival montages of the first celebrity chef (Julia Child apparently didnt count), but precious little understanding of what actually makes him tick.

Pucks early years are skimmed, aside from an extended anecdote about losing his first kitchen job, told in great detail and illustrated with re-enactment footage, so we fully understand this as The Story That Defines Him. The real juice here is Chef Wolfgangs rise to fame, and much of that material is fascinating: how the open kitchen design of his Spago restaurant elevated the chef from a blue-collar job to a celebrity, how his staff read Hollywood trade papers to best assess who got the premium tables, how instrumental he was to the development of fusion cooking.

Some much-needed tension is provided by Patrick Terrail, the owner of Ma Maison (Pucks first kitchen of note), as he and his chef maintain conflicting accounts of how much credit Puck deserved for that restaurants success. But most of the picture hums along with the singularity of purpose of an infomercial, and even its coverage of Pucks flaws he spread himself too thin, he was an absentee father and husband have the ring of a job applicants description of their biggest flaw: that they just work too hard, and care too much.

Wolfgang is directed by David Gelb, who all but defined the celebrity chef documentary with Jiro Dreams of Sushi. He hits many of the same notes; the food photography is delectable, and Puck is full of bite-size wisdom like We have to have focus in life and If you believe in something, you have to follow your dreams. But Wolfgang ultimately plays like exactly what it is: Jiro Disney-fied, and thus drained of its nuance, complexity and interrogation.

WolfgangNot rated. Running time: 1 hour 18 minutes. Watch on Disney+.

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Wolfgang Review: Light as a Souffl, and About as Substantial - The New York Times

ST. LOUIS -- As we watched Simone Biles, it felt like we were part of a pilgrimage.

We'd traveled to Missouri for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics trials, a huge crowd of strangers now bonded by this collective coming-together. We were yearning to witness greatness, but we also felt protective of her, invested in her. All of us knew, without needing to verbalize it, this was likely our last chance to see her competing in the flesh.

So when Simone Biles, during her balance beam routine, wobbled twice, then hopped to the floor in disgust, thousands of people inside The Dome at America's Center let loose an audible gasp.

It was an instinctive, but unified sound -- part surprise, part concern. As Biles climbed back on the beam to finish her routine, I realized it was also a noise I hadn't heard in more than a year. All 24,000 of us were joined together in collective emotion, and we were reacting to something happening right in front of us, something we could bear witness to without the technological magic of fiber optic cables or high-definition cameras.

In that moment, we got to feel anxious together instead of alone.

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We could tell, even from several hundred feet away, that Biles was trying not to cry as her routine ended. After she nailed her dismount and forced herself to smile as she saluted to the judges, she marched toward her backpack in steely silence, her competitors and coaches wisely giving her the space she needed without a word being spoken. Biles' uncharacteristic wobble on the beam meant very little in the grand scheme of the competition. She'd easily win the women's all-around, earning a spot on the U.S. Olympic team for the second time, and she remains an overwhelming favorite to capture multiple gold medals in Tokyo next month. But it was clear, at least for one night, that holding oneself to standards once inconceivable in the world of gymnastics can be, at times, onerous.

I peeked to my left and tried to study the face of my 11-year-old daughter, Molly, who had inspired our personal version of this pilgrimage. By the time their kids reach a certain age, most parents, myself included, believe they can correctly interpret their kid's emotions with little more than a glance. But that parental art has understandably become more challenging in COVID times, with faces frequently obscured by masks. This time, Molly's eyes gave little away.

"I think Simone is just frustrated," I said, trying to offer reassurance.

"Yeah, I just feel bad for her," she replied. She said little else.

Molly and I had flown down from Maryland, just the two of us, finally going on the adventure we'd vowed to take more than a year ago, before the world unraveled, the trials and the Olympics were postponed, before school took place on a computer screen in her bedroom and before her own gymnastics team, and the friendships that came with it, were paused indefinitely. Seeing Simone was supposed to be a 10th birthday present, a conscious effort by me to instill an admittedly cheesy, yet entirely sincere family philosophy that experiences are invaluable, and that they will live on long after material things -- like the iPhone she wanted -- end up buried in a landfill.

A year later, it felt even more important to make the trip -- in large part because Biles, her favorite gymnast, is likely to retire from competitive gymnastics after Tokyo. But it was more than that.

I had promised to take her to see Biles on the day she turned 10, in December of 2019.

Now she was 11, and speeding toward 12. That past year had been a blur. Nothing would feel truly normal again until that promise was fulfilled.

IT IS ADMITTEDLY difficult to find the right words that describe what it is like to watch Simone Biles perform a tumbling pass in person. Television shots and YouTube clips are the necessary, insufficient vessels the sport of gymnastics has to share her talent to the world, but what becomes clear after seeing her in person is how impossible it is, digitally, to convey scale.

Remove the box you are used to seeing her soar through, and suddenly the air around her -- and her ability to travel through it, often inverted -- seems limitless. To watch her on television is to marvel at the limits of athletic excellence. If you could see her, instead, do a double layout with a half twist across your living room, watch her feet as they nearly brush your ceiling, you might question Newton's law of universal gravitation.

She is the first athlete I can remember for whom there is no push to add a qualifier to her status as the Greatest Of All Time. There is no army of sports bros demanding that we throw the word "female" in front of the declaration that she's reached the pinnacle of the sport, no contingent of stupid arguing that, because women do not compete in the rings, the high bar, the pommel horse or the parallel bars, it diminishes her accomplishments.

There is no one counting medals or grand slam titles. If she's Michael Jordan, there is no LeBron. If she's Tiger Woods, there is no Jack Nicklaus. She has reached the rarified air where criticism -- even the performative, contrarian kind -- likely couldn't gain traction. I had to smile when Biles strutted into the first night of the trials wearing slides embossed with the sequin outline of a goat. (She's also worn several leotards recently with the symbol.) It didn't feel arrogant as much as it felt earned, like a statement of fact. She hasn't lost an all-around competition since 2013.

Biles is so good, she has (in the opinion of many observers smarter than me) broken the modern scoring standard used in gymnastics, which in theory offers gymnasts a limitless possibility in the degree of difficulty category. This topic has been well covered within gymnastics' small universe, but has been barely discussed outside of it, perhaps because of how illogical it seems when explained to a layperson.

(As a gymnastics dad, I will attempt to gym-splain it to you.)

Essentially, the International Gymnastics Federation choose to place a cap on the difficulty rating for some of Biles' most innovative maneuvers so as to discourage other, lesser athletes from attempting them and potentially injuring themselves. Biles was, understandably, annoyed and called their reasoning "bulls---" and has continued to perform the moves in competition, despite getting what feels like partial credit.

If you're a student of sports history, the federation's decision seems eerily similar to the NCAA's 1967 rule banning the dunk in basketball, citing safety as its motivation. The rule was widely believed to have been put in place to keep UCLA's 7-foot-2 freshman, Lew Alcindor, from dominating. The basketball establishment didn't want Alcindor to dominate the way Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell had.

Alcindor dominated anyway. Biles has done the same.

The old guard in gymnastics is adamant that Biles' race has nothing to do with it, and that might be true. For the most part, she's been celebrated by the sport for taking it places few could have imagined.

For the most part.

When she won her first world championship in 2013, becoming the first Black woman in the sport's history to do so, an Italian gymnast who finished fourth on the balance beam joked with a teammate "Maybe next time we'll paint our skin black so then we can win too." She then volunteered that anecdote to a reporter, presumably thinking it would find a sympathetic audience. The Italian federation apologized, then tried to explain their frustrations that Biles victory had nothing to do with race, it was actually about artistry. What was gymnastics becoming, they wondered, by placing such an emphasis on strength and power?

Having watched Biles compete, in person, last weekend, I feel emboldened to contradict: That anyone ever suggested she lacks "artistry" is laughable. What they mean but lack the courage to say, is Biles, more than any gymnast, has dragged the sport away from those who want it to remain part athletic endeavor, part beauty contest. Because what is art, really, without innovation or the fear of failure? There are times, certainly, when you fear she will crash to the floor, an Amanar or Yurchenko double pike gone wonky that puts her in peril. But she never does.

Her athleticism is so remarkable, her balance and body control so mesmerizing, it serves as a testament to its own singularity. There is no one on earth like her. She is, in the simplest terms, boundless liquid grace.

COUNTLESS MORNINGS DURING the pandemic, Molly would wake up at dawn, well before anyone else in the house, and find a quiet space, away from the rest of the world, where she could watch Biles' routines on YouTube. It didn't matter how old or obscure the competition was, she would find it and study it, and day-dream about what it would feel like to one day soar like that. As soon as COVID was over, she said, she wanted to return to competitive gymnastics. She didn't even care if she never medaled again, a telling declaration considering she competes at a level where girls often "medal" when there is a four-way tie for 7th place. It was the camaraderie, and the competition, she missed.

The pandemic has been hard on a lot of kids for a lot of different reasons. Nothing our family went through could begin to approach the horrors that some families experienced: the loss of jobs, the loss of loved ones. Perspective, we told our kids, was important. You may not see it, but you are some of the lucky ones.

We are just beginning to understand, though, how much the isolation -- and the upending of social circles -- affected kids during the pandemic. It was easy to feel helpless as a parent, trying to trust the science but also find the balance between safety and what your eyes and gut were telling you. Group texts and Zoom hangouts were fine, but they were survival tools, not a replacement for anything real. The hardest moment of the pandemic, for me, came one night in in December of 2020, when I snuck a peek at Molly's handwritten letter to Santa.

She didn't care if Santa brought gifts this year. But could he, somehow, help her find a best friend?

The last year, she wrote, has been so lonely.

HOW DO YOU feel comfortable in a massive crowd again after spending more than a year avoiding them? You put your faith in the science. That's what we told ourselves, anyway.

She asked if she could hold my hand while we wove our way through the dense crowd toward our seats. I was grateful she had not yet reached the age where she would be embarrassed by such things. "I just don't want to lose you," she said.

Signs everywhere inside The Dome at America's Center informed attendees that masks were required, but there was no enforcement or even judgement, once you came through the door. Thousands took them off. It didn't feel like defiance, just comfort. I hadn't been to a sporting event since the Chiefs played the 49ers in the Super Bowl in Miami, but I'd been vaccinated since early April. I believe in the science, but I also wanted Molly to feel okay about our adventure, so I mostly kept mine on. She wouldn't even lift her mask to eat a pack of Skittles I'd snuck in for her, choosing to tuck them discretely under her mask, then into her mouth, while she watched the gymnasts, her eyes alight with wonder.

Whenever Biles was active, Molly's gaze, and everyone else's in the arena, was locked on her. At those times, there is an energy that seems to surround her. A presence. She understands how many eyes are fixed on her at all times, but she never seems hurried or self-conscious. I recognize it, and its rarity, having spent more than 20 years writing about sports. There is a quiet hum of intensity flowing through her, the kind that once fueled Kobe and Michael, but Biles has added her own twist.

Joy.

It's not ever-present. It would be a myth to pretend it was. Biles was mad at herself on the final night of trials, admitting as much to the media after it was over, acknowledging that she felt pressure to perform. "I feel like anything other than my best will tick me off," Biles said. "We had a huge crowd and I wanted to give them my best performance. It's what they deserve after COVID and the year we've had. Unfortunately, it wasn't the case."

But the disappointment of the balance beam seemed to fade as soon as she began her final floor exercise. Molly had asked me, prior to each event, if she could borrow my phone to record Biles' performances. She wanted to share it with people back home and keep it forever. I volunteered to do the recording instead, insisting she appreciate the performance -- in the moment -- instead of worrying how it looked through a pixilated screen. I found myself sneaking looks at her after each of Biles' tumbling passes. When it was over, the largest crowd in the history of the gymnastics trials gave her a standing ovation. Biles grinned and tried to soak it in. It had been a long year for her too. Though I am admittedly biased, I'm confident my daughter clapped and screamed harder than anyone there.

Joy, it was nice to be reminded, is infectious.

IT RAINED ALL weekend in Saint Louis, the kind of sporadic, midwestern summer storm that pummels you like a boxer, letting up for a few minutes, only to come crashing down again with renewed intensity just when you think it's tiring. Between gymnastics sessions, we drove around in our rental car, exploring an unfamiliar city, listening to an Olivia Rodrigo album about heartache, my daughter singing along in a gentle, slightly off-key falsetto. It's disarming sometimes to recognize pieces of yourself when you look at your kids. She is ruminative like me, and easily wounded, but also earnest in ways I cherish.

Molly had one request before we left town. She'd seen a picture Biles had posted on Instagram early in the week of herself, her back to the camera, looking up at the Gateway Arch, the city's most famous landmark. Could we find where Simone had taken the picture and try to recreate it?

There was, mercifully, a break in the rain when we arrived near the arch. Sunlight was bouncing off the buildings. We knew it wouldn't last, so a weird sense of urgency crept over us. Where was she sitting when she took it? Which direction was she facing? There was an American flag in the foreground. Was she behind the arch, down by the Mississippi River or in front of it facing East?

Eventually, we realized Biles had shot it from across the street, sitting on the steps of The Old Courthouse. On our way up the stairs, I noticed a plaque engraved into the granite, and so I stopped to read it. It was here, at this courthouse, that Dred and Harriet Scott filed suit, suing for their freedom in 1846. The Supreme Court eventually ruled on their case in 1857, declaring by a 7-2 vote that African Americans were not citizens of the United States.

Had Biles seen the plaque as she climbed the stairs? It would have been hard to miss. What must it have felt like for her, I wondered, to stand here as a beloved Olympian, and contemplate the complexity of the last 164 years? Whatever the answers might be, it wasn't my place to ask or my story to tell. One of the easiest things to admire about Biles, when you're raising a daughter, is that she's unafraid to speak her mind. But she will do so only when she decides it's time.

What I do know is, Molly and I were not the only ones who saw Biles' picture on Instagram and wanted to recreate it. At the top of the stairs, a small crowd of girls had gathered, girls from different races and different backgrounds, and now they were patiently waiting their turn. Like my daughter, they wanted to sit where Biles had recently sat, and imagine what it must feel like to be that fearless, to be capable of so many extraordinary things.

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In awe of Simone Biles' greatness, with my daughter and 25,000 others - ESPN

Green Heineken beer cooler robot in front of an in-ground pool

I have spent a significant portion of my life warning people about the threat that robots pose to humanity, and none of you will listen. We are fast becoming a society that expects robots to load our dishwashers and smell our meat, inviting the machines into our lives with open arms even as they (presumably) unite to overthrow their human oppressors. The day doesnt feel far off when we will be forced to smell their meat.

The robots are cunning, and they already know exactly how to manipulate us. Case in point: the B.O.T. (or Beer Outdoor Transporter), a new, adorable little robot from Heineken that is not only cute and helpful, but involves beer delivery, providing /victims/ consumers a positive association with intelligent machines. Take a look at this promo video and pay attention to what it does to your emotions:

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Even my heart was warmed by that video, even though my brain was screaming at it not to. This is some of the best robot propaganda I have seen in recent memory, and every single one of you should be terrified. Go take another look at happens between the 10- and 11-second mark. Ill wait.

Thats right: an attractive person calls to the robot like a puppy and it follows. In less time than it takes to blink, the robot is able to shoot straight past any barriers of intellect and reasoning we use to protect ourselves against robots. By the time the advertisement mentions that the B.O.T. includes a charming A.I. personality at the 38-second mark, weve long been ready to submit to its whims. Its straight up diabolical.

Anyway, if you have resigned yourself to the inevitability of robot rule and would like the chance to bring this mechanical beer puppy home, youll need to enter a one-day-only sweepstakes on Thursday, July 1. And hey, if you dont win, thats okay too; in fact, that might mean you are the ultimate winner, once the singularity happens.

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The Heineken beer bot is too helpful, too cute, and too advanced - Yahoo Lifestyle

Without sounding clich, June was a month alive with the brilliance and creative singularity of the Irish music scene.

On the album front, the past four weeks have seen manyAlbum of the Yearcontenders. From the enchanting atmospheric folk of Saint SistersWhere I Should Endto the knife-edge social commentary found on KojaquesTowns Dead,and back to the genre-melding of Strange BoysHoly /Unholy,the sheer artistry of Irish music came to the fore. While the bold, vivid R&B soundscapes of CoshasMt. Pleasantcontrasts with the intimate storytelling and textural subtly of Dani LarkinsNotes From A Warrior Maiden,highlighting thesonic spectrum found within the music community was there for all to see.

June was also a month filled with stellar single releases. Denise Chaila made her triumphant return with the magnificent 061. CMAT caught the attention with 2 Wrecked 2 Care, as did Ra Gerra with Indecisive. There were also stand-out singles from Nerves, ROE, the Zen Arcade, Lydia Ford, and Maeve. While Celaviedmai captured the imagination with Heal.

Looking to the future, Havvk made their presence felt with an album announcement and single Automatic. Soda Blonde continued to build towards their debut album via Holy Roses. At the same time, David Keenan also set a marker for his forthcoming sophomore record with the powerful Bark.

And so it goes, June was a landmark month for Irish music in 2021. At this halfway point, new artists are emerging, established ones deliver on early promise, and the rest of the year looks brighter with new albums forthcoming. Im not one for the golden age of Irish music hyperbole. Instead, I prefer to see music and art as a dialogue with ourselves, the past and the future. What is happening now in Irish music is an ongoing artistic conversation made all the more impactful by the diverse voices engaged in it and the diverse methods they choose to express themselves.

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Irish music is an ongoing artistic conversation made all the more impactful by the diverse voices engaged in it TLMT's The Month That Was June 2021 -...

After recent escapades in other aspects of business technology, former consumer electronics heavyweight BlackBerry has once again reorganized its business units to align its priorities towards two verticals that have been gaining a lot of attention in the intervening months, namely the Internet of Things (IoT) and cybersecurity.

BlackBerry CEO John Chen revealed the latest reorganization of its software and services business units during the companys earnings call late last week. BlackBerry President and Chief Operating Officer, Tom Eacobacci, will head up the new cybersecurity business unit, which includes the BlackBerry Protect endpoint security suite.

BlackBerry Protect is designed as an all-around endpoint protection platform (EPP), powered by artificial intelligence to safeguard enterprise systems against sophisticated cyberattacks on multiple fronts, including mobile, hybrid cloud environment, on-premise environments, and connected device environments.

This connected environment will see strong synergy with the other newly-developed division, the IoT business unit that will be headed up by HERE Technologies veteran Mattias Eriksson. Among BlackBerrys IoT technologies are QNX, IVY, Certicom, Jarvis and Radar, which the company has been developing alongside its strong online security push both facets of technology that have been drawing considerable industry expectations thanks to the growing number of innovative IoT applications in enterprise, while security solutions are in hot demand following a noticeable upsurge in data breaches, phishing attacks, social engineering campaigns, and state-endorsed ransomware threats globally.

Numerous reports are hailing the arrival of the Connected Enterprise, with IoT-driven smart devices like wearables, sensors, and other gear both for the individual worker, and for the equipment within the business seeing a considerable upsurge even before drastic realignments to business practices took place last year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

While the IoT space is heating up for enterprises, signaling BlackBerrys intent there, the cybersecurity space is white-hot, with security specialist Crowdstrike reporting a 70% jump in revenue for the quarter ending April 30, 2021, compared to the same quarter last year. Similarly, another security solutions provider SentinelOne recorded revenues totaling US$93.1 million in fiscal 2021 double its revenue from fiscal 2020, as the maker of the Singularity eXtended detection and response (XDR) solution prepares SEC filing materials ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO).

XDR is a space that BlackBerry also intends to expand its security suite to cover, featuring the Blackberry Zero Trust Gateway and the Optics 3.0 EDR (endpoint detection and response). CEO Chen also outlined during the call that the former hardware giant still has plans within the unified endpoint management (UEM) market, including the integration of its Unified Endpoint Security platform with Microsoft Intune by the end-August 2021.

BlackBerry Protect is a vital part of the companys endpoint security ecosystem, having successfully fended off a variety of ransomware attacks like Darkside, Conti, Mobillion and REvil, since the 2018 acquisition of Cylance that evolved into BlackBerry Protect. The founding principle of Cylance and one of our main reasons that we acquired it is that prevention is far better than cure, said Chen. And thats why were a market leader in EPP. Stopping threats before they execute and start doing harm is clearly a better strategy than trying to shut them down afterwards.

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BlackBerry refocuses priorities towards IoT and cybersecurity - TechHQ

(ABC4) Luckily for local residents, the shocking collapse of a condominium building in the Miami area on Thursday morning is extremely rare, and a similar event has virtually no chance of occurring in Utah, according to one of the states top structural engineers.

Matthew Roblez, who heads up the structural engineering team at McNeil Engineering in Sandy and was named the 2016-17 Engineer of the Year by the American Society of Civil Engineers, tells ABC4 he was shocked by the news out of Florida due to the singularity of the event. Roblez says these kinds of collapses are virtually non-existent in the United States.

It could be any number of things, and thats what the investigation will be. So, it could be a design error, it could be a construction error, and it could have been, I hate to say it, but it could have been some form of sabotage, because quite frankly, what makes this so odd is were not a third world country and this just doesnt normally happen. Its just not a regular occurrence, Roblez explains.

At this point, what could have caused the 12-story building collapse in Surfside, Florida is up for speculation. The collapse reportedly occurred at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, and due to a high capacity of residents, many of the 130 affected unit inhabitants are feared dead. At least one death has been confirmed and search and rescue teams have already pulled 35 survivors from the rubble.

While some work was being performed on the roof the building, officials have all but ruled that out as a possible cause for the destruction.

Roblez guesses what could have happened was a long-term deterioration that was invisible to the naked eye and went unnoticed until the sudden disaster.

I cant think of anything else that would just cause all of that, he supposes. A lot of times in buildings, you might have a pipe leak that is just flowing and seeps into the concrete or something like that and destroys the real reinforcing. No ones going to know until theres an issue. A building is a lot like a car engine, you dont know theres something wrong until its really wrong.

He continues to explain that what typically happens is that a buildings maintenance staff should be walking around, making regular inspections. Should this person notice anything troublesome, a call is made to an engineer, like Roblez, who can come in, assess the situation, and make recommendations to correct any issues. Roblez explains he recently underwent this process on a downtown Salt Lake City parking structure that was built in the 1970s.

As for the building in Florida, which Roblez found was built in 1980, he is unsure of what could have happened. He wonders if perhaps the construction team, using technology and understanding that has since become outdated, did not foresee any issues that could occur as a result of building in Southern Floridas challenging climate conditions. Nowadays, and in Utah, when builders raise structures, they adjust the materials accordingly depending on what to expect as the seasons change.

When we do parking garages here in Salt Lake, we know theres going to be a lot of salt thrown down, so we take steps to put traffic coatings or admixtures in the concrete. Now maybe in 1980, in Miami, they may not have understood a lot of the climate issues, and so they just put regular concrete or something like that, he guesses.

While what is sure to be an upcoming investigation as to the cause should shed light on what happened on the other side of the country, Roblez is confident that a similar story of a sudden collapse in Utah is not a realistic possibility, even with earthquake concerns constantly looming. He says damage would likely clearly be shown before a building in Utah would come crashing down.

For something like this to happen is so extremely rare, I would say that there are zero worries for something like this to happen here.

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Could a building collapse happen here? One of Utahs top engineers explains - ABC 4

As a recent New York Times article highlighted, self-driving cars are taking longer to come to market than many experts initially predicted. Automated vehicles where riders can sit back, relax, and be delivered to their destinations without having to watch the road are continuously relegated to the not-too-distant future.

Theres not just debate on when this driverless future will arrive, theres also a lack of consensus on how well get there, that is, which technologies are most efficient, safe, and scalable to take us from human-driven to computer-driven (Tesla is the main outlier in this debate). The big players are lidar, cameras, ultrasonic sensors, and radar. Last week, one lidar maker showcased some new technology that it believes will tip the scales.

California-based Luminar has built a lidar it calls Iris. Iris not only has a longer range than existing systems, its also more compact; gone are the days of a big, bulky setup that all but takes over the car. Perhaps most importantly, the company is aiming to manufacture and sell Iris at a price point well below the industry standard.

Lidar scans a vehicles surroundings by sending out pulses of light in or near the visible spectrum, illuminating targets then analyzing the reflections that come back and using them to create high-resolution 3D maps. Advances in laser technology and computing speed over the last decade or so made lidar a more viable technology for widespread use.

Earlier iterations used spinning mirrors to direct the light beams, but that made for clunky systems with lots of moving parts. In 2016 Quanergy unveiled the first solid-state lidar, the S3, steered with a chip containing a million tiny antennas. With a range of 200 meters, the company planned to sell the S3 for $250 (at least three of these would be required to give the vehicle full visibility, putting the cost at $750).

Iris uses waves of light up to 1,550 nanometers long (905 nanometers is the standard). The longer length yields increased visibility, allowing the map to incorporate objects others might miss, whether because theyre small, dont reflect light well, or are too far away.

Luminar says Iris can detect and classify objects up to 250 meters away, or 500 meters for larger objects, and can detect the speed of moving objects in 3D (like a car changing lanes or a pedestrian stepping into the street). Rather than multiple lasers working in concert, Iris has just one laser and accompanying receiver, with two axis scanning mirrors giving the lidar a 120-degree by 30-degree field of vision.

Luminar CEO Austin Russell estimates Iris will initially be priced at around $1,000, and over time brought down to $500. Just two years ago, Wired reported industry leader Velodynes lidar costing about $75,000. Since then, though, Velodyne has also begun work on a solid-state lidar it aims to price below $500.

Luminar plans to integrate Iris into robotaxis and self-driving trucks through a design its calling Blade, a sleek gold-colored strip encircling the vehicle and containing all its sensors.

One of the most vocal detractors of lidar has been Elon Musk, who called the technology a fools errand and said anyone relying on it was doomed. A May sighting of a Tesla Model Y outfitted with Luminar lidar caused some speculation about whether Musk was reversing course, but as one analyst pointed out, its more likely that Tesla is using lidar to test and validate its own self-driving system, which relies primarily on cameras.

With or without Tesla as a customer, though, Luminar seems to be doing fine: the company made headlines last year when it secured a contract with Volvo, saying the Swedish automakers cars would reach Level 3 autonomy in 2022. As reported by The Verge, Luminar also has deals with Audi, Toyota Research Institute, Daimler, and Chinese automaker SAIC, among others.

A lot of the discussion around self-driving cars focuses on the supposed safety improvements the technology will herald. Humans, the story goes, are negligent and at times even reckless, the cause of over 33,000 accidents and 36,000 deaths per year in the US alone. But putting these huge-sounding numbers in context, you could actually argue that humans are very good at driving; theres about one death from motor vehicle crashes per 100 million miles traveled.

Nevertheless, no fatalities is better than some, and thats what Luminar wants (well, Luminar and anyone whos ever driven or ridden in a car). Russell told The Verge that the company is moving towards the vision of zero collisions, building the uncrashable car. It will be a while yet before we can determine whos the better driver, but incremental advances like Iris seem to indicate that computers are (slowly) catching up to us.

Image Credit: Luminar

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An 'Uncrashable' Car? Luminar Says Its Lidar Can Get There - Singularity Hub

The potential reductions in California are more dramatic, with a potential for 43% carbon savings. California's grid relies on renewable energy for nearly half of its electricity, much of it from low-carbon sources such as solar and wind, which contribute to significant variations in carbon intensity, a measure of carbon emissions per unit of energy consumed. As states increase their reliance on renewable energy sources, their variability will increase, too, offering similar opportunities to shift usage to times when carbon intensity is lowest.

Carbon reductions from automated EV charging could have a significant impact on reaching carbon emissions goals to slow climate change, and while EV charging is the most obvious case, similar opportunities for savings apply to other large loads in the home. The best opportunities for load shaping are activities that can be scheduled flexibly, like running a dishwasher or washing machine during overnight hours to have clean clothes and dishes ready when they're needed in the morning. For these cases, automation can provide the right balance of meeting consumer needs and optimizing cost, carbon emissions, and constraints of the grid.

The study examined consumers' EV charging patterns using over 100,000 sessions of in-field EV charging data and time-based carbon intensity data for 30 major regional grid balancing authorities for utilities. It found that charging dynamically to minimize carbon utilization was consistently more effective at reducing carbon than Time of Use rates.

The results show that smart home automation can dynamically adjust energy usage to address both grid constraints and carbon emissions goals. A separate study of 1100 California homes conducted by Sense found that 55% of electricity usage in the evening time frame could be shifted to other times during the day or reduced. Using an automated, dynamic approach, utilities can incentivize customers to reduce peak emissions by shifting their activities, including EV charging, similar to the current incentives to reduce peak demand.

Carbon reductions are influenced by the regional mix of energy sources, with some regions offering a potential for higher reductions because of greater variability of carbon intensity in their fuel sources. Among the top 10 balancing authorities, CAISO (California Independent System Operator) had the highest variation in carbon intensity at 307%, followed by SWPP (Southwest Power Pool) at 259%, ERCOT Electric Reliability Council of Texas) at 197% and BPAT (Bonneville Power Authority Transmission) at 181%. For more details, see the complete study.

The analysis showed that most regions can achieve significant carbon reductions by automating EV charging to take advantage of the cleanest energy sources as they come onto the grid. As more states and regions increase the share of energy produced by renewable sources, the carbon savings potential will increase across the country.

Said Sense CEO Mike Phillips, "This EV study is an example of what can be done as we add intelligence to home infrastructure. As we work on decarbonizing the grid, because of the increased use of intermittent low-carbon energy sources, it is becoming increasingly important to influence not only how much power is being used, but when it is used. Fortunately, there are many things in the home where people only care about the result - not when the energy is used. EV charging is a great example, but automation can extend to other key consumers of energy as we build intelligence into the infrastructure of the home."

Said Wenbo Shi, CEO and co-founder of Singularity Energy: "This study demonstrates the potential of data-driven carbon intelligence to improve energy management strategies and cost-effectively reduce carbon emissions. We are filling a gap between decarbonization targets measured in tons of carbon and existing energy management strategies that are still kWh and cost driven. There is a massive opportunity to apply the technology to EVs and other smart devices at scale to rapidly accelerate the transition towards a clean energy future."

Implications for Utilities' Demand Management Strategies With EV adoption predicted to grow rapidly, propelled in part by the Biden administration's plan to build out a national network of 500,000 EV charging stations, utilities are predicting big increases in electricity usage from EV charging over the coming decade. At the same, aggressive carbon reduction goals at the state and federal levels have mandated that utilities must reduce carbon emissions.

While meeting CO2 reduction goals and anticipating new energy loads from electric vehicles, utilities need to keep pace with more intermittent sources of power. The ability to jointly optimize for CO2, cost, and grid constraints can provide the best performance at a system level. Dynamic signals from the power grid combined with EV charging automation could be used to inform utilities' incentive programs, influence consumer behavior, modulate peak demand as EV adoption grows, and reduce carbon.

About the StudyThe study examined 100,000 sessions of in-field electric vehicle charging data and analyzed the location- and time-based fuel mix of the power grid to characterize the carbon intensity of common EV charging patterns. It drew on anonymized Sense home energy data and high-quality carbon intensity data from Singularity Energy's Carbonara platform. Previous analyses of carbon intensity have relied on annual averages that can be two or three years old. Combining these real-time data sets, the study simulated EV charging for carbon intensity to identify carbon reductions. For more details, get the complete study. To learn more about other studies from Sense, visit sense.com/utilities

About SenseSense's mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by making homes smart and efficient. We empower people to care for their homes and families while contributing to a cleaner, more resilient future. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense has received investments from two of the world's largest energy technology companies, Schneider Electric and Landis + Gyr. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit sense.com.

About Singularity EnergySingularity Energy enables the future of decarbonization through actionable data and novel algorithms. Carbonara, a carbon intelligence platform built by Singularity Energy, provides high-quality, actionable grid carbon data and a suite of innovative products, developer APIs, and intelligent tools for companies to build data-driven decarbonization solutions. Use cases of Carbonara include planning, reporting, and optimization for decarbonization and electrification projects like EV fleets, battery storage, smart devices, and 24/7 clean energy. Singularity Energy is a winner of the Harvard Physical Science & Engineering Accelerator, the Greentown Labs Bold Idea Challenge in partnership with Schneider Electric, the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant, and a URBAN-X Cohort 09 company. To turn your electricity data into precise carbon emissions insights, visit: https://carbonara.energy/

Media contact: [emailprotected]

SOURCE Sense

http://www.sense.com

Excerpt from:

New Study Finds that EV Charge Automation Could Reduce Carbon Impact by up to 14% in US and by 43% in California - PRNewswire

In addition to tracking the home's carbon usage in real time, the Sense app has a look-ahead view that forecasts the carbon intensity (CI), so users can plan high energy tasks, such as laundry, dishwashing or charging electric vehicles, for times when carbon emissions will be lowest, reducing their home's overall carbon footprint.

In the app, users can also see a breakdown of the fuel types that are powering the home right now. The energy sources on the utility grid vary widely from region to region, and regions change their fuel mix over the course of a day, creating variations in CI.

The new CI feature is included in the Sense app for the Sense Home Energy Monitor and Sense Solar.It's also included in all Sense-enabled products, such as the Square D edition of the Sense app for the Wiser Energy Home Power Monitor and the Square D Energy Center from Schneider Electric.

What is Carbon Intensity?Carbon intensity is simply the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to generate a specific unit of power. The average CI across the country's utility grid is approximately 1 lb/kWh, which is roughly equivalent to the CI for natural gas. Consumers can lower their overall climate change impact by being aware of CI and shifting energy use to the times when the grid uses more green power.

In most regions of the country, the carbon intensity of electricity generated by utility power plants varies throughout the day. At some times of day, such as when solar and wind are generating lots of power, carbon emissions are low. During other times, power may come from sources that emit more carbon, like coal or natural gas power plants, increasing the carbon intensity of the power on the grid.

In regions that rely primarily on a single, continuous power source, like hydro or natural gas, the carbon intensity varies only slightly, while in others with diverse power sources, the carbon intensity (CI) can rise and fall over the course of a day or week.

How Sense Reduces Carbon EmissionsThe variability in CI offers an opportunity for Sense users to actively reduce their own home's impact on carbon emissions. In the Sense app, users can see their average CI and can see the current CI of the power they are using, which is based on dynamic data from the utility grid's regional balancing authority. The Sense app also shows a projection of carbon peaks and valleys over the next 12 hours. By scheduling activities when the CI from the grid is lowest, Sense users can reduce their own home's CI score and impact carbon emissions.

To provide this new functionality, Sense has partnered with Singularity and has integrated with their Carbonara platform for both real-time and projected CI. Carbonara analyzes and provides carbon intensity data for 30 grid balancing authorities across the country.

The Sense app already has several features that help homeowners reduce their home's energy usage and carbon footprints, including:

How Energy Smart Homes Can Address Climate ChangeIn the future, smart homes will be able to take advantage of these carbon intensity fluctuations automatically by responding to real-time signals from the utility grid. Said Sense CEO Mike Phillips: "Since the Sense app now knows the carbon intensity of power from the grid, we can start to automate activities in the home to take place when carbon intensity is low. For instance, in the future, Sense users will be able to schedule their dishwasher or EV charger to run when the CI is lowest. Smart homes can know the preferences of the residents (for instance, that the EV needs to be charged and ready to drive by 7am) and will take into account CI, energy costs, and constraints of the grid to find the right times to use energy, resulting in carbon and cost reductions and contributing to a more reliable power grid. This becomes increasingly important as we electrify our homes and cars, and as the grid uses more and more renewables."

"Homes are on track to become the single-largest consumer of electricity and homeowners realize that many of the resources currently being consumed to produce that electricity are negatively impacting our environment," said Michael Mahan, Vice President, Home & Distribution North America, Schneider Electric. "Now greater energy intelligence is being built into homes, including smart electrical panels, providing information and tools that allow homeowners to modify their behavior, empowering them to impact change for the betterment of the environment and their electricity bill."

About SenseSense's mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by making homes smart and efficient. We empower people to care for their homes and families while contributing to a cleaner, more resilient future. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense has received investments from two of the world's largest energy technology companies, Schneider Electric and Landis + Gyr. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit: https://sense.com.

About Singularity EnergySingularity Energy enables the future of decarbonization through actionable data and novel algorithms. Carbonara, a carbon intelligence platform built by Singularity Energy, provides high-quality, actionable grid carbon data and a suite of innovative products, developer APIs, and intelligent tools for companies to build data-driven decarbonization solutions. Use cases of Carbonara include planning, reporting, and optimization for decarbonization and electrification projects like EV fleets, battery storage, smart devices, and 24/7 clean energy. Singularity Energy is a winner of the Harvard Physical Science & Engineering Accelerator, the Greentown Labs Bold Idea Challenge in partnership with Schneider Electric, the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant, and a URBAN-X Cohort 09 company. To turn your electricity data into precise carbon emissions insights, visit: https://carbonara.energy/

Press contacts:[emailprotected][emailprotected]

SOURCE Sense

http://www.sense.com

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Sense Debuts Carbon Intensity Tracking in the Sense App - PRNewswire

Flying cars are almost a byword for the misplaced optimism of technologists, but recent news suggests their future may be on slightly firmer footing. The industry has seen a major influx of capital and big automakers seem to be piling in.

What actually constitutes a flying car has changed many times over the decades since the cartoon, The Jetsons, introduced the idea to the popular imagination. Todays incarnation is known more formally as an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

As the name suggests, the vehicles run on battery power rather than aviation fuel, and theyre able to take off and land like a helicopter. Designs vary from what are essentially gigantic multi-rotor drones to small fixed-wing aircraft with rotors that can tilt up or down, allowing them to hover or fly horizontally (like an airplane).

Aerospace companies and startups have been working on the idea for a number of years, but recent news suggests it might be coming closer to fruition. Last Monday, major automakers Hyundai and GM said they are developing vehicles of their own and are bullish about the prospects of this new mode of transport.

And the week prior, British flying car maker Vertical Aerospace announced plans to go public in a deal that values the company at $2.2 billion. Vertical Aerospace also said it had received $4 billion worth of preorders, including from American Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.

The deal was the latest installment in a flood of capital into the sector, with competitors Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, and Lilium all recently announcing deals to go public too. Also joining them is Blade Urban Mobility, which currently operates heliports but plans to accommodate flying cars when they become available.

When exactly that will be is still uncertain, but there seems to be growing consensus that the second half of this decade might be a realistic prospect. Vertical is aiming to start deliveries by 2024. And the other startups, who already have impressive prototypes, are on a similar timeline.

Hyundais global chief operating officer, Jos Muoz, told attendees at Reuters Car of the Future conference that the company is targeting a 2025 rollout of an air taxi service, while GMs vice president of global innovation, Pamela Fletcher, went with a more cautious 2030 target. Theyre not the only automakers getting in on the act, with Toyota, Daimler, and Chinas Geely all developing vehicles alone or in partnership with startups.

Regulators also seem to be increasingly open to the idea.

In January, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it expects to certify the first eVTOLs later this year and have regulations around their operation in place by 2023. And last month the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said it expected air taxi services to be running by 2024 or 2025.

While it seems fairly settled that the earliest flying cars will be taxis rather than private vehicles, a major outstanding question is the extent to which they will be automated.

The majority of prototypes currently rely on a human to pilot them. But earlier this month Larry Pages air taxi startup Kitty Hawk announced it would buy drone maker 3D Robotics as it seeks to shift to a fully autonomous setup. The FAA recently created a new committee to draft a regulatory path for beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) autonomous drone flights. This would likely be a first step along the path to allowing unmanned passenger aircraft.

What seems more certain is that there will be winners and losers in the recent rush to corner the air mobility market. As Chris Bryant points out in Bloomberg, these companies still face a host of technological, regulatory, and social hurdles, and the huge amounts of money flooding into the sector may be hard to justify.

Regardless of which companies make it out the other side, its looking increasingly likely that air taxis will be a significant new player in urban transport by the end of the decade.

Image Credit: Joby Aviation

Originally posted here:

Why Flying Cars Could Be Here Within the Decade - Singularity Hub