Month: August 2019

Vodafone group to sponsor Porsche formula E team

Vodafone Group will be the Official Communication Partner of Porsche Motorsport when the automobile manufacturer enters the 2019/2020 ABB FIA Formula E Championship.

Formula E is the first fully-electric international single-seater racing series in which cars zoom at more than 200 km/h – with zero emissions – along the streets of 12 major cities across four continents.

Vodafone branding will be visible on the first all-electric racing cars in Porsche’s history, as well as the drivers’ uniforms, when the team makes its debut in November 2019. Vodafone’s new five-year sponsorship of the Porsche Formula E Works Programme includes the provision of communications equipment and technical support.

Ahmed Essam, chief commercial officer of Vodafone Group, said: “There’s a natural alignment for Vodafone with Formula E, a next generation, technology driven sport that appeals to a broad and ever-growing audience and that has concern for the planet at its heart. We have a very positive working relationship with Porsche and together we’ll look to break boundaries in vehicle technology.”

Fritz Enzinger, vice president Porsche Motorsport, said: “Vodafone has been a long-term partner of Porsche Motorsport and is helping us to develop both racing and street vehicle technology. We know Vodafone strongly believes in the innovative mission of Formula E and we are thrilled to have them by our side as Porsche Motorsport enters this new racing class.”

In addition to the partnership in Formula E, there will be a collaboration between Porsche Motorsport and Vodafone in eSports in the near future.

Formula E: developing new technologies in order to promote electric mobility

Formula E was created in 2014 to develop and promote electric mobility concepts across the globe. Formula E is currently the most competitive environment for advancing the development of high-performance cars in terms of eco-friendliness, efficiency, energy consumption and sustainability.

Participation in Formula E enables car manufacturers and technology providers, like Porsche and Vodafone, to test and develop road-relevant technologies on city streets, thereby acting as a catalyst to refine the design of electric vehicles and improve the driving experience for everyday road car users.

Vodafone Business already has a strong history of technology development with Volkswagen Group, the parent company of Porsche, which is one of its largest global customers. Vodafone is one of Volkswagen Group’s FAST partners – a small group involved in automotive and transportation research and development.

Porsche was Vodafone’s first connected car customer and the companies have worked together in recent years to add a number of features to high end models including: locking and unlocking via a mobile phone app; vehicle location tracking as an anti-theft service; and proactive preventative maintenance through monitoring car functions like fuel, oil pressure and tyre pressure.

Vodafone’s sponsorship of the Porsche Formula E Team also builds on a successful six year partnership between the brands in manufacturer prototype racing, which yielded three overall victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours as well as three World Championship titles in the World Endurance Championships.

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iBASIS chosen by Simfony for global eSIM connectivity solutions

iBASIS, the provider of communications solutions for operators and digital players worldwide, announced that Simfony, the IoT PaaS provider and MVNE, selected and integrated iBASIS Global Access for Things service into its real-time IoT platform and core network.

Through the collaboration, Simfony powers its Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) customers by unlocking the opportunity to supply end-to-end IoT connectivity solutions. It enables newcomers with a lower entry point into M2M revenues and providers with a more competitive path to expand and drive their own branded mobile and IoT offerings.

The move capitalises on M2M connectivity and IoT growth driving the MVNO market, which is expected to exceed US$74 Billion by 2024. The number of IoT devices in use is projected to reach about 20.5 billion by 2020.

The iBASIS global IoT service using eUICC technology and Simfony Platform integration was completed in Q2. Both members of GSMA, the companies’ technology stacks aligned with engineering teams building upon the same terminology. Since it went live, service usage has grown rapidly. The solution has already expanded across use cases spanning maritime, energy, and ocean cleaning applications. With iBASIS, Simfony’s customers not only gain realtime deployment abilities, but also best-of-market global data rates, while using an automated selfservice portal to manage and monitor their eSIMs in real-time.

Ajay Joseph

Joachim de Wild, CEO of Simfony, comments, “We have investigated the eUICC market for the past two years, concluded that iBASIS is by far the most advanced partner in the field. We are impressed by the capabilities and expertise of its team. Together iBASIS’ eSIM global connectivity and our pay-as-you-grow model enable our customers to launch their IoT MVNO without the need for high upfront commitments. They can now be more competitive on global data rates, scale up to large volumes, and be in control using our self-service platform.”

Ajay Joseph, CTO, IoT & Technology for iBASIS, adds, “Our deployment with Simfony exemplifies the power of our Global Access for Things service. Integration was rapid and precise, and service established seamlessly. This is game changing. It makes the best possible global connectivity and eUICC technology available to the fastest growing segment of the communications market. Applications in new verticals, such as energy and ocean cleaning, reinforce the true versatility and power of our global IoT connectivity solution. We look forward to further deployments worldwide and an ever-stronger relationship with Simfony.”

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Bestmile raises $16.5mn to fast-track growth of autonomous fleet orchestration platform

Bestmile, the Fleet Orchestration Platform used to plan, manage, and optimise autonomous and human-driven vehicle fleets announced it has raised $16.5 million (€14.9 million) in a Series B round and has strengthened its leadership to accelerate its growth.

The round is led by two U.S. firms, Blue Lagoon Capital and TransLink Capital, with the participation of Series A investors Road Ventures, Partech, Groupe ADP, Airbus Ventures, Serena and others.

Blue Lagoon Capital, based in Washington DC, is a venture capital firm that invests in a limited number of companies where its principals actively lend their operational expertise.

Translink Capital in Palo Alto invests in expansion stage technology startups and helps them develop strategic partnerships in Asia. Translink’s investment is from its strategic funds with both Sompo, one of the largest Japanese insurance company, and Japan Airlines.

Blue Lagoon partners, Rodney Rogers and Kevin Reid, have joined the Bestmile board, with Rogers serving as chairman.

“The market has spoken by embracing fleet orchestration technology as critical for real-world mobility service performance,” said Rogers. “This space is currently experiencing significant growth and I am very excited to play a role in the success of Bestmile, a technology I feel is the most advanced, intelligent and comprehensive fleet orchestration platform available today.”

Rogers and Reid, both seasoned technology operators, co-founded enterprise cloud services company Virtustream in 2009 which was acquired by EMC Corporation in 2015 for $1.2 billion (€1 billion) and is now part of Dell Technologies.

Thomas d’Halluin

“Bestmile has pioneered the integration of human-driven and autonomous vehicles, with a richly enabled full services platform that permits fleet operators to practically optimise their assets across all modes of transport. At Airbus Ventures we see Bestmile as a key enabler for Urban Air Mobility, with an even brighter future with the proven team of Rogers and Reid on board,” said Thomas d’Halluin, Airbus Ventures managing partner.

Unprecedented, proven technology

This announcement reinforces Bestmile’s unprecedented ability to deliver ultra-efficient dispatching, routing, and ride matching, making fleets up to 10x more efficient and enabling cities and service providers to move more people with fewer vehicles.

Bestmile customers include public transport operators, transportation network companies (TNCs), vehicles OEMs, and taxi companies offering ridehailing, robotaxi, micro-transit and autonomous shuttle services.

“With these funds and leadership, we are ready to advance our leadership in fleet orchestration,” said Raphael Gindrat, co-founder and CEO of Bestmile. “We are excited to have the financial and operational support we need to ramp up every function of the organisation.”

Bestmile’s platform has supported fleets on three continents since 2014, including the first autonomous fleets to operate on city streets as part of public transport networks. The platform is the only solution of its kind that is vehicle agnostic, can manage autonomous and human-driven vehicles, supports on-demand and time-based services, integrates with multiple transport modes, and provides end-to-end applications for travellers, drivers, and operators.

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Cool IoT Use Cases: Passenger counters for Grand Paris Express metros

Market overview 

The Grand Paris Express, which started in 2007, aims to transform Paris into a 21st century city while improving the environment for the residents and to even out disparity between different areas. The largest transport project in Europe will involve 200 km of new railway lines, 68 brand new interconnected stations and handle 2 million passengers a day.

The problem

Lots of problems had to be addressed in this massive development, one being the need to know in real time the number of users at each station and then use the information to improve transport services.

The players

The Société du Grand Paris, which is the state-owned entity created by the French government to implement the Grand Paris Express project. It is in charge of building the new metro lines that will be an important part of the project. Eurotech, an international embedded hardware and IoT software company.

The solution

Passenger data, which was obtained using 1400 embedded counters, with a potential total of 4250. The counters are autonomous devices that employ non-contact stereoscopic vision technology specifically designed for accurately counting passengers entering or leaving public transport vehicles. In addition Eurotech supplied on-board software for data collection and remote configuration as well as the company’s cloud software to enable Société du Grand Paris to securely access the passenger information and to use it internally and/or share it externally.

Business benefits

  • Accurate, real-time data on passenger numbers
  • Improved transportation services
  • Detailed analysis of passenger flows

The author is freelance technology writer, Bob Emmerson.

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The smart city in a digital world

This is an insightful, informative book that takes a critical, informed look into a technology-driven development from a social sense perspective. It questions the belief that creating smart cities is primarily about applying smart technologies to urban environments. It enlarges the debate and avoids going down well-trodden, over-hyped paths that emphasise the benefits that accrue to the technology companies. Unfortunately this distinctive different approach is not reflected in the title, says Bob Emerson.

Introduction

The author, Vincent Mosco is an academic as well as the author or editor of 26 books and over 200 articles on communications, technology and society. This combination means that “The Smart City In A Digital World” is both a wide-ranging, authoritative source of insightful information as well as an easy read.

Professor Mosco makes several forceful points up front. For example, smart city developments have co-opted the concept of ‘smart’ and identified it with technologies that do little or nothing for the working poor or the need for affordable housing. They either ignore the general public or provide minimal information. Smart cities can easily become exclusive environments that cater to the rich.

Vincent Mosco

This is happening and examples are included where that was specifically designed to happen. Creating urban places that work for all is a tall ask but it’s doable if the political will is there. However, examples are included where authorities not only hand the development over to technology corporations, but also allow them to create and own their own environment. They have big bucks in the bank and can make huge investments because of the growing value of surveillance data on every aspect of city life.

Benefits of smart cities

That said the book is not a diatribe. The manifold benefits of smart cities are covered as well as the enabling technologies. They include safer streets, cleaner air, more efficient transportation, better healthcare and instant communications.

However, while big tech corporations talk up these and other benefits, they also ignore issues such as the looming prospect of massive climate changes, which are either ignored or counteracted with overrated technology solutions. And on the governance front while algorithms take complex decisions off the hands of flawed humans, it is worth noting that they may be based on age, class, gender and other legacy assumptions.

I found this upfront, critical appraisal of smart cities to be refreshingly different from the hype that hits my inbox every day. Reminders about the history of this development were also interesting and informative, e.g., the wired city concept that didn’t work out the way envisaged. The reason had more to do with political decisions and economic sense than technology, but it did deliver broadband communications over cable.

In order to do justice to this book I’d have to extend this review by several hundred words so I’ll just summarise the highlights of the remaining chapters.

Chapter 3 has an intriguing title” “City Of Technology; Where The Streets Are Paved With Data”, which indicates that most descriptions of smart cities identify key technologies. They include the IoT, cloud computing and big data analytics. Command and control is also examined. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 address governance issues. State-driven, followed by private enterprises and then citizens. The state-driven deployments in Singapore, China and India are detailed. The chapter on private enterprise starts with Disney, followed by three of the usual suspects: Amazon, Google and Facebook. Private governance highlights Barcelona, Amsterdam and Paris.

I want to jump to chapter 8, the last, because it contains a kind of manifesto for a smart city. The author suggests that people make cities smart, that they are democratic and value public spaces, data should be shared, privacy defended, there should be no discrimination, the right to communicate should be preserved, the environment protected and that smart cities and their streets are about people, not cars.

Conclusion

This is a fact-filled publication. Educational and easy to read. The author is well informed, has opinions but he is not opinionated. It comes from Emerald Publishing, priced at $24 (€21.6) available on Amazon

This book is reviewed by freelance technology writer, Bob Emmerson

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Optimus ride selects Velodyne lidar’s sensors to power its self-driving vehicles

Velodyne Lidar, Inc. announced that Optimus Ride will use Velodyne’s groundbreaking lidar sensors in its entire fleet of self-driving vehicles. The sensors provide rich computer perception data that enables real-time object and free space detection for safe navigation and reliable operation.

Optimus Ride, a self-driving vehicle technology company on a mission to transform mobility, will soon be operating its self-driving systems in four U.S. states.

Velodyne’s sensors provide powerful lidar solutions that help us ensure our self-driving vehicles are the smartest and safest on the road today,” said Dr. Ryan Chin, Optimus Ride’s CEO and co-founder. “For Optimus Ride to operate a fleet at SAE Level 4 requires significant sophistication, intelligence, range and resolution. Velodyne’s technology meets these high standards.”

Optimus Ride operates self-driving vehicles that provide passenger transportation at low speeds within defined, geofenced areas such as planned communities, campuses and self-driving zones in cities.

Picture Credits – Businesswire

The company’s vehicles are currently deployed in Boston’s Seaport District, South Weymouth, Mass. and at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York. Optimus Ride’s deployment in the Navy Yard is the first commercial deployment of self-driving vehicles in the state of New York. Optimus Ride will soon deploy at Paradise Valley Estates in Fairfield, Calif. and Brookfield Properties’ Halley Rise development in Reston, Va.

Using Velodyne sensors, Optimus Ride can precisely locate the position of people and objects around its vehicles, as well as calculate their speed and trajectory. With that information, the vehicle’s on-board computer system determines how to drive to its destination.

“The Optimus Ride fleet showcases how Velodyne’s intelligent lidar sensors are helping companies place autonomous vehicles on the road today,” said Mike Jellen, president and CCO, Velodyne Lidar. “Optimus Ride has an ingenious approach to providing people with access to efficient and convenient self-driving mobility – effectively solving the first-and last-mile problem.”

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Semtech supports statewide LoRaWAN network deployment in Tasmania

Semtech Corporation, a supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced that Definium Technologies (Definium) has deployed a new enterprise-grade statewide network in Tasmania based on Semtech’s LoRa devices and the LoRaWAN protocol.

The network facilitates Tasmania’s transition to a laboratory for testing new technologies and allowing start-ups, businesses, communities, and students to experiment as well as receive the benefits of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity from anywhere in-state.

“We decided to take on the challenge of rolling out a statewide enterprise-grade LoRaWAN network,” said Mike Cruse, CEO of Definium Technologies. “We want to encourage people to come to Tasmania and test their IoT solutions, then deploy them around the state with enterprise-grade reliability. Tasmania is the ideal life-sized laboratory at scale where individuals and businesses of all scales can experiment with next-generation IoT applications, such as applying intelligent sensors to asset management, agricultural, horticultural, and aquaculture use cases.”

Definium’s approach to IoT networking addresses blackspots head-on, allowing interested parties to extend coverage by installing one of Definium’s Nexus 8 industrial LoRaWAN-based gateways, which has been deployed by Hobart International Airport to provide coverage for its LoRa-enabled sensors.

Extending the network improves coverage for all Tasmanians and allows the network to reach traditionally unavailable parts of the island. Definium has committed over 100 of its Nexus 8 gateways to the continuing roll-out of the network, enhancing connectivity. The statewide network officially launched on July 25, 2019.

“The increasing deployment of large scale LoRaWAN networks using Semtech’s LoRa devices reflects a trend toward the growing adoption of IoT globally,” said Marc Pegulu, vice president of IoT for Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group. “Definium’s deployment in Tasmania will expose businesses, students and potential developers to IoT, and is expected to bring thousands of devices online to enable smarter solutions in a variety of vertical markets.”

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Telin HK gains SDN platform from Epsilon to connect to cloud service providers in Asia

Epsilon, a privately-owned global communications service provider (CSP), has been chosen by Telekomunikasi Indonesia International (Hongkong) Ltd (Telin HK), a subsidiary of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, to deliver its Direct Cloud Connect solution in Asia.

Telin HK can now establish direct and secure connection to Alibaba Cloud as well as other major Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) interconnected on Epsilon’s global network fabric.

Direct Cloud Connect is an ethernet service delivered via the Infiny by Epsilon Software-Defined Networking (SDN) platform. With Infiny, Telin HK gains on-demand connectivity to a global ecosystem of CSPs, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud, from a single platform. The SDN platform also allows Telin HK to interconnect with over 220 data centres and major Internet Exchanges (IX) globally, enabling faster service deployment and increasing its global network coverage.

“Hong Kong is one of Asia’s leading Cloud hubs and a strategic market for regional and global businesses. Using our Direct Cloud Connect solution, Telin HK instantly expands their service capabilities to offer customers high-performance connectivity to the Cloud,” says Jerzy Szlosarek, CEO at Epsilon.

“Infiny is bringing on-demand global connectivity to service providers and powering digital transformation across Asia and around the world. We are pleased to support Telin HK as they continue to grow their telecommunications and data centre services to better serve their customers’ Cloud needs in Asia.”

Telin HK offers a comprehensive range of high-quality international mobility services, data services and business solutions to a wide range of customers in Asia. With the newly launched Data Centre presence in Hong Kong, Telin HK can now offer a complete solution package including colocation, dedicated leased line and direct access to major CSPs.

“Epsilon’s Direct Cloud Connect is a scalable and flexible solution to securely connect our customers to the Cloud. We chose Epsilon because it enables us to immediately add Cloud and global connectivity to our service offering with guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS),” according to Bellinda Lee, VP Enterprise and Wholesale Business at Telin HK. “By working with Epsilon, our customers will see more Cloud connectivity options becoming available, while benefitting from faster deployment and increased network coverage.”

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