Katie Fehrenbacher

You are currently browsing articles tagged Katie Fehrenbacher.

“In Short, They Are Learning”

October 20, 2015 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Products purchased in the past were of the finished variety, with no chance at organic upgrades. Software and the cloud began to change that, and now with the Internet of Things and Deep Learning, objects from refrigerators to cars will be upgradeable in real time, taking in information as it becomes available. The potential for good to come of this is remarkable, and the downside, a constant invasion of privacy, is undeniable.

Elon Musk, who has a love/hate affair with AI, is excited that his EVs will learn as they go. Katie Fehrenbacher of Fortune reports that at the unveiling of the company’s autopilot system, the Tesla CEO stressed the self-improving capacity of the cars: “The whole fleet operates as a network. When one car learns something, they all learn it.” 

The opening:

While Tesla’s new hands-free driving is drawing a lot of interest this week, it’s the technology behind-the-scenes of the company’s newly-enabled autopilot service that should be getting more attention.

At an event on Wednesday Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk explained that the company’s new autopilot service is constantly learning and improving thanks to machine learning algorithms, the car’s wireless connection, and detailed mapping and sensor data that Tesla collects.

Tesla’s cars in general have long been using data, and over-the-air software updates, to improve the way they operate.

Machine learning algorithms are the latest in computer science where computers can take a large data set, analyze it and use it to make increasingly accurate predictions. In short, they are learning.•

Tags: ,

“Apple Spent Millions Of Dollars Building Two Massive Solar Panel Farms”

November 18, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

As Google invests heavily in solar and other clean energies, Apple has quietly been the driving force in North Carolina’s solar growth. It makes sense: Why not control your energy and control your costs if you’re a company on that level? States can force better environmental standards and so can tech behemoths. From Katie Fehrenbacher at Gigaom:

“But absent from a lot of the public dialogue has been the one company that arguably has had a greater effect on bringing clean power to the state of North Carolina than any other: Apple. While the state’s utility has just now become more willing to supply clean energy to corporate customers, several years ago Apple took the stance that if clean power wasn’t going to be available from the local utility for its huge data center in Maiden, North Carolina, it would, quite simply, build its own.

In an unprecedented move — and one that hasn’t yet been repeated by other companies — Apple spent millions of dollars building two massive solar panel farms and a large fuel cell farm near its data center. These projects and are now fully operational and similar facilities (owned by utilities) have cost in a range of $150 million to $200 million to build. Apple’s are the largest privately-owned clean energy facilities in the U.S. and more importantly, they represent an entirely new way for an internet company to source and think about power.”

Tags:

“While This Type Of Autonomous Vehicle Technology Might Seem Futuristic, It’s Actually Widely Used In All Other Vehicles”

October 10, 2013 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Tesla CTO JB Straubel isn’t without obvious bias, but he believes autonomous cars are inevitable and upon us. As he points out, auto-pilot isn’t new, just new to the highways. From Katie Fehrenbacher at Gigaom:

“Tesla has been investing a quite of bit of time into the technology and has been hiring ‘a large team,’ said Straubel. Tesla has long maintained that it is trying to push the envelope of car technology, beyond just electrifying vehicles. The company has built bleeding edge tech features into its second-gen car the Model S like voice recognition, large in vehicle dashboards, and remote over-the-air software updates.

While this type of autonomous vehicle technology might seem futuristic, it’s actually widely used in all other vehicles, said Straubel. The auto industry has just been particularly slow moving to adopt it. Vehicles like planes, ships, and space ships all use auto pilot for safety reasons, and Straubel said ‘They didn’t do it because the pilot was bored; they did it because of safety.'”

Tags: , ,