Get ready for a thermonuclear autonomous ride-hailing war

On Thursday, Ford CEO Mark Fields announced the company’s first autonomous car will arrive in 2021. That big news—even if the launch date is timid from the company that invented the first affordable car—but the even bigger story is a ride-hailing app will be the easiest (and cheapest) way to ride in the unnamed autonomous car.

Ford did not name the ride-hailing app it plans to launch in major cities, but it is clear the company is positioning for its own stake in the ride-hailing industry. Its not hard to see why,estimates from economists and transport experts say car autonomy will reduce car sales and car ownership, which takes a slice out of the automotive industry’s pie.

Uber, Lyft, and Didi are the three major firms that stand to gain from the reduction in car ownership, but they won’t be alone in the battle to win the ride-hailing market.

Automotive firms are gearing up for the battle of their lives. General Motors spent $600 million on a 40 person automation startup; Volkswagen, GM, Daimler, BMW, and Ford are all working on ride-hailing apps; Toyota, GM, Ford, Audi, BMW, and others have opened Silicon Valley offices and spent more on R&D than ever before.

Not to mention Apple and Google, the two most valuable companies in the world, are both working on self-driving and ride-hailing services.

A new world ride-hailing war?

Automotive firms are putting on their cooperative face, but come 2020 there will be thermonuclear war for ride-hailing market share. Every automotive firm will have its own ride-hailing app and software will be inserted into the car to make sure Uber, Lyft, or Didi can’t hijack it.

For Uber and Didi, that might force them to acquire an automotive manufacturer. For others that have less than $5 billion tucked away, it likely means lights out. Lyft could become an independent subsidiary of GM (or another larger company), a similar situation could play outin Europe with Gett and Volkswagen.

Partnerships may work for a time, but automotive firms have the power. Apart from Uber and Didi—who are building their own autonomous systems—automotive manufacturers will provide the hardware and software, putting them in a clearly advantageous position.

Volvo and Fiat are providing 100 cars to Uber and Google, respectively. It should be noted these two firms will have limited reach in the self-driving world, compared to major automotive manufacturers. In the future, we may see Uber, Google, or Didi dictate the design and production of the car, to meet standards, while the two firms have independent leadership.

Room for more?

The ride-hailing industry should look like the auto industry today, once the dust clears. Ford, GM, VW, and the other major suppliers will have the largest volume of cars on the road, while others attempt to win customers over with unique design, better software and services, or lower rates.

This only works if automotive manufacturers block ride-hailing services from adding software to their cars. If not, Uber takes control. Most affiliate ride-hailing with Uber, it will be nearly impossible for one of the upstarts (apart of Didi) to match the purchasing power and scalability of Uber.

Apple may make inroads, as it is able to provide the full package, but it may take the iPhone maker a few years to reach the scale of GM and Ford, who in this scenario are providing cars directly to Uber.

For the health of the auto industry, the former option; having manufacturers provide the ride-hailing services for their own cars, looks best. Some manufacturers will be unable to compete with Uber’s pricing and speed, but at least in this future customers have the choice of several operators, rather than the entire industry belonging to Uber.

The future of car ownership

It is unlikely that Ford, GM, and others will ban ownership out of the gate. Instead, it is likely that changes in cost, city planning, and laws will make ownership more exclusive and less enjoyable.

Prices will be too high for most families, while ride-hailing becomes much more affordable.City planners will remove parking garages and ban parking on the side of the road for extended periods of time. Driver’s licenses will become near impossible to obtain, unless you have clear sight, a clean record, and perfect understanding of all road signs.

Some may continue to purchase cars and be distrustful of autonomy, but most will conform once the economical advantages become obvious. Even fans of cars that add customizations will start to see their pastime fade, as the steering wheel, brakes, and other manual controls are removed in favor of tablets and desks.

Automotive manufacturers and tech firms may attempt to make the transition from ownership to hailing more attractive through customization. When you enter the autonomous car, your Spotify playlist is synced to the car stereo or your YouTube video moves to the large tablet. In the morning, the car plays soothing tunes and dims the lights. If you’re a big NFL fan, perhaps Google will let you watch the livestream for free if you take a ride.

We may see different business models rise, including a rent model where you can keep a car in close permitter for 24 hours. That may be useful for weekend trips to the countryside, where the ride-hailing services are unavailable. As the systems become more fine-tuned, it may deploy a car to your doorstep in the morning before you even order it.

All of this is highly speculative, but one thing is for certain, a new warzone is opening in the transport industry and everyone is fortifying their positions.

IoT and conferences: Not a sector, but a critical theme

These days there is a conference or convention for just about everything. Are you a foodie that also enjoys gaming and watching YouTube? There is a conference for that. Are you a fan of My Little Pony? There is a convention for that, too. The Internet of Things is no different, but where it does stand out is in the sheer number of conferences that are taking place around the world with a focus on the technology and promise of the IoT.

Because the Internet of Things really is… everything, it would be exceedingly difficult to contain it in a single conference. New technologies and solutions are being created every day. This may be why there are dozens of conferences around the world each year, all dedicated to one or more aspects of the Internet of Things.

Even the tech conferences that aren’t specific to the Internet of Things are quickly becoming overrun with IoT projects from attending vendors. At the Intel Developer Forum, the main keynote became a showcase of Intel’s IoT projects, including its Joule IoT development kit and Merged Reality, a VR experience that takes advantage of Intel’s RealSense camera to blend the real world with the virtual one.

Even big conferences like SXSW are looking at IoT

SXSW Interactive, a giant annual Austin-based technology and entertainment conference hosts meetups and parties for tech brands across the city. These companies often test and even launch their new apps and IoT solutions at this event. The Internet of Things has become such a large part of this conference that you can find over a dozen separate events dedicated to IoT taking place during the Interactive portion of SXSW.

There are even multi-day conferences set aside for the most specific of IoT applications. The Wearable Tech in Sport Summit, for example, is being held in August alongside the Sports Analytics Innovation Summit. There is even a conference dedicated to smart lighting solutions being held in Australia called the Australian Smart Lighting Summit.

With so many innovations happening that partner everyday items with a new generation of connected technologies, it’s no surprise that so many conferences are adopting and even being formed around the ever-expanding world of IoT.

Uber swallows self-driving truck startup Otto for $680 million

Ride-hailing giant Uber announced on Thursday that is has acquired Otto for approximately $680 million.

All of Otto’s team, which includes ex-leader of Google’s self-driving project, Anthony Levandowski, will move to Uber. They will work on the company’s self-driving project and report directly to CEO Travis Kalanick.

Otto’s research facilities in Palo Alto and San Francisco will continue to operate, and will share data with Uber’s Pittsburgh research center.

The acquisition price, at the time of writing, is calculated at $680 million by Bloomberg. That’s the value of slightly less than one percent equity in Uber, which Otto investors will receive. Uber will also provide 20 percent of the profits from its future trucking business, giving investors a long term reward for the acquisition.

Otto was not planning to build its own trucks, instead utilizing the current big rigs and installing a self-driving system inside. The startup has built its own sensors, including a LiDAR sensor, which is a useful radar tool for self-driving systems.

“Together with Uber, we will create the future of commercial transportation: first, self-driving trucks that provide drivers unprecedented levels of safety; and second, a platform that matches truck drivers with the right load wherever they are,” said Otto in a blog postconfirming the acquisition.

Uber wants control of entire transport industry

Uber has been investing heavily into new transportation sectors in the past year, including food and commercial delivery. Long haul trucking might seem like a huge step for the private firm—valued at more than $60 billion—but it is just another move to make Uber the de-facto brand for all types of transport.

The acquisition announcement came a few hours after Uber and Volvo announced a $300 million investment into self-driving. Volvo will provide 100 SUVs to the Pittsburgh research center, which will be deployed on the roads by the end of the month.

India pushes smart city collaboration among BRICs countries

A senior Indian official is pushing for greater smart city collaboration among the group of countries knows as BRICS.

As reported in the Indian Express, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje recently spoke as the BRICS Smart Cities Conference in Jaipur, India. The acronym BRICS stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Raje’s presentation emphasized the potential opportunities emerging for fellow BRICS nations to cooperate in developing smart cities and related infrastructure. As well, she encouraged further information sharing between these nations to enhance and accelerate the smart city learning process.

“Member countries of BRICS can learn many things from each other,” said Raje. “The collaborations within BRICS shall strengthen ties and improve our appreciation of each other’s cultures and peoples.”

She drew attention to innovative urban environmental management practices currently being developed in such cities as Beijing, Shanghai, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Saint Petersburg.

Innovative projects in these cities can be explored for potential application in India, with scholars and urban planners developing deeper exchanges of knowledge with fellow nations. She said that such knowledge exchanges will improve smart cities by enhancing safety and resilience.

“Growth of population in urban settlements is posing many challenges. It has placed additional loads on the infrastructure in every city,” said Raje. “Our thinking is that cities of tomorrow require technology-driven inputs to make life of our citizens easier and safer.”

BRICS may have more pressing citizen needs than others

In her presentation, the minister discussed the support of the Indian government for smart city transformations of Jaipur, Ajmer, Kota and Udaipur.

She added that a critical element in the process of developing smart cities is the tandem development of smart citizens. This echoes a growing sentiment among smart city pundits that governments are forgetting about citizens in the rush to implement whizzy new smart city technology.

“To make our citizens smart and skilled, our government has taken skill development as a top most priority,” she said.

“We have engaged with numerous partners in skilling up our youth in a wide range of trades,” continued Raje. “ITIs have been taken up by industrial houses to impart skills and all our industry partners are collaborators in creating job and imparting world class training to our youth.

IoT and analytics powering record tech M&A feeding frenzy

The Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics are driving mergers and acquisition activity to new heights, as both tech and non-tech firms look to evolve their business models.

A Forbes article delved into the recent Ernst & Young (EY) report that examined M&A activity in the second quarter.

The EY report found that deal activity between April and June broke the all-time record for technology M&A valued at or above $1 billion. Aggregate value for Q2 reached just over $127 billion, nearly doubling the value from the previous quarter.

“The combination of digital disruption and slow organic growth drove Q2 2016 to near unprecedented deal-making levels for the technology sector overall,” according to the report’s authors. It added that many of the quarter’s 28 deals were driven by the emergence of IoT and data analytics, and the ensuing rush to capitalize on these burgeoning technologies.

With IoT-related M&A activity increasing by 28% compared to the same time period last year, the technology is proving to have strong momentum.

“…seven of the quarter’s eight connected car deals involved IoT technology (including mapping and tracking technologies). Six deals also targeted IoT security technology,” said the report.

The study included a mention of Brocade’s $1.5 billion acquisition of enterprise WiFi provider Ruckus Wireless, which is connected to the IoT space.

Big data analytics deals booming

Meanwhile, deal volume related to big data analytics increased 13% for the quarter compared to Q2 last year. EY attributed this growth to companies from many sectors recognizing the power of data to evolve and modernize their firms.

“Tech and non-tech companies alike pursued transformational deals, often to build broader end-to-end solutions in response to customer demand,” it said.

And EY sees the technology sector M&A frenzy continuing on into the future, as companies from all sectors seek out acquisitions to compete in a fast-evolving global marketplace.

“Because the technology industry is in such major transformation, we expect 2016 technology M&A to continue at a record or near-record pace for the foreseeable future, driven by the disruptive digital technologies that the industry is itself bringing to market,” said the report.”

“Tech companies will continue turning to M&A to accelerate their transformations and to build end-to-end solutions. Some will continue going private to manage their transformations away from public-market scrutiny,” said EY. “Non-tech companies will increasingly acquire tech, driving up cross-industry blur — and all will pursue security technologies.

Would it make sense for Tesla to buy Lyft?

This morning, after hearing about Tesla’s “big announcement” coming this afternoon, I speculated on Twitter that maybe the electric vehicle iconoclast was looking to buy ride-share firm Lyft.

It would definitely be a “new product” for them. But I was wrong, mea culpa.

Turns out it’s a new battery pack, a longer range, and a new “ludicrous” mode that will allow Teslas to be the fastest production cars on the road. All noble things, and worthy of announcing, if not necessarily worth building up so much beforehand.

But…what if?

Lyft has reportedly spurned a bid from current partner GM a week ago. GM plans to rolls out their new electric Bolt via Lyft as part of this partnership, and Tesla’s Model 3 competes with the Bolt.

Since that news, rumors have also emerged that Lyft had also reached out to Apple, Google, Amazon and competitors Uber and Didi to discuss a sale.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick told his investors that Lyft wasn’t worth more than $2 billon, despite having a reported $1.4 billion cash in the bank.

Lyft slapped him and said they really didn’t want to go to the M&A prom anyway because they’re washing their hair that night. Recode reported that everyone has a price, and even with a valuation estimated at $5 to 6 billion, Lyft’s was reportedly $9 billion.

Kalanick also said he didn’t want the anti-trust issues that would ensue, but it’s not entirely clear if the two money-losing unicorns mating publicly like this would warrant federal scrutiny.

“(A merger) could take the pressure off margins for the combined company,” one fund manager who follows next-generation auto tech told ReadWrite. “But then it really just looks like a cab company with an app. We have those already. There’s no real monopoly, in most markets, in their core business today that would damage average buyers’ power.”

So if Lyft’s looking for an exit, Tesla may be the sign on that door.

It’s hardware versus software…again

The intersection of several trends and technologies may soon provide the place for Tesla and Lyft to collide.

Electric vehicle growth will likely be spurred by autonomous vehicle development, and carmakers from Volvo to Ford to Musk himself are now counting the time until a fully autonomous car hits the road in months, not years.

Add to that a sharing economy increasingly treating car ownership as a commodity and not status symbol, and it could become a challenging time to sell $135,000 electric cars no matter how awesome. And they are, without a doubt, awesome.

And it’s an interesting time for the entire “next-generation” auto industry as a whole, as it becomes clear that humans will not be behind the wheel in the future, or even if there will be a wheel in the future.

While this may seem mind-blowing to most car owners today, it’s just a new chapter in the Silicon Valley story of “Hardware vs. Software.”

In this corner, Team Hardware. It’s made up of virtually automaker on the planet, including Tesla, as well as car parts makers, agricultural and construction equipment companies, trucking firms, and ship builders. They’re looking for what happens next, and all roadsigns point towards “metal-as-a-service.”

Whether it’s an entire vehicle or just some of its components, the decades-old relationship with buyers for these huge brands is being unpacked by the new sharing economy audience and broken down into the basket of services that their products actually provide.

Think of all of the advertising you’ve watched over the years from carmakers. Now, the attachment to the idea of owning a certain type of car, or a certain brand of equipment, starts to look gauzier by the day.

In the other corner, Team Software. That includes the ride-hailing giants like Uber and Didi, flush with cash but concerned everyone will figure out “oh, it’s just a cab company, kind of.” Add in Google, Baidu, retailers like Amazon, and shippers like FedEx — who’ve always looked at their fleets as dots on a global last-mile logistics planning map.

Those deliveries don’t happen without wings, wheels or hands. Or possibly, whatever appendages drones will use.

An integrated delivery ecosystem, whether it delivers a person or package, is their end game. If that means a new dimension in fleet management, so be it.

Add to that all of the safety concerns, regulatory needs and data infrastructure issues, and it’ll be a wild time take a ride — or even cross a street  — in the coming years.

Columbus’ smart city win may lead to autonomous trucks

The Department of Transportation declared Columbus, Ohio the winner of the Smart Cities Challenge earlier this year. Now, city leaders plan to spend some of the $50 million reward on an autonomous “truck platoon” capable of driving in urban areas.

Columbus Region Logistics Council backed the project, which will test the autonomous trucks at Ohio State University before bringing them onto public roads, before moving to Alum Creek Drive.

It is one of a number of public-private partnerships that Columbus is embarking on as part of the Smart City challenge.

City leaders will work with the private sector to build a smartphone app connected to the trucks, which lets them commandeer the vehicle and provide the most efficient route. At the start, a driver will be stationed inside the truck, and the vehicles can only drive on certain roads.

Columbus sees multiple routes

From there, Columbus hopes to build fully driverless trucks that are able to drive on multiple routes without trouble. That could reduce the cost for the logistics industry, while also improving productivity, since self-driving systems don’t need to sleep.

It is one of the first public-private autonomous partnerships, in San Francisco and Michigan almost all self-driving tests are conducted by automotive or tech firms spending their own income.

Most of the talk on self-driving fails to mention the trucking industry, but manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz, its parent Daimler, and startup Otto are already building fully driverless big rigs that may hit the market before consumer vehicles.

The coolest sensor deployment…in the hottest place

To tourists, the Masaya volcano is a wondrous national park, but to locals, it is an annoyance that spews out sulfur dioxide gas and could possibly destroy their town if it ever decides to go nuclear.

Sam Cossman, a filmmaker that has an affinity to magma, is currently delving deep into the chambers to ensure that if the volcano does show warning signs, locals and the government will be informed ahead of time.

On his ventures into the volcano, Cossman installs IoT sensors for the Nicaraguan government. The sensors feed data to General Electric’s Predix software platform, which can provide insights on the volcano’s activity, painting a clearer picture of what’s happening inside.

Nicaragua has become a tourist destination for its active volcanos, but not everyone is excited by the prospect of operative natural disaster creators. The government has increased its investment into technology that might better understand the volcanos and how to avoid disaster for locals.

Will it lead to more deployments?

If the Masaya experiment works and data scientists are happy, we might see more deployments across the country. The government can only hope there are more people like Cossman willing to enter the chambers.

Volcanos, like earthquakes, are something scientists still know little about and cannot control. With IoT solutions, like GE’s Predix software, we should get a clearer picture of when a volcano is likely to explode, what are some of the preliminary signs, and discernable patterns.

“We’re pretty excited to have implemented the large majority of our sensors and they seem to  be working well,” said Cossman. “It could be a big step forward in terms of advancing our understanding of volcanic eruptions and protecting the many people around the world who are exposed to their dangers.”

That doesn’t make it any easier to control, though it could give the Nicaraguan government and others more time to prepare evacuations and reduce the amount of destruction to towns and villages.

Research suggests sleep wearables could reduce PTSD risk

Wearables that are able to relax the brain could reduce PTSD, according to new research provided by Brain State Technologies and Wake Forest School of Medicine.

The research suggests that people suffering from insomnia, a sleep disorder that 10 to 30 percent of adults suffer from each year, are at a similar PTSD risk level as ex-military service members.

Brain State also claims that sleep disturbance is one of the hardest PTSD symptoms to treat, since medication for sleeping tends to have side effects like illness and addiction. With a wearable that relaxes the brain, it may reduce the chance of waking up in the middle of the night.

“We are excited about presenting this analysis to military health researchers, because prevention efforts tend to get too little attention. We think that focus on sleep quality could reduce PTSD not only in the military, but also in police, medical first-responders, and others who have high exposure to trauma,” said Brain State CEO Lee Gerdes.

Brain State provides a wearable, the Braintellect 2, which offers this type of brain relaxing functionality. The patient wears the device on their head and listens to rhythms of varying pitch, which reduce the amount of stress or excitement in preparation for rest.

The Braintellect 2 is quite an expensive piece of kit, at $1,195. It is also not the most compact design—it comes with the headband, a Bluetooth wireless control box (that connects to the headset through a wire), a pair of headphones, and a customized Windows tablet.

That’s a lot, but may be worth it for those suffering from insomnia or PTSD. Hopefully in the next few years, Brain State or some other firm can reduce the footprint of the device. Swapping the Windows tablet with an iOS/Android app and integrating the Bluetooth control box into the headband would be two smart moves.

Local smart city planners want big government to butt out

With federal and regional governments jumping on the smart cities bandwagon, industry pundits want big government to butt out and let local players work their magic.

Morning Consult reported on a recent panel discussion at the Information and Innovation Foundation. During the discussion, many industry experts brought up the topic of government involvement in smart cities.

Specifically, panellists stressed the need to allow local autonomy when building out smart city strategies. And in order to do this, federal and regional governments were told repeatedly to simply get out of the way.

“There’s an understanding that if we are charging cities with being our leaders of innovation — both local governments themselves, as well as cities as sort of test grounds of innovation — then we need to empower cities to do that,” said Christy McFarland from the National League of Cities. “And there are many constraints, particularly on local governments, to have them facilitate additional innovation in the economy.”

The panel included representatives from Dell, the World Bank and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And despite the presence of big government, the recurring message from the discussion was that local governments needed less interference and more resources to grow smart cities from the ground up.

One way that smart city advocates saw this bottom-up strategy playing out is through the development of direct partnerships between local governments and their tech startup communities.

Do smart city efforts need to be local?

McFarland cited San Francisco as an example, where the city recruited a startup to create a platform to improve traveler navigation of its international airport.

Such public-private partnerships are key to developing data-driven smart cities of the future, according to U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Michael Hendrix. He says that without effective collaboration between local governments and the city’s technology firms, smart cities will never reach their full potential.

“You can have all the capital and talent and research capacity in the world and yet still not generate sustained innovation and start-up activity — or at least, not as much as you otherwise could,” he said.

The topic of local government empowerment comes as concerns mount that many smart city initiatives are focusing on solving peripheral urban problems, with few big projects tackling core city issues.

The fight is on to win the $560 billion self-driving car market

The autonomous car market will grow to an eye-watering $560 billion in the coming years, but many firms will end up road-kill in thae race for market share.

The Detroit Bureau point out a new study by consulting firm AT Kearney estimates the market for autonomous vehicles will grow to $560 billion over the next 20 years.

Researchers surveyed 150 executives from tech, automotive and communications industries as part of the study. They found that, while the connected car market will eventually be huge, it will take two decades to overcome significant barriers to growth.

“While industry players have already developed or tested many of the technological building blocks, tough and tricky legal challenges remain, including new laws on accident liability, on where self-driving cars may operate, and on who may have a license,” AT Kearney said.

“Also, new traffic guidelines have to be developed for autopilot and for fully autonomous driving. The incentives to establish the right legal framework are high, and executives in our study are confident this framework will develop, probably with California as the pioneer,” the report added.

Are self-driving regulations the real traffic jam?

This comes against the backdrop of concerns that America could become a disjointed patchwork of incompatible and competing regulations for self-driving cars.

At this early stage in the technology’s evolution, many players are jockeying for position in an increasingly crowded field.

But AT Kearney cautions that as the market matures, many players in the self-driving vehicle race will end up crashing and burning along the side of the road.

“Manufacturers face hard questions as they jockey for position — from thinking about their value propositions, which core capabilities they need, and which players they should partner with, to developing business models that offer the best go-to-market strategies and the best chances to win,” said the report.

All of the major car manufacturers are already well committed to developing self-driving car technology.As well, many of the leading tech firms are competing as well.

Taxi market disruptor Uber is busy testing autonomous cars as part of a strategy to eventually integrate them it its ride-sharing fleet. And search giant Google continues to expand its autonomous vehicle testing program in a bid to remain the U.S. leader in the burgeoning technology.

Australia to spend millions making its cities smarter

Malcolm Turnbull’s Liberal government, which won the federal election last month, has revealed a Smart Cities and Suburbs Program, with the intention of bringing local councils and tech firms to the table.

The $50 million program calls for local councils to implement smart city technology to improve cities and suburbs. Federal funds will back part of the project; private and local funding will pay for the rest.

It will host a series of public-private roundtable sessions next month that attempt to establish contracts between councils and companies.

“The Smart Cities and Suburbs Program is to support clever technology ideas to fix difficult or long standing community issues,” said the Assistant Minister for Cities, Angus Taylor, at the Future Cities Summit. “The most valuable projects will be transformative collaborations between multiple councils and technology industry partners that link closely with future plans for the area.”

The federal government is looking for projects that enhance the security, livability, and sustainability of cities. Projects that look to reduce the local council costs would also be considered, as the Liberal government looks to reduce the budget deficit.

Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei has already shown interest in building Internet of Things (IoT) platforms in Australian cities. It launched a trial of its smart sewage platform in Victoria a few months ago, in partnership with Vodafone.

Australia announcement looks familiar

Australia is not the first country to bring cities and companies together. In the U.S., the Department of Transportation (DOT) recently ran a Smart City Challenge, which offered $40 million (plus $10 million from Paul Allen’s Vulcan) to the city with the most compelling manifesto.

Columbus, Ohio won, but many of the finalists like Denver, Colorado and San Francisco, California said that private investment reached over $20 million. Some of the cities plan to continue to the public-private projects, while others have said they plan to be more open to tech experts and firms in the future.

Australia’s government should be hoping for a similar outcome, even if the program isn’t winner takes all.

Will Uber and Volvo roll out a fully autonomous car next year?

Uber has scooped its second automotive partner, announcing on Thursday that Volvo will build a fully autonomous car for the ride-sharing giant’s Pittsburgh fleet.

The partnership includes a $300 million investment from both parties into the development of the autonomous car.

Volvo will use the PSA chassis to build the autonomous car, which is used in the XC90, S90, and V90. From there, Uber will import its self-driving system and ride hailing platform, to make it a fully autonomous taxi.

The most interesting detail is the timeline, Uber says the Volvo cars will appear in the company’s commercial fleet by late August. Customers that enter into the autonomous vehicle will receive a free ride.

If you are in Pittsburgh, you won’t be able to request a self-driving car, but a lucky few will get the chance to ride in it. We assume that an Uber representative will be inside, to avoid even more regulatory issues.

Uber could provide Volvo with a strong market in the future, if we move from car ownership to ride-hailing as the main source of transportation. Volvo doesn’t appear too phased by the deal, stating that its own self-driving division is still active.

Volvo and Uber follow Ford’s big news

The news comes on the same day Ford CEO Mark Fields set a 2021 target date for the company’s first fully autonomous vehicle. Fields said the car would not have a steering wheel or any pedals.

If Uber is able to get a driverless car on the road in any capacity by the end of the year, that 2021 date may be too late. Tesla has also hinted at a fully autonomous system coming to the Model S, X, and 3 far before 2020, which may put regular automotive firms to shame.

Volvo is the second to partner with Uber, following a Hyundai partnership in South Korea. More automotive firms may follow; Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne said that he would like to partner with Uber and Amazon on self-driving cars, after partnering with Google.

For new e-skin products, plastics are still the future

Covestro, a spinout of pharmaceutical giant Bayer, will present an e-skin product that uses custom polyurethane materials at an upcoming plastics trade fair.

Compared to other e-skin materials, Covestro argues that its own material sticks to skin for extensive periods, but can easily be removed without causing marks or pains.

This would be a useful improvement over the current skin wearables, which either lack stickiness or are painful to remove. Covestro sees the e-skin material being useful in the wearables market, letting developers track different parts of the body.

“Consumers want wearables that cling gently to the skin, and that are also breathable and hypoallergenic,” says Gerd Büschel, a films expert at Covestro. “We’re meeting this need with a clever combination of different materials. The patch is affixed to the wearer by means of a skin-friendly, breathable adhesive, which also is solvent-free and water-repellent.”

Getting under their e-skin

Covestro hasn’t provided a lot of information on the capabilities for manufacturers that want to add connectivity modules, like Bluetooth, or sensors that track heart-rate, respiratory rate, and other measurements. We expect to find out more at K 2016.

Several universities and research labs have attempted to build e-skin products that can last for weeks and send data back to a connected smartphone. While Covestro’s new material doesn’t advance the connectivity aspect, it might make a mass market e-skin product more feasible.

For those interested in the skin products, Covestro will debut them at the K 2016 plastics trade show. If you’re not that into plastics, you should know that K 2016 is kind of a big deal, taking place in Düsseldorf, Germany, in October.

Self-driving? You’re gonna need a bigger data plan

Smart technologies promise to connect us to our environment in new and exciting ways, but this increased connection comes at a cost. As more devices go online and transmit mass amounts of data to the cloud, the cloud itself needs to be capable of quickly receiving, analyzing, and returning that data.

During his keynote at the Intel Developer Forum, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stated: “The average person today generates about 6-to-700 megabits a day. By 2020, the estimate is 1.5 gigabytes a day for the average person.” He continued, “The average autonomous vehicle, by 2020, will produce 4,000 gigabytes per day.”

That is a lot of data. In fact, it comes out to roughly 1 Gbps when you look at all the various sensors and cameras that a fully-functional autonomous vehicle requires. Long-range radar, lidar, cameras, short and medium-range radar, and ultrasonic sensors enable the vehicle to have a full, 360-degree view of its surroundings.

To put it another way, an estimated four petabytes of data is going to be generated by each autonomous car on the road every year. That type of data would take today’s average wireless user over 167,000 years to top.

Intel’s solution to this massive data problem is to give the vehicles themselves the ability to take this data, process it, and convert it into actionable information locally. But this is only part of the solution. There will still need to be some form of communication with the cloud in order for an autonomous vehicle to make sound decisions about where it is going and what the best possible path is to get there.

Traffic analysis, mapping, weather updates, finding business addresses, and more are still areas where having a constant connection to the cloud is necessary. Not only that, but the companies that create these autonomous vehicles will need access to some of that data in order to improve on their systems and troubleshoot issues. This data is valuable, and companies will be hard-pressed to let it disappear.

Enter new wireless standards

5G, which is currently in research and development phase among top communications companies, is expected to be made available as early as 2018 during the Winter Olympics, but this is early speculation as there isn’t even a standard yet for the next-generation wireless technology. Even if this demonstration is successful, there are years of rollout required before 5G connections are available in most areas.

For telecom companies, there is very little benefit to this rapid expansion of their networks. While you can charge an arm and a leg for a smartphone’s data plan, can you do the same for that user’s car? Monetization drives businesses to build, and while the White House is doing its part by providing funding incentives for 5G research and development, the long-term costs involved with building and maintaining these new, more powerful networks will ultimately fall on these companies and their customers.

Autonomous cars are coming. The question is, are our wireless networks going to be ready for them?