Intel led a collaboration of 11 automotive and mobility industry players that published a framework for design, development, verification and validation of safe automated passenger vehicles (AVs). “Safety First for Automated Driving” combines expertise from global automakers, suppliers and technology providers to guide development of AVs that are “verifiably safe by design,” Intel said Tuesday. The framework is built on Intel’s responsibility sensitive safety (RSS) model, said to be a “technology-neutral” starting point for the industry to align on what it means for an AV to drive safely. “RSS formalizes human notions of commonsense driving into a set of mathematical formulas that are transparent and verifiable, providing a 'safety envelope' around an AV’s decision-making capabilities,” said the company. The paper has 12 guiding principles and “the steps necessary to realize them.”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology is accepting comment through July 19 on a draft plan for “federal government engagement in advancing artificial intelligence standards for U.S. economic and national security needs,” the agency announced Tuesday.
For a second time, District of Columbia Superior Court denied Facebook’s request to block the city’s lawsuit (see 1906190028) over the platform’s data privacy practices. The court issued an order Sunday denying Facebook’s motion to certify the case for interlocutory appeal. “We will press ahead with discovery and take another important step toward holding Facebook accountable for its privacy and data security failures,” said D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine (D). The company didn’t comment Monday.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology will host the third in a series of public workshops on developing a privacy framework July 8-9 at Boise State University, the agency said Friday (see 1812170032).
With full eight transmit and eight receive antennas, 8 x 8 MU-MIMO provides the biggest benefit to total system throughput and capacity in Wi-Fi 6 networks vs. other features of Wi-Fi 6, said Strategy Analytics Friday. Marketing messages about Wi-Fi 6 have typically focused on benefits of orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), important for reducing congestion, but access points with 8 x 8 MU-MIMO can simultaneously address up to four times as many 2 x 2 client devices as OFDMA alone, said analyst Christopher Taylor. Many entry-level and mainstream Wi-Fi 6 access points use only two or four antennas, but more than two-thirds of access points SA identified in the premium tier use the full eight, he said, highlighting Quantenna, Qualcomm, Marvell and Celeno as suppliers of Wi-Fi 6 chipsets capable of 8 x 8 MU-MIMO. “The benefits of MU-MIMO have been proven in the cellular world with LTE,” and smartphone and laptop PC OEMs have shown strong support for Wi-Fi 6 with MU-MIMO, said analyst Stephen Entwistle.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said he doesn’t necessarily “disagree” with a proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., to break up big tech companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon (see 1904170046). During the first Democratic primary debate Wednesday, Booker said companies like Amazon “that pay nothing in taxes” should be singled out and policies changed. On antitrust, Booker said he would appoint judges who enforce and would enable a DOJ and an FTC that will “go through the processes necessary to check” corporate concentration: “We have too much of a problem with corporate power growing.” Corporate consolidation hurts small business and limits innovation, Warren said: The antitrust laws are in place but “missing is courage, courage in Washington to take on the giants.” Warren said returning the government to the people means "calling out the names of the monopolists and saying I have the courage to go after them.”
The White House Social Media Summit is July 11, a spokesperson emailed us. The Internet Association didn't comment. Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump alleged in a Fox News interview that some tech platforms like social media may filter out politically conservative views. Such concerns also came up in a hearing that day (see 1906260051).
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board voted to start three oversight projects. PCLOB said Wednesday it will review FBI searching data obtained under Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702, examining "procedures and technology used to record queries and ensure compliance with applicable rules." Another initiative will review use of facial recognition and other biometric technologies in aviation security, and the third deals with airline passenger name records. The three reviews were approved unanimously by PCLOB members, a spokesperson emailed us. Parts of Section 702 expire at year's end (see 1906260033).
Lacking consumer awareness and “low perceived product value remain significant problems for the smart home industry,” blogged Parks Associates analyst Patrice Samuels Tuesday. Limited information about smart home products led to “purchase avoidance,” Samuels said, saying builder and multi-dwelling unit channels could expose benefits of the technologies to consumers through installations in model homes and apartments. A fourth of U.S. broadband households believe a “move-in-ready house” would include smart home devices, said Parks, and among MDU residents, 19 percent see them as an “important consideration.” Among consumers who don't own or intend to buy smart home devices, 54 percent don’t perceive that the devices will benefit their lives, Parks said. Nearly a quarter of broadband homes own at least one smart home device.
PRBA-The Rechargeable Battery Association hopes the FTC considers safety issues “as it explores repair options associated with lithium ion batteries and the devices they power,” commented the group in docket FTC-2019-0013. The agency sought comments to prepare for a July 16 “Nixing the Fix” workshop on whether manufacturer restrictions on third-party repairs can thwart consumer protections in the 1975 Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. Monday was the first time the FTC posted the comments it received by the April 30 deadline. We had filed a Freedom of Information Act request for all such documents (see 1906030020). Lithium ion batteries are “the chemistry of choice today for small, rechargeable consumer batteries,” said PRBA, whose members include Apple, Duracell, Energizer, LG Chem, Microsoft, Motorola, Panasonic, Samsung and Sony, plus automakers Ford, General Motors and Toyota. “These batteries are safe, popular, and enable innovative portable electronic devices to function in an efficient and safe manner.” The batteries, the devices they power and their “associated chargers” are “designed to operate as a ‘system’ with redundant and sophisticated safety components, said PRBA. “Lack of understanding of these critical safety components that can be damaged during repairs by consumers or poorly trained service centers could ultimately jeopardize the safety of consumers and the public in general.” Right-to-repair advocacy company iFixit had conceded “there’s always going to be some risk involved during a repair,” but said the risk mostly is “pretty low” (see this publication, May 17). It didn’t comment Tuesday.