Perfecting the autonomous vehicle (AV) is 99 percent of the way there, “but the last 1 percent takes 99 percent of the time,” said Karl Iagnemma, CEO of Massachusetts Institute of Technology AV software spinoff NuTonomy, on a panel on technical, economic and policy obstacles to AVs at Tuesday’s 2018 Automotive Forum sponsored by J.D. Power and the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Consumer Watchdog and other privacy groups said Facebook should end campaign contributions and “electioneering,” and hire an independent auditor to monitor the platform’s use of personal data in relation to election advertisements (see 1803270043). Facebook should be barred from election efforts, given the platform’s influence over the U.S. electorate, said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court during a conference call Wednesday. “This is all about stealing America,” Court said, accusing Facebook of allowing the personal data of 50 million Americans to improperly fall into the hands of Cambridge Analytica, which he described as electioneers.
When Time Warner was a vertically integrated company, encompassing both programming and Time Warner Cable, the notion of blacking out other distributors to get higher prices or to drive subscribers to TWC, or that Turner enjoyed more leverage due to that vertical integration, never came up, Turner CEO John Martin testified Wednesday in the U.S. v. AT&T/TW trial. An adverse witness for DOJ, Martin under questioning from AT&T/TW counsel attacked many of Justice's central tenets in the case.
The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council approved a report Wednesday on the “Best Practices and Recommendations to Mitigate Security Risks to Wireless Protocols,” which looks at the vulnerabilities of networks as industry starts to deploy 5G. The report was the first to be completed by the current iteration of CSRIC. The FCC also is focusing on threats from foreign actors, in an NPRM set for a vote at commissioners’ April 17 meeting (see 1803260037).
An FCC rural call completion order and Further NPRM draft seek new ways to solve problems with long-distance calls to rural areas, which often aren't connected or are dropped. The draft item in docket 13-39 would shift from "covered provider" data reporting and related requirements to relying on monitoring of "intermediate carrier" performance, and seek to implement a new rural calling law. Another draft NPRM in docket 17-144 would offer business data service (BDS) "incentive regulation" to rural telcos receiving model-based Connect America Fund USF subsidy report. Both items were put on the April 17 commissioners' meeting tentative agenda announced Monday and released Tuesday (see 1803260028 and 1803270052).
Bills asking state utility commissions to oversee net neutrality are raising disagreement among state officials. Some say state commissions can and should handle the responsibility, but others said such oversight is impractical or better handled at the federal level. At a Wednesday hearing in Massachusetts, a state senator driving net neutrality legislation asked if industry opponents would at least consider signing a memorandum of understanding.
A source at Facebook said Tuesday the company is in touch with lawmakers but wouldn't confirm that CEO Mark Zuckerberg agreed to testify before Congress, as reported by multiple outlets after the Cambridge Analytica controversy.
The FCC’s advisory committee on diversity unanimously approved a broadcast incubator proposal Tuesday based on congressionally authorized tax credits, immediately after Commissioner Mike O’Rielly urged them not to. The Advisory Committee on Diversity and Digital Empowerment also unanimously approved plans for a diversity in procurement workshop with the Office of Communications Business Opportunities, and a series of meetings with tech companies to create diversity best practices for the industry. The committee’s incubator proposal will be filed as comments in docket 17-289, the agency’s incubator proceeding.
Dish Network claims about the must-have nature of Turner content (see 1803260047) were criticized in an occasionally contentious cross-examination of Sling TV President Warren Schlichting Tuesday in the U.S. v. AT&T and Time Warner trial in U.S. District Court in Washington. Referring to Schlichting's comments about blackouts being like a heart attack and costing lasting damage to an MVPD, defendants' outside counsel Dan Petrocelli of O'Melveny said Dish "had had a lot of heart attacks. You take down programmers left and right." Retorted Schlichting, noting programmers' roles in blackouts, "it takes two to tango." Asked whether blackouts are part of Dish's strategy, Schlichting wouldn't answer.
Cable and telco executives said Congress should resolve the net neutrality dispute and end policy flip-flops that, one suggested, threaten broadband investment more than heavy regulation. "It's time to put the rules in place and move on," said Comcast Senior Executive Vice President David Cohen at a Free State Foundation conference Tuesday. But the executives expressed more hope than optimism, with some pessimistic about the near-term prospects. Recent revelations and concerns about the use of Facebook data could drive privacy legislation discussions, some said. Others focused on 5G wireless and fiber deployment efforts.