Uber Opening Robotics Research Facility In Pittsburgh To Build Self-Driving Cars

As reported by TechCrunch: Driver-on-demand service Uber is building a robotics research lab in Pittsburgh, PA to “kickstart autonomous taxi fleet development,” sources close to the decision have confirmed to TechCrunch. They say the company has hired talent from Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, including lead engineering and commercialization experts.

No one at Carnegie Mellon or Uber agreed to discuss the deal on the record but an announcement should be forthcoming.

Sources tell us Uber is hiring more than fifty senior scientists from Carnegie Mellon as well as from the National Robotics Engineering Center, a CMU-affiliated research entity. Carnegie Mellon, home of the Mars Rover and other high-profile robotics projects, declined to comment at this time, as did scientists mentioned by our source. Uber has “cleaned out” the Robotics Institute, said the source.

The source also noted that most of these technologies came through a “massive” military spending push over the past decade and should net the university millions in IP licensing fees.

Uber will be developing the core technology, the vehicles, and associated infrastructure at this Pittsburgh facility, according to sources. They have already hired a number of employees and made moves to outfit them with software, including a multi-hundred-thousand dollar investment in third-party engineering workstations.

In the past, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has said he would replace human drivers with self-driving cars. The decision to run the facility in Pittsburgh makes perfect sense, given the proximity to CMU and the potential secrecy afforded by moving research out of Silicon Valley.

In a related story, Bloomberg Business is reporting that Google is looking into creating an on-demand car service of its own, which is very interesting considering Uber’s interest in automated vehicles. It also raises questions about Google’s David Drummond maintaining a spot on Uber’s board. Google has integrated Uber into its Google Maps products and has taken an investment in Uber via its Google Ventures arm.

No specific plans for a roll-out date or goals for Uber’s automated driving efforts were mentioned. The company recently raised $4 billion in equity and debt including $1.6 billion in convertible debt earlier this month. This follows a $1.4 billion Series D funding round over the summer as well as another $1.2 round in December. The company is now valued at $41 billion.

Tesla Model X Caught On Video At The Test Track

As reported by TechCrunch: A new model Tesla has been caught on camera at the Alameda Airport test track (via Electrek). The car looks pretty similar to a Prius, or perhaps a crossover utility vehicle, and could plausibly be either the Model X SUV Tesla has been working on for years, or, as others are arguing, a prototype of the mass-market Model 3 that the coming is planning to bring to market in the $35,000 price range.

The video doesn’t show much beyond a car driving around at a relatively high speeds both straight and through some wide loops, and the camouflaged body of the vehicle with a broad back end and what looks like a fairly high seating arrangement for the driver, which does suggest it’s a Model X test vehicle. It also has a lot in common in terms of design, body shape and apparent size with the original Tesla Model X design unveiled in 2013 by Elon Musk.

I think it’s most likely this is the Model X, because of the points raised above, and because Tesla CEO Elon Musk said earlier this month that the Model X is on track for release by the early part of the second half of 2015, meaning it should be about as road ready and design-final as the vehicle in this spy video is. That means it’s time for electric car fans who want a bit more cargo capacity to get excited.

An Uber for Truckers

As reported by TechCrunch: Every day I hear about a new ‘Uber for X’ startup and most of them are pretty crappy, but every now and then one comes across my desk that’s actually pretty cool.

Los Angeles-based Cargomatic, which hopes to become ‘Uber for truckers,’ is one of the cool ones. And it just raised $8 million to expand its platform for connecting shippers and truckers who are available to help move their cargo.

Launched in 2014, Cargomatic hopes to bring some technology to the local trucking industry by providing a platform enabling shippers to list available jobs that local truckers with excess capacity can complete. By making the connection, the company hopes to not only help truckers make more money, but also to route shipping more efficiently.

The company has a website where companies can enter the details of cargo they need to ship, and a mobile app that can be used by truckers to accept jobs and track their routes.

Like other on-demand services, Cargomatic vets drivers who sign up, reviewing their commercial licenses and insurance to ensure they have everything they need to transport another company’s goods. It also provides pricing transparency by determining how much a driver should make based on the weight and distance of goods that they move.

Finally, the platform enables truckers to get paid more quickly by facilitating the invoicing and payments portion of the transaction. Shippers are asked to enter their credit card or ACH information, which Cargomatic uses to pay out truckers shortly after a job is completed.

Before platforms like Cargomatic, most companies that needed to move cargo mostly relied on a few local truckers that they knew, according to Cargomatic CEO Jonathan Kessler. But those truckers weren’t always guaranteed to have excess capacity. Meanwhile, truckers had to deal with uneven work schedules and driving for a limited number of shippers.

The company hopes to reduce that friction in the market by giving shippers a way to quickly get their goods shipped while also increasing income for truckers by making them aware of jobs that are available. Because it knows where truckers and available jobs are, it can also do more efficient routing to reduce the cost of transporting goods.

Cargomatic has been operating in Southern California and in the New York metro area, but it’s looking to expand. To do that, the company has raised $8 million led by Canaan Partners with participation from Volvo Group Venture Capital, Rob Estes of Estes Express, Morado Venture Partners, SV Angel, Sherpa Ventures, Structure Capital, Nicolas Berggruen, Scott Banister, Fritz Lanman and Hank Vigil.

That funding will be used to aid the company as it rolls out to new markets and brings on new drivers. Having Canaan on board should help, as the firm has invested in a number of marketplace startups and generally understands the dynamics involved in making them successful.

Kessler believes having Volvo’s venture group invested could provide some side benefits in helping it market to truckers. Another notable investor is Estes, who is the owner of the largest private trucking company in the U.S.

Of course, having money is good and having investor help is better, but Cargomatic hopes to succeed mainly because it’s solving a big problem. The local trucking industry is a $70 billion opportunity, after all. Cargomatic just wants a small piece of that.

FCC Raises $44.9 Billion in U.S. LTE Advanced Wireless Spectrum Sale

As reported by The Wall Street Journal: The Federal Communications Commission’s biggest ever auction of wireless spectrum closed Thursday and raised a record $44.9 billion, a boon for taxpayers and a sign of the growing cost of supporting Americans’ smartphone habit.  The FCC said bidding in the AWS-3 spectrum auction had ended after 341 rounds.  Analysts had predicted that the auction would raise anywhere from $10 billion to $20 billion.

The haul is more than twice as much as the government brought in from its last major sale of spectrum in 2008, back when Apple Inc. ’s iPhone was only about a year old.

It isn’t yet clear which among the 70 participants who qualified may have won the licenses that were up for sale. Also unknown is how much big bidders like Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc., T-Mobile US Inc. and Dish Network Corp. may have paid. Bidding is confidential, and the FCC says the results won’t be released right away.

Still, the auction’s aggressive bidding surprised analysts who thought it would be a quiet affair dominated by AT&T and Verizon. Anonymous results show multiple bidders fought hard for coveted licenses in markets like New York and Los Angeles, which commanded the largest sums. As of the auction close, the four main licenses for the New York region alone totaled about $6.2 billion.

Spectrum works like lanes on a highway, and carriers need more of it as their wireless traffic increases. The soaring prices in this latest auction reflect the pressure on carriers as their subscribers use their cellphones to watch more YouTube videos, stream music and share photos. Industry giants like AT&T and Verizon are encouraging that use, hoping to cash in as wireless data traffic grows.

The FCC started the latest auction on Nov. 13 without much fanfare and with a goal of raising at least $10.6 billion by selling about 1,600 licenses. That target was quickly surpassed, along with the previous auction record of $19.1 billion set in 2008.

Only 3% of investors surveyed by Morgan Stanley before the auction thought bids would top $35 billion.

The bidding highlights the enormous scale needed to compete in the U.S. wireless market, a reality that makes it hard for rivals to challenge the market’s leaders. AT&T and Verizon control most of the industry’s most lucrative customers and the bulk of its revenue and profits, which gives them enormous financial firepower in such auctions.

While big markets like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago drew the highest bids, smaller markets including Portland, Maine, and Louisville, Ky., received bids over $20 million. One license in American Samoa commanded the lowest bid, at $2,800.

In addition to the big wireless carriers, private-equity firms like Grain Management LLC and even some individuals took part in the auction. Satellite broadcaster Dish did as well. The company has amassed similar spectrum in recent years and says it wants to start offering cellphone service. Sprint Corp., which holds the industry’s largest stores of spectrum, even though much of it is of lower value, didn’t participate.

AT&T and Verizon have raised debt to help pay for the auction and are also selling assets. AT&T said that its recent spending—including corporate acquisitions-would leave it with a higher debt load than it had targeted and that it would make a priority of paying it down. The carrier is working to close a $49 billion acquisition of satellite broadcaster DirecTV and has cut two smaller deals for wireless carriers in Mexico.

The telecommunications industry had been more focused on an upcoming auction of spectrum held by television broadcasters. But that process was recently pushed back to early 2016, a delay that likely helped drive up prices in the current sale.

The airwaves in the just completed auction occupy spots around 1,700 MHz and 2,100 MHz (UMTS band IV and IMT-Advanced) are considered mid-band spectrum. Such frequencies aren’t typically as valuable as the low-band airwaves like those held by TV broadcasters that can carry signals deep into buildings and across the countryside. But the higher bands are useful in cities, because they can carry more data, albeit over shorter distances (i.e. multiple video streams).

Carriers are eager to put the airwaves to use, but what they’re buying won’t be available for some time. The Defense Department currently uses the frequencies for things like missile guidance systems and drone training programs. Some of the operations can be relocated in as soon as nine months, but others will take five to 10 years.

The government is likely to actually collect less than the headline number. Smaller bidders get a discount of up to 25%, which Nomura Securities estimates would bring total cash payments closer to $40 billion.

The AWS-3 auction closed less than 24 hours after the FCC had said that bidding had ended on the 50 MHz of paired spectrum being auctioned off. The FCC was also auctioning 15 MHz of unpaired uplink spectrum, the 1695-1710 MHz band.

The paired spectrum in the auction includes the G Block (1755-1760/2155-2160 MHz), H Block (1760-1765/2160-2165 MHz), I Block (1765-1770/2165-2170 MHz), and J Block (1770-1780MHz /2170-2180 MHz). The G Block is licensed in 734 Cellular Market Area (CMA) geographies and the other paired spectrum blocks are licensed in 176 geographically larger Economic Areas (EAs).

The paired spectrum licenses drew by far the largest bids, especially for the 10x10 MHz J Block in major metropolitan areas. The unpaired spectrum is generally seen as less valuable than the paired spectrum, and it is also encumbered by government users that must be moved off the licenses before they can be used.

The Falcon Heavy: The Most Powerful Rocket Since the Apollo Moonshots (Video)

As reported by The Register: SpaceX has released a video animation of its Falcon Heavy, the mega-rocket of "scale and capability unequalled by any other currently flying".

Falcon Heavy is still to make its maiden voyage, but when it does the lift off thrust will total nearly four million pounds, equal to fifteen Boeing 747 jet liners at full power, said SpaceX.

The intention is to create a rocket that can lift large amounts of cargo into space at low cost.

In the video, all boosters return safely to Earth. Each of Falcon Heavy’s boosters is equivalent to the first stage of a Falcon 9 rocket.

Earlier this month SpaceX failed to land its Falcon 9 rocket on a floating hovership in the Atlantic Ocean.

Once SpaceX is able to land the rockets, the potential costs of Falcon Heavy will be even cheaper.

The Falcon Heavy was originally scheduled for its first test flight in late 2013 or 2014. SpaceX intends to launch the mega-rockets later this year.

1) ENGINE CLUSTER
Nine SpaceX Merlin 1D engines sit at the bottom of each of the craft's three cores, or boosters. The engines are identical to those on SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket.
2) FIRST STAGE: THREE ROCKET CORES
Falcon Heavy's first stage consists of three cores. All three cores operate together at liftoff. About T+2:45 minutes into flight, the center core throttles down while the two side cores continue at full thrust until their fuel is nearly spent. At that point, pneumatic separators release the side cores, which plummet into the ocean, and the center core throttles up.
3) CENTER CORE
For payloads heavier than 100,000 pounds, Falcon Heavy uses a cross-feed system to run fuel from the side cores to the center core, leaving the center core almost fully fueled after the side boosters separate. What's left is the equivalent of a complete Falcon 9 rocket already high in space.
4) FUEL TANKS
A liquid-oxygen tank at the top of each core feeds the engines through a center tube; the lower portion of the tank contains rocket-grade kerosene. The propellants are turbo-pumped into each Merlin engine's injector, where they are mixed and fed into the combustion chamber.
5) SECOND STAGE
Powered by a single Merlin 1D engine modified to operate in the vacuum of space, the second stage delivers the final push that gets the payload into orbit. The engine can shut down and reignite as needed, enabling Falcon Heavy to deliver multiple payloads to different orbits.
6) FAIRING
Falcon Heavy can carry either a Dragon capsule—SpaceX's free-flying spacecraft, currently used to resupply the International Space Station—or up to 117,000 pounds of payload (think multiple military and commercial satellites) enclosed in a shell 45 feet long and 17 feet in diameter. The fairing consists of two clamshell-style halves made of an aluminum honeycomb core and carbon-fiber face sheets. When the second stage nears the desired orbit, pneumatic pushers split the halves apart, exposing the payload.
7) MERLIN 1D ENGINE
A single Merlin 1D generates 147,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, burning rocket-grade kerosene and liquid oxygen fed by a turbo-pump into the combustion chamber. Falcon Heavy's liquid propellant has an advantage over solid fuel: Liquid-fueled engines can stop and restart in flight, whereas solid-fuel engines burn until they are spent. Through proprietary adjustments that SpaceX won't disclose, engineers recently lightened the engine to increase its efficiency, making it the most efficient rocket booster engine ever built.

Tesla's New 'Insane Mode' Acceleration Button

As reported by the Inquisitr: The standard Model S by automaker Tesla Motors can go from 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds, which Business Insider reports is “pretty fast,” but the new dual-motor Model S introduced late last year can do it in a mere 3.2 seconds when “Insane Mode” has been engaged.

In comparison, the new Model S accelerates 0.7 seconds faster than the McLaren F1, which has an officially recorded 0-60 mph acceleration time of 3.9 seconds.

Insane Mode can only be engaged once the vehicle has come to a complete stop. At which point, it can be toggled on and off with the press of a button located on the new digital console.

The “DragTimes” YouTube channel tests the acceleration and top speeds of some of the fastest cars in the world and they’ve created a compilation of people reacting to the acceleration unleashed by Tesla’s insane button on the Model S and as one woman exclaims, it’s “awesome!”

Tesla S is a full-sized, electric, five-door luxury vehicle produced by Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors. The car, which is also known by its research and preliminary development code name WhiteStar, has been in production since 2012 and is assembled in the United States and the Netherlands. The U.S.-based Tesla Factory is located in Fremont, California, near San Jose.

The 5-door liftback, which scored a perfect 5.0 NHTSA safety rating, is powered by a 416 bhp three-phase AC induction motor and uses a 1-speed fixed gear transmission.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rates the energy consumption rate of the Model S Performance model equipped with an 85 kWh battery at 237.5 Wh per kilometer, which equates into a combined fuel economy of 89 miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent. The EPA’s official range for the car is 265 miles with an 85 kWh battery pack equipped.

Model S has been the recipient of awards such as the 2013 Motor Trend Car of the Year, Time Magazine‘s Best 25 Inventions of the Year 2012 award, the highest scoring car Consumer Reports has ever covered, and the 2013 World Green Car of the Year.

All of the Model S cars are built and tested in Fremont, California. Those intended for the European market are disassembled and shipped to Tilburg, where they’re then reassembled.
The first ten Tesla customers to purchase the Model S received their cars at the Fremont factory during the official launch on June 22, 2012.

The Model S Autopilot feature includes 360 degree sonar sensors, radar, and a forward looking camera.

Russia's GLONASS System a Sticking Point in Deployment of New 911 Location Tech

As reported by FierceWireless: Some Washington security officials have voiced concerns over a plan to use Russia's satellite location system to augment an effort in the United States to improve U.S. wireless carriers' ability to find 911 callers. In response, U.S. wireless industry executives and others have argued that using Russia's GLONASS location system won't create security problems for Americans.

The debate stems from a November announcement among Tier 1 U.S. wireless operators and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials and the National Emergency Number Association to improve carriers' ability to locate 911 callers, including those indoors.

The proposed solution from the carriers and APCO and NENA will use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other technologies supplement location data obtained directly from phones' GPS chips. One of the other technologies that could help improve location accuracy is Russia's GLONASS location system, which uses satellites and operates much like the United States' GPS system.

According to multiple reports, it's the reliance on technology from Russia--which has a rocky political relationship with the United States--that has caused some concerns. James Clapper, director of U.S. national intelligence, wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Russian President Vladimir Putin might use GLONASS "as a weapon" against the United States, potentially holding the 911 system "hostage."

But NENA and others blasted that argument.

"The consensus plan discusses the GLONASS system as a new component of handset A-GNSS capabilities because it is the only globally-available GNSS (Assisted Global Navigation Satellite Systems), other than NavStar/GPS that is currently operating," NENA wrote in a statement. "The consensus plan does not restrict carriers' ability to add or substitute other GNSSs, such as the European Galileo and Chinese BeiDou constellations, as those systems come online over the next 5-7 years. However, neither of these systems is currently available."

Added NENA: "Because handset A-GNSS chips can operate with any combination of satellites from any supported constellation, adding GLONASS support to existing GPS capabilities will not provide the Russian Federation with any leverage over U.S. E9‑1‑1 capabilities: Even if the GLONASS system were shut-down completely, handsets in locations with clear views of the sky could still calculate location estimates based solely on measurements of U.S. GPS satellite signals."

When they announced the proposed solution in November, Verizon Wireless, AT&T Mobility, Sprint and T-Mobile US said they hope to use it to obtain a location fix using heightened location accuracy technologies for 40 percent of all wireless 911 calls within in two years; 50 percent within three years; 75 percent within five years and 80 percent within six years. Those goals generally line up against milestones discussed by the FCC, which has been investigating ways to improve the technologies used to locate 911 callers. The FCC has said more accurate location technologies could save 10,000 lives every year--locating 911 callers who are in a building is particularly critical for emergency responders who might have to search dozens of floors for callers in skyscrapers.