Starlink and T-Mobile’s partnership will probably be revolutionary for cellular service and Smarter AI CEO Chris Piche had some thoughts on how the brand new partnership will impact 5G capability for the automotive industry.
Chris, who has created services including AT&T TV, BBM Video, Poly Video, and STUN/TURN/ICE shared his thoughts on the effect of 5G on vehicles and telecommunications in an interview with Teslarati.
AI Cameras, Tesla, Starlink & autonomous vehicles
Before founding Smarter AI, the Top 40 under 40 entrepreneur’s company created a technology that BlackBerry licensed to enable voice and video calling. This gave Chris a front-row seat to witness the speed at which technology can transform markets.
Smarter AI is a software platform for artificial intelligence cameras.
“Smarter AI is to cameras as Android and iOS are to phones,” he told me. The corporate’s first vertical market is specializing in transportation. Vehicle camera systems corresponding to dash cams or other camera systems for larger vehicles are on this market.
“The connection here with Tesla, Starlink, and T-Mobile is throughout autonomous transportation. Today’s autonomous transportation whether it’s in Tesla or one other type of vehicle all relies on line of sight situational awareness. In Tesla’s case, they depend on some cases exclusively and other cases totally on cameras and computer vision to try to know what’s happening across the automotive.”
“A lot of their competitors use LiDAR and don’t depend on cameras. But in each cases, it’s all based on line of sight. What they’ll actually see in a straight line.”
Seeing beyond the road of sight
Chris told me that one in every of the brand new technologies that Smarter AI and other firms are developing is known as vehicle to vehicle (V2V) or vehicle to the whole lot else (V2X).
“These technologies enable cars to see beyond line of sight. Imagine you’re coming to an intersection and are planning to take a turn.”
As an alternative of waiting to see what’s ahead of you on the road, you’re turning on to, the technology will let you know exactly what’s ahead. There could possibly be a stopped automotive, a pedestrian about to jaywalk, or some style of temporary obstruction that you simply are unaware of.
“Imagine if there was a camera system positioned on the intersection. Imagine that as your vehicle is approaching that intersection, your vehicle could communicate with the camera and the camera could tell your vehicle that there’s some form of obstacle.”
An autonomous vehicle would use this information to find out whether or not it could possibly make that turn. This technology, Chris told me, relies on high-capacity and high-availability communications networks corresponding to 5G.
Starlink & T-Mobile’s partnership could help with the challenges of implementing V2V and V2X
“Considered one of the challenges with implementing technologies like V2V or V2X on top of 5G is that 5G deployments are likely to be pretty good and improving in large urban areas.”
5G is pretty spotty in Baton Rouge and personally, 4G LTE works faster than 5G does for me although there’s a tower across the road from me. Chris, who’s in Las Vegas, said that the coverage is pretty good for his friend with AT&T. He doesn’t have AT&T and his coverage is pretty spotty like mine is.
“But this agreement with Starlink and T-Mobile has the promise or the potential to either eliminate or significantly reduce the spottiness within the 5G coverage and that may enable technologies which are designed on top of 5G corresponding to V2V and V2X to work either more reliably in urban areas where 5G is already available but is somewhat bit spotty,” he said.
“It will also enable these technologies to work in other areas where there is no such thing as a 5G. We expect it is a really significant announcement by way of the promise of autonomous transportation and bringing it much closer to being a reality.”
How V2V and V2X could improve Tesla’s Autopilot
Chris told me he’s been using Tesla’s Autopilot for around five years.
“It’s so good. It’s to the purpose that for the things it could possibly see, it’s a way higher driver than I’m,” he said adding that when he drives for over a few minutes, he engages Autopilot. Nonetheless, there are a few things that it lacks.
“It may well’t see that far ahead and it lacks context. Sometimes, if there’s a automotive making a turn in front of my automotive, the Autopilot won’t understand the context that perhaps this other automotive is momentarily in front of mine. And if I used to be driving, I’d keep driving. I wouldn’t take my foot off the accelerator or slam on the brakes unless I could see that something was going improper with the turn that the opposite automotive was making.”
One strategy to improve Autopilot is thru V2V or V2X, Chris explained.
“In V2V, my automotive would confer with the automotive that’s making the turn in front of me and they’d orchestrate the speed and direction of each of the cars in order that the automotive in front of me could make its turn and my automotive could proceed driving without slamming on the brakes.”
“With V2X, that will enable my automotive to confer with the cameras, traffic lights, and intersections to realize situational awareness about either other cars that aren’t equipped with the identical technology or about other objects corresponding to bicycles, pedestrians, or other obstacles on the road.”
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