[log in to unmask]" _mf_state="1" title="null" src="cid:[log in to unmask]" class="" width="44" height="44" border="0">   The SmartDrivingCars eLetter, Pod-Casts, Zoom-Casts and Zoom-inars are made possible in part by support from the Smart Transportation and Technology ETF, symbol MOTO.   For more information: www.motoetf.com.  Most funding is supplied by Princeton University's Department of Operations Research & Financial Engineering and Princeton Autonomous Vehicle Engineering (PAVE) research laboratory as part of its research dissemination initiative

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="" width="133" height="21">   The Symposium on the Future Networked Car 2022 & More

M. Sena, March 31, "Everything positive that is happening in the world right now, as we emerge from two years of a pandemic, is overshadowed by the negative events in Ukraine, with the criminal actions of a state, Russia, that has become a pariah and a predator under its leader, who is now in his twenty-second year. The automotive industry was slowly clawing its way back to pre-pandemic sales levels, in spite of supply chain difficulties and semiconductor shortages, before the deplorable decision by Russia to invade its neighbor, ostensibly because it had the audacity to want to remain outside of Russia’s despotic sphere. The sanctions that have finally been placed on Russia after its aggressions which began over eight years ago are having impacts on all automotive companies with any activities in that country. One of the most heavily involved is Renault, with its majority ownership of AvtoVAZ, the largest producer of passenger cars in Russia. Read about its journey into the quagmire that is Russia in Musings of a Dispatcher.

This month’s feature article is an overview of the annual Symposium on the Future Networked Car sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union and the UNECE. It was fully virtual again this year. The hope is that next year it will be a live event, either in connection with a revived Geneva International Motor Show or on its own...."    Read more  Hmmmm... Another fantastic issue.  Hear about it in Zoom/Podcast 262 Alain

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="">  FNC Symposium 2022

FCN, March 19, "The Future Networked Car Symposium examines the latest advances in automated driving, vehicle connectivity and automotive cybersecurity, sharing unique insight into associated implications for technology, business and regulation.. ..."   Read more  Hmmmm... All the sessions are linked here,  Watch especially Michael Sena's Session 2: Automated General Intelligence, and the session of Russ Shields: Wireless Communications.  Also watch Session 1 Government Authorities Coordination for Automated Driving; and  Session 3: Automated Driving Systems for Consumers; Alain

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="">  ITU Standardization onIntelligent Transport System

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="" width="99" height="27">  Waymo expanding driverless taxi service to downtown Phoenix

J. Gifford. March 30, "Autonomous driving company Waymo — which has been operating in the East Valley in recent years — announced that it is expanding its driverless cars into downtown Phoenix...."  Read more  Hmmmm... More fantastic news.  See how easy it is to expand the Operational Design Domain (ODD) once you've started and you are confident that it is safe?  Come start in Trenton and before you know it, you'll expand to all of Mercer County and begin to go beyond break-even.  Before you know it, you'll scale throughout New Jersey and do very well, thank you and you'll never Call me. 😎 Alain

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="">Tesla Is Like Getting Three Companies for the Price of One, Says Bullish Analyst

A. Root, March 31 "There’s a third leg to his stool too. Tesla (ticker: TSLA) is also an energy company. “What we’re seeing emerge over the course of this year is Tesla as a renewable energy on-shore infrastructure company,” wrote Jonas in a Wednesday evening research report..."   Read more  Hmmmm... Very nice, Adam😎  Alain

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class=""> Why Global Suppl  y Chains May Never Be the Same | A WSJ Documentary

C. Mims, March 23, "Every day, millions of sailors, truck drivers, longshoremen, warehouse workers and delivery drivers keep mountains of goods moving into stores and homes to meet consumers’ increasing expectations of convenience. But this complex movement of goods underpinning the global economy is far more vulnerable than many imagined...." Read more  Hmmmm...Another absolute MUST WATCH.  Extraordinarily well done.  I do suggest a different conclusion... Not the "worker shortage" implies Draconian inflation (my embellishment)  because there are only so many people willing to work for low wages.  Maybe, not so much...

My guess, and I hope someone can better inform me, that less than 10% of the price of that USB charger went to pay the workers that are highlighted in this documentary.  My impression is that each of those workers on the assembly line, on the cargo ship, in the warehouses, driving the trucks, making the delivery were each incredibly productive.  Each was supported by an incredible amount of machinery, cranes, conveyors, robots, infrastructure, algorithms, compute engines,....  20 individuals responsible for getting 10,000 containers across the pacific.  Not much more than a handful of workers in a million square foot distribution center.  One delivery person making, was it, 200 stops per day.  Now that's a traveling salesman (the algorithm used to sequence his stops),...

Those folks are enormously productive!   More importantly, if the availability of their brains and dexterity weren't so absolutely critical, they would have already been mechanized or automated out of the system.  Yet, I doubt that their share of the revenue is more than 10%.  All that machinery, ... was not cheap.  The computers, energy, electricity, ... is not cheap.  Taxes are being paid somewhere.  We know that the "CEOs" and the Investors  are doing quite well thank you.  All likely getting at least 90%, if not more of the revenue.  Leaving those highlighted workers with, my guess, less than 10%. 

Really...  doubling the less than 10% of their take of the revenue is going to be so inflationary that we shouldn't substantially increase the wages of these absolutely necessary workers.  My guess is that if we doubled their wages, we'd also probably get 25% improvement in their productivity, if not more, for free (requiring less than a doubl;ing of their current less than 10% of the revenue.). 

Therefore, the conclusion of this documentary should be... we still desperately need people with brains, strength, dexterity, resilience, ingenuity, compassion, dedication, ... to leverage all this incredible "machinery, cranes, conveyors, robots, infrastructure, algorithms, compute engines,.... ".  Shouldn't we be rewarding them with respect, compassion, appreciation and a real living wage.  It really wouldn't be substantially.   So what if the cost of the charger went up 5% or even 10% if we doubled their wages or increased their wages by 30% and gave them more lunch and bathroom breaks, better paid their health insurance and gave them a little more vacation?  Thoughts? Alain

[log in to unmask]" alt="" class="" width="50" height="39"> ‘Queen Lucy’ Was a Basketball Superstar. How Will We Remember Her?

L. Crouse, Feb 11, The daughter of sharecroppers. The only Black basketball player on a college team she led to three national championships. The first woman to score a basket at the Olympics. So good she was the first (and only) woman officially drafted by the National Basketball Association.

And yet for decades after Lusia Harris rose from a small town in Mississippi to become one of the best American athletes of the 20th century, her legacy had all but disappeared from public memory. The trailblazing basketball player died last month at age 66...."  Read more     Hmmmm... An absolute MUST WATCH: "The Queen of Basketball."  2022 Oscar winner.  Alain