AI in Automotive Podcast

There is a lot of video in the world. Nearly 90% of global internet traffic is video. Getting value out of video data, however, is challenging, time-consuming and expensive. How do you identify the right subset of video data to train your models, and how do you reimagine the annotation process to accelerate vision AI application development are just some of the big questions that are looking for answers. On this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Dr Jason Corso, Co-founder and Chief Scientist at Voxel51. Voxel51 develops tools that help AI teams curate, visualise and refine visual datasets to build better-performing computer vision models. In today’s episode, Jason breaks down the steps in taking a vision AI application from concept to production, the important role of annotation within the process, and how the company’s tools reimagine annotation. In this super enlightening conversation, we cover a range of topics - from how Voxel51 started, to the value it delivers, and what is coming down the road for the company. Listen to the episode for a surprise detour into the world of sports broadcasting and what computer vision has to do with it. I hope you enjoy my chat with Dr Jason Corso, and if you do, please do spread the word by sharing the AI in Automotive Podcast with a friend or colleague. #ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #computervision #visionAI https://www.ai-in-automotive.com/aiia/504/jasoncorso Annotation is dead: https://medium.com/@jasoncorso/annotation-is-dead-1e37259f1714 AI in Automotive Podcast

If you are a fleet manager responsible for electrifying your fleet, prepare for your world to be rocked. The fleet manager’s decision-making approach and framework for a traditional ICE fleet is well-established. It has been in use for decades, and typically takes into consideration the acquisition cost and operating cost of vehicles to calculate total cost of ownership. It then compares that with the revenue generated by the vehicle over its lifetime, and helps fleet managers make informed decisions about their fleet. With EV fleets, the whole process and its associated tools are going to be upended. Not only are acquisition and operating costs for EVs vastly different from ICE vehicles, fleet managers must take into consideration a variety of other factors into their decision-making. For instance, setting up charging infrastructure at your depots. You need to consider the cost of setting up the infrastructure, the constraints of your power connection and the time and cost of upgrading your grid connection, should that be required. And this is just the beginning. Where things get really exciting is on the revenue side. Unlike an ICE, an EV can generate value for your fleet even when it is not on the road, but plugged into a charger. How, you ask? I invited Mike Kent from GridBeyond and Alex Iriondo from Monta to join me on the AI in Automotive Podcast, and share with us exactly how. GridBeyond is a smart energy company that offers AI-powered energy services, connecting and automating energy demand to balance the grid. Monta, on the other hand, develops and deploys software solutions for the EV charging industry. Together, GridBeyond and Monta are on a journey to help fleet owners and operators maximise the value they derive from their fleet assets, for instance, when they are hooked up to a charger. Fleet electrification can appear intimidating, but after this chat with Mike and Alex, I couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities that electrified fleets hold. We are just scratching the surface at this point in time, using fleet assets to deliver flexibility and grid services. But as the ecosystem matures, the sky is the limit - fleet assets aggregated as a Virtual Power Plant, vehicle to grid and vehicle to building - all of this is coming in the near future, and promises to revolutionise how fleets are acquired, operated and managed. If you are a fleet owner or operator, or just curious about the opportunities that exist as fleets electrify, you want to spend 40 mins listening to this fantastic conversation with Mike and Alex. If you do enjoy it and know someone who works with fleets, go ahead and share this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast with them. #ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #fleet #depotcharging #energy #evcharging #smartcharging #gridbalancing #flexibility https://www.ai-in-automotive.com/aiia/503/mikealex AI in Automotive Podcast

Your EV is so much more than a car to take you from point A to point B. The energy it stores in its battery is a whole world of possibilities when you are not using the car. Which, let’s face it, for most of us, is the vast majority of the day. During these times, your EV is a ‘decentralised energy resource’ - one that can help the grid in a variety of ways. One of the most interesting ways in which EVs are accelerating the mobility-energy convergence is through virtual power plans, or VPPs. On the one hand, EV fleets aggregated as a VPP provide value to the grid by offering flexibility and balancing services. On the other, it allows fleet owners, operators and vehicle owners to benefit financially, reducing their charging bills or their lease payments. But how does this come to life, and what role does AI play in this orchestration? In this episode of the AI in Automotive Podcast, I invited Johanna Izett from Hive Power, a Swiss software startup that is making our grids smarter by connecting energy assets like EVs to offer grid services and unlock value for all stakeholders. Johanna shared her insights about VPPs, what makes them tick and how traditional automotive OEMs must rethink the proposition that they offer to their customers. Hive Power is one of those fascinating companies at the intersection of automotive, energy and tech that are accelerating the convergence of the mobility and energy industries. Hive Power’s Flexo platform orchestrates the delivery of flexibility and grid balancing services, making the grid smarter and more resilient, while enabling fleet owners and operators to generate additional revenue from their EV fleets. Hive Power’s software suite also allows OEMs to offer so much more than metal, which I believe is going to be an important differentiator in the EV age. If you want a sneak peek into the possibilities EVs hold, then this is the interview you don’t want to miss. If you enjoyed my chat with Johanna, please do share the AI in Automotive Podcast with a friend or colleague. #ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #energy #evcharging #smartcharging #gridbalancing #flexibility https://www.ai-in-automotive.com/aiia/502/johannaizett AI in Automotive Podcast

Range anxiety. Charger anxiety. This anxiety and that anxiety. There seems to be a lot of anxiety in the mainstream adoption of EVs. One of the biggest behaviour changes someone migrating from years of driving an ICE to an EV has to make is the refuelling behaviour. You refuel an ICE when you have. You recharge an EV when you can. You charge every time you park. At home, at your workplace, at your gym, your shopping center, at the restaurant. For this to become reality, charging must become ubiquitous. But it’s not that easy. It never is. So many chargers are likely to burden the grid, which, let’s face it, was never designed to deal with huge loads coming on simultaneously. So what’s the solution? And how does AI help? I invited Teddy Flatau to kick off season 5 of the AI in Automotive Podcast. Teddy is the founder and CEO of Wevo Energy, a company that helps solve exactly this problem with the power of technology and AI. Charging infrastructure sits squarely at the intersection of automotive and energy. It is often touted as the missing piece in the electrification of transport, and so, understandably, it attracts a lot of attention. However, hiding in plain sight is the opportunity that cheap, reliable AC chargers at multi-family homes, commercial complexes, retail parks, hotels presents - any destination with more than an hour of dwell time is ripe for a bank of cheap and cheerful AC chargers. Making these chargers smart in terms of when they charge which car based on what parameter while being friendly to the pocket and the grid is what can truly unlock the ubiquity of EV charging. This is the transformation that Wevo Energy is bringing about. As one of the most knowledgeable voices in this space, Teddy shares his view on what it will take for charging to be everywhere, and how Wevo Energy is helping the world get there. If you are interested in the smarts that make a charger go from a dumb plug to a cutting-edge piece of tech that can manage when and how much your car charges to optimise your spend and the load on the grid, this is the chat you want to listen to. I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Teddy, and if you did, why not share theAI in Automotive Podcast with a friend or colleague. We will be back soon with more perspectives on how AI is driving the convergence of automotive and energy. #ai #automotive #mobility #technology #podcast #energy #evcharging #smartcharging https://www.ai-in-automotive.com/aiia/501/teddyflatau AI in Automotive Podcast

If you needed a surprise in the new year, this is it! We are back!! It’s been a longish hiatus. I needed the time to recharge and think about where the industry is headed. We also welcomed a new member to our family, and I have used the time to change over a thousand nappies!! So, what exactly happened in the last year? The AI in Automotive Podcast quietly - literally quietly - turned five. AI went properly mainstream. Like BOOM mainstream! The silicon valley AI CEOs turned into demigods, and everything from your toaster to your kids’ toys turned AI-powered, seemingly overnight. AI was always an important enabling technology in the automotive industry, and this is what we had been covering on the show for the last five years. But the buzz around AI pushed some OEMs to make AI in the car more visible - enter features like ‘ChatGPT in the car’. There are interesting applications for a conversational interface in the vehicle - we covered this in our chat with Matt Anderson from SoundHound, for instance. But for them to have any value to the driver, software-defined vehicles with a coherent EE architecture is a key pre-requisite. We’ve covered this in numerous conversations in the past. With Sarah Tatsis from BlackBerry for instance, or Hemant Sikaria from Sibros. If you look beyond what is mainstream, then the biggest theme that is emerging is the rapid convergence of the automotive and energy industries. We are seeing energy utilities turn into EV lease companies, and automotive OEMs turning into energy companies, thanks to the energy in the batteries of their EV parc. This represents significant opportunities for energy companies, automotive OEMs, fleet owners / operators and hundreds of other players in the automotive and energy ecosystems. Needless to say, AI, as an enabling technology, is a key accelerator of this convergence. This is what we will be covering in future episodes of the AI in Automotive Podcast. As always, I have an incredible roster of knowledgeable experts sharing valuable insights and unique perspectives. I am sure you will enjoy what is coming up. If you feel you have benefited from the content on this show in the past, please do share the AI in Automotive Podcast with your friends and colleagues who might find it valuable as well. I promise you there are no more babies on the way, and hence, no more long breaks!! AI in Automotive Podcast