Feds ask public for input on self-driving car rules: Mass deployment of self-driving vehicles on U.S. roadways took a symbolic step closer to reality with the release of the National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration's latest Significant Rulemakings Report. This document is released periodically by the NHTSA and describes potential new rules for operating on the nation's highways and byways.
The NHTSA is asking the public to comment on the prospect of driverless cars in the interest of moving things along from a regulatory perspective:
The National Highway Traffic-Safety Administration (NHTSA) seeks comments to identify any unnecessary regulatory barriers to Automated Safety Technologies ... particularly those that are not equipped with controls for a human driver; e.g., steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedal. ...
NHTSA seeks comments on the research that would be required to remove such barriers. This action will inform subsequent steps in the regulatory process to amend Federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) and other motor vehicle regulations in order to safely lay a path for innovative automated vehicle designs and technology.
POV: The NHTSA has up to a decade to pass permanent rules for self-driving vehicles, under the terms of a Senate bill. However, under the bill, automakers could get up to 80,000 vehicles exempted from NHTSA safety rules within three years.
AT&T, Tech Mahindra back open-source AI platform, Acumos: The Linux Foundation will host the Acumos Project, an artificial intelligence platform based on code contributions from AT&T and Tech Mahindra. Here's how the Foundation describes Acumos's goals:
With the Acumos platform, we’re working to create an industry standard for making AI applications and models reusable and easily accessible to any developer. AI tools today can be difficult to use and often are designed for data scientists. The Acumos platform will be user-centric, with an initial focus on creating apps and microservices.
“An open and connected AI platform will promote collaboration as developers and companies look to define the future of AI,” said Jim Zemlin, Executive Director at The Linux Foundation. “Because the platform is open source, it will be accessible to anyone with an interest in AI and machine learning, and customizable to meet specific needs. We expect interest from organizations doing work with autonomous vehicles, drones, content curation and analytics, and much more.”
AT&T and Tech Mahindra are contributing the Acumos Project code to The Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation will host the platform and its AI marketplace moving forward with the goal of nurturing an active, large ecosystem around the project to sustain it over the long term. Code will be available near the time of the project’s launch in early 2018.
POV: This is not the first high-profile open source release by AT&T, as it did something similar with its Open Network Automation Platform earlier this year. AT&T and Tech Mahindra are long-time partners, but it's not clear what percentage of the code base is being contributed by each party.
Moving Acumos to the Linux Foundation makes sense, given its status as of the most prominent open source foundations, but it remains to be seen how much support AT&T gains from other vendors once it goes live next year. Hopefully, it will, as the description of Acumos as "accessible" and "user-centric" suggests the codebase is fairly cohesive already, and not a collection of low-level tools.
Microsoft inks seven-year Azure deal with Chevron: As the enterprise cloud market continues to solidify around Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM, landing mega-deals with the world's largest companies is top priority for those leading players. Microsoft this week has landed a big one indeed, announcing a seven-year pact with Chevron for Azure. Here are the key details:
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today announced a seven-year partnership with Microsoft Corp. establishing the company as Chevron’s primary cloud provider, accelerating the application of advanced technologies including analytics and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive performance and improve efficiencies.
The Microsoft strategic partnership is part of Chevron’s overall digitization initiative, a multi-year effort to streamline information technology (IT) operations around a digital core connecting the company’s engineers and operations through nimble analytics and increased automation. Adoption of Microsoft’s Azure platform will allow Chevron’s IT workforce to evolve from supporting infrastructure to one that enables more advanced technologies, as well as optimize exploration, reservoir management, production operations, midstream logistics and marketing operations.
["]Through this strategic partnership, we believe Chevron will have a competitive advantage,” said Bill Braun, Chief Information Officer. “The volumes and velocity of real time data we obtain from the reservoir through refineries to the retail pump grows at a dramatic pace every year. Our Microsoft relationship will advance our high-performance computing, IoT, and help capitalize on innovation in data science and machine learning.”
POV: The release suggests one reason Microsoft got the nod from Chevron was Azure's superior global data center footprint. The companies say they will also work on technical collaborations, but it's not clear whether this will amount to something more significant than what any large customer does with a key vendor.
Chevron already collects massive amounts of operational data from its oil-drilling operations. The Azure investment is geared toward getting more insights from that data, and in a faster, more reliable way. Overall, it's a signature win for Microsoft and Azure.