Tech Brew Ride Home - Thu. 10/07 – Forget The iCar, Apple Wants To Take Over Your EXISTING Car

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

Forget the iCar, Apple wants to take over your existing car. The first candidate to test the App Store cracks has stepped forward. AMD warns that if you install Windows 11, your computer could run slower. GM gets me closer to the self-driving future I want sooner rather than later. And a weird new NFT hybrid lets you play fantasy sports with startups. Sponsors: Wealthfront.com/techmeme Dataiku.com Links: Apple’s Plan for Cars: Using iPhone to Control A/C, Seats, Radio and More (Bloomberg) Paddle Plans to Launch Alternative In-App Purchase System on iOS That Circumvents Apple's Fees (MacRumors) AMD: Windows 11 Slows Our CPUs Up To 15%, Patch Coming (Tom's Hardware) Facebook Slows New Products for ‘Reputational Reviews’ (WSJ) GM reveals Ultra Cruise ‘hands-free’ system that covers ‘95 percent’ of driving scenarios (The Verge) ‘Fantasy equity’ NFT game wants you to spend real money buying fake shares of real startups (TechCrunch) ‘Fantasy startup investing’ NFT platform Visionrare shuts down paid marketplace after a day in open beta (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On April 4th, 2023, around 2 in the morning, a man was found stabbed multiple times on a sidewalk in downtown San Francisco. Hey, who did this to you? What happened next turned the story into a political firestorm. Reports have identified the victim as Bob Lee, the founder of Cash App. From Bloomberg podcasts, this is Foundering, the Killing of Bob Lee, beginning April 16. Welcome to the Tech meme right home for Thursday, October 7th, 2021. I'm Brian McCullough today. Forget the Icar.

Apple wants to take over your existing car. The first candidate to test the cracks in the app store has stepped forward. AMD wants to warn you that if you install Windows 11, your computer could run slower. GM gets me closer to the self-driving future I want. And a weird new NFT hybrid lets you play fantasy sports with startups. Here's what you miss today in the world of tech. So given how I've said I can't make. heads or tails of all the Apple car rumors. I'm not sure how this fits into the whole story,

but sources are telling Mark German that Apple is developing an iPhone-based car control system that could access things like climate control, speedometer, radio, seats, and more, expanding on the existing CarPlay platform. So remember all those rumors a few years ago that Apple had abandoned the idea of manufacturing an actual car at one point in favor of just producing the software platform to run various cars? Is this the fruits of that labor? An intermediate step toward an Icar, if you will, quoting Bloomberg. The company is working on technology that would access functions like the climate control system, speedometer, radio, and seats, according to people with knowledge of the effort. The initiative known as Ironheart, internally,

is still in its early stages and would require the cooperation of automakers. The work underscores the idea that cars could be a major moneymaker for the tech giant. even without selling a vehicle itself. While plans for an Apple car have faced setbacks, including the defection of key executives this year, the company has continued to make inroads with CarPlay. It lets customers link up their iPhones with a vehicle to handle so-called infotainment features,

and seven years after its launch, CarPlay is now offered by most major automakers. Ironheart would take CarPlay a step further. The iPhone-based system could access a range of controls, sensors, and settings, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the project is secret. That would include inside and outside temperature and humidity readings, temperature zones, fans, and the defroster systems, settings for adjusting surround sound, speakers, equalizers, tweeters, subwifers, and the fade and balance, seats and armrests, and the speedometer, tachometer, and fuel instrument clusters.

By gaining access to controls and instruments, Apple could turn carplay into an interface that could span nearly the entire car. The data could be used by Apple or, third parties to create new kinds of apps or add features to existing functions. Some Apple users have complained about the need to jump between CarPlay and a car's built-in system to manage key controls. This initiative would alleviate that friction, end quote. Yes, but, remember, I have friends in the auto industry, and believe me, Detroit has gotten religion about how software has become the key differentiator when it comes to especially young people selecting one car over another. The hard thing here, I would think, would be convincing manufacturers to give over that

key component to Apple. How would I decide between a Ford or a Honda? If they both function the same on the inside, thanks to Apple, I might not be able to. But now having said that out loud, has Apple thought that through? And that's why they decided to go ahead with their own fully designed Apple car in the end? Speaking of Apple, a payments company known as Paddle has become the first to test out the cracks that have recently opened up in the app store, perhaps, by announcing an alternative in-app payment system for iOS, which charges 5 to 10% in fees and is slated to launch December 7th, quoting Mac rumors.

In an email press release, Paddle described its payment system as a true like-for-like drop-in replacement for Apple's in-app purchase mechanism, allowing developers to collect payments from customers without having to pay Apple a 15 to 30 percent commission on sales. Paddle said it will have a, quote, highly competitive fee structure with a 10 percent fee for transactions under $10, and a 5 percent plus 50 cent fee on transactions over $10. In addition to lower fees, Paddle said benefits of its payment system will include access to customer data, such as email addresses for communicating product news and offers, flexible pricing and subscription options, direct customer service, and more. On its website, Apple shared a video demonstration of an app with an upgrade now

button that leads to Paddle's payment system on the web. Users are then presented with the option to pay via Apple pay, PayPal, or a credit card directly. Paddle said developers can register their interest in its in-app payment system starting today, and it said the service will go live December 7th, a date that it says is in line with the terms of the Epic Games versus Apple ruling. The exact wording of U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers ruling said that Apple can no longer prohibit developers from, quote, including in their apps and their metadata buttons, external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms in addition to an app purchasing, end quote. The judge required Apple to adhere to the permanent injunction

within 90 days of her ruling, which was issued September. 10, end quote. No word from Apple yet, but I can't imagine they will let this get very far, do you? This one is weird. AMD has warned that its CPUs running Windows 11 may suffer anywhere from 3 to 5% reduced performance for some apps and as much as a 10 to 15% reduction in performance for esports games. But AMD and Microsoft are working on a fix, apparently. Quoting Tom's hardware. A software update and a Windows update are in the works to address the issues with both expected to arrive in October 2021 this month. The errors impact every Ryzen CPU supported in Windows 11. That means all Zen Plus, Zen 2, Zen 3,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, and

Ryzen 5,000 processors. In addition, select AMD Epic processors for data centers along with some newer athlon chips are also impacted. AMD's advisory says that the issue boils down to two categories. First, the measured and functional L3 latency can increase by 3x, meaning you can see the impact with measurement utilities and that it results in real performance degradation in games and applications. The bug impacts applications that are sensitive to memory subsystem latency, causing a 3 to 5% reduction in performance. This issue also causes the 10 to 15% performance reduction outliers in games, quote, commonly used for esports, which isn't surprising given that the games tend to be extremely sensitive to memory and cache latency. Additionally, AMD's preferred core feature,

which directs single-threaded applications to the fastest two cores on the chip, also might not work as expected. This would primarily impact performance in lightly threaded applications. AMD says this performance reduction may be more noticeable in chips with eight or more cores and a 65-watt or higher TDP rating, end quote. Follow-ups to two of the big stories from earlier this week. First, Twitch says a server configuration change left data exposed on the internet, and that allowed a third-party access to its data, and that's how all its stuff leaked out. They're working on remediating things, they say. And then sources are telling the Wall Street Journal that all the recent scandals have had at least this impact on Facebook. Apparently, Facebook has begun limiting internal info-sharing and paused. product rollouts in recent days as employees conduct so-called reputational reviews of their projects, quoting the journal. Facebook has been tightening the reins on what information is shared internally. Over the past few weeks, the people said, a team within the company is examining all in-house research

that could potentially damage Facebook's image if made public, some of the people said. Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said the team is looking to understand Facebook's internal research better and the context in which it was done. Executives at the social media company also have put a hold on some work on new and existing products, while more than a dozen people are involved in conducting, quote, reputational reviews to examine how Facebook may be criticized and to ensure products don't adversely impact children, the people said. In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said he has asked leaders to do deep dives on work across the company over the next few days and committed to continuing research into the company's products, quote,

I've spent a lot of time reflecting on the kinds of experiences I want my kids and others to have online, and it's very important to me that everything we build is safe and good for kids, he wrote, end quote. Back to Cars. Long-time listeners to this podcast will know that this is almost exactly what I've been asking for for years. Sure, self-driving cars would be great, but what I really want, sooner rather than later, is to just be able to read a book or watch a movie or something. The next time I have to drive my family down I-95 to visit my folks in Florida. This is maybe a major step toward that. GM has unveiled Ultra Cruise, a driver assist system. It says will cover more than two million miles of U.S. and Canadian roads at launch in 2023 and eventually 95% of driving scenarios. Quoting the verge.

Dubbed Ultra Cruise, the new system uses sensors like cameras, radars, and LiDAR to control a vehicle's steering, acceleration, and braking. GM says the system can be used on 2 million miles of paved roads and in 95% of driving scenarios. Though which vehicles will get Ultra Cruise is still a mystery, GM says it will be available in a handful of premium vehicles in 2023, though the automaker wouldn't disclose specific models. The news was announced as part of GM's two-day annual investor event in which GM also revealed its plan to double revenues by 2030 as it seeks to become a software company in addition to making cars, end quote. Which, see my previous comments in the Apple Car segment, quoting again.

GM's first-generation advanced driver system, or ADAS, Super Cruise has been praised as a safer, more capable version of Tesla's autopilot, thanks to its camera-based driver monitoring system that ensures drivers keep their eyes on the road. GM says Supercruz will coexist with Ultra Cruise, with the former available and more mainstream vehicles, while the latter is reserved for GM's luxury models. GM wouldn't comment on the price customers will be expected to pay to add Ultra Cruise as an option on their vehicles. Super Cruise, which debuted in 2017 in the Cadillac CT6 sedan,

is capable of completely hands-free driving across more than 200,000 miles of divided highways across North America. It compares the vehicle's position taken from both GPS and onboard cameras to its location in a LiDAR map collected by GM. Once the vehicle knows where it is and that it's safe to activate, Supercrues will take over both steering and acceleration. By comparison, Ultra Cruise will be much more capable. GM said the system will cover more than 2 million miles of paved roads

in the U.S. and Canada at launch, with the capacity to grow to more than 3.4 million miles. With the capacity to grow to more than 3.4 million miles. In a call with reporters, GM President Mark Royce said, Ultra Cruise would be able to handle urban and rural roads, in addition to stop signs, traffic signals, and other complexities that Supercrues is currently unable to detect. Quote, Ultra Cruise will do this in a slower environment, urban life as well, Roy said. And again, we'll have the maps out there to do over 2 million miles moving to 3.5, end quote. Jason Ditman, chief engineer at GM, elaborated on Ultra Cruises capabilities, quote,

Drivers will be able to travel hands-free across nearly every paved road, including city streets, subdivision streets and rural paved roads, Ditman said. Ditman described Altruz as a route following feature that maintains headways and follows the speed limit. Ultra Cruise will also support automatic and on-demand lane changes, left and right-hand turns, avoid close objects, and enable parking in residential driveways. Ultra Cruise won't be able to handle every driving scenario, though. Ditman gave the example of a roundabout as a type of complex road condition that the ADAS

will not be able to navigate. A light bar in the steering wheel will communicate to the driver when they need to control, sending signals through escalating lights and haptic feedback. A voice assistant will also inform the driver when they need to take the wheel. Despite its enhanced capabilities, GM says it still considers Ultra Cruise a Level 2 system as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers. At level 2, the vehicle can control both steering and acceleration as well as monitor blind spots and even change lanes automatically. But it falls short of full autonomy. because a human sits in the driver's seat and can take control of the car at any time, end quote.

So is it level three when I could get to the point where I could read a book on the highway? Anyway, this is just closer to that dream, right? Finally today, TechCrunch has a look at something that is an interesting sort of hybrid between NFTs, the Defy Craze, and even Fantasy Sports. Vision Rare is a so-called fantasy startup investing NFT game, where users spend money to buy fake shares in real startups, starting with some from Y Combinator. The game, which launches out of closed beta today, is called Vision Rare, and founders Jacob Clarehout and Boris Gorts see a way to take the gamification of investing

to its furthest end, mimicking the appeal of fantasy sports leagues and giving users a way to compete with friends by betting on startups they think will be successful. Users can bid on NFT shares of hundreds of different startups at auction and compete to build the best-performing fake portfolio. At launch, VisionRare's database of companies is confined to a smattering of Y Combinator startups from some of the more recent classes. Before you ask, no, they mostly do not have the permission of the startups they are selling fake shares in to use their names and logos, but the founders hope that the game-like nature of the platform will discourage those companies from sending out the cease-and-assist letters. startups can verify their profiles and receive a healthy percentage of their NFT shares to distribute as they see fit, or they can contact Vision Rare to take their startup's profile down, or they can, of course, just ignore it.

The game aims to simplify the complexity of venture capital in an auction format that's tied to the actual fundraising cycles of the startups and their real-world performance. VisionRare auctions off 100 serialized vision shares per funding round, one at a time for each startup with bids starting at $5. Once a user accumulates a certain number of shares, at least five, they can join a league and compete with other users through a fantasy-like experience, moving up and down a leaderboard while competing for a share of the collective value of the vision shares based on the performance of their own portfolio. As the platform crosses into Open Beta, there are still some substantial to-do list items for the company, namely building out its secondary market and support to sell Vision shares on outside platforms like OpenC. Users currently purchase vision shares with credit cards, but the team is also looking to roll out crypto payments soon. League winners are determined by which portfolios pick up the most vision share score points over a given playing period, but given the long timelines of venture success stories,

there may be some misalignments when it comes to making long-term bets on an early team versus hitching your wagon to a trending SaaS startup. The founders say they are still playing with some of the league mechanics, and note they will make adjustments as Vision Rare scales to keep things fun and fair. Ultimately, it's an early project made by a couple of young entrepreneurs with zero funding that captures some of the ridiculousness of both the crypto space and today's startup investment ecosystem. Nevertheless, VisionMare's founders hope their fake NFT shares market offers an opportunity for people

interested in startups to showcase their conviction for picking winners, something that they hope could one day serve as a signal for VCs looking for their next hires, end quote. So this is the first time I've ever had to do this. Shortly before I started to cue this up for publishing, long after I had recorded and edited what you just heard, I thankfully saw this, quoting TechCrunch. Just over 24 hours into its open beta, Vision Rare, which launched an NFT marketplace for fantasy startup investing, is temporarily shutting down and refunding users who purchased shares saying it will relaunch soon as a free-to-play game. In a note posted to the company's auction marketplace this morning, the founders noted that they had, quote, underestimated the legal complexities, end quote, with selling novelty NFT shares in real startups and were temporarily shutting down the marketplace and refunding users as they planned

out a pivot. In a message on the company's public discord channel, the team noted it had already processed all of the credit card refunds to buyers, though some refunds may still be pending due to stripe processing. The platform and its founders had received some substantial pushback after Vision Rare's launch yesterday, with various tech entrepreneurs and investors questioning whether the platform was legal, whether it was a security, whether the NFT platform was taunting the SEC and or whether this was finally the sign of the market's top. Vision Rare's founders say they aren't done with the idea of fantasy startup investing quite yet, but that they are going to have to rethink how the platform is fundamentally structured, end quote.

Well, talk to you tomorrow.