Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Thursday 1 March 2018
Ford and Miami to form test bed for self-driving cars

By DEE-ANN DURBIN a century of selling people
AP Auto Writer vehicles, Kwant says Ford
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor now wants to figure out
Co. is making Miami-Dade ways to move people more
County its new test bed for efficiently in order to cut
self-driving vehicles. down on that time in traffic.
The automaker and its Sam Abuelsamid, a senior
partners — Domino’s Pizza, research analyst with the
ride-hailing company Lyft consulting firm Navigant
and delivery company Research, says Ford and
Postmates — are starting others must figure out how
pilot programs to see how to make money on self-
consumers react to auton- driving cars.
omous and semi-autono- “If this does take off, if peo-
mous vehicles. Self-driving ple do adopt automated
startup and Ford partner vehicles and use them for
Argo AI already has a fleet ride-hailing, that’s going to
of cars in the area making result in a decline in retail
the highly detailed maps vehicle sales,” Abuelsamid
that are necessary for self- said. “They need to figure
driving. Ford also will estab- In this undated image made from a video provided by Ford Motor Co. a self-driving vehicle from out, if we’re going to have
lish its first-ever autonomous Ford Motor Co. and Ford partner Argo AI drives in Miami, Fla. Ford is making Miami-Dade County a decline in the number of
vehicle terminal in Miami, its new test bed for self-driving vehicles. vehicles we sell to consum-
where it will learn how to Associated Press ers, how do we keep our
service and deploy its test dent of city solutions, who less common. Both sides million people. business stable?”
fleet. inked the deal with Miami- envision a deep relation- Sherif Marakby, Ford’s vice Kwant says the testing will
More services will likely be Dade. ship where Ford can help president of autonomous also help Ford determine
introduced as the partner- Ford isn’t the first automaker Miami-Dade solve specific vehicles and electrification, what its future self-driving
ship goes on, including to run test fleets of autono- issues, like how to most ef- says the company also in- vehicles need to look like
Chariot, an app-based mous vehicles. General Mo- ficiently move people from tends to work closely with and how they must per-
shuttle service owned by tors Co. will start testing au- its suburbs to its downtown local businesses. The com- form.
Ford. It’s all part of Ford’s tonomous vehicles in New monorail, and Miami-Dade pany wants to learn, for ex- “If you don’t have steer-
effort to find viable busi- York City this year, while Nis- can offer solutions like dedi- ample, how a florist might ing wheels, how do you
ness models for fully au- san Motor Co. is launching cated lanes for automated use an autonomous deliv- begin to use that package
tonomous vehicles and get an autonomous taxi service vehicles or infrastructure ery vehicle. space? How do you begin
them on the road by 2021. in Yokohama, Japan, next projects like advanced “Autonomous vehicle tech- to look different in terms of
“This is, I think, the future of week. Technology compa- traffic lights that can send nology is interesting, but it’s carrying more people?” he
any automotive company nies like Waymo — a divi- signals to connected cars. a whole lot more interesting said.
or mobility company. If a sion of Google — are also “We want to be on the with a viable business mod- Ford won’t say how many
majority of the world’s pop- testing self-driving vehicles forefront of this because el,” he said. vehicles it will have on the
ulation is going to be living on public roads in Phoenix, we want to give our peo- The city of Miami is the fifth- road in Miami-Dade, but
in cities, we need to under- San Francisco and Singa- ple choices,” said Carlos most congested in the U.S., says it will be Ford’s largest
stand how to move those pore, among other cities. Gimenez, the mayor of Mi- according to a recent traf- test bed for autonomous
people around,” said John But the partnership with ami-Dade County, which is fic study by the consulting vehicles by the end of this
Kwant, Ford’s vice presi- a specific metropolitan is home to 34 cities and 2.7 firm Inrix. After more than year.q

Less is more as companies explore shopping by voice

By ANICK JESDANUN tal assistant can’t really list feature already boils down Travel sites, for instance,
AP Technology Writer dozens of flight options or shopping requests to one let people limit a search
NEW YORK (AP) — When hundreds of products. or two options and makes to, say, nonstop flights, but
the world shifted from per- That means companies buying easy because that’s more cumbersome
sonal computers to smart- have to figure out how to it already has payment when they’re talking to a
phones, websites had winnow down those choic- and shipping information service. Adobe promises
to slim down to work on es to the travel options or for voice-eligible custom- to help narrow those op-
smaller screens and slower products people are most ers. But smaller businesses tions automatically, so that
wireless connections. A likely to want — an inher- don’t have the comput- someone who earns points
similar shift to voice-centric ently fraught undertaking. ing resources and exper- in United and likes early
services is again forcing The technology is still in tise to match that, which morning flights might hear
businesses to rethink how its infancy, and Adobe is where companies like only those matches.
they present information to doesn’t have any actu- Adobe come in. Analyst Adobe’s new voice ser-
consumers — and spurring al corporate partners to Carolina Milanesi with Cre- vice will work with all ma-
new efforts to help them showcase yet. But its an- ative Strategies says she’s jor voice assistants, not
do so. This Dec. 15, 2009, file photo nouncement, made in not aware of another ser- just Amazon’s. It will limit its
The software company shows the Adobe Systems conjunction with a tech vice trying to help com- analysis to data provided
Adobe, for instance, an- Inc. headquarters in San Jose, show in Barcelona, Spain, panies improve how they by the particular company
nounced on Tuesday a Calif. shows that voice assistants reach their customers people are shopping at,
new suite of tools that Associated Press are becoming important through voice. In practice, instead of trying to pulling
could help airlines, retail- faces for travel and shop- channels for reaching making voice capabilities together a more compre-
ers and other companies ping. It’s not a simple task, consumers. useful means anticipat- hensive personal profile
create simple voice inter- since a voice-based digi- Amazon’s voice-shopping ing what customers want. from multiple sources.q