TechCrunch Mobility 2021: iMerit CEO Radha Basu with Chris Barker & Michael Sherwood

TechCrunch Mobility 2021: iMerit CEO Radha Basu with Chris Barker & Michael Sherwood

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hello and welcome to our roundtable discussion  on how edge cases and data will enable   autonomous transportation in cities across the  united states i'm chris parker founder for cbc a   global transportation technology and smart city  focus consulting firm and our focus is on uh   design and deployment of new mobility services and  this morning i'm joined by two industry colleagues   radha basu who is the founder and ceo of imerit  a global data annotation services company   delivering high quality data that powers machine  learning and artificial intelligence applications   for fortune 500 companies imerit has a workforce  of more than four thousand people worldwide   who provide end-to-end data labeling solutions and  expertise to solve the most complex data scenarios   for autonomy across air land and sea rada has  led i married through two funding rounds raising   23 million dollars to date from investors  and continues to grow the company to new   revenue heights welcome rob hey good to be here  chris and also we're joined by michael sherwood   michael is the chief technology and  innovation officer for the city of las vegas   michael and his team were the first city in north  america to deploy an autonomous shuttle service   on open roads in a downtown corridor michael has  more than 20 years of experience in the fields of   process improvement technology and innovation  most recently he served as the deputy director   of public safety business services and city  technology for the city of irvine california   michael is extremely passionate about  technology and believes through innovation   workforce development and collaboration we can  create brighter and sustainable communities   welcome michael thank you chris it's  a pleasure to be here today it's great   to have you so i think we'll start michael  with you uh nevada and the city of las vegas   have been arguably some of the most progressive  areas of the united states when it comes to   enabling autonomous mobility new mobility  services and i wanted to get your thoughts   on can you describe a little bit about how your  state and your market has approached and enabled   successful deployment of everything from  autonomous semi trucks uh to vehicles to   autonomous shuttles and even drone applications uh  and a little bit more specifically what were the   policies and procedures from your team  that's made a lot of this possible   well we've come a long way chris and and and  what we've been doing obviously nevada as a state   um southern nevada the region las vegas is  in um has always been a pioneer in innovation   and technology you can see that it's kind  of in our dna as a state but obviously as   you've discussed the city of las vegas had  the first shuttle in mixed flow traffic   over 40 000 people shuttled on that autonomous  vehicle uh again we just right before the pandemic   had 75 bmws that were autonomously driving the  strip um up and down um through a partnership   with aptiv as well as hyundai or with bmw excuse  me um and we've done that um everybody's heard of   the boring company just opened up this week it's  been running successfully shuttling passengers um   around between our convention center that's  underground so we've really been a leader in   different types of multi-modal uh transportation  um a lot of people forget already it's not that   long ago we still have hyperloop being tested  out here which is an above ground version   of a mass transit system and that's  still successfully moving through trials   but overall it's it's nevada's strength  as a state and southern nevada as a region   to adopt new technologies to work on being the  first to write the policies write the procedures   develop the guidelines of how transportation will  be not just adopted here but adopted across knack   from a national level as well as a global  level you know and we learn a lot when you   are launching and testing these technologies  you learn a lot about how you need the future   plan your infrastructure how you need the future  plan communications with your constituents in your   community you know testing these technologies  is one thing but getting the communication   out to the community getting the community to  understand the benefits you know you need that   wide adoption and that's really what makes us kind  of special is the fact that we have a community   that is so used to where else in the world do you  go where you know building maybe 15 years is blown   up and a new building is built in its place bigger  and better than before not many places have that   kind of charisma and and entrepreneurial you know  can do attitude that we do have here in las vegas   which makes it a great place for business let  alone testing great new innovative technologies   and are there any particular uh policies that you  feel have been more uh successful in proliferating   these types of services across the region you know  our our state government has done an excellent job   as well as on the municipal level as well but it's  really been those larger so in the very beginning   of autonomy we were one of the first states to  have um actually laws and policies put into place   to allow autonomous vehicles to be on the road  very important i think chris you mentioned it   earlier drones we were federally designated by  the federal government to be in a drone testing   area we also have two drone test fields where  actively companies are working on testing uh the   city itself is working on a project um to bring  more autonomous vehicles including a drone program   forward so a lot of the legislation again um i  don't want to narrow out any one singular piece   of legislation because they're all progressing  things forward but it's that attitude of   let's get some legislation out there let's learn  from it and then we can go back and tighten it up   if we need to or broaden it if we need to but it's  getting the companies the ability to have some   kind of way of operating and it allows us to learn  so we can write better um laws into the future or   create better policy decisions going forward but i  think you know to just sum it up quickly is nevada   has been a leader in creating uh policies and  regulations around new technology cutting edge   technology um and that's why we're so happy i mean  just the last one elon musk to have the boring   company tunnel here you know one of the first  cities um in the world to have that technology   built out um where else are you going to see that  done where else were the laws and the the way the   government works with private sector where else  could that be done in the time frame it was done   there's only one place that that's right here and  and speaking of the private sector uh rodda one i   want to get your thoughts i know you and your  team at imerit are really focused on the data   analysis that makes autonomous and new mobility  services possible and as michael's talked about   all these different things that are going on in  las vegas different types of mobility services all   these different modes of transport are generating  millions upon millions of lines of code and data   and question for you as you look at from your  side how are we as an industry equipped to   kind of capture and process and analyze this  data as we look at expanding these different   mobility services across cities like las vegas and  other markets can you give some some thoughts and   perspective on what you're seeing yeah so you  know we started imerit about eight years ago   to create livelihoods jobs in the data economy  and at that time it was so much of it and even   five years ago was about the data science i  really feel good about the bet we made that   this will be a long lasting career opportunity  for young people requiring as we go more and   more special expertise and skill but let me tell  you even we could not have anticipated the amazing   ride our autonomous technology autonomous  vehicle customers have taken us on   we've been very lucky to have this ringside  seat a window into all the innovation   via the data which is now proving to be  the major factor as ai goes into production   data data and the quality of the data the  edge cases being able to deal with that   in a really proactive and very responsive way is  turning out to be a major factor in the evolution   so the next generation of robotic mobility and we  say robotic mobility because that is aerial robots   ground robots in the future even home robots  which will improve general quality of life which   we'll talk about later has a lot of innovation  and radical digital transformation growing on   and as michael said consumer acceptance navigating  regulatory stuff safety requirements and the   companies our clients have invested a lot in  capturing a lot of image data video data lidar   data now text speech to text and as they scale  it's becoming increasingly complex and nuanced and   high quality onboarding each city each new  city will have new situations and challenges   and what becomes really important which is  sort of why we got into this topic here the   edge cases in the new areas will define the  last mile success of deployments an edge case   is an unusual or exceptional situation but  they could be caused by road conditions   zones all kinds of things and we'll go into  some of this later but if that is where the   this breed of um people eye meriters are often  called by our clients as edge casers in fact   some of the people have on their linkedin  i'm an edge caser because it is that nuanced   human technology interaction and the  knowledge that has come from many years   of being on the ringside and being able to do  the annotations of the data that bring the best information and action into that situation  of the nuancing of the education so it makes   it possible working with michael in terms of  what are the next public works things happening   automatically feeding that in to being able to do  a live remap and being able to help our clients   then get them into those cities as an example um  are some of the things that we're very focused on   and feel very very fortunate to have been in  this situation to be able to offer that kind of   skills and expertise hey roddy i'm glad you bring  up the comment about scaling because i this is a   question also for you michael when we look at what  you've accomplished in your city and other cities   are looking at bringing new mobility services  uh they're starting as smaller pilot projects   and ideally looking to ramp to bigger size  deployments and scaling is a big question what   do we need to get to that point and uh how does  the data that rod is describing and the data that   you're managing at the city level how do those  two pieces come together for us to get to that   scaling that everybody in industry is trying  to accomplish and well yeah you bring up great   points i mean look everything we've done even here  and throughout most areas is small pilot projects   learning the technology it's really it's not about  the technology it's really more about the transfer   of information from city vertical systems to the  private sector or to some of these other companies   um and how do we provide that flow of information  i think rada you know really the point is   let's look at at how many accidents we haven't  had with all these autonomous systems why is that   it's because you've taken the biggest factor in  accidents which is the human driver out and you're   using data um and that data is critical so going  forward um you know we talked about it a little   bit we already brought it up a little bit in the  conversation but how when we're doing road work   do we get that data out quicker to the consumer  market so that that data can be adjusted by these   autonomous systems and then accommodations be made  for that how can we get more real-time traffic   flow data out of our our vertical data centers and  onto a horizontal plane where more people kind of   access to the information information and data  say it can save lives information and data can   also power technology so it's really how or how  are we doing now we're working on those types of   scenarios now we have some intelligent  uh roadway projects underway currently   where we're actually linking our controllers  so that we can broadcast that information   you know in the last three or four years uh  dsrc an older technology that's kind of i   you know not here to start a debate today but  it's kind of slowly fading away in favor of 5g   but there was that capability and it's existed  for many years now to send signalized traffic   data when the lights are going to change from red  to green and green to red to a vehicle in a safe   and secure manner that technology exists today it  just hasn't been widely adopted by the automakers   you see a lot more of that adoption now in some of  these newer upstart companies and i dare will not   call tesla an upstart company but you'll see it  in the newer types of vehicles that are coming out   more of an integrated link with technology and  you've seen the big automakers now following suit   with more technology and all of that is is  capturing more data um you know the biggest   challenges are how do we all share data for the  common good um that that's going to be a challenge   and so you know we'll see how that plays out i i  know government is working on it scaling it is not   going to be once we have a a it's really we're  lacking a foundation a framework once there's a   national framework and foundation and a way to  share this information more openly and securely   you'll see more of an adoption of this technology  um but you're in the infancy stages right now and   and we're already seeing some good collaboration  and scale coming up um as scale rises cost   will come down and that will provide even more  opportunity for data sharing i i think the biggest   challenge right now and i'll let my colleague  make sure she'll still set me straight here   but i think the biggest challenge is how do we  get some of these companies that have data that   can be used by lots of companies to share that  information well government will openly share   its data sets how do we get some of the auto  manufacturers that are driving the streets and   collecting data on bad roads and they might have  that information locked into their data system but   they are unwilling to share it because they feel  it takes a competitive advantage away from them   if they openly share it with other automakers  so i i do think the challenge is is going to   be not collecting the data it's going to be how  do we ensure privacy and how do we anonymize it   and share it openly to build the best technology  system versus bunch a bunch of individualized sys   a ford system a gm system you know tesla you know  how do we make it an open communications platform   and to that point how do you feel  from your side or where are we at   as an industry and being able to not only  collect the data but be able to analyze it   and come up with the insights that are going  to impact how mobility in cities ultimately   function and operate what's your assessment of  where we are and kind of where we need to get to   so i think that this is slowly evolving and i  could tell you that one of the key things that's   resulted is the understanding first you have to  understand you have to have a shared understanding   that human in the loop data annotation human in  the loop that means experts with the technology   is the inevitable part to achieving full  autonomy because in many of the things that   michael's bringing up the humans can decipher  some of these very complex rapidly changing   on-road scenarios if you take for example some  of the china's sports roads approach where road   structures themselves provide signals so you  can have smart road construction barricades   that signal their presence this leader can  come in and help with change management and   exception flagging and tell us where to focus our  efforts for temporary road edge cases i would say   this will probably get michael excited you know  there is no city like las vegas it's the ultimate   edge case it's such a unique city and i love  this interaction and working with michael because   a city like las vegas can bring av to a medical  district a sports an entertainment center   a resort corridor whatever is needed and the way  that pedestrian congestion many times first-time   tourists all of these things signage i mean  every as he said every couple every year some new   construction is coming up and we need to be able  to have data points capturing multiple times a day   mapping traffic patterns seasonality timing of  events and we will have to look at co-creating   value from all of this data instead of a  short-term approach and i fully agree with   michael that making that available we put together  something called the edge case module science   sounds very simple but this technology that's  able to actually aggregate across this and really   get into an ecosystem of data sharing and doing  this and balancing this with security and privacy   and this data being seen more as a public good  to really make autonomous mobility whether it's   ground aerial uh even going into the home  that kind of mobility it's really possible   and that those scenarios are different  they're different from boston or seattle   and it's in that case are that way of looking at  edge case scenarios and being able to have the   expertise to aggregate across those and have the  exceptions across those is that is the way i think   and doing it in real time working with the cities  getting there as i said earlier public work stuff   new construction stuff getting that data into  the systems so we can be proactive about it   i think that is what will make autonomous mobility  really skill i want to remind our audience that   if you have questions please feel free to  post those into the chat window and we'll be   making time to address those questions at the back  half of our session meanwhile michael going back   to what rada was saying we look at the autonomous  shuttle deployments as you did in the downtown   corridor and some of these other projects that  are underway can you talk about kind of the data   learnings of you know if you decide to suddenly  create a construction zone in an autonomous area   how the dialogue is happening between your  public works department and uh your team and   the companies that are operating these autonomous  systems so that there's an ability to plan and   react to these scenarios or positively react  to these scenarios can you can you describe how   that process is playing out and how that can help  inform other cities that are dealing with similar   dynamic situations yeah it's a great question and  it's a constant learning experience i don't think   anybody has there's no magic bullet right now or  no magic way of making these communications happen   it's a it look any time you have innovation you  have change change is hard for society as a whole   um and so remember in a lot of systems and most  municipal governments still are manually driven   manual processes they're not even put into some  kind of computerized system so the conversation   started just at the very basic level and as we  advance our technology it's more about now how   do we create these data sets and under getting  people to understand what a data set is why it's   necessary um and so it is a challenge to to have  those conversations internally especially when   you're going to departments that have relied on  a manual process you know switching to automation   or you know is is one costly um for these some  of these departments too necessary at some point   in the juncture um but then it's having all  this data and what do you do with this data how   long do you keep the data there's a lot of policy  decisions and and things that need to be addressed   you know how long are you going to keep cone  data do you need to keep it historically um do   you not need to keep that data if you're going  to do you know other types of roadway work um   what does that mean um as far as that  you need to provide a longer lead time   a shorter lead time what about emergencies what  about a light a traffic signal being out how   are you going to take handle that data and get  that out to people that are ingesting the data   so there's a lot of these issues that are still  you know it's a work in progress there's no um   you know even even here and as much work that we  have done and i'm you know this whole region of   southern nevada has done a fabulous job um with  modernizing their technology and collaborating   we're very lucky we have a region we have a lot of  regional boards where it's not controlled by one   government city entity they're regional which  makes sharing of information really phenomenally   easy but it's still a matter of building the  policies and procedures chris as you brought   up in the very beginning you know we talked about  state level policies and procedures now you got to   bring it down to the micro level where it really  matters which is the street level and creating   those um takes time it's not something that you  create in three months six months it's an ongoing   process that really will become never ending as we  continue to move and as we continue to modernize   our traffic signal system from an analog system  more to digital um and that's a whole other that's   a whole other area and then obviously the wrapper  that goes all around this which i i cannot help   but to say is and it's on the minds of everybody  i'm sure that's on this seminar right now you have   security security will be a huge factor um not  just privacy of the data but the security of it   um and and what could happen if these systems are  are disrupted or interrupted um that's a focal   point that we we have to be concerned about but  right now i think the biggest thing is just the   education that we're going through seminars like  this working with different layers of government   because a whole new way of capturing this  information it'll be a whole new way of sharing it   and rodney you mentioned the edge cases so  examples like public works projects where   a road may be being redesigned a stop  sign might be put in a traffic cone   all sorts of unique scenarios are that are real  in the dynamic nature of the city i'd love to get   your thoughts first on how are you and your team  identifying these edge cases figuring out how to   analyze the data and provide the results back to  folks like michael and then conversely michael you   know how your when you look to expand new mobility  services in the different parts of your city   how you're considering these different  unique dynamics so there's a collaborative   discussion happening between you and the  private sector well i'll start with rada   so i will first start by agreeing with michael  in in really agree that we are in the very early   stages of this there is much work to be  done to to get i mean we are you would say   in if you're in a software cycle you would say we  are in pre-production just going into production   we have more than as you said four  thousand um the of the annotation experts   and we see a skill ladder from a simple object  banning boxes to video tracking to complex lidar   multi-sensor data to mapping let's not think of  these as casual part-time occupations i believe   that av at autonomous technology autonomous  mobility data specialists will become as vital   as air traffic controllers or driving instructors  just in a different context what does that mean   that you will have to look at the  data at every step of the way and be   able to do continuous learning and development  continuous training continuous evolution with the   new kinds of data we're getting and not think of  this transactionally here's a transaction coming   in fact even today as the vehicles are going  into launch mode not even into full production   and deployment people are asking us to look at  and we're looking at it with consistency nuance   insight quality over a period of time quality  of a workflow quality of a parcel quality of a   of a particular type of deployment quality of a  particular technology being able to put all of   this together and aggregate it in particular areas  and scenarios in a city becomes very critical and   we we are we i was talking about the edge case  modules we have other technologies called ground   control it is about bringing and aggregating all  of this data and being able to share that with our   clients who are the av the atan developers of the  products and working with the cities themselves to   make this data available in a very nuanced way so  it's not a miraculous you know here's the miracle   throw this out this will convert it automated  it will be there and i think people like michael   understand this better than than anybody else that  or even this work will not end with deployment of   av vehicles you will need audit you will need post  analysis a person who does this work for three to   five years becomes a domain expert and our whole  focus is on developing this cadre of humans   who are in the loop of the technology the evolving  technology who become these instructors could   air traffic controllers kinds of people who  had the expertise to do that and having the   technology to support them to support the av  players and to support the cities like and um   the uh the actual users of this like michael and  michael the data sets that uh rodden describes   if you have that level of detail and information  how does that unlock your ability to bring   new mobility services to new parts of your city  you know so i i know you're probably it's like   chris it's like finding a if you have the  ability to unlock the data you have found   whatever high value whatever you want to  call it oil gold platinum you have found the   the chest of of of wealth for the future i  mean look data is is the key to all of this   having the data is one thing um now you have to  refine it and and get it into usable formats um   because the applications we've  really stuck just with mobility   but the applications are much broader um and can  that data can be used um for business for economic   development purposes uh it could be used in so  many different ways um to do other components um   within an organization so it's really you know  it's it's it's the hard part right now is getting   the data to where you can start refining it and  then telling stories with the data or information   um that you have and now you know the what  we're have we're seeing now is is data   overload now we have edge networking and edge  communication so all new data flows coming in   so the challenge is really going to be you  know working with the private sector to help   government you know manage all these data flows  and and what are the most important data flows   how do we use those to help manage traffic and new  mobility services um but how do we use that data   in other ways to help our small businesses to help  business in general to help our pedestrians stay   safe to help our community grow and prosper so  you really you know you you you once you find this   treasure chest of of information now the heart the  really the hard work comes into play finding it   was hard but now how do you use this information  that you have um and how to use it in the best way   possible um and it's not just usable let me just  give you a quick scenario wouldn't it be great to   know um if you're having a concert downtown or if  you want have businesses that want to know when's   the best time for me maybe i should move my dinner  hour you know from seven o'clock to eight o'clock   because during seven o'clock it's a lot of  traffic and my customers might have trouble   getting to the restaurant so maybe they adjust  their pricing see there's all these new things   you can start thinking about from an innovative  perspective demand pricing for restaurants if they   had real-time traffic flow maybe there's a way  they could adjust pricing um maybe they adjust   deliveries um in charge you know there's all  types of things that you can start doing with this   either to help the community help businesses or  you know what we all want was a is a better life   for the community the residents that live um  within the boundaries of what these systems do   um but having the data is great we have  lots of data it's now how do you get the   right partners to help you refine it and make  sense of it which is going to be the challenge   you know could i um add something to chris to  just this topic sorry i didn't mean to cut you off   i think one thing that is um in all with all  the clients that we work with in the av clients   one of the important things  that's coming out is the   safety consciousness and the partner friendliness  of of these av clients in fact in speaking one of   one of the ctos i asked the question what is your  number one priority it talked about at length   about the safety consciousness and their number  one kpi is safety and i think that that focus   then leads to a way and an approach and i'm now  talking about the ab players who are our clients   that then leads to a number of steps both in being  proactive but also building in flexibility in the   mobility that allows these things to happen so  i just want to make sure that in the because   michael's as he should be focusing on that is so  it becomes a three-way thing it becomes between   um the city and the av players and data services  companies or solutions companies like us   because we have to really iterate across all  of these these three players in terms of making   the safety happen which in for each one  of us the kpi number one kpi is the safety michael thoughts on that regarding  uh the safety component as you're   reinforcing public uh sentiments for a lot  of these we've highlighted that i mean look   the number one reason these technologies are  here is for safety um you know we've all heard   of zero fatality type you know propositions  anybody who's uh lost to a traffic accident or   a pedestrian fatality is unacceptable with all the  technology and systems we have everybody who works   on these systems it's all around safety it's about  moving the needle forward and creating even safer   environments and that's what the data provides  the data provides a lot of that information   to the manufacturers and to regulators and  municipal government um you know i think a   lot of people probably out there are wondering you  know do we get to see the data if the if the human   safety driver takes over um during uh uh event  does is how is that data disseminated and shared   it really depends on the event and different  operations but i can tell you that in a lot of   the cases where we've run autonomous vehicle  programs yes that data is provided to us   um so we can see depending on what the issue  is it could have been a faulty traffic light   data compatibility issue from sending  data from an intersection to a vehicle   so a lot of that information is shared we call  that edge data where we're able to analyze that   and and make better decisions that's again why  you collect the data and so you can go back and   analyze it and and try to predict future outcomes  uh try to make safer roadways and try to develop   just safer policies in general um because  look if people don't have trust and confidence   in a system whether it be a vehicle um an elevator  whatever it might be people won't use it so   safety you know is definitely the number one  priority errata's got it you know nailed it   that there is no bigger priority than safety um  around the individual who's using this technology   so to that point if you're bringing new mobility  services to a medical district or a sports complex   what's the operational and the safety data and  all the kind of things that rod has described from   edge case elements that have to be considered  to make those types of deployments possible and   michael love your thoughts initially and then rot  it from your side on how you can support something   of that nature so we're working on actually a  medical district in our downtown area where we're   putting together a autonomous vehicle i'll call  it a shuttle service um for a descriptive term   um you know look we we plan out where the  stops are going to be based on how again   data data data where are the stops going  to be located well we're going to locate   them based on data where people need where they  conjugate from if they come out of the hospital   need to go to an x-ray down the  street we're going to put the stop   in the safest area next to the hospital  that we can and we're going to analyze   all the different data that's available to find  the best location for that we're going to look at   traffic on the roadways number of vehicles times  of day so we know what this autonomous vehicle can   expect that there's a lot that goes into planning  this um you know you don't just get up and start   you know say oh the vehicle will stop here and  without having the data and not having your use   case fully laid out what is the use case for this  medical district system or loop um and you need to   know that who are the customers going to be that  might decide what mobility technology you use   do you need to have accommodations for ada and how  many and how many uh instances that you think that   you will need that will tell you how many vehicles  may need special outfitting to be able to handle   the customer load so there's a lot of data and  analytics and planning less on the technology   side less in my realm more in the land planning  and the roadway design it's all those engineers   and people like rada that that analyze  and design and look at all the data   my job's the fun and easy part i just get to  play with the technology and see it operate   um you know make sure that the proper antenna  systems and data collection is there the the   real hard work is a design and engineering before  you launch and rada from your team's perspective   how do you enable a deployment like what  michael just described what would be your   kind of thought process and approach and  recommendations for something like that   i think and um first point i would make  is that you have to look at this a bit   um and i i would say not a bit but holistically  in that we talk about uh autonomous vehicles   um more as in ground robots but if you  um really look at some of the players i   happen to speak to a ceo of one of the autonomous  technology companies he talked about the fact that   the av industry has to to aggregate data between  ground aerial and also be able to supply it to   like a home robot into the human being right  so it is aggregating across all of this   whether it's and capturing data and being able to  respond very quickly multiple times a day mapping   traffic patterns things like that even visual data  traffic data and even accident analysis in fact i   would put that pretty high there accident analysis  helps us helps our clients i want to be clear   that we are a facilitator helps av companies  capture more edge cases so the planning part for   the city and the edge case it comes back to the  edge casers that can help the av companies the am   companies and being able to actually create  co-create the value from all of this data   is is going to become very important i will  re-emphasize another point that michael made   earlier and i reiterated which is about this  data being shared as more and of a public good   so that becomes important if we want to really  deliver um on the true smart city kinds of um   kinds of uh um you know thinking uh that is being  built into cities right now and there's been a lot   of discussion about an autonomous transportation  will you take drivers out of the driving process   roles of humans and delivering um you know high  quality data for broader autonomous mobility and   at least i believe in this so passionately that  human in the loop is going to be super critical   for that autonomous mobility to have the best  impact on cities and and i think i would um   i would sort of end with that um that on  that note and the our ability to skill people   on an ongoing basis to be able to address  that is a very important thing but looking   at it across data from ground aerial and at  the human la at the consumer level as well   rod i'm glad you bring up the human involvement  because it's a question i had for both you and   for michael as we move to this autonomous  future in mobility and other things um what   kind of new workforce opportunities do  you see from the private sector side and   michael what do you see from the municipal  side of how this is going to create a whole   new generation of uh opportunity uh workforce  enablement uh activities and things of that nature   i it's gonna be it's like you're you're creating  a whole new industry from the ground up and   and so there's going to be a lot of new job  but there's also going to be focus on present   workforce you know people are forgetting that  we're going to need more gis and mapping people   than ever before people forget that's a skill  we've had for years um but now it's going to   need to be even the the standards and the  specs that it's going to need to follow   we're going to need more people to do gis um in  our mapping take our roadways and digitize them   um so that's going to go you're going to have a  lot from the planning side um you're also going to   need to look at a whole look we're becoming a more  digitized society so understanding how all the   the intersections are all going to be packed full  of technology it won't be just i t departments   anymore public works individuals and traffic  engineers are going to need to understand not only   the core job they understand today but they're  going to need to understand how the technology   plays a role in that um but you know it's you know  from the governmental side there's a huge you know   i think ron has said it really well human labor is  going to shift into new realms but that's not the   human is still extremely important in this whole  entire scenario there is no autonomy without the   programming without the mapping without the data  collection without the it systems none of that   works without the security all of that is human  based um you may take the driver one day out of   the vehicle but the human that's operating and  still using the service there's still a lot of   opportunity there for workforce development and  growth and programming you know huge and then   not even mentioning the private sector yet and all  their opportunities so you know most people should   be thinking about this is where do i need to be in  the next three to five years what skill sets do i   need how do i get engaged with my government how  do i get engaged with my educational institutions   where do i need to be in that to reach those  new goals or to reach that new job opportunity   because they are going to be there they're there  now and we're moving faster into that direction   and those that have the skills are building the  skills today will have the skills for the future   and ronnie your thoughts from your work your  current workforce and your future workforce   where do you see this opportunity so um one thing  i would say is um you know in the covered year   in this last year we created over 1100 jobs  and a lot of it wasn't around autonomous   mobility autonomous vehicles drones etc and michael's point about gis we're  hiring several hundred gis people so it's about how do you what  are the new jobs the new roles   and how can we get to where we're doing  a lot of validation mapping auditing   these are all b-rolls and the entire way about  aggregating across not just cars but across   trucks drones robotics and viewing all of this as  different forms of ai whether it's looking at a   drone three 3d point cloud-based technologies that  address drone mobility and the information you get   from drones or looking so being able to aggregate  across this so that we really see this as creating   a lot of jobs and very importantly taking  current jobs and being able to uh to   skill them into the types of things we would  need as autonomous mobility goes into production   i still think we are in a very early stages  those insights those audits that post analysis   becoming a domain expert and maybe you know  there will be in the future domain of experts   that are regional or across different industries  sports event how do you design mobility services   across major sports event that could be a domain  expertise because we can aggregate across multiple   types of applications that we've done so all  of these come together i think as each city   as we look at each city and say how does  autonomous mobility how do we work with the city   and the av players uh to increase the safety  accessibility and efficiencies how do we look   at the rollout whether it's event based whether  it's you know medical area we talked about or   sports or entertainment or a city like new york  that has so much better strength traffic and   so much traffic on the roads that's very different  than having a washington dc that's full of you   know these circles that we go through some of  the most complex things that we've worked on   there's complexity in washington dc for  many things but this is just one of them   but this just happens to me from the gis point of  view those are the kinds of things that we would   look at and we are looking at actually perfect we  have a few minutes for some audience questions i'm   going to try to get through as many of these as i  can uh so a question that just came in as vehicles   drive on the roads interpreting everything in the  surrounding area and logging this information do   you envision uh this creating a data marketplace  or data economy come on chris that's an easy one   of course data is cool data is is as we talked  about it's a treasure chest it's a trove now how   does it work um a lot of questions in that from a  government perspective i'll let rada handle hers   you know do we charge for that data do we give  it away i i think you know if you're asking a   personal opinion here we work for the people so we  should be pro government should be providing that   information out there now the private market  could take our data with other data from like   their vehicles and other things and then package  that and most likely the private sector will sell   that information and data but huge opportunity  a whole new economy basically around data is   already there today it'll just expand um and be  more and let me give you a thought to think about   you know things that we're thinking about is we  have a lot of vehicles that ride the that drive   the streets every day for municipal purposes um to  pick up trash or do whatever what if you outfitted   all those vehicles with sensors and collected  information on potholes and fixed assets that   might be missing there's a there's a wealth of  data that the city could just use on its own   without marketing and or selling it or giving it  out to help its own interests but imagine now that   data having a car with sensors if you're a ups  or fedex and you're driving almost every street   or an amazon delivery what could you do who would  want that data and how much would they be willing   to pay for it i can tell you there's a lot of  companies out there that would love to have   pinpointed data and information from a trusted  source like an amazon a fedex and ups and i   can share with this audience they're working on  that now you know don't kid yourself that those   ideas and opportunities um aren't out  there um and the opportunity for a whole   new digital economy to form around data and just  specifically roadway data huge roddy your thoughts i actually see mobility as a solution you  know we always are in the technology world   all the sas stuff right where incumbents  disrupters innovators cities we develop   platform-based mobility services and customers  can tap into them i mean just think about   we can source except we used to do crowdsourcing  off or we still do about potholes and you know   just putting that in into a marketplace well  think about that think about these sensors   and the crowdsourcing from them and being able to  provide that to uh customers to um in in looking   at the public good the quality of access the  inclusion you know in many ways people trust   technology when they see a human brain beside it  and i think this this what we are talking about is   the question is a great question by the way and  looking at how you provide this as a marketplace   and i think of you know all these sensors and  crowdsourcing the data and saying and aggregating   across it crunching across and saying okay uh  driver autonomous vehicle you're approaching   uh a series of three potholes and you  know and you're gonna go do this so   work around it or take a different path that that  that those kinds of things will make mobility   um as a being able to offer autonomous mobility  as a solution you know like a sas solution   we are running up to the end of our time i  do have one last question i'm going to try   to squeeze in for both of you and i'll start  with you rada help me finish this sentence   in 2035 data will have enabled  autonomous mobility to do what in 2035 2035 yeah in 2035 data will have enabled  autonomous mobility in the true sense of mobility   not just vehicles but ground air ground robots  radial robots home robots etc to increase   safety accessibility and efficiencies in cities by  a factor of multiples um use of no use of fossil   fuels to transport people of things not getting  lost in in route knowing learning from accidents   green a world with less vehicles do you even  need a car um and you know like the japanese   invented just in time manufacturing uh i think  we will have a just-in-time autonomous mobility   services that will dramatically change our society  from what it is today but it is about increasing   safety accessibility and efficiencies very good  michael do you have a thought on this as well   i'd say be in las vegas in 2035 that's what  i would tell you to do you're going to see   the best technology right here so don't forget  about being the 2035s happening here today so   that's right you know it's going to be a brighter  future more sustainable safety everything rada   said she did a great job in nailing down the major  points and uh michael has invited me to come and   do the rides in in las vegas which we'll be doing  of course to gather data to be able to look at all   the edge cases and provide that to you so thank  you michael all of you are welcome rod and all   the listeners are welcome las vegas is open and  we are excited to be back and have all of you   come down and try out all the different types of  transportation options and and that we have here   in our beautiful city we're on our way after all  the travel suppression it's time to get back on   the road well thank you both it's been a great  discussion very much appreciate your time thank   you to techcrunch this concludes our panel session  for today and any follow questions you may have   please fulfill addresses on the portal on the  techcrunch portal and otherwise have a good rest   of your afternoon thank you chris and anybody  have questions shoot it out to us they're happy   to respond and great being on the panel with  you michael really really enjoyed it it's my pleasure

2022-02-03 23:13

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