Absolutely! Electric cars will reduce our oil dependency and autonomous cars will reduce road deaths.

But what makes these advancements so intriguing is the second-order effects. Benedict Evans nails it:

And that’s not all. What about

  • The millions of truck, bus and Uber drivers who have jobs at stake
  • International relations in a world where the US isn’t as dependent on Middle Eastern oil
  • The consumption effects of wanting to replace a car as often as you upgrade your phone

These are two amazing slides. Thanks Benedict.

 

a16z partner Benedict Evans had an astute observation last week.

As voice-based interfaces improve what they can do (e.g. by adding more “skills”), how do you inform, train and perhaps most importantly remind end users of what they can do, without a GUI to do so?

Well, here are three ideas:

  1. Leverage recommendation engines (think Google Now, Netflix, etc) to proactively talk to users. For example, what if Alexa had motion sensing on it and when it saw me walk by the first time each day it told me what the weather was going to be
  2. Developers must design and build for a wider array of edge cases. For example, when listening to Pandora the phrases, “Thumbs up,” “I like this song,” and “Yes! More of this!” should all be able to rate the song higher.
  3. And probably easiest is to remember you do still have a GUI. For example, Alexa’s companion mobile app could use notifications and suggestions to help users maximize their Echoes. Yet in its current form the app feels like an afterthought.

So close! I ended up just a few months short of 10 years of ownership on my car. Not to be, though, as I finally made the switch to something newer.

An interesting goal nonetheless, as 10 years is just an arbitrary date set to a nice round number, right?

In any case…as you’re probably already aware, tech has made huge strides in automobiles since my previous 2001 model year car was built.

Nope we’re not just talking satellite radio either. Things like:

  • Fully bluetooth equipped cars
  • Backup cams
  • Parking sensors
  • Adaptive cruise controls
  • Heads up displays (HUDs)
  • Tablet-sized displays in the center console

And this doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the technology that’s buried underneath the hood now!

hud
I’m not sure if this image is fact or fiction…although if it is fiction, it won’t be so for much longer.

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This week I joined the Atlanta Mobility Radio team for their weekly show on Business Radio X.

You can listen to the full show here where we talked about the Catavolt mobile platform and how we were able to partner together for a solution for the Atlanta Community Food Bank.

radio show

In a TL;DR version of the radio show I wanted to share my lessons learned working with Catavolt’s platform.

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This post started when my wife posted a childhood photo for a recent Throw-Back-Thursday. Not only is it impressive that her TBT was an actual hard copy photo instead of a digital relic from Facebook, but also that she could even track it down in the first place. Between the thousands of photos I’ve collected – and seemingly exponentially more each year – they’re becoming harder and harder to keep track of.

I suppose this is where I transition with some cliche stock photo right?

cliche stock

Thanks Adham.

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apple vs android
image via Prasanna Ellanti

Will the debate ever end?

If you’re a typical American phone consumer you’ve probably often asked yourself, “iPhone or Android?”

Recently some friends were discussing this and I wondered, “Is there a significant difference between the two anymore? Is there a worthwhile debate anymore? Should we still care?”

Here’s the thing – YES! – it absolutely does. However, in the debate between iPhones and Android phones it’s less and less about the phone itself. Here’s why.

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Lately I’ve been traveling a fair amount and have developed an effective mobile travel kit. If you’re looking for ideas for your next trip – business or pleasure – scroll through this list and it may spark an idea or two.

Belkin Travel Charger

belkin travel charger

Tech need #1 when traveling is far and away power (with connectivity in some form coming in #2). Belkin’s Mini Surge Protector and Charger has saved me countless times.

Ever searched for an outlet in an airport, only to find that the lone power outlet has both plugs taken? With the three plugs everyone will be glad to let you join in at the outlet, and then the two USB ports on top are icing on the cake. Continue reading

Screen Shot 2014-05-19 at 10.48.50 PMMobility Live Atlanta 2014 prep is in full swing.

If you missed the inaugural event in 2013 you can expect 1,000+ attendees packing three different venues in midtown for two days of mobile tech  strategies, innovations and standards.

Helping out with the Future Forward track we’re narrowing down a list of possible topic ideas that are “beyond the horizon” in mobility. This means we’re looking at mobility trends that are only now emerging and poised to be major market forces 5+ years from now.

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