Moore's Lobby · 20 Nov 2020 · 1h 29m · Episode 13
Lucas di Grassi, former CEO of Roborace and Formula E champion, and Bryn Balcombe, Chief Strategy Officer of Roborace, discuss how their autonomous electric racing series serves as an R&D incubator for automotive AI and sensor technologies. They detail the technical challenges of hardening electronics for high-G motorsport environments, the shift from hardware competition to software-defined racing, and the critical role of open-source data in accelerating industry-wide innovation. The conversation also covers the broader implications of autonomous mobility, battery energy density constraints, and di Grassi's environmental advocacy regarding urban air pollution.
early-stage companies
Other shows on the same ground, closest first.
Alex Wischnewski, team lead for the Technical University of Munich (TUM) Autonomous Motorsports team, discusses winning the 2021 Indy Autonomous Challenge. He details the logistical challenges of operating a remote team across time zones during the pandemic, the technical difficulties of driving identical chassis at 136 mph, and the critical role of sensor synchronization and GPS reliability in autonomous racing.
Jan Becker, founder and CEO of APEX.AI, and Joe Speed, CTO of APEX.AI, discuss the evolution of real-time operating systems for autonomous vehicles, specifically how APEX.AI built a safety-certified, real-time version of ROS 2. They detail the company's involvement in the Indy Autonomous Challenge, explaining how their software stack enables high-speed sensor fusion and processing for race cars reaching speeds over 175 mph. The episode also covers APEX.AI's recent Series B funding and its expansion beyond automotive into agriculture and aerial robotics.
Rick Merritt reports on the Hot Chips conference lineup, highlighting a shift toward AI accelerators with talks from Cerebras, Habana, Intel, and Upmem, while noting Huawei's potential absence due to trade tensions. Junko Yoshida interviews David Fritz from Siemens about the design challenges of autonomous vehicle SoCs, contrasting the automotive industry's reactive validation cycles with the smartphone industry's rigorous pre-silicon methodologies. Sally Ward Foxton reports from the Formula E race in Monte Carlo, discussing the new Gen2 car's battery capacity and the critical role of software in powertrain management, while also highlighting team principal Susie Wolff's experiences with gender bias in motorsport. Finally, Echo Zhao provides a perspective from China on the US-China trade war, describing the pragmatic response of electronics suppliers like Huawei and their 'Plan B' vendors.
Hosts Elliot Williams and Dan Maloney review a week of hacks, including Lawrence Trat’s open API integration for a Milo washing machine, Jeff Lau’s Bluetooth adapter for a 1993 Mitsubishi 3000 GT analog phone, and Stephen Gong’s autonomous F1/10th scale racing car using a Jetson and LiDAR. The episode also covers Denny’s microwave-powered forge using silicon carbide crucibles, Nicholas Depatri’s automated Gaggia espresso machine, and Patrick Williams’ social engineering of Bing Chat. Finally, they discuss the Vintage Computer Festival East and grid capacity issues with renewable energy.
EE Times editor-in-chief Brian Santo discusses the 100th anniversary of the word 'robot' with science fiction author Mark Niemann-Ross, exploring the intersection of fictional robots and real-world automation, including Boston Dynamics robots and Roombas. Santo also introduces the EE Times book 'Sensors in Automotive,' managed by Junko Yoshida, which covers advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous vehicle technologies through contributions from industry experts. The conversation examines how robots interact with humans, the ethical implications of autonomous algorithms, and the societal impact of rapid automation.
The summary, chapters and topics are generated from the episode’s audio by this directory, not written by Moore's Lobby. The episode itself belongs to its publisher.