Cubic Telecom kicks off 2019 with major IoT industry award

4 Jan 2019

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In the first week of 2019, Irish IoT developer Cubic Telecom received international recognition from influential organisation IoT Breakthrough.

The past few years have been kind to Cubic Telecom, as it has raised more than €75m in funding from major industry hitters such as Audi and Qualcomm for its internet of things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) platform.

Now, the firm is celebrating the news that it has been named as the Connected Car Platform of the Year by IoT Breakthrough via its award programme. The independent organisation’s mission is to recognise innovators, leaders and visionaries from around the globe in a range of IoT categories, including industrial and enterprise IoT, smart city technology, connected home, home automation, and connected cars.

“The connected car category is certainly one of the most exciting areas within the larger IoT industry, and Cubic Telecom is a key player with its impressive connected car platform that delivers not only on technology innovation, but also boasts major automotive original equipment manufacturer [OEM] partnerships with blue-chip brands within the Volkswagen Group and others,” said James Johnson, managing director at IoT Breakthrough.

Waymo autonomous cars attacked by Arizona locals

The New York Times reported earlier this week on a spate of attacks focused against Google spin-out Waymo’s autonomous cars.

For two years now, residents of the town of Chandler in Arizona – outside the city of Phoenix – have seen the cars driving around neighbourhoods for testing. However, some appear to be not so pleased at the cars being anywhere near their homes, with one man in his 20s reportedly slashing one of the car’s tyres. Other reports show the cars have been pelted with rocks, while some people have even gone as far as to try and force the driverless vehicles off the road.

Not only are the vehicles under attack, but the human overseers of the prototypes are also in the firing line, with one being threatened by a man who pulled up beside them with a piece of pipe. Meanwhile, another threatened a backup driver with a revolver because he “despises” the technology.

Smart public transport market to reach €3.3bn in 2022

The technology behind what makes public transport systems smarter is expected to surge in the years to come, with Berg Insight expecting it to rise from €1.4bn in 2017 to €3.3bn in 2022.

According to the analysts, a growing awareness among public transport providers of the various benefits of the technology, and increasing demands from travellers for convenience and accessible real-time information contribute to higher demand.

“Public transport stakeholders are increasingly realising the need to invest in integrated mobility capabilities in order to stay relevant as providers of urban mobility,” said Levi Östling, an IoT analyst at Berg Insight. “Passenger-facing solutions such as integrated journey planning and fare payment solutions have already reached a relatively high degree of maturity and will experience a particularly strong growth in the coming few years.”

Examples of major vendors on national markets in Europe include Engie Ineo and RATP Smart Systems, which hold leading positions in France, as well as Vix Technology, which is an important provider in the UK market.

Samsung set to launch budget Bixby smart speaker

Ahead of CES in Las Vegas, Samsung has teased that it is to launch a new budget smart speaker on 7 January, with its Bixby artificial intelligence (AI) operating system behind it.

In its press release, the South Korean giant remained vague about its product showcase, saying that it will show “brand new applications for AI and IoT, new ways to make AI do more, as well as new devices that place AI and IoT at the centre of users’ connected lives”.

However, an anonymous source close to SamMobile said that this will include the budget smart speaker, which will be less powerful than its key Galaxy Home product. The Galaxy Home is set to have a subwoofer, six speakers and eight microphones.

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Colm Gorey was a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

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