Category Archives: technology

Self driving is the next big thing

Just a few years ago the idea of a self driving car was seen as a futuristic technology that would take decades to arrive. Now it is only a matter of when it will be available and this thanks to startups that are shaping this segment. Here’s  a list (incomplete) of autonomous driving related companies, hardware, software and services, some of which have recently raised money from vc and investors :

  • lvl5 : computer vision software to crowdsource high-accuracy maps for self-driving cars.
  • starsky robotics , embark : self driving trucks
  • ouster (raised 27M$ ) : best lidar to date
  • AIMotive (raised 38M$ ) : full stack autonomous driving software
  • Nauto (raised 159M$ ) : self driving safety
  • drive.ai (raised 50M$ ) : self driving full stack
  • cruise ( GM bought for 1B$) : self driving full stack
  • pony.ai (raised 112M$ ) : claim safest self driving full stack
  • zoox.com raised 250M$ ) : self driving automaker

Driving a Tesla Model S in Paris

My brother in law owns a Tesla model S in Paris and I had a chance to try it out last week. One of the most exciting experiences (Miles Davis would have added “with my pants on”) of the last times. You are driving with almost no noise ( I know Jeremy Clarkson will hate this but I like it so much) in total comfort on a car that comes from another planet : this is what it looks like.

First of all I must say that I hate cars and what they represent : I’ve always considered them a necessary evil. I spent tons of money around my cars (smashing them so many times when I was in my twenties), doing maintenance and repairing them that I developed what is my personal requirements list for a car :

  1. accident prevention : a car that foresees a potentially dangerous situation and takes control to avoid an accident/crash. With a car like this I would have saved tons of money and a couple of broken ribs
  2. no maintenance or lowest possible : if I have to use a car I want to have the lowest possible maintenance. Brakes, oil and filters, clutch, distribution belts, sparks …. There is always something to do with your car
  3. do not contribute to city air pollution or do it the less possible

Tesla ( and probably other electric cars in the future will )  is matching exactly my requirements for what I want in a car.  Autonomous driving with all the available variants which range from lane/speed/front car distance control to full autonomous driving would make driving safer and reduce accidents and damage to the car.

And electric traction will make maintenance a distant memory : with the Tesla I tried which was set at maximum engine brake I barely never had to use the brake pedal; the cars brakes by using the electric motors as generators so you recharge you battery just by using the engine break

And performance comes last in the sense that I’m not a super car fan but pulling the gas to the floor on the Model S is a breathtaking experience. The picture on the left shows you the warp effect 🙂

When products/business units ignore each other : Samsung phone and Samsung TV


Let’s assume that you have a Samsung S6 phone and a Samsung TV and that you use videostream for example to see your pc videos on the tv. So since you want to change your tv source to use  chromecast you download the samsung tv remote app (which could have been already installed on a samsung phone) so that you can do everything from your phone, select country and language, wait 10 minutes of download of you have no idea what and in the end …. no tv source change in the samsung tv remote app. But you can see the whole tv product set, ranging from  90″ curved screen to anything else … but no tv source change control …

Videostream guys, please put in your app a universal tv remote feature so that all operations on tv can be done from within the videostream app.

Forecasting increase in electricity needs by introducing electric traction in automobile

A growth in electric vehicles on European roads will need a corresponding  growth in electricity production to serve charging of these cars, both in peak production power and in total annual power. Let’s take italy for example which currently has a total year consumption of around 300 TWh (terna). Considering :

This accounts for 2250 KWh/year for each electric car. Considering 2 milion new cars per year and a 0.5 % of electric cars sold (10000) this means an additional 22 GWh/year to be produced to allow charging them.
So your electric car will consume like a small household (depending on your mileage) and personal/distributed production of electricity (domestic + accumulation) will be necessary.

If you want to really dig deeper : here.

Adda river hydro power plants

During one of my MTB rides at the Cancano lakes I stumbled into this beatifull dam which is part of the A2A Hydro power of Valtellina : 8 hydro power plants from cancano lakes down to Stazzona near Tirano using water coming from the Adda river and from other 4 different basins :

  • San Giacomo : 10MW
  • Braulio : 19 MW
  • Premadio : 226 MW
  • Grosio : 428 MW
  • Grosotto/Boscaccia : 13 MW
  • Lovero 49 MW
  • Stazzona : 30 MW

Adda river continues is ride down to Po river and in the mean time produces some other Hydro power in 4 hydro power plants that have been sold to EDF :

  • Bertini : 12,5MW
  • Taccani : 11 MW
  • Semenza : 7 MW
  • Esterle : 32 MW

and then into some other small powerplants :

  • Rusca : 7 MW
  • Italgen Vaprio : 21 MW
  • Crespi (Adda Energia) : No data
  • Adda S.Anna : No data
  • Fara : 1 MW
  • Muzza : 2,5 MW
  • Maleo : 4,5 MW
  • Pizzighettone : 3 MW

A total of around 900 MW of clean, renewable, hydroelectric power!