Apple’s secretive self-driving car project is further along than people thought

The robocars wars are really heating up. Two weeks ago, The Guardian outed Google Auto, the stealth self-driving car company the search giant set up in 2011. Today, the Guardian has a new report with what seems like the first definitive news that Apple is building an autonomous vehicle of its own: Apple is building a self-driving car in Silicon Valley, and is scouting for secure locations in the San Francisco Bay area to test it, the Guardian has learned. Documents show the oft-rumoured Apple car project appears to be further along than many suspected. In May, engineers from Apple’s secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station, a 2,100-acre former naval base near San Francisco that is being turned into a high-security testing ground for autonomous vehicles. In correspondence obtained by the Guardian under a public records act request, Apple engineer Frank Fearon wrote: “We would … like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it].” The code name for Cupertino’s robotic car operation is Project Titan, which the Wall Street Journal reported in February. In recent months Apple CEO Tim Cook has had meetings with car manufacturers, and the company has been poaching engineers with expertise in automotive. It’s also been making investments in artificial intelligence and computer vision, two important fields for making robotic cars work. According to documents obtained by The Guardian, Apple has set up a nondescript satellite office that houses staff dedicated to the project. As is to be expected, access is restricted. According to The Guardian, Apple has been looking into testing its robocars at GoMentum Station, which is an old naval weapons station 40 miles north of Silicon Valley. With some 20 miles of highways and roads, it’s a bit like an older version of MicCity, a fake town set up by the University of Michigan to test and research self-driving cars. The big plus with GoMentum station, though, is the level of security and privacy it offers, which if you know Apple, is a big plus. The company has a long history of CIA-level secrecy. Other companies working on self-driving cars, including Google and Tesla, have expressed interest in testing their vehicles there. But, according to The Guardian, only Honda “has signed a $250,000 memorandum of understanding with the facility to begin testing.” Honda plans to “use self-driving versions of its RLX saloon to accelerate the development of automated and connected vehicle technologies far from prying eyes.” Autonomous cars are going to require very detailed mapping. Google is the clear leader here, though Apple, too, has made investments in mapping in recent years. Last week, automakers Mercedes Benz, Audi and BMW announced they’d pooled together $3.1 billion to collectively buy Nokia’s digital mapping tech, dubbed HERE. The self-driving car space is looking more and more like the smartphone market, where Apple and Google are the clear leaders, and everyone else is trying to catch up.

Tesla, Uber, & Internet Sales Taxes – Quit Being So Easily Duped

If you’ll please forgive a bit of navel gazing, we need to have a little talk about social media, political action, issue advocacy, and earned media. I’ve always avoided characterizing what Peach Pundit “is”. I find that really is in the eye of the beholder. But I have found over the years that we have an evolving role in public debate and issue advocacy. I’ve also started to notice a pattern. We’re all being used. Readers of right-leaning political blogs tend to fit a profile. We’re libertarian leaning with a bit of a populist bent. There’s nothing wrong with that. That’s our market segment, and that helps those that wish to market to us hone a message. I’ll use this week’s story about Tesla wanting to sell cars directly to consumers as an example of what I’m talking about so this makes sense. It generally follows an accepted formula to help you engage on their behalf, without letting pesky facts or shades of gray enter into your strong belief that Tesla is a complete victim of overarching government regulation and greedy auto dealers. Got that? Let’s begin. The first step in this process is that a news story is “originated”. In cases where the company has a legislative interest at stake, that’s often with the help of a skilled PR firm. There’s no shame in that, and I’ve had PR contracts with companies that do this sort of thing before (client interests are disclosed on the rare occasion I write about my own clients). News is rarely organic these days. PR folks help make sure the right message gets to the right people. Then, via the magic of social media (including folks like us), these stories spread. Often with a unified theme. In Tesla’s case, this is a company that is not allowed to sell cars in Georgia which is a violation of the free market. Why isn’t Tesla allowed to compete like a company should? Cue outrage. The problem is that in most cases like this, “free market” is a meaningless bumper sticker slogan designed to draw you in without any analysis of the actual facts or merits of the situation. “Free market” is a concept. For it to exist in reality, we would have to live in a world without taxes or regulation. We don’t. So what happens to Tesla’s argument if we make the subtle change from “Free Market” to “Level Playing Field”? Well, first we would have to look at the fact that Tesla managed to turn itself into a legitimate company courtesy of a Federal loan in the amount of $465 Million Dollars. This was in 2009, when private capital from the “free market” was quite scarce. To be fair, GM and Chrysler (now Fiat) got a lot of government money too. But the folks screaming “free market” are still upset with GM and Chrysler, often citing that the Government shouldn’t pick winners and losers. Tesla was picked as a winner too. Tesla also represents an example of government privatizing profits and socializing losses. As this Slate article points out, Tesla’s loans were given at rates well below anything would have been offered from the private equity markets. Now the company has a $35.6 Billion dollar market cap. The government didn’t get equity that would be accustom to a high tech startup. Instead, they got roughly 3% interest. How’s that “free market” looking now? It’s looking pretty good. Tesla announced yesterday that it will be building a plant in Nevada to build batteries. Government incentives are estimated at $1.2 Billion over the next 20 years. This is where “level playing field” works better for Tesla. It’s hard to call $1.2 BN in incentives “free market”, but auto plants routinely get $300M-$500M in incentives for a new plant. Tesla has some “buzz” to generate a bit more, and the scope of the plant may be bigger. Or, Nevada just needed the win and overpaid. Regardless, not “free market”, but every manufacturer plays the same game. Tesla got a big win from Nevada. If you buy a Tesla in Georgia, the “free market” will give you $12,500 in income tax credits. You can take an additional $2,500 if you buy a charger for your business. You get to drive in HOV lanes with only one passenger in the car for free. And Georgia Power will give you reduced electric rates. That’s some level playing field they have there. But if that’s not enough, Tesla’s website asks you to contact your state representative and ask for more. To level the playing field. So what’s the problem? Tesla doesn’t want to sell cars through independent dealers. Instead, they have a fairly nondescript sales and service center off the 120 loop in Marietta which is company owned. That’s only legal in Georgia because Tesla got an exemption provided they would only sell 150 cars per year. The Georgia Automobile Dealers Association claims they’ve sold 173 cars, and wants them to stop selling cars. Cue the manufactured outrage. You can get an idea of the typical response from the comments in this post from earlier in the week. They can be summed up as 1) Auto Dealers are greedy and thus should be punished. 2) Auto Dealers have lobbyists. 3) Any attempt by the greedy auto dealers and their evil lobbyists to not let Tesla do exactly what it wants the way it wants is a violation of the free market. It’s the same it you take out Tesla and insert Uber, or internet merchants. Exactly. The. Same. Argument. Let’s stick with Tesla to finish the point. First, Tesla has lobbyists. Here they are. Good people, no shame in that. But pretending that Tesla is pure and the other side isn’t because they have lobbyists is a ridiculous argument, especially for readers of an inside baseball type of publication such as this. Please do not ever cite “they have lobbyists” as an argument as if this is a one sided, unique occurrence. It’s just dumb. Then there’s the populist argument that’s pretty easy to make against car dealers. They are industry that’s pretty unpopular. Almost as unpopular as politicians. But you know who likes auto dealers? Politicians. Why? Because outside of metro Atlanta, most of them aren’t the corporate megadealers that you see all over Atlanta TV. They’re local, independent businessmen. They’re “good corporate citizens”. They sponsor little league teams and anchor local United Way pledge drives. And they employ people. Perhaps most importantly, they generate tax revenue. A lot of it. They’ve also invested a lot into the current system. As have brick and mortar retailers. As have the owners of taxi cab medallions. Those orchestrating the PR campaigns based on the fact that somehow asking new entrants into industries to compete on a level playing field are killing the “free market” want you to ignore that there’s already a market, with people that have made investment decisions based on the rules, operating in the current “free market”. We should always look at ways to deregulate any market where it is feasible. Of those mentioned above, the taxicab industry is perhaps the most ripe for that. But this shouldn’t be done based on the manufactured perception that a new entrant into an industry is special, and deserves to “compete” based on rules that it only wants applied to itself. That, quite frankly, is the opposite of the free market. And in this case, that’s exactly what Tesla is asking for. That, and for you to contact your representative for more incentives to buy their cars in a distribution channel only available to them. In a “free” market. Frankly, I’m not sure if the law requiring auto manufacturers to sell through independent dealers is still required. There is an argument to be made that competition is actually increased under this model as the dealers must compete with each other on price and service if you want a Chevrolet, whereas there’s no negotiation with a Tesla. Or, one could argue that it isn’t a proper state role to create this barrier to entry. The fact remains, the auto market in Georgia has had this barrier for decades. It’s how the market currently works. And any change to that is a fundamental change to how a lot of Georgia businesses/employers operate, with a lot of deployed capital on the line. As such, it deserves a serious debate. Not a PR campaign that screams “free market” with no understanding of the term.

Apple invests over $40 million in HBCU technology talent to improve diversity

On March 10, 2015, Apple and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF)— a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization— announced Apple's multi-year commitment to make over $40 million in investments to HBCU technology students. TMCF supports students enrolled in publicly supported historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Howard University. The partnership with Apple will entail identifying, supporting and attracting students who strive to work in technology fields.TMCF currently provides direct support to approximately 2,500 students through awarding full tuition scholarships, providing leadership training and development and offering internships. Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., president and CEO of TMCF, described the new relationship with Apple as “perfectly symbiotic.” “The biggest focus is jobs. Scholarships, internships, and mentorship should produce full-time jobs at Apple," Taylor said. "Apple is going to get what it needs, which is a highly talented, diverse workforce. In our community, what it is going to do is give students who desire to participate in that very lucrative tech industry an opportunity to get in, and the real message is they can serve as examples for younger students who are in school contemplating what they want to do.” Taylor explained that Apple wants to encourage students who desire to build their own businesses to become involved in the app development space. The app development ecosystem is reportedly comprised of 99 percent Caucasians and Asians. An additional component of the partnership will involve participation of HBCU faculty members. Since they are responsible for producing a pipeline of qualified talent, instructors will visit Apple's Cupertino, Calif. campus. The educators will interact with Apple’s technology engineers, while gaining up-to-date industry knowledge. “What I love about this program is that it also helps build the capacity for HBCUs to prepare their students to compete for jobs on the West Coast. We have to ensure that Apple talks to our faculty and says to them your curriculum should look more like this. This is what we’re looking for when you deliver a student to our door,” Taylor said. “Some people almost naively think that you can just deliver up a 3.8 student from any school with a computer science degree and they should be able to get a job at Apple. And if they don’t, it’s because Apple was racist. They just don’t understand that a 3.8 in the wrong programming language doesn’t translate.” Apple's partnership with TMCF and investment in HBCU students will positively impact the entire HBCU landscape. "At TMCF, the quote is over $40 million dollars. It is the largest, single gift made exclusively to HBCUs,” Taylor said. “TMCF offers a number of different types of scholarships, but for this particular program, we are going to select juniors only who have a 3.5 or better GPA in tech-related majors.” For the student portion of the program, the application window is scheduled to occur in the fall. Student programs will not take effect until January 2016. The faculty component will start immediately. The first group of HBCU faculty members will visit Cupertino this fall. Taylor noted that Apple’s commitment to HBCUs is not a civil rights initiative or an affirmative action program. “Apple has said every student who comes through this program has to be competitive, not black and competitive, but competitive. The only point that Apple is making, which I think is critical, is we have spent all of our time only fishing in the ponds that include Stanford, Yale and Harvard, so we are missing some really talented people. Let’s go cast our net a little bit wider, because we are missing people who are eminently qualified,” Taylor said. To learn more about TMCF and the new partnership with Apple, visit: www.thurgoodmarshallfund.net

Apple, Microsoft Issue Freak Flaw Fixes

Microsoft Also Provides Update for Failed 2010 Stuxnet Patch By Mathew J. Schwartz, March 12, 2015. Apple, Microsoft Issue Freak Flaw Fixes Both Microsoft and Apple this week released patches to address the so-called "Freak" flaw that affects Windows as well as Apple's Mac OS X and mobile iOS operating systems. Microsoft also released a fix that addresses a failed patch for a vulnerability that was exploited by the Stuxnet malware. See Also: Automate and Standardize your IAM to Radically Reduce Risk The Freak - for "Factoring RSA-EXPORT Keys" - flaw could be abused by attackers to subvert secure Web connections by forcing crypto suites to downgrade from using a "strong" RSA cipher to a weaker, "export-grade" RSA cipher, which they could then crack and use to eavesdrop on SSL/TLS communications. "Once the attacker has the key she can eavesdrop on your communication and even modify it and redirect you to impostor sites," says Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of security firm Qualys, in a blog post. The Freak flaw was discovered in January, but kept quiet by researchers until March 3 as they alerted vendors and organizations, working with Johns Hopkins cryptographer Matthew Green. Numerous organizations have been shipping related patches. Notably, OpenSSL released a Freak-free update - OpenSSL 1.0.2 - on Jan. 22 to patch its related flaw, designated CVE-2015-0204. This week, Apple patched its form of Freak - designated CVE-2015-1067 - via its Security Update 2015-002, which removes support "for ephemeral RSA keys." The update is for just the three latest versions of OS X: Yosemite (10.10.2), Mavericks (10.9.5), and Mountain Lion (10.8.5). Users of Lion (10.7) and older Mac OS X operating systems remain vulnerable to Freak attacks, although security experts say none have yet been seen in the wild. Meanwhile, Microsoft this week also patched the Freak flaw by fixing a Secure Channel vulnerability in Windows, designated CVE-2015-1637. Freak Fixes: What's Missing? But according to the University of Michigan researchers who are running the Tracking the Freak Attack website, 9.5 percent of the 1 million most popular websites - as ranked by Amazon.com's Alexa subsidiary - are still vulnerable to the Freak flaw, although that's an improvement from the 12.2 percent of sites that were at risk as of March 3. Even so, the researchers warn that 26 percent of all HTTPS servers remain at risk from the Freak flaw. And they say that the flaw may also be present in mobile apps, embedded systems - such as industrial control applications - and any other software that uses TLS. Until those get fixed, users are at risk, warn the researchers from French computer science lab INRIA, Spanish computer lab IMDEA and Microsoft Research who discovered the Freak vulnerability. "You are vulnerable if you use a buggy Web browser [detailed below] to connect, over an insecure network, to an HTTPS website that allows export ciphersuite," they say on their Smack TLS website. "If you use Chrome 41 or Firefox to connect to a site that only offers strong ciphers, you are probably not affected." From a browser standpoint, the researchers have released this Freak-related guidance: Chrome: All versions before 41, on various platforms, are vulnerable - upgrade; Internet Explorer: All OS versions before March 9 are vulnerable - upgrade; Safari: All OS versions before March 9 are vulnerable - upgrade; Opera: All versions before 28 are vulnerable - upgrade; Android Browser: Vulnerable, so the researchers recommend switching to Chrome 41; Blackberry Browser: Vulnerable, no fix yet available. The University of Michigan researchers have created a client-check tool that scans for Freak flaws. "Even if your browser is safe, certain third-party software, including some anti-virus products and adware programs, can expose you to the attack by intercepting TLS connections from the browser," they say. "If you are using a safe browser but our client test says you're vulnerable, this is a likely cause." Windows Gets Numerous Fixes In addition to patching the Freak flaw in Windows, Microsoft this week released 14 security bulletins for its operating systems, of which five are critical. Related patches address everything from RTF parser flaws in Microsoft Office, to font-based vulnerabilities in Microsoft Office that could be exploited via malicious Office or PDF documents, to a Windows Text Services flaw that could be exploited to run code on a target's PC. But Kandek at Qualys says the highest-priority fix involves Internet Explorer - all versions from IE6 to IE11 - which gets a patch that fixes 12 vulnerabilities, of which 10 are rated as being "critical" in severity because they can be exploited to remotely run arbitrary code. "In a typical scenario an attacker would plant malicious HTML code on a website that is under her control and lure the target to the site, or hack a site that the target habitually browses to, and simply wait for the target to come to the site," he says. 2010 Stuxnet Fix: Take Two One of those Microsoft patches was for an unexpected problem: a lingering zero-day vulnerability that had been exploited by Stuxnet, which was discovered in June 2010. The malware was allegedly built by a U.S.-Israeli cyberweapons program, code-named "Olympic Games," to cripple nuclear enrichment centrifuges in Iran. But according to researchers at HP's Zero Day Initiative, which rewards security researchers for disclosing vulnerabilities, the vulnerability persisted. They say they were approached in early January 2015 by researcher Michael Heerklotz, who detailed the familiar Windows vulnerability, which allows an attacker to create malware that uses custom icons from .CPL, or Windows control panel files, to run arbitrary executable files. Such malware could be hidden on a USB key, so that when it was plugged into a Windows system, it could automatically exploit it. "To prevent this attack, Microsoft put in an explicit whitelist check with MS10-046, released in early August 2010," ZDI says in a blog post. "Once that patch was applied, in theory only approved .CPL files should have been able to be used to load non-standard icons for links." But the patch failed. "For more than four years, all Windows systems have been vulnerable to exactly the same attack that Stuxnet used for initial deployment," ZDI says. Kurt Baumgartner, a principal security researcher at Moscow-based anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Lab, says that information security researchers have now found that this flaw was exploited as early as 2008 by what it's dubbed the Equation Group, which some researchers suspect is the U.S. National Security Agency. But it's not clear if information security researchers - at intelligence agencies or otherwise - knew that Microsoft's initial, 2010 fix for the flaw failed to block all such attacks. "We have not observed a different implementation of this newly [reported] LNK exploit in the wild - yet," Baumgartner says. Numerous researchers are warning that this flaw could still be targeted in unpatched versions of Windows, for example by crimeware toolkits. "To exploit the vulnerability, an actor would either need to convince a user to visit a malicious website, which is not an uncommon tactic, or have physical access to a vulnerable system to insert a USB device containing a specially crafted shortcut," threat-intelligence firm iSight Partners says in a research note.

Verizon Goes Over the Top With AwesomenessTV and DreamWorksTV; Orders More Than 200 Hours of Original Programming

NEW YORK, March 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Verizon, a longtime leader in video, said today it has an agreement to add more than 200 hours of original content per year produced by AwesomenessTV to be available for customers later this year through over the top video. The AwesomenessTV channel will target teens and young millennials, with new scripted and unscripted series. The family-oriented DreamWorksTV will feature both live action and animated short-form content as well as some of DreamWorks Animation's most recognizable characters. The offering will only be available in the U.S. This is a multiyear deal. "It's increasingly clear that 'mobile first' is the way millennials are consuming all types of content, especially HD video and music," said Terry Denson, vice president, content acquisition and strategy at Verizon. "At Verizon, we're committed to working with only the best and most innovative content providers, like AwesomenessTV, and driving opportunities as new content models emerge and customers experience the most in-demand and popular video in entirely new ways." AwesomenessTV Networks is one of the most popular and best watched, especially among teen viewers, with over 7 billion views and 112 million subscribers. "This is an incredible opportunity to expand the audience for both AwesomenessTV and DreamWorksTV. Mobile is where our audience lives, which is why we are looking forward to working with Verizon to introduce our programming and talent to their massive customer base," said Brian Robbins, CEO and co-founder AwesomenessTV. Why Great Content for Mobile Video Matters Consumers increasingly demand 24/7 access to great entertainment, informative programs and popular videos, no matter where they are and no matter what wireless device they have in their pocket. Traditional video-viewing habits are evolving, and multiple screens with time-shifted video are becoming more popular, especially among millennials. These customers are faster to adopt new technology and are more likely to adopt new ways of doing things, especially related to technology. A recent study done by CTM/University of Southern California found that nearly two-thirds of millennials surveyed consider smartphones or tablets, not televisions, their primary device, and they are more likely than others to engage in entertainment activities on their mobile devices – including social sharing. The study also found a 12 percent increase in overall video consumption between 2013 and 2014, with 18- to 24-year-olds having the largest increase, which nearly doubled the national average. AwesomenessTV is multi-platform media company serving the global teen audience, owned by DreamWorks Animation (Nasdaq: DWA) and Hearst Corporation, which has a 25% interest. AwesomenessTV includes AwesomenessTV, a channel featuring original scripted and reality series; the ATV Network, a community based MCN with over seven billion views; the DreamWorksTV Channel, Big Frame Management, plus consumer products, music and publishing divisions. AwesomenessTV also produces theatrical films and television series, including Expelled which debuted at #1 on iTunes, the AwesomenessTV series and Terry the Tomboy movie on Nickelodeon and Richie Rich on Netflix. AwesomenessTV was founded by Brian Robbins (Smallville, Varsity Blues, All That) and Joe Davola (In Living Color, Smallville, MTV Networks). Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with more than 108 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. A Dow 30 company with more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of 177,300. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/verizon-goes-over-the-top-with-awesomenesstv-and-dreamworkstv-orders-more-than-200-hours-of-original-programming-300048911.html SOURCE Verizon