GigaOM » Hyundai

Hyundai wants your NFC-enabled smartphone to be your car keys

Ryan Kim — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:43:51 +0000

As we’ve pointed out, NFC isn’t just about payments and Hyundai is showing how it might be used to replace your next set of car keys. The auto maker is testing a new prototype of its Connectivity Concept, which allows users to access their car and interact with it using NFC-enabled smartphones.

The technology, which won’t actually go into production until 2015, allows a user to unlock and lock their car by tapping their phone on an NFC tag on the car door. That would mimic some of the basic building access tests we’re seeing using NFC smartphones. And it also replicates some of the mobile applications that allow for remote entry via a smartphone.

But Hyundai wants to go further. Once a user gets in the car, they place their smartphone in a center console, activating their specific user profile. The car then remembers the user’s specific settings such as radio station preferences and seating positions.

Users can stream their own music and phone contacts to the car’s 7-inch touch screen display, which can also interact with a phone’s navigation, multimedia and applications. It’s not clear if the streaming is via Bluetooth. The center console can also wirelessly charge the phone, something Toyota is integrating into its 2013 Avalon Limited.

Hyundai said it will be relying on a partnership with Broadcom to power its upcoming connected cars. This will be part of a larger package of connected services from Hyundai such as infotainment, telematics, reverse parking cameras and lane departure warnings.

I do wonder how much added security will be layered on because I wouldn’t want someone to be able to get into my car and drive off with my phone. Users will likely need to enter in a PIN, I imagine, to gain access to or start the car. But this shows again how NFC can be provide value in various settings because it makes tap-and-go interactions intelligent and can simplify the process of connecting and streaming information.

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Photos: Next-gen solar tech at Intersolar

Katie Fehrenbacher — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 22:58:36 +0000

Solar polar bear

One of the largest solar conferences in the U.S., Intersolar, kicked off on Tuesday in downtown San Francisco, and is expected to draw around 22,000 attendees in the solar and power sectors this week. One of my favorite parts of the event is checking out the latest solar gear that the companies tout at their booths, spread across two floors at the Moscone Center.

Here’s what I saw this year:

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Green IT’s Q4 Winners: Wind Power, Solar Power, Smart Energy

Jeff St. John — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 08:00:09 +0000

Greentech marked its best year ever in 2010, and part of that is thanks to the wealth of activity across sectors during the fourth quarter. Global investment in clean energy surged, and while wind power remained the biggest greentech area, solar power saw the fastest growth. The energy efficiency sector appears to have more room for smaller players to make their mark amidst a rapidly maturing market. Meanwhile, China’s stance as a growing greentech giant continued to complicate its relationship with the United States. Companies mentioned in this report include General Electric, Intel, ZigBee, iControl, People Power and EnerNOC. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial.

Ditch Solar Manufacturing, Look to Software, Services

Ucilia Wang — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 15:03:30 +0000

Where can solar startups find opportunities when their playground is increasingly dominated by giants from other industries? That’s a question that some Silicon Valley solar company executives and investors have pondered for some time now, and manufacturing no longer seems a profitable pursuits for many.

Consider this: The biggest news announced around Solar Power International in Los Angeles this week has come from the likes of General Electric and LG. GE has been vocal about its interest in the solar market, and on Tuesday, it outlined precisely when it can offer products and services and what they will be. It plans to start rolling out cadmium-telluride solar panels via Colorado-based PrimeStar Solar (GE is its biggest investor) in 2011, and it’s now offering copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) panels from Solar Frontier of Japan. Don’t forget GE is also selling inverters and its project engineering expertise.

LG also announced Tuesday that it’s coming to America to sell its several lines of silicon-based solar panels. It plans to invest $820 million in research and manufacturing over the next five years to generate billions of dollars in revenue during the same period. Meanwhile, Hyundai Heavy Industries, the big shipbuilder in Korea, said Monday it would build a 400-megawatt CIGS solar cell factory in its homeland with a French partner, Compagnie de Saint-Gobain, through a joint venture called Hyundai Avancis.

The encroachment of the conglomerates, combined with the rapid growth of the Chinese solar companies in recent years, has made venture capitalists and Silicon Valley startups rethink their strategies. In manufacturing, there really isn’t much room for new comers who dream of building massive factories. The days of new Nanosolars and Miasoles emerging in 2010 are over. Private investors aren’t so willing to part with their money, and too many manufactures are vying for government subsidies.

Damoder Reddy, co-founder and CEO of venture-backed Solexant, said investors are “extremely shy” about investing in solar manufacturers, particularly since many of their solar investments haven’t paid off. Reddy is still on a march to build his first full-scale factory. Solexant, which prints nanocrystal form of cadmium-telluride compound on metal foil and then sandwiches the cells in glass, is planning a $40 million, 100-megawatt factory in Oregon.

Contract manufacturing and intellectual property licensing will increasingly become an important part of the business models for Silicon Valley technology developers, just as they did for semiconductor startups in the last 20 years. Some solar startups already are moving in that direction. Stion, while building its own factory, also has signed a deal with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to make its CIGS panels. (TSMC rose to prominence because chip startups could no longer afford to build their own factories.) Innovalight ditched its solar cell manufacturing plan and began selling silicon ink that can boost power generation of solar panels made by the likes of JA Solar and Yingli Green Energy.

Manufacturers that are already producing lighter-weight solar panels that can carpet flat roofs without racks or be built into roofs and other construction materials can still gain a first-move advantage, mainly because it’s a space that many larger manufacturers don’t want to invest in right now. State incentives that encourage adding solar to new homes help to promote these building-integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) products, which don’t stand out nearly as much as conventional solar electric system erected on the rooftops. Success in this field will depend largely on the interest of builders and roofing and other building material companies.

A change in California’s solar incentive program earlier this year allowed builders to bring in a partner who can finance and own solar electric systems on new homes, and that opened up new opportunities for BIPV offerings, said Tom Harvey, director of sales and marketing for SunRun, which has financed solar shingle installations in a new Southern California community built by Toll Brothers. SunRun charges homeowners a monthly fee for using the solar electricity.

The builders “are more concerned about aesthetics. Price isn’t as important as ensuring that their homes look a certain way,” Harvey said.

SunRun also offers an example of the opportunities that haven’t been fully explored. Solar, unlike the chip industry, sells not just goods but also services. Companies like SolarCity are expanding their services to include energy auditing and installation of solar water heaters and other equipment to make homes and businesses use energy more efficiently. Hybrid systems that can generate solar electricity and thermal energy to heat and cool buildings also seem promising.

Valuable services will require innovative software for everything from engineering and installing to monitoring and maintaining solar electric systems. There’s room for companies that can develop good software to help consumers and businesses manage their solar electric systems and overall, monthly energy consumption and expenditures. Some companies developing home energy monitoring gadgets and software are already eyeing this opportunity, but the market is too new to have created clear winners.

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Superconducting Wire Powering Up Korean Smart Grid

Jeff St. John — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 21:07:51 +0000

Could superconducting cable revolutionize the way electric grids operate? American Superconductor believes so. On Wednesday, it announced the sale of 3 million meters of superconducting wire to Korea’s LS Cable, which will then turn it into high-tech superconducting cable and test the cable in projects including South Korea’s smart grid test bed of Jeju Island.

The island project follows American Superconductor’s deals with LS Cable to wire up a Seoul-area substation with Korean utility Kepco, as well as a project with New York’s Long Island Power Authority and French cable maker Nexans. AMSC’s plans for Jeju Island are new, and represent an interesting application of the technology for high-voltage, direct-current (HVDC) cables.

While traditional alternating current (AC) transmission lines require huge towers and cables, superconducting HVDC lines can carry up to 5 gigawatts of power through a three-foot diameter pipe, all while reducing power losses associated with AC overhead transmission. That could make superconducting HVDC systems cost-competitive with traditional high-voltage AC lines, but capable of being deployed using a lot less space and can also be used in places that big power lines can’t reach, the company claims.

The first test will come on Jeju Island, where LS Cable and Kepco plan to deploy a 1-kilometer HVDC cable system. It will be part of a massive smart grid pilot project involving a South Korean consortium including LG, SK Telecom, KT, KEPCO, GS Caltex, and Hyundai Heavy Industries. The South Korean government plans to invest 37 billion won (about $33.1 million USD) into the project.

American Superconductor won’t start shipping its new order of wire to LS Cable until 2012, and doesn’t expect its HVDC test project at Jeju Island to get underway until 2013. Whether this will lead to broader markets for its high-efficiency, but high-cost superconducting wire remains to be seen. The company is also working on the Tres Amigas project, a proposed three-way HVDC transmission hub in the American Southwest.

American Superconductor points out that its 3 million-meter wire order with LS Cable will end up being turned into only about 10 miles of superconducting cable of all kind. Given that thousands of miles of copper cable are deployed in grids around the world every year, that gives a sense of the market the company is targeting — though only in niche applications right now. Competitors in the superconductor wire business include Sumitomo, but American Superconductor says its “second-generation” Amperium wire costs less, mainly by reducing the amount of expensive silver needed and through cheaper manufacturing processes.

Interestingly, American Superconductor also has its wind power technology in place on Jeju Island. While it’s seeing growth for its superconducting wire business, the company has made most of its money to date by licensing wind turbine designs and selling supporting power electronics and control gear to some of the world’s top wind turbine makers — including Doosan Heavy Industries, which has 3 megawatts of wind turbines installed at the island.

Just how superconducting cable and wind turbines might be combined in the smart grid project isn’t yet clear. American Superconductor does hope to bring a 10-megawatt “SeaTitan” wind turbine design, which includes its Amperium wire as part of the turbine itself, to market through licensing partners in the coming year. It will be competing against a host of companies trying to bring even larger offshore wind turbines to market.

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Official Twitter App Now Live in App Store

Darrell Etherington — Wed, 19 May 2010 18:44:13 +0000

Twitter for iPhone is here, and those of you who already have Tweetie 2 installed on your phone can get it just by checking the App Store for updates. It brings with it a new icon, some UI refinements, and a few new features, including a couple not available anywhere else. There certainly are benefits to being on the inside.

One of the first (and most notable) changes is the price. Whereas Tweetie 2 was $2.99, Twitter is now a free app for all. And that’s without ads. While I’m slightly sore about having paid for what’s now freely available, I don’t begrudge atebits the money and at least I get the update free. One note of warning, if you upgrade from an existing install you’ll have to re-add all your accounts and any drafts you might’ve saved will be lost. Not fantastic, but not tragic, either.

One thing I’m not too crazy about is the new icon. I realize that official corporate backing required a more recognizable and brand-friendly icon, but the Tweetie icon was one of my absolute favorites. At the very least, I’d have liked them to have kept the same color scheme and cut-out style, while just replacing the word-ballon graphic with the Twitter bird.

Things that are improved are the search function, the addition of recommended user lists and the ability to sign up for a new account right from within the app. Those last two you won’t get anywhere else, either, since no public API exists for either function. Another neat feature is that you don’t have to be logged in to use Twitter for iPhone. Searching and trending topics are available to all via a new interface that launches at first startup if you just want to have a look around without creating an account.

Top tweets are now included in search results as well, which should go a long way toward making them more meaningful, and the retweet function (the official version) has been added to the context menu that comes up for each tweet when you swipe. Finally, some visual changes have been made so that the tweets themselves look more like they do on Twitter.com.

Bottom line, if you liked Tweetie on the iPhone, you’ll like official Twitter incarnation. And if you’ve been waiting for a reason to switch, official support and a price tag of free are two very good reasons. It’ll be interesting to see how the development community responds to this. Tweetie was hard enough to compete with before it became officially sanctioned. Once Twitter for iPad hits, I think apps by third-party sources will have a hard time surviving, except by offering sync services and access to other services like Tweetdeck does.

What do you think? Will you be using Twitter or something else on your iPhone now that it’s out?

Get Ready for the South Korean Smart Grid Firms

Katie Fehrenbacher — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:00:41 +0000

Back when I was a broadband reporter for Red Herring magazine, I took a trip to Seoul and did the classic story on how South Korea kick-started its economy with government investment into blazing-fast broadband pipes that created its world-leading mobile and web industries. South Korea’s broadband buildout may hold some interesting lessons for the U.S. smart grid rollout, as I’ve noted before. But the country could also take a leading role in the smart grid market, with South Korean smart grid firms competing directly against the companies in Silicon Valley that are developing the next-generation of smart grid tools. According to a report today in Reuters, South Korea has picked eight consortiums to build a smart grid test bed in the country and South Korea is vying for “30 percent share of the global smart grid industry.”

In the same way (albeit on a smaller scale) that the South Korean government pumped money into developing broadband infrastructure, the government plans to invest 37 billion won (about $32 million) initially into building out the smart grid test-bed. The companies that will start building the smart grid infrastructure include a who’s-who of South Korean IT companies including mobile leaders SK Telecom and KT, consumer electronics and cell phone heavyweight LG, power companies KEPCO and GS Caltex, and Hyundai Heavy Industries. Taking the same approach as the island nation of Malta — isolating the buildout to a geographical area — the South Korean government plans to build the smart grid test bed on the island of Jeju, which is south of Seoul (see map above).

While the investment from the South Korean government isn’t huge at this point, I wouldn’t discount its goal to acquire a 30 percent share of the global market as unreachable. KT, SK Telecom, and LG have long histories of mobile and broadband innovation, and they tend to spend a lot of money on R&D, taking risks and rolling out products and services that are at the bleeding edge. That means some of the companies’ risky products can be duds — see SK Telecom’s failed mobile joint venture Helio, which was sold off to Virgin Mobile. But the approach seems to be working for many of them: LG is the third largest cell phone maker in terms of marketshare, solidly beating out American phone maker Motorola.

I haven’t researched the ins and outs of what types of smart grid products South Korean firms are working on, but the country’s leadership in the battery space could also give it a leg up in energy storage for the smart grid. Very few American firms have so far been able to compete with both South Korean and Japanese companies when it comes to battery technology.

Given the smart grid industry is just being developed, recently getting a boost from the $3.4 billion in U.S. stimulus funding, it’s not strictly about competition at this point. There’s some cooperative learning going on as well: Earlier this year the U.S. smart grid trade group the GridWise Alliance and the Korea Smart Grid Association (KGSA) teamed up to share intelligence about building out smart grid technology.

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Watching the Michael Jackson Funeral Live

Liz Gannes — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 17:49:17 +0000

10:30 a.m.: The Michael Jackson funeral has begun. Watching CNN.com Live feed with Facebook integration. Facebook reports 6,000 status updates/minute, on a more global scale than what they saw with live Obama Inauguration coverage. CNN doesn’t have audio from the Staples Center, switching to MSNBC.

10:35: MSNBC has Twitter integration — automatically tags posts “#MJ #MSNBC.” Updates are coming in too fast to read. Chris reports seeing a pre-roll on MSNBC as well as Hulu.

10:39: Checked back with CNN, it’s way behind the other feeds. Also the “friends” filter isn’t that effective for me since many of mine are not watching. There should be some sort of semantic filter to bring in friend updates that are actually relevant.

10:43: Here’s a screenshot of my overloaded desktop where you can get an idea of how the different feeds look:

10:45: Man, CNN is not handling all the traffic it’s getting. Keeps stopping up.

10:53: Fox News player looks more pixelated out than others, though seems like it’s because they’re using a larger player size. Hulu’s version of the same feed looks better.

10:57: Finally got Ustream’s version of CBS News’ feed to load after it had timed out a bunch of times. Now it’s way behind — still on Lionel Richie while we’re well into Berry Gordy. But I really like the Twitter integration Social Stream. Automatically fills in “Hey @ CBSNews” on the Ustream page and shows a feed of all @CBSNews messages.

11:04: MTV has a nice, on-time stream but it’s on its own show page, while Facebook integration is on the home page. It’s awkward to split up the conversation like that. Man, MJ had a lot of hits — they’re showing a music video montage.

11:11: While Stevie Wonder plays, Akamai reports more than 2 million live streams across its network. (It handles some 20 percent of the world’s web traffic.)

11:18: USA Today powered by Livestream takes quite awhile to load up, but after that there doesn’t seem to be any lag in the stream. Reports more than 23,500 concurrent watchers. However, comments have been disabled “to help maintain the quality of the video stream.”

11:24: Maybe it’s just because I’ve been watching it since before the service started, but ABC News seems to have the most timely stream, with others lagging behind to varying degrees.

11:38: The New York Times purports to have a live video feed on its home page, but I can’t bring it in. However, it’s running on the ArtsBeat blog.

11:46: Wow, MySpace’s video is just glossy beauty. Really nice big picture.

11:50: Justin.tv’s E! Online feed is running a tasteless overlay ad, but interesting that many of the comments are in non-English languages.

11:58: BBC World News on Livestation actually has a news scroll going at the bottom of the picture. There are other things going on in the world right now?!? Who knew…

12:05: Akamai’s live counting of live streamers around the world seems to be holding steady at just under 2 million.

12:10: Chris says: The InMusic feed keeps disconnecting and we’re getting a low bit-rate. (The site promises HD viewing, but we’re getting a lot less than that.) This particular video stream is powered by Silverlight.

12:18: This is Chris, I’ve had the MSNBC feed on for most of the morning and it’s been a workhorse. Not the prettiest video quality, and the audio has had the occasional blip, but it hasn’t gone down and has been a solid performer.

12:28: Liz again, with stats from Facebook:

CNN is once again utilizing Facebook Connect and the Live Stream Box so that Internet users across the globe can watch the Michael Jackson memorial service live while simultaneously updating their Facebook status and following their Friends on Facebook – and other Jackson fans around the world – without leaving the http://www.facebook.com/l/;CNN.com Live video player. As of 10:30 a.m. PDT, these are the numbers we are seeing just from http://www.facebook.com/l/;CNN.com:

• 500,000 status updates

• 300,000 users logged in

• Approx 6,000 status updates per minute

Here is some additional information:

• Two weeks after the self-service availability of the Facebook Live Stream Box, we’re seeing it implemented on the home page of E! Online, MTV, ABC News to broadcast the Michael Jackson memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Ca.

• The Michael Jackson page (www.facebook.com/michaeljackson) has grown to have nearly 7 million fans, possibly making it the largest single following of any public figure on the Web and 1 million more than President Obama’s page on Facebook

• The free Michael Jackson glove virtual gift is the most popular in Facebook history with over 800,000 given away

• The Michael Jackson memorial GroupCard received signatures from Facebook users around the world

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Milestone: Toyota Plug-in Hybrid to Roll Out En Masse by 2012

Josie Garthwaite — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:31:13 +0000

Less than three years: that’s the wait time left for a plug-in hybrid from Toyota at commercial scale, according to reports this weekend from Japan’s Nikkei (h/t Reuters). The news that Toyota plans to start churning out at least 20,000 to 30,000 plug-in hybrids in 2012 comes just one month after the company first detailed plans to lease plug-in hybrids based on the latest Prius model with lithium-ion batteries.

Toyota’s plans to move forward with mass production of its plug-in hybrid vehicle within the next few years — at a price comparable to Mitsubishi’s planned electric vehicle, according to the Nikkei’s sources — represents another major milestone for a technology that’s widely seen as the future of electric car batteries. The timeline also offers a glimpse of the competition coming down the pipeline for plug-in hybrid makers like General Motors with its Chevy Volt, and to some extent Fisker Automotive and Hyundai with their plug-in hybrid sports cars, as well as Honda if it eventually ends up pursuing plug-in hybrid tech. (Honda President Takeo Fukui described it as an option under consideration earlier this year.)

For comparison, former Volt frontman Bob Lutz has said GM is supposed to roll out 10,000 units of the model in 2011, and have as many as 60,000 of them in showrooms in 2012. On the upside for GM, the Volt looks like its $40,000 price tag will be significantly lower than the price Toyota is aiming for. (Mitsubishi plans to offer its EV to fleet customers in Japan for around 4.59 million yen, or $47,800.)

But GM won’t necessarily be able to afford to compete on cost in the plug-in hybrid market (or trim prices the way Toyota has with the Prius in response to the new Honda Insight) over the long term. Aside from being fresh from banktuptcy, GM doesn’t expect to profit on the Volt until well after the first generation of the model, which is intended for the mass market but priced on the high end (which could hinder sales).

Battery makers also may face a changing competitive landscape as a result of Toyota’s plug-in hybrid ambitions. As we noted last month, the plug-in hybrid lease program announced in June marked the first time that Toyota is using lithium-ion batteries (as opposed to nickel-metal hydride) for propulsion in one of its vehicles. Mass deployment of lithium-ion batteries (developed and manufactured by Toyota’s joint venture with Panasonic, Reuters reports) in the upcoming plug-in model — and in the all-electric Toyota FT-EV subcompact also slated to launch by 2012 — could mean a massive competitor, but potentially also new opportunities.

Those opportunities could result from Toyota’s lithium-ion and plug-in plays increasing pressure on competing automakers to turn to startups. The idea would be to secure a quick fix for technology in an attempt to speed plug-in models to market (something Daimler described as part of the reasoning for its investment in Tesla Motors). On the other hand, with mass-scale production, ramped-up battery production from Toyota’s joint ventures with both Panasonic and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (which now makes the nickel-metal hydride batteries for the regular hybrid Prius and aims to start out capacity for lithium-ion batteries this year) could present tough competition for smaller startups without the same manufacturing capacity or resources.

2010 Toyota Prius photo credit Toyota

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Daily Sprout

Josie Garthwaite — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 23:00:35 +0000

REC Halves Solar Cell Output: Renewable Energy Corp. plans to cut solar cell and module production in the second quarter by nearly 50 percent to adjust to weak markets, although it will restart halted production later in the year. — Reuters

Think to Scope Out Oregon: Representatives from Think North America will visit Oregon next week as part of a hunt for a site (and incentives) where it can build a factory and technical center for its electric Think City car. Seven other states, including Michigan, are also in the running. — Portland Business Journal

Utilities Accelerate Smart Grid Efforts: Not known for rapid change, utilities have been pushing ahead with smart grid upgrades at “rocket speed,” creating new opportunity for startups. — Mass High Tech

Proven Energy Snags Another $672K: Low Carbon Accelerator has invested another £500,000 ($672,000) in Scotland-based small wind turbine maker Proven Energy, hiking the firm’s total investment to $9.6 million and its equity ownership in the startup to 49.83 percent. — Cleantech Group

Hyundai Plug-Ins to Hit U.S. in 2012: Hyundai officials in Korea have confirmed that the brand plans bring its first plug-in hybrid to the U.S. in late 2012, hoping to go head-to-head with the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius. — Motortrend

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