☕ Battery best-ofs

Highlights from Detroit's Battery Show.

October 14, 2024 Presented By It's Monday. Last week was a busy one for the transportation beat: Tech Brew's Jordyn Grzelewski spent most of the week looping around the floor at Detroit's Battery show, and Tesla revealed its long-awaited robotaxi. She's got dispatches on both below. In today's edition: A look at some of the cool tech we saw at Detroit's Battery Show Tesla's long-awaited robotaxi reveal prompts skepticism about tech, timelines Adobe's new tool aims to let artists opt out of AI training —Jordyn Grzelewski, Patrick Kulp, Annie Saunders FUTURE OF TRAVEL Plugged in Sweetbunfactory/Getty Images Many of the challenges of the EV transition have to do with batteries—from consumer concerns about charging to industry-wide efforts to make batteries cheaper so plug-in vehicles are more accessible. Tech Brew went deep on all things battery tech last week at Detroit's Battery Show, a conference and expo featuring roughly 1,150 battery and hybrid/EV suppliers. The schedule was chock full of informative discussions on everything from emerging battery chemistry innovations to considerations for commercial fleets to EV charging infrastructure. Here's a roundup of some cool tech that caught our eye. Get in formation: Tech Brew caught up with Don Wright, VP of engineering at Unico, which provides EV test solutions. The company unveiled the BAT350, the latest iteration of its battery cell formation and testing technology. Wright explained that the tech could significantly speed up the battery-cell manufacturing process, enabling automakers to either reduce the size of their battery plants or as much as triple their output of battery cells. It could also help drive cost efficiencies, a key consideration for automakers looking to bring down the cost of EV batteries. "Instead of it taking three weeks to make a cell, it might take you one week," Wright said. Keep reading here.—JG Presented By ServiceNow Put AI Agents to Work for People The next big leap in AI has arrived: AI agents. But how can they help your business? Simply put, AI agents can think, learn, solve problems, and make decisions autonomously. They work on your team's behalf, elevating their productivity and potential. And you're always in control. Yes, really. Only the ServiceNow platform puts AI agents to work across every corner of your business. Imagine a team of ServiceNow AI agents proactively solving challenges in IT, HR, customer service, software development, you name it. Collaborating and learning from each other—handling the busywork so your people can focus on what truly matters. It's time to put ServiceNow AI agents to work for your people. FUTURE OF TRAVEL Cybercab critiques Tesla Tesla CEO Elon Musk pulled up to a stage on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California, last week in a futuristic-looking vehicle that reflects his vision for turning the EV maker into an AI and robotics company. Musk laid out a scenario in which individual owners—or "shepherds," as he called them—would amass their own "flocks" of robotaxis called "Cybercabs," which they'd make money on by offering paid rides to passengers. "I think the cost of autonomous transport will be so low," Musk said, "that you can think of it like individualized mass transit." But Tesla's stock was down following the event, and Musk's presentation generated some skepticism about the plan's technology, timeline, and business model. "This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me," Edwin Olson, CEO of AV company May Mobility, told Tech Brew of Musk's robotaxi business model. "If you've got autonomous vehicles and they are cash-printing machines, because you can just turn them loose and they make money, then finding equity or investors to finance these vehicles shouldn't be hard. Why do you need individual 'shepherds' going and buying 10 vehicles at a time?" Keep reading here.—JG AI I'd rather not Sopa Images/Getty Images With AI tech progress outpacing regulations to rein it in, digital artists have little guarantee that their work won't be fed to a dataset that could ultimately help an image generator mimic their style. Adobe is aiming to change that with a new tool that would give creators a means to digitally sign their images, videos, and audio files and potentially control how they are used. The software giant's new tool, set to roll out early next year, will allow creators to attach Content Credentials to their work, a "nutrition label" of sorts that includes attribution data and preferences around use in generative AI training. The credential system is part of the Content Authenticity Initiative, an Adobe-led industry group that aims to create a standard for tagging the provenance of digital media at a time when sophisticated AI visuals have eroded a sense of reality online. "We all read headlines about copyright lawsuits and GenAI models scraping the web with impunity, without any regard for ownership or compensation; these are real concerns that we're hearing from our community," Andy Parsons, senior director at the Content Authenticity Initiative, told Tech Brew. "Until there are copyright laws and court cases that protect that explicitly by law, we think it's very important now and into the future beyond those times, to ensure that creators have agency to specify their preferences." Keep reading here.—PK Together With Cisco Are you ready for it? Cybersecurity threats are coming in hot, with 54% of companies experiencing a cybersecurity incident in the past year. Make sure your org is ready to face these attacks with Cisco's updated Cybersecurity Readiness Index. Measure + improve your readiness with this guide. BITS AND BYTES Stat: 0.5–2%. That's how much values rose for properties surrounding Midwest utility-scale solar projects, Canary Media reported, citing a study from Loyola University researcher Gilbert Michaud. Quote: "We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating."—Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club, to the Associated Press on plans for Wimbledon to replace line judges with electronic line-calling Read: Please don't make me download another app (The Atlantic) Discover: ServiceNow's breakthrough AI innovation can help your customers and employees unlock 24/7 productivity at massive scale.* *A message from our sponsor. SHARE THE BREW Share Tech Brew with your coworkers, acquire free Brew swag, and then make new friends as a result of your fresh Brew swag. We're saying we'll give you free stuff and more friends if you share a link. One link. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: emergingtechbrew.com/r/?kid=b3968dba Written by Jordyn Grzelewski, Patrick Kulp, and Annie Saunders Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here.   Guide → What is AI?   Guide → What is 5G? Take The Brew to work Marketers: Marketing Brew Corporate: CFO Brew   HR Brew Tech: IT Brew   Retailers: Retail Brew Healthcare: Healthcare Brew Get smarter in just 5 minutes Business News: Morning Brew Money & Career: Money With Katie   Bossy   Brew Markets   The Playbook Interested in podcasts? Check out ours here ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here. View our privacy policy here. Copyright © 2024 Morning Brew. All rights reserved. 22 W 19th St, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10011