The phrase ‘smart city’ means many things to many people, but it’s been nearly 20 years since the term was first used by IBM and Cisco to recognize how connected sensors can be used to monitor urban issues. Smart cities in the UK were a hot topic just a few years ago, but in the time since progress has been divided between regions.

Local authorities, regional mayors, as well as companies from across the private sector are focused on collaborating to deploy smart networks. The hope is these will transform how people, vehicles, and businesses benefit from positive interactions with technology.

Gradually, this work is cutting through to business customers and the general public. Technologies such as 5G, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT) were identified by 54%, 42%, and 37% of Brits respectively as being used right now within their own cities according to a recent survey by software and services marketplace Capterra.

While this doesn’t automatically make those cities ‘smart’, experts say such increased public awareness is important to the overall goal of collecting and analyzing data from a wide range of sources to boost automation, security, safety, and communication at a local level. Capterra suggests this could include using AI and predictive analytics to schedule road maintenance or leveraging IoT sensors to spot issues with waste management. 

Smart cities in the UK: What and where are they?

Smart cities are urban environments in which connected devices are used to collect real-time data and feed this into systems that can improve public and private services. For example, digitization of urban transport such as bus services can provide passengers with live arrival information and also signal to a transportation department if there are any inefficiencies present within the transport system. The benefits of smart cities include:

• Better, more responsive public services for citizens.
• Improved accessibility at the public and private level, alongside better digital experience through which business can increase revenue. This applies to businesses that have not formerly had as visible a digital presence.
• A streamlined path to sustainable transformation.
• Greater quality and depth of information for data-driven decision-making at the public and private level.

According to Dr Robert Johns, engineer and data analyst at programming language and DevOps tutorial site Hackr, the smart city concept has evolved rapidly over the past five years. Johns has analyzed petabytes of urban data on transportation, resource usage, and public service access in his research.

The initial focus of smart cities in the UK was around edge sensors and connectivity infrastructure, but Johns says advancements in Dublin and Copenhagen have shown “the critical role data plays in powering innovative, sustainable solutions”. 

“One study I led in Dublin using IoT feeds from traffic cams and public transit usage revealed optimization opportunities that reduced commute times by an average of 15 minutes – a lesson well learned,” Johns tells ITPro. 

Newcastle’s open data successes are cited as another example by Johns. “Their portal spawned over 300 community solutions like one helping at-risk youth find activities I advised on,” he explains.

To date, the fragmented landscape for smart cities in the UK has driven regional divides. While some urban areas lag behind, Leeds City Council is digitizing to provide a city-wide network layer for businesses, while Edinburgh aims to become a cutting-edge smart city to improve its traffic, security, and social housing infrastructure.

Cities such as London and Bristol are achieving faster travel times and slashing energy bills through the use of smart tech.

“Looking ahead, strategic data-driven partnerships unlocking urban potential will define smarter development,” Johns adds. 

“Early leaders provide a solid starting point, but widespread change demands sustained cross-sector collaboration and policies maximizing social good. The future, from where I stand, looks bright for evidence-based communities worldwide.”

Smart cities in the UK: Accelerating progress

Dennis Dokter, smart cities lead at the University of Leeds’ innovation hub Nexus, believes the creation of smart cities should not be defined by set deadlines. Instead, the core challenge is determining what to digitize first with the path being “iterative and ongoing”. 

“We may never witness a ‘smart city’ in its complete form as the term implies,” he says. “Cities should ideally become ‘smarter’, continuously evolving alongside advancements in technology and society. 

“Redefining ‘smart’ in the context of urban development should emphasize not only the technological push towards digitization and automation but also a city where those systems are used for citizen engagement, inclusive growth, and democratization.”

The need for this positive messaging around smart cities is clear, with those surveyed in Capterra’s research admitting to fears surrounding the technology associated with UK smart city projects. Half (49%) pointed to the potential for “increased surveillance” and six in 10 (62%) worried about the lack of data protection. These fears aren’t entirely without merit, as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has previously warned smart cities in the UK could be vulnerable to foreign influence, or enable cyber attacks on critical national infrastructure.

“As smart cities depend on the use of large volumes of data from various sources, companies and other urban authorities need to do everything they can to reassure residents their data is being collected in a responsible and legal manner,” Capterra analyst Eduardo Garcia Rodriguez warns.

Politics also has a pivotal role to play to ensure faster progress. Bob Driver, lead for adoption at the UK Telecoms Innovation Network (UKTIN), suggests the Smart Infrastructure Pilots Programme (SIPP) – which enables the procurement and testing of multi-purpose columns for connectivity services – and the 5G Innovation Regions Programme are a good example of successful policy choices so far.

However, before organizations and sectors across the UK can “truly label themselves as connected communities”, Driver adds: “The next step in the UK’s journey must involve collaboration between local and regional authorities and the telco supply chain to navigate the complexities surrounding the successful deployment of these technologies in places and key regional industries.”

Smart cities in the UK: Driving value

Unnecessary government intervention can also be problematic, experts warn. Kevin Curran, senior Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) member and professor of cybersecurity at Ulster University,  suggests where any smart city implementation is driven by government wishes and motivation, “you must question whether the government understands what it is requiring and whether it is of any practical value to the citizen”.

“When implemented correctly, smart city technologies allow growing populations to be serviced more efficiently. Some argue the future growth of the planet’s population can only be sustained through scalable smart city technology.”

Transport is one area where much smart city success is being achieved. Edoardo Bevilacqua, of Mia-Platform, points to Greater Manchester’s Bee Network, an integrated sustainable transport network composed of bus, tram, cycling, and walking routes, due to be fully operational by 2025. Birmingham also has a similar plan to be operational by 2031. 

This ongoing and increasing drive to make pockets of infrastructure ‘smart’ can be held back or delayed by incompatible legacy technology and systems with the exchange of data needing stringent standards and interoperability.

Bevilacqua tells ITPro that this is an area the UK should target for improvement. “Issues such as discoverability, security, legal and contractual barriers, lack of investment, the quality of data available, and low rates of digital literacy and technical skills all need addressing,” he says.

However, Sam Jackman, chief development officer at Shared Access, the owner and operator of shared telecommunications infrastructure, believes the future for smart cities is bright – even if he concedes no city will be torn down and rebuilt from scratch.

Retrofitting, he suggests, can ultimately be achieved by partners and providers working together through pooling assets, standardizing processes and legal approaches, and developing a holistic understanding of which smart city elements a particular location is pushing for.

Jackman is seeing a greater understanding of what’s possible alongside acknowledgment of the benefits stemming from investments already made. Jackman says this has “turbocharged progress” and he predicts that "the next five years should see significantly more rapid growth than the previous five”.

If you've experienced virtual reality (VR) using a Meta Quest or HTC Vive you'll know it's great for Beat Saber, but did you know it's finding a dedicated user base in urban planning?

In Bochum, Germany, Ruhr University cartographers used VR to investigate the impact of proposed traffic flow changes on residents. In Glassboro, New Jersey, the Rowan University Community Planning + Visualization Lab built a VR reimagining of the city's downtown so residents could comment on how best to redevelop the area.

Exploring and moving through virtual environments is perfect for showcasing proposed changes to buildings or neighborhoods, and altering the shape or size of elements or the way people and systems use the space gives every stakeholder the means to weigh in.

The business case for VR in city planning

In the German study, residents got to experience the new traffic throughput system before any disruptive changes were made in real life. The New Jersey team found community participation increased exponentially. For many, the business case is obvious.

In every case you care to mention, participant engagement is off the charts. A more immersive experience gives everyone a clearer understanding of the issues in question and lets users provide immediate, real-time feedback.

But VR has a measurable financial impact too, even if it's only in development time. "The immediacy of real-time changes reduces the back-and-forth we typically experience," says Kat Campbell, a data scientist who builds VR experiences. "People grasp spatial designs faster and they're able to articulate changes more precisely."

Those savings can be made across the process. Sometimes it's simply because walking through a plan in 3D is more intuitive than looking at paper sketches. Sometimes it's because visualizations for power providers, residents, or traffic management exist in the same environment without needing a new representation of the design that applies only to them.

Devin Lavigne says using VR has 'dramatically' reduced the time spent converting 2D plans into 3D models at Houseal Lavigne, the Chicago architecture, construction and design firm where he's a partner. The company recently used VR to model two possible scenarios for the city center of Morrisville, North Carolina. Using a product called ArcGIS CityEngine from mapping and geospatial analytics provider Esri, the VR experience let city decision-makers compare building heights, tree placements, and other variables.

"Fewer internal team revisions and meetings are needed, streamlining the decision-making process," Lavigne says, adding that the Morrisville project was delivered in less than a month – far shorter than traditional approaches using spreadsheets and concept drawings.

Savings can also be made in project sharing – when they're cloud-based or remotely hosted, VR experiences are more accessible. As Shanal Aggarwal, chief commercial officer at digital transformation provider TechAhead, says: "We can collaborate without hindrance from a distance."

Then there's the means to correct problems before they cost real money. It wasn't until Edmonton, Alberta-based urban design firm Stantec deployed one public space redevelopment in VR that anybody realized a rest area faced directly onto a busy street – traditional tools hadn't revealed an area of sloped ground that caused the issue. Campbell also remembers a downtown redevelopment where planners realized the positioning of a bus stop wouldn't work, a mistake she says would have run into “hundreds of thousands'” to correct if they'd actually built it.

How to bring VR into urban planning projects

Just like writing a bestseller or programming the next killer app, if it was easy everyone would be doing it. VR is hard, and in the short term, it's more expensive than plans and elevations. But assuming it will save money in the long run, how do you do it?

At its most basic, VR is the representation of data in a software framework – the game engine. Game engines like Unreal or Unity are platforms containing graphics rendering (refreshing the scene when the viewer changes angle or direction) control over how objects behave according to physics, soundtracks, elements created and positioned by AI, memory and data streaming management, and more.

But where a videogame puts designed characters, environments, and behaviors into a game engine, VR takes information from the outside world.

To reimagine downtown Glassboro, the Rowan University team started with satellite images, added models of existing buildings from Google Earth, and created new buildings with SketchUp. In other cases, elements are imported directly from CAD models.

But VR can also contain visualizations of non-visual information. "[Other data sources] are typically considered as overlays present on top of 3D elements in the virtual environments to provide visual feedback that represents a specific dataset like colored paths, heatmaps, and so on," says Dr Michael Mortimer of Deakin University's CADET Virtual Reality Training and Simulation Research Lab.

In Houseal Lavigne's Morrisville project, changes to the environment were made on the fly by social media comments. A current port project incorporates live data feeds from nautical traffic systems. The means to integrate live data streams are nearly endless.

"Almost any data can be integrated – the challenge is how to represent it to make sense for humans," adds Todd Richmond IEEE member and director, Tech + Narrative Lab, Pardee RAND Graduate School.

A building information model (BIM) might have sensors providing information on temperature or foot traffic, but other data are harder to present visually; one example Richmond mentions is biometric data to track user sentiment. "Some of it's still sci-fi, but less than you might think. The data's there, but the analysis and visualization is still a work in progress."

Where do we stand on VR?

At Rowan University, associate professor of planning of the Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability Dr Mahbubur Meenar says few urban planners have experience with VR simulations. Even setting up the necessary infrastructure in planning offices can be challenging, much less teaching people how to use it.

He also takes pains to add it doesn't suit every project. "All communities are unique, and when we design an engagement activity we study the community in question. If the development impacts older adults who aren't comfortable with immersive VR experiences, for instance, you may not get the desired result."

Richmond adds the infrastructure to deliver VR to begin with is a potential stumbling block. "5G helps but has limited roll-out, but more importantly, there aren't enough inexpensive hardware options for widespread adoption."

And even if there were, repurposing a VR experience for a handheld device – which is more in the realm of augmented reality (AR) – rather than a fully kitted VR experience might just mean scrimping on the features that make VR compelling in the first place.

"With enough bandwidth and devices, anything is scalable," Richmond continues. "Interactions is the hard part – what affordances do you provide for users who are fully immersed versus those participating through a limited onramp?"

Of course, every tech company worth its salt is developing its own metaverse right now, where VR will have a natural home. But – assuming it's even cheaper to use one of them rather than build your own – the industry is inthe very early stages, and as the backers of Betamax, MySpace and Blackberry well know, the wrong bet can cost city planning stakeholders dearly.

"Ideally the metaverse will follow the internet model of being agnostic with on-ramps and technologies all working in a subset of standards," Richmond says, "but there is a risk of competing standards."

Whatever the technological and cultural hurdles, VR in city planning seems almost ordained. As a blog post from Edmonton design firm Stantec says; 'If a picture is worth a thousand words, then VR is worth a million'.

Smart industry technologies have such potential that it’s easy to get carried away with ideas of what might be possible. For example, in these days of all-pervasive artificial intelligence (AI), it’s tempting to imagine all your smart data sources and action-taking systems might somehow coalesce into something much more sophisticated. 

For example, it could become a fast-track last-minute ordering system, with machine intelligence taking care of everything from ordering the raw materials through to firing off ChatGPT-generated emails asking workers to pull night shifts to get orders out of the door.

Yet the notion isn’t as fanciful as you might think. Not long ago, a company in the fashion industry that found smartening up its systems did indeed allow them to start offering next-day services – at a healthy surcharge. 

The project relied largely on using scripted smartness to connect high-level components, including a web-based ordering page, a company email server, an SMS gateway, and a smart dispatch and delivery platform. 

Businesses should always be thinking about their next metamorphosis: we used to call that being “agile”, but nowadays it’s just common sense. Your core business isn’t going to go away overnight – and be realistic about the future. Think big, however, and the opportunities are there to be reaped.

What are the principles of smart industry? 

We’re not talking about the smartness of an organization as a whole, but rather about the tools and processes that make the business tick. 

For many established companies – especially traditional brick-and-mortar ones – there are limited opportunities to expand: you can’t double the output of an aluminum smelter on a whim. Smarter technology can help you to do what you’re already doing more effectively and economically.

For example, how much has your energy bill risen in the last year? Probably a lot. By applying the kind of basic metering and power management controls commonly found in home automation products, you can make significant savings. Now imagine what you could achieve if you were to apply that principle to your whole portfolio of capital assets.

Not only can smart industry help to reduce costs, however, but instrumentation and automation let you collect data you didn’t previously have  – and we don’t need to spell out how valuable that can be. 

Conversely, some companies already generate a mass of data; their problem is sifting out useful data from irrelevant information. A smart monitoring system puts key information front and center. There are process improvements to be made too. Smart tools help systems work together efficiently, without wasting time and energy waiting on one another. They can even enable new avenues of business.

How can you implement the principles of smart industry in your business?

There’s no need to rearchitect all your processes on day one. Most businesses will start by focusing on areas where a small investment will make the most impact. Source a few low-cost sensors and actuators, deploy them in a couple of not-too-disruptive waves, and gain progressively more information and control over your operations.

There are certainly suppliers out there who’ll encourage you to spend freely for uncertain returns. This may be partly a philosophical position – consultants like me love to challenge the sort of practically-minded manufacturing folk who prefer to turn on a roof extractor fan by yanking on a 30-foot-long chain, rather than by pulling out their smartphone and calling up the management interface.

While wholly distrusting smart industry vendors isn’t advised, it’s still important to remain wary. Even if your objectives are tightly focused, you could end up hitching some integral part of your business to a SaaS platform that leaves you at the mercy of the developer’s priorities and pricing.

In truth, it can be pretty easy to start getting smart on your own, with things like basic power management systems, or extractor fans that trigger only when a great puff of steam rises from one of your vats. Seed a few nano-computers and controllers across your factory floor, set up some straightforward interfaces, and perhaps then you can start to think about what specialists have to offer.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced the general availability of its Panorama Appliance.

The device integrates computer vision into on-premises internet protocol (IP) cameras, allowing fast and easy visual inspections of production lines, drive-thru queue management, layout optimizations of physical stores, and more.

“While some smart cameras can provide real-time visual inspection, replacing existing cameras with new smart cameras can be cost prohibitive. Even then, smart cameras are often ineffective because they are limited to specific use cases and require additional effort to fine-tune,” explained AWS.

“Alternatively, some customers send video feeds from existing on-premises cameras to third-party servers, but often the required internet bandwidth is costly or facilities are in remote locations where internet connectivity can be slow, all of which degrades the usefulness and practicality of the analysis.”

AWS’ Panorama device minimizes costs by enabling customers to pair the solution with existing on-premises cameras and monitor video streams locally through computer vision.

Customers can update their computer vision application in Amazon SageMaker and deploy the model to the AWS Panorama Appliance, thanks to the device's full integration with Amazon SageMaker.

Together, AWS Panorama Appliance, Amazon Monitron, Amazon Lookout for Equipment, and Amazon Lookout for Vision deliver the most comprehensive cloud-to-edge machine learning solution for industrial applications.

AWS offers its Panorama Appliance in Virginia, Oregon, Canada, and Ireland. Support for additional regions will follow soon.

“CVG Airport is committed to providing a world-class traveler experience through continuous innovation and strategic cooperation,” said Brian Cobb, chief innovation officer at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

Cobb added, “By using TaskWatch’s application on AWS Panorama, we are able to bring machine learning to our existing IP cameras and automatically monitor congestion over 70,000 square feet of airport traffic lanes. Once an issue is detected, such as a disabled vehicle, TaskWatch sends real-time alerts to airport staff so they can provide assistance, keep the traffic flowing, and reduce delays for our passengers.”

Sunnyvale-based automotive software firm Sonatus has raised $35 million in Series A funding to help car manufacturers build vehicles capable of updating software features more efficiently.

The latest funding round comprises automotive and technology investors, including Hyundai Motor Group’s Kia Corporation, SAIC Capital, LG Electronics, Marvell, UMC Capital, and Wanxiang Group Company. Translink Capital led the funding round.

Sonatus will use the funds to expand its roadmap of next-generation software-defined vehicle solutions and grow the company.

The company said the funding would allow it to help automakers transform vehicles into “data centers on wheels” with next-generation architectures capable of supporting the most advanced future mobility use cases.

Sonatus said its combination of employees from the IT and data center worlds and automotive OEMs and suppliers has enabled it to build scalable solutions for automakers in just a year instead of decades. In turn, this helps automakers to innovate faster, reduce complexity and costs, and become more agile, it claimed.

The software Sonatus is developing allows car manufacturers to be nimbler and more efficient in managing their vehicles and making them more innovative. Unlike other solutions, which rely solely on over-the-air software updates to modify a vehicle, Sonatus’ dynamically manageable software enables automakers to remotely add features, remedy problems, manage vehicle data, and more in real time without the cost and disruption of software updates.

Jeff Chou, Sonatus CEO and co-founder said that the way automobiles are designed must “dramatically change” to meet the escalating digital demands of mobility.

“As vehicles become more technologically complex and data driven, they must adopt software-defined technologies that originate from modern data centers to become veritable ‘data centers on wheels.’ Our software-defined and automotive expertise make us the right partner at the right time to help automakers embrace Digital Dynamics—speed, agility, and control with digital technologies—and build the vehicles of the future,” he said.

Roger Lanctot, director of global automotive practice at Strategy Analytics, said the digital transformation of the automobile has created the need for specialized software companies.

“As automakers push their organizations to transform in record time, they need partners with deep expertise in software and data center technologies. Sonatus combines this expertise with automotive experience to help OEMs accelerate their transformation and successfully navigate this transformation,” he said.

Company officials at Uber told Reuters the rideshare company has launched a service to provide public health officials with access to data on drivers and riders who may have come into contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.

Uber is promoting this free service to government health officials in all the countries Uber operates in.

The newly-minted service provides health departments with data about who used Uber’s services and when, and also enables health agencies to encourage affected users to quarantine.

As part of the service, Uber will also automatically block customers with confirmed coronavirus infections from the rideshare platform for at least 14 days.

Uber is no stranger to working with US law enforcement officials in emergencies or as part of criminal investigations. When it comes to health issues, Uber’s involvement began with the 2019 measles resurgence in the US.

According to Mike Sullivan, Uber’s chief of global law enforcement, company executives met with health department and CDC officials to discuss how Uber’s data could be used to track measles cases. Discussions quickly moved to the coronavirus

“Our timing ended up being beneficial in that it allowed us to get ahead before COVID started ramping up globally,” said Sullivan.

Uber received 560 coronavirus-related requests from public health departments in 29 countries in the first half of 2020. Company officials say Uber processed most of these requests within two hours. Of those requests, 158 were filed by health authorities in 40 locations in the US.

Sullivan says Uber has seen an increase in contact-tracing requests from Australia and New Zealand, which have been applauded for their success in early coronavirus containment. Sullivan added that contact tracing in several European countries was also much more coordinated than in the US.

While the smart city has been developing for decades, it’s only recently that it has started to come into its own. Pervasive connectivity, where every object in the built environment has intelligence and – more crucially – can ‘talk’ to each other, is about to see massive expansion. The twin technologies of 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) will deliver cities that are live environments we can all move through, where every aspect of city life is impacted by high-speed data connectivity.

Dominique Bonte, vice president of end markets and verticals at ABI Research, tells IT Pro: "In the context of the smart city, 5G will deliver more capacity. This is often forgotten with faster data transmission speeds being the focus when 5G is discussed. More capacity is vital to realise the promise of the smart city.

“As cities are dense conglomerates of people and objects, the connectivity that is needed must be seamless and intuitive. The cell structure we have at the moment for smartphone connections will have to take a quantum leap in density. Large scale 5G networks will appear in cities first as these spaces offer a controlled built environment that can have large numbers of devices connected together.”

For the users of a smart city, the core services such as transport rely on the gathering and analysis of vast quantities of data. The smart city is a data city. When the environment people move through is intelligent, services and applications – delivered via mobile devices – take a massive step forward in functionality. Released from the shackles of low bandwidth, smart cities embrace the low latency 5G networks will provide.

Building intelligence

The value that smart cities can deliver to their municipalities and citizens alike is driving high returns on the investments being made in the digitisation of their infrastructures.

In November 2019, ESI ThoughtLab unveiled the findings of its 2019 Smart City Research Initiative, Building a Hyperconnected City. According to the study, 38% of cities deploying smart mobility solutions have boosted customer satisfaction, while 32% are improving productivity and delivery times for business. When it comes to cities that have implemented intelligent environmental and energy initiatives, 45% said they are improving citizen health, while 44% said they are reducing pollution, and 43% are stabilising energy prices.

“Becoming a smart city is no longer enough, particularly if public leaders expect to keep citizens on board,” the report concludes. “To unlock the full economic, social, environmental, and business value from technology, cities need to morph into hyperconnected urban centres”

Teodora Kaneva, programme manager for SmarterUK at TechUK, tells IT Pro: “We see technology as a building block of a smart city but also central to meeting net-zero carbon targets as well. The technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – particularly 5G, IoT and AI – will provide essential tools for increasing efficiency in the economy and preparing society for a post-fossil fuel world.

“Digital technology can cut global emissions by at least 15% and as much as 24% of UK emissions by 2030. This can be compared to the sector’s own UK footprint of 2.3%, which is predicted to decline 1.97% by 2030. This would deliver an additional £122 billion in annual economic benefit to the UK, comprising £58.5 billion in additional ICT and stakeholder revenues and £63.5 billion in cost saving opportunities. The sector is also the world’s largest purchaser of renewable energy – most effectively through Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs) – making it an important anchor customer for renewables.”

Smart cities will also deliver masses of opportunities for businesses. Management consultancy McKinsey, in its report, explains: "For companies, smart cities represent major business opportunities, given that some of the world's urban markets are larger than entire nations. To partner with cities and operate effectively there, companies will need to adopt the mindset of serving people, not just a market. They may be able to find new business models by looking for specific ways to help cities deliver a better quality of life. Even companies that are not smart city providers may be affected by the way urban ecosystems evolve, and they may need to alter the way they do business in response.”

Ambient connectivity

One of the core values of the smart city is its ability to deliver information in real-time. When objects within a city are enabled with sensors, the vast quantities of data, these devices can collect will be analysed to deliver services and insights.

A great example is the ‘electric avenue’ developed by Siemens in collaboration with Westminster City Council, where existing lamp posts have been converted into electric vehicle (EV) charging stations. The initiative showcases a shift in attitudes towards EVs that the capital of the UK is experiencing. Data shows that the vast majority of motorists in central London (80%) believe it is ‘very important’ that air quality is improved, and an even higher proportion, 83%, are more concerned about their carbon footprint now than they were in 2015. This isn’t just warm sentiments with no action either, as Westminster has seen a 40% growth in EVs charged in the borough during 2019.

“In a city that suffers from some of the worst air pollution in the country, we need to be supporting the change to green technology as much as we can. ‘Electric Avenue, W9’ gives us a glimpse into the future of streets in Westminster, where we hope to provide the infrastructure needed for our residents to make the switch to cleaner, greener transport,” said Andrew Smith, Westminster City Council Cabinet Member for Environment & Highways, at the launch of the initiative.

Hull City Council, meanwhile, is going even further by creating a CityOS. Using the Cisco Kinetic for Cities platform, the city is now able to collect and aggregate data from a range of sensors to manage and deliver a range of services.

Deputy leader of Hull City Council, Daren Hale, said: “Developing Hull as a smart city will give us the opportunity to work with public and private sector partners to deliver real benefits to communities, businesses and visitors to Hull. The project will involve innovative technological solutions to enhance data sharing and decision making, which will help us to deliver more effective services, including everything from traffic management to health and social care.”

Intelligent spaces

The approaches taken to creating a smart city will be manifold. Speaking to IT Pro, Ian West, head of TMT at KPMG UK explains: “The key industries really need to think in a very different way when it comes to networks because the potential profitable associated benefits can most certainly extend further than to mobile network operators (MNOs) only – saying that the MNOs should commercialise hypothetical use cases into compelling business cases for their sector customers across healthcare, insurance or facilities management. New revenue streams can surely be built through launching B2B partnerships with those adjacent sectors.

"When it comes to the challenges associated with these technologies, these vary on a global scale. In the UK, a key B2C concern is a fact that operators haven't yet got a real grasp of how much extra the consumer will be willing to pay for superior 5G bandwidth, capacity and lower latency for benefits in areas such as gaming. And it will be hard to ascertain because, for your day to day functionality, 4G will continue to serve consumers well.”

The challenges facing network operators, city leaders and the myriad of device developers is to work in unison to deliver the city-wide services needed to provide smart cities.

David Fraser, tech specialist at Intel outlines the challenges: “IoT developers will face many challenges creating and deploying IoT solutions in smart city environments. The key challenge facing IoT developers is connecting the myriad of sensors, cameras, gateways and other devices. This will only be solved by ubiquitous and robust communications technology such as 5G.

“Navigating the plethora of standards and ensuring interoperability between different devices adhering to different protocols will present a further hurdle to those developing our smart cities. However, once these challenges are overcome, the final challenge will be around administration and dealing with various authorities to deploy and gain access to sites and utilise existing street furniture. With 32 boroughs in London alone, the deployment of IoT would likely need to be negotiated borough by borough to ensure the relevant permission requirements for streetscape are adhered to.”

Will smart city users be happy to relinquish even more control over their personal data to give them access to the new connected services that characterise intelligent cities, though? ABI Research's Dominique Bonte thinks privacy will be impacted."Smart cities will rely upon the use of data collected from individuals. Their privacy but also their desire to use the new services the smart city will deliver will have to be balanced.”

she adds: "We can already see this with the current COVID-19 crisis. In China, every citizen's phone is tracked. This allowed China to very accurately track the spread of the virus. This level of tracking may be used by default in China. Still, regulations and legislation that protects privacy in other countries may prevent some of the technologies smart cities could offer from actually being realised."

The smart city is in active development. As 5G rolls out and IoT becomes ubiquitous, smart environments become a product of the intelligent environments these technologies deliver. Flying cars and teleportation may not be the future of the city, but high-speed connectivity delivering efficient and safe services certainly is

Sidewalk Labs, a division of Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced on it’ll drop plans to build a high-tech urban hub along Toronto's waterfront.

Billed as the city of the future, the controversial project was detailed in a 1,500-page master plan last year. CEO of Sidewalk Labs, Dan Doctoroff, cites the current economic crisis spurred by the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for nixing the project.

Originally announced in 2017, the Smart City project would have included building a high-tech urban hub in Toronto’s Quayside district. Previous plans for the project envisioned buildings crafted from environmentally sustainable timber and flexible, movable wall panels.

Doctoroff shared on Medium, “For the last two-and-a-half years, we have been passionate about making Quayside happen — indeed, we have invested time, people, and resources in Toronto, including opening a 30-person office on the waterfront.

"But as unprecedented economic uncertainty has set in around the world and in the Toronto real estate market, it has become too difficult to make the 12-acre project financially viable without sacrificing core parts of the plan we had developed together with Waterfront Toronto to build a truly inclusive, sustainable community.

"And so, after a great deal of deliberation, we concluded that it no longer made sense to proceed with the Quayside project, and let Waterfront Toronto know yesterday.”

The project, which was initially applauded by Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has faced concerns from Toronto residents and privacy advocates alike.

These critics worried data collection related to the project could result in mass surveillance. A handful of Sidewalk Lab’s advisors, including Ann Cavoukian, a former information and privacy commissioner for Ontario, resigned over the same privacy concerns.

On Thursday, Block Sidewalk, a group that vehemently opposed the project, applauded the decision to pull the plug.

"This is huge, we are sending a message to Silicon Valley on behalf of all those around the world who are fighting big tech in their cities," wrote one of the group’s organizer’s, Julie Beddoes.

"The Quayside project got mangled down from an 800-acres vision of a surveillance state to a bid for an office building on a 12-acre site. We knew all along that Sidewalk can't realize its tech dreams on 12-acres alone, so this has been coming for a while."

Doctoroff shared that while Toronto’s Smart City hub may be no more, Sidewalk Labs has not stopped its other efforts.

He noted: “We’ve already started innovative companies addressing urban mobility, next-generation infrastructure, and community-based healthcare, and invested in startups working on everything from robotic furniture to digital electricity.

"We continue to work internally on factory-made mass timber construction that can improve housing affordability and sustainability, a digital master-planning tool that can improve quality of life outcomes and project economics, and a new approach to all-electric neighborhoods.”

There was a time – just a few years ago – when you couldn’t move at tech get-togethers, or even speak to someone in the industry on the phone, without them mentioning Uber and Airbnb in glowing terms.

These were the disruptors. The future of tech and business. The heralds of the ‘sharing economy’.

‘Optics’ problems, to put it euphemistically, had already started to put the dampers on this kind of rhetoric in recent times, particularly with regard to Uber. But whether you thought these types of organisations were shining examples of pioneering new business models or something more sinister, it’s doubtful you would have predicted a microbe is what could have brought them low. Yet, with the collapse of the tourism and travel industries caused by the coronavirus outbreak, that’s exactly what has happened.

As my colleague Bobby Hellard wrote last week, the coronavirus pandemic has seen a massive and potentially lasting shift to remote and flexible working. For cloud and digital services providers, this has been great news, but if your business is predicated on people wanting to move around (and being able to), this is a major problem.

The figures are stark. Airbnb is set to lay off a quarter of its workforce, which is to say nothing of the impact on hosts. In an emotional letter to employees, CEO Brian Chesky acknowledged that even if the company fully recovers, “the changes it will undergo are not temporary or short lived” and that the shape of the travel industry has potentially been changed forever.

In the world of ride sharing, meanwhile, Lyft has already laid off 17% of its workforce – 982 individuals – with a further 5% being furloughed. Rival Uber has made a similar move, laying off about 14% of its workforce – 3,700 people – primarily in its customer support and recruitment divisions.

And these figures don’t even take into account all the drivers working for the businesses who often aren’t classed as employees – a longstanding point of contention between ridesharing apps and regulators that’s currently at the centre of a lawsuit in California.

While we are still waiting on Uber’s quarterly results as I write this, Lyft’s have been issued – and they don’t make for pretty reading.

“For the month of April, rideshare rides were down 75% year-over-year. Ride levels appear to have stabilised, seeming to have reached a bottom in the second week of April. We have since seen three consecutive weeks of week-on-week growth. But clearly, this is from a low absolute ride base, and rides last week were still down more than 70% year-on-year,” said CEO Logan Green on an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

“We cannot predict the trajectory or timing of the eventual recovery, but it is clear that macro trends will continue to negatively impact our business. Even as shelter-in-place (lockdown) orders and travel restrictions are modified or lifted, we anticipate that continued social distancing, altered consumer behaviour and expected corporate cost-cutting will be significant headwinds for Lyft. The strength and duration of these headwinds cannot presently be estimated. These are the hard truths we're facing,” he added, echoing Chesky’s comments.

As I said recently on the IT Pro Podcast, the coronavirus pandemic is, in my opinion, a black swan event and as such was impossible to prepare for (although the man behind the theory disagrees). Being as we’re still in the middle of the crisis, it’s also hard to draw any lessons from the experiences of these companies that were once the pinnacle of success in the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution.

But when the dust has settled, it will be in everyone’s interest to examine why these businesses have been on such a rollercoaster ride, what, if anything, could have been done to avert it, and what other organisations can take from the experience in order to make them more resilient to whatever disasters await us in the future

The promise of ‘smart communities’ powered by intermingling technologies hasn’t come to fruition due to the awful and fragmented nature of data at disposal to developers, according to Cisco's IoT chief.

Stu Higgins, head of smart cities and IoT for the UK public sector, argued this week that while data might be more freely available than ever before, the data itself is in a poor condition and might not be in the right state to be taken advantage by computers and algorithms.

Moreover, those collecting and releasing the data should stop “patting themselves on the back” and work on cleaning it up, he has claimed.

“If you can publish 1000 sets of data or 10,000 sets of data; there are lots of people patting themselves on the back saying that they've got an open-accessible data lake,” Higgins said, speaking at a Westminster eForum on UK smart cities on Thursday.

“But that they're not really looking at the quality of the data, what it can be used for and how it should be accessed.”

Those releasing thousands of datasets claim third-parties can subsequently make use of the data for applications, Higgins continued, but they ultimately only care about publishing it, and not actually ensuring it's ready for use. He stressed that it isn’t necessarily a criticism of anybody, but the problem is that “nobody loves the data”.

The result has been a handful of exciting smart city projects being deployed around the world, but absolutely no continuity or integration between them. There’s also been a lot of rhetoric about the smart city landscape and not much in terms of delivery.

Ultimately, the data powering these projects needs to be cleaned up and put into a format that can be read by computers, and be put into a universal standard.

Higgins pointed to available data on parking spots in a city at any one time, as an example. People may record this information in a contextual manner, describing where locations might be relative to other streets for instance, but this data might not necessarily be in a condition that it can be processed.

Data must also be standardised in a similar way to how Britain’s railway tracks are standardised across the whole country, so data from different datasets can be joined up to produce systems that can help the public. One example of this integration would be an Asthma suffer using weather and pollution data among other information to determine how safe it might be to leave the house.

Where there has been some positivity is in the way that Transport for London (TfL) and Citymapper have worked together to provide commuters with a smart interface to augment their journeys through London. TfL, especially, should be applauded for the way it's opened up its own data sets early on, with Citymapper and hundreds of others taking advantage of these.

Generally speaking, however, there’s more work to be done with regards to the more than 6,000 data sources published in London through City Hall’s London DataStore.

Questions such as who’s actually using the data and what for are highly pertinent, as well as questioning whether this data is being used for the benefit of the people who live and work in the capital city.

The London Datastore marked its ten-year anniversary in January and boasts 60,000 users per month, with sets ranging from population estimates to rough sleeping figures, and the numbers of foreign visitors.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan used the opportunity to suggest that more data should be shared, but Cisco’s Stu Higgins insisted that the most important thing to bear in mind would be ensuring the data published is clean and easy to use. This would ensure that the public sector attracts the right people to come in and build out exciting smart city projects in a joint-up and coherent manner.

“The reality is if you make the data easy to use, you'll attract really smart people to take advantage of that and use it to solve problems,” Higgins continued. "So if you provide data that’s easy to get to; that's easy to understand; that’s easy to integrate into other things, people will come and leverage that, and they’ll solve a lot of your problems for you.”

The government has injected £90 million into funding three ‘future transport zones’ across the UK aimed at establishing whether smart and green technology can be adopted.

Three transport zones will serve as a playground for academics and experts, in partnership with businesses and local bodies, to test innovations in the movement of people and goods.

These will be located in the West of England Combined Authority, Portsmouth and Southampton, and Derby and Nottingham.

One project, for example, will trial the use of drones for carrying medical supplies from clinics in the Isle of Wight to hospitals in the mainland. This will cut down the time spent moving supplies by ferry or road while speeding up diagnosis.

“We are on the cusp of a transport revolution. Emerging technologies are ripping up the rulebook and changing the way people and goods move forever,” said transport secretary Grant Shapps.

“Our groundbreaking future of transport programme marks the biggest review of transport laws in a generation and will pave the way for exciting new transport technology to be tested, cementing the UK’s position as a world-leading innovator.

“This review will ensure we understand the potential impacts of a wide range of new transport modes such as e-scooters, helping to properly inform any decisions on legalisation. Funding these new zones across the country will also help us safely test innovative ways to get around, creating a greener future transport system for us all.”

This has been announced alongside a regulatory review into smart transportation methods, which invites feedback on issues such as whether e-scooters should be allowed on roads, and how whether there’s any merit in ideas such as mobility as a service (MaaS).

These measures will feed into the development of the UK’s smart cities frameworks. The consultation, which is open until 22 May, aims to gain advice on how to best exploit the digital infrastructure that’s already in place to ensure the nation’s transport networks can be smarter and more efficient.

As part of its future transport zones project, meanwhile, the government will be testing how public transport journey planning and payment can be made easier. For example, regulations can be reviewed to ensure bus services work in a similar way to on-demand taxi services or private hire vehicles.

The shift to MaaS, which involves networks built with intelligent design and incentive structures, aims to reduce car ownership and shift people towards smarter transportation models. Platform providers, moreover, will be generating a large amount of data about commuter behaviour which could potentially help local authorities better understand and manage the smarter transport networks.

Smart city projects, known to generate masses of data, rely on this information being open and accessible by all parties.

Certain projects have been underway across the UK for a number of years, although these have largely been contained in test or pilot stages. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, for example, outlined his smart city roadmap for London two years ago, in which the capital's AI companies would play a leading role in impoving processes around the city.

Smart motorways, it turns out, are not so smart. Removing the hard shoulder from these busy roads has resulted in avoidable deaths and a sharp increase in the number of near misses. Who could possibly have foreseen that, eh?

However, the failure of smart motorways isn’t necessarily down to the removal of that hard shoulder, even though that may seem an obvious cause. It’s just as much due to a failure of technology – specifically, the technology that was supposed to put the “smart” in “smart motorway”.

The introduction of smart motorways has been “conducted with a shocking degree of carelessness,” according to Sir Mike Penning, the former Roads Minister who originally signed off on the idea of smart motorways back in 2010. Most significantly, the radar technology that was supposed to detect stationary cars and close their lanes immediately has been implemented on just 6% of the smart motorway network, according to a report by The Guardian.

The rest of the network relies on drivers reporting that they’re stranded, or CCTV operators spotting stationary vehicles. As the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Roadside Rescue and Recovery noted, “many motorists don’t know what to do in such situations”. The recordings of 999 calls from drivers stranded in fast-moving traffic were described as “harrowing”.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps – a reader of this column, as I know from previous correspondence with him – is conducting an urgent review of smart motorways, with rollout of any new sections now postponed until the investigation is completed. Nevertheless, those sections of smart motorways already in place will continue to operate and one thing’s for sure: the government won’t be replacing the hard shoulders or installing life-saving radar immediately. In the meantime, can I suggest to Mr Shapps that he urges the public to start using a free smartphone app that’s smarter than the motorways his government has rolled out?

Every time I set off on a longish road trip these days, I use the Google-owned sat-nav app Waze – even if I know where I’m going. Not only does its brilliant live traffic monitoring diligently reroute around jams, it also warns me of upcoming hazards in the road, whether it’s roadworks, a pothole or – yes – a driver who has broken down. The accuracy of Waze’s broken-down vehicle reports is astonishing, and it gives you plenty of time to slow down, reducing the risk of collision.

Waze relies on other drivers reporting incidents – and I do have some safety concerns about drivers fiddling with their smartphones to do this while they’re supposed to be driving. But the system also detects when a Waze user has suddenly stopped on an otherwise fast-flowing carriageway, and asks if they’re caught up in traffic or an accident. This means reports can be near-instant if the affected driver is also using Waze.

In the absence of the radar that was supposed to be looking out for us on the roads, Mr Shapps and his department should be recommending that we all use apps such as Waze. Better still, the Highways Agency should start using the app to report broken-down vehicles – and to monitor the motorways, too.

A stretch of smart motorway is to be installed near me on the M23, pending the outcome of the current review. I won’t be driving up it without Waze to warn me of impending dangers. Who’d have thought Google would be better at keeping us safe on the roads than our own government?

Softbank has suffered major losses to its tech investment fund, due to poor performances from WeWork and Uber.

The Japanese conglomerate reported an operating loss of 225 billion yen (£1 billion) to its Vision Fund for the last quarter of 2019. A year earlier, it had generated a 176 billion yen profit in the same period. Softbank’s group profit was reported to reach 2.6 billion yen (£18 million) for the quarter versus 438 billion yen a year prior, a plunge of 99%.

The major wipeout of the Vision Fund could be partially attributed to unrealised losses in WeWork, which SoftBank bailed out in October of last year, a decision which at the time cost the Japanese company around a $1 billion (nearly £800 million). Last October, the start-up had decided to indefinitely postpone its IPO following its founder's departure from the role of CEO.

SoftBank also attributed the reason behind its major loss to its investment in Uber, which has reportedly lost 8% of its stock market value since May 2019.

Issues with both companies "have caused concern amongst potential investors in SoftBank Vision Fund 2", SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said through an interpreter, according to CNN.

Vision Fund 1 made history when it launched in 2017, becoming the largest fund ever at $97 billion (£74 billion). At the time, Son pledged to “expand the scale”, announcing that Vision Funds 2, 3 and 4 would be “established every two to three years”. However, its huge losses pose difficult questions regarding the future of the investment fund and SoftBank’s relations with its backers, such as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed Bin Salman. Most of the failed fund’s resources come from the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, having contributed $45 billion (£34 billion).

"At the moment, I think that our next fund size should be a little bit smaller, because we have caused concerns and anxiety to a lot of people," Son told reporters.

The Vision Fund is regulated under UK law as it is mostly operated under the London-based SoftBank Investment Advisors.

The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has called on City Hall to ramp up the scale of data sharing after touting the success of its London Datastore initiative.

Khan was speaking on the ten-year anniversary of the London Datastore, an initiative started by City Hall in 2010. This scheme served as a means to make huge volumes of data freely available in order to tackle some of London’s biggest challenges.

The platform today houses more than 6,000 datasets - a massive increase upon the 500 it held on launch - and boasts 60,000 users per month. The datasets range from from population estimates to rough sleeping figures, and the numbers of foreign visitors.

“London is considered one of the world’s leading smart cities because we have an enviable track record of using data to solve everyday problems faced by Londoners,” Khan said.

“By responsibly opening up a huge amount of data held by our public sector partners and working with London’s brilliant tech sector, we’re helping tackle some of the most urgent challenges facing our city as it grows.

“The next step is to create a shared approach for the city so we can all benefit from the innovation this will bring - while using the data we hold on Londoners’ behalf transparently, safely and securely.”

Use of the London Datastore has played a role in widening innovation, City Hall claims, by giving local suppliers and smaller businesses access to valuable reams of data to build platforms and systems that work towards solving the city's challenges.

One key example is the creation of a London Rents Map, which was used last year by 85,000 people to locate the most affordable homes. The Cultural Infrastructure Map, meanwhile, is being used to map and preserve historical music venues and community halls.

Perhaps more critical to day-to-day life is a degree of air-quality mapping, that uses data lifted from networks of sensors to show how pollution levels change across various areas around the city. This mapping system is also used to suggest to officials where best to place new electric bus routes.

TechUK’s head of local and public services Georgina Maratheftis branded the London Datastore a “pioneering platform” on its tenth anniversary, and claimed that it’s helped to put London on the map as a smart city.

“Data is at the heart of creating places where citizens want to live, work, thrive and feel safe and we look forward to working with City Hall on the Datastore’s evolution, and with local public services and the tech industry on how data can solve some of the biggest challenges London faces,” she added.

There are several ways these next steps in the evolution of London’s approach to data-sharing can be achieved, according to analysis from the Open Data Institute, a non-profit private firm co-founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 2012.

Chief among its recommendations is that the London Datastore is rapidly expanded and revamped over the course of the next decade. The platform should also be made as easy to use as possible, and a new City Hall-led approach to sharing civic data should be devised, ideally bringing together councils, universities, the public sector and businesses.

Toyota will build a prototype "smart city" at the base of Japan's Mount Fuji, the car giant announced at CES.

It will be called "Woven City", which is a reference to the company's origins as a loom manufacturer. The aim is to build a prototype of a city powered by hydrogen fuel cells, which will function as a laboratory for autonomous cars, smart homes, AI and other smart technologies.

"It's hard to learn something about a smart city if you are only building a smart block," James Kuffner, CEO for the Toyota Research Institute-Advanced Development, told Reuters.

Kuffner added that the city will have schools, police, fire and ambulance services, and could potentially be home to a mix of Toyota employees, retirees and others.

The development site is a 175-acre area that is currently a car factory that is set to close by the end of 2020. In the coming years, Toyota hopes that 2,000 residents will settle into the city that will also serve as a home to the researchers.

As yet, no cost has been disclosed for the project, but construction is scheduled for early 2021 and its executives have said it has a budget.

The company's chief executive, Akio Toyoda called the project his personal field of dreams and even quoted the film on stage saying "You know if you build it, they will come."

The company has commissioned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to design the community. Ingels and his firm designed Google's offices in Silicon Valley and in London.

Demographic change is set to be one of the biggest challenges we will face this century. According to UN predictions, the global population will hit 9.5 billion by 2050, with 68% of people living in urban environments.

The towns, cities and megacities where these billions of people will live are already having to adjust to the realities of a steadily growing population, with transformation into "smart cities" becoming one of the go-to solutions.

Using Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and edge computing to collect and analyse data, smart city infrastructure is aimed at managing assets and resources efficiently. It's being used in areas such as transportation, power plants, water supply, environmental management, crime detection, schools and hospitals.

Although this type of data collection is proving useful for public services and city officials, it's also raised concerns around security and privacy. According to an online poll by industry body Wi-SUN Alliance, 21% of people believe these issues are holding back smart city development.

When asked about their biggest security concerns, 37% of respondents highlighted data privacy as their biggest worry. Other issues include attacks on critical infrastructure (28%), network vulnerabilities (24%) and unsecured IoT devices (11%).

A privacy crisis

Connected sensors and devices are the beating heart of smart cities, and they generate masses of data. To put things in perspective, a report by SaaS provider DOMO claims that currently 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created daily. By 2020, that number's predicted to increase to 1.7MB per second, with the rise of smart cities contributing to this growth.

Dr Isabel Wagner, senior lecturer in computer science at De Montfort University, says this collection and integration of data leads to complete surveillance and profiling of individuals."Uiquitous surveillance has negative impacts on individual rights and freedoms, such as a chilling effect, discrimination and social sorting.

"Depending on how you judge the severity of loss of individual rights and freedoms, the problem is more or less significant. But what greatly increases this baseline significance is that individuals typically cannot 'opt out' of a smart city because jobs, friends and family are in the city. This means options for individuals to protect their own privacy are very limited."

Wagner admits that fixing these problems isn't easy. "Adding security and privacy protections to smart city tech costs more initially because of more work for developers and may require expertise that developers may not have," she continues. "Cash-poor cities partner with private corporations who promise great features for low cost; but corporate profit motive means they collect (and then sell) more data than needed."

Dr Darren williams, CEO and founder of cyber security firm BlackFog, says cities are looking into many technologies that have wide-ranging implications on data security and privacy. "These include the ability to monitor commuter travel based on smartphone data so cities can plan better and reduce congestion. Needless to say, this would mean cities and governments would know exactly where citizens are going and what they may be doing," he explains.

"Cities are also experimenting with centralised health records. Such information could be used to assist in funding government departments and research into diseases to improve healthcare, fight chronic disease and reduce healthcare costs."

He adds that data collection on this scale would mean wide access for the government and could be open to abuse if not carefully controlled. "How comfortable citizens will be with the prospect of this remains to be seen, and how governments use and store this information will be crucial in protecting the privacy of their citizens."

Open to attack

Data privacy isn't the only potential concern when it comes to smart cities; there's also a very real risk of them being targeted by hackers. In the past, IoT devices have been criticised for poor security, which has led to them being recruited into botnets, used to spy on people in their own homes and as a gateway into businesses.

"Smart cities are inevitable but the introduction of such advanced technologies into the fabric of a city is not without risks," says Kevin Curran, senior member of the IEEE and professor of cyber security at Ulster University. "Relying on a central technological hub to control core infrastructure can allow nefarious hackers to bring a city to its knees more easily than ever before. We have already seen many cities paying large amounts when subjected to ransomware attacks."

Curran says cities need to ensure that when they deploy connected devices they have security policies in place -- such as firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems. "They also need to ensure that they cater for the confidentiality of their customers data, this is where encryption plays a core rolem" he adds.

"It's crucial that all devices have strong passwords and it's also good practice to enforce certificate-based authentication, which identifies communicating individuals and authorised devices. Device management agents can also highlight failed access attempts and attempted denial-of-service attacks. All non-IoT devices must also be patched and kept malware free to ensure the safest smart cities."

Just like Curran, NCC Group research director Matt Lewis says smart cities present a high volume of potential attack surfaces that are practically impossible to monitor and police effectively. "This not only increases the risk of these devices being tampered with, but also means it's difficult to detect when this has occurred, especially when the sensors are deployed in public spaces rather than on private servers," he tells IT Pro.

"Ultimately, this could lead to personal information such as an individual's location, biometrics and CCTV images being accessed, manipulated or stolen," Lewis explains, adding that attackers could even potentially gain access to full surveillance capabilities and other systems connected to the network.

Smart city lockdown

As the number of smart cities grows, it will become increasingly important to mitigate these risks. Indeed, there's a strong argument that businesses and authorities involved in the creation and administration of smart cities have a duty of care to ensure privacy by design

According to Phil Beecher, CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance: "Organisations need to start off on the right foot and make security central to their IoT strategy in order to realise the long-term benefits that IoT and ensure the threat to data privacy is offered at minimal risk."

Given the amount of data collected by smart cities, there are also legal considerations. Georgia Shriane, senior associate solicitor at specialist tech law firm Boyes Turner, says: "The question of smart cities turns on careful use of technology and legislation adapting to cope. Trust in public services and the government will be key ensuring privacy is protected. Data protection will be at the forefront of most people's minds.

"Laws like GDPR were created to cover traditional internet and hard copy use of personal data. They weren't drafted with smart cities in mind. As the technology develops, the amount of imagery and data captured will increase exponentially. This whole area of law will need to be constantly reviewed to ensure we keep pace, maintaining public trust and confidence in the smart cities we live in.

"Data ownership will also be something that needs resolving. The public may accept data being owned by a public body but may have strong reservations if the data remains the property of providers or contractors and enforcement becomes more complex."

As a result of the Welsh government neglecting to invest in mobile telecommunications infrastructure, the country could be in danger of being left behind in the race for 5G adoption, a report revealed.

The National Assembly for Wales's Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee has been reviewing the Welsh Government's Mobile Action Plan which sets out what ministers will do to ensure better coverage in Wales.

The committee found that while 4G coverage is improving, the main cause of that is from investment by telcos and not the sparse investment from the Welsh government.

All mobile providers reported increases to 4G coverage in Wales, with Ofcom reporting that the geographic area of Wales without 4G coverage from any operator now stands at 12%.

Although that figure is broadly in line with the rest of the UK (13%), the coverage of A and B roads in Wales by all operators stands at just 32% meaning that connectivity on the go is still problematic in around a third of the country.

With a third of Wales still not receiving 4G connectivity, and reports suggest it won't until 2020, it suggests that there is some way to go before even the major cities will get a 5G service.

The UK's telcos such as EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone are all pushing to be the first to roll out 5G to the masses with the earliest deadline predicted in summer 2019.

If the Welsh government fails to invest adequately in important infrastructure, it could be looking at 5G adoption at the latest predicted deadlines which are up to three years away.

"2019 is the first expectation of the roll-out of the first commercial networks of 5G. So, we're at a point of almost just getting ourselves ready for 4G, when we've already moved on to the next technology," said Mobile UK.

The committee said it's lobbying the Welsh government to collaborate with major British telcos to achieve a solution to the 5G problem.

One suggestion some telcos have already made is to increase the height of masts built in the country, which would facilitate further coverage per-mast and allow different providers to share the infrastructure, leading to overall better nation-wide coverage with less investment.

"If you want to be able to share infrastructure, it needs to be large enough, big enough, to accommodate the equipment for multiple operators, and if, broadly, we are restricted to 15m high masts in Wales under permitted development rights, it makes that incredibly difficult," said EE.

The Welsh Government is currently proposing allowing 25 metre high masts in non-protected areas of Wales. The Committee recommends this should be increased to 30 metres and found that the planning regime in England was much more lenient when it came to siting masts.

"Mobile phone coverage in Wales consistently lags behind the rest of the UK," said Russell George AM, chair of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee. "The advent of 5G promises to further integrate technology into our lives through smart devices such as autonomous cars. It is critical therefore that Wales is not left behind in this new era.

"But while the country as a whole prepares for the next generation of mobile connectivity, there are still parts of Wales with no connection at all. That simply isn't good enough and it is crucial these not-spots are covered, particularly in remote, rural areas".

British Telecom-owned EE is the favourite to unveil a full 5G network to the UK this year, with capital cities including Cardiff, to be the first of its 16-city plan for 2019 to enjoy the ultra-high speeds that 5G will offer.

The issue lies with secondary Welsh cities not being seen as a priority; of the 16 cities in which EE plans to launch a 5G service in 2019, only one of them is in Wales.

It's not just lightning quick movie streaming that Wales will miss out on, the 5G effects for business are set to be revolutionary.

Businesses that benefit from IoT such as agriculture, shipping and manufacturing will all fall behind which could see Welsh businesses in these areas lose clients to more technologically able cities which can do the same job better, faster and more autonomously.

This all starts with Wales waking up to the importance of 5G and investing in the right infrastructure to support essential development.

In many films and TV shows, smart cities are depicted through a somewhat dystopian filter, dubbed the Minority Report effect, in which you are always online, always visible and being bombarded with information. Yet the reality is set to be very different.

Having a truly connected smart city promises a time in which you never get stuck in traffic, you never experience a train delay, you can get GP appointments when you want them, the weekly shop is done automatically and you could save a fortune on energy bills. Here, we take a look into the near-future to show what life in a smart city could look like...

A day in the life of a smart city dweller

You wake to the sound of songbirds and a gentle "sunrise" as you enter a light sleep. Your fitness tracker knows when to rouse you for the day by tracking your heart rate and sends an alert to your smart lights and speaker to bring you around as gently as possible. As you enter the bathroom, your connected mirror greets you and gives you a flash news briefing with a summary of your day's meetings. It warns you it might rain, but traffic on your usual route is clear fewer people need to drive into town now because of remote working and more reliable public transport. You brush your teeth with your smart toothbrush, which advises you to see your dentist as you might need a filling, before your smart wardrobe recommends the blue suit.

By the time you get downstairs, your coffee machine has made you the perfect skinny cappuccino and has automatically ordered more coffee beans as the levels are getting low.

As you eat your breakfast, your electric car knows it's almost time to leave so it de-ices your windscreen and warms your seat. As it runs a diagnostic test, it notices you have a slow puncture. It checks your calendar and schedules in an appointment with your local garage using its online booking system. You don't need to worry about the car's battery being low as it was charged to full capacity overnight when energy usage was at its cheapest.

Just as you leave your house, the bin men come to collect your connected bin. The bin sent an alert to your local council to say it was getting full without you having to worry about putting it out on the correct day. You shut the door and ask your voice-controlled smart home system to switch off the heating and set the security alarm.

Driving to the train station, you don't have to worry about traffic jams caused by roadworks because your local council used 5G-enabled sensors to prioritise maintenance and manage flow. En route, your car hits a pothole and sends an alert to the local authority. You don't get stuck at traffic lights, either, because the lights now respond and adapt to traffic patterns rather than running on a set system. As the roads are quiet, the lights stay green all the way. This doesn't give you a huge amount of time to stream the latest episode of your favourite podcast, but at least you're not using mobile data to do so thanks to Wi-Fi hotspots and 5G antennas lining your route.

Approaching the station, the location of empty spaces in the car park is sent to your phone and lights on the ground guide you to the best spot. Built-in charging plates in each space recharge your vehicle ready for your drive home later.

As you wait for the train to pull into the station, you are shown how many empty seats are in each carriage and each seat has plug sockets to go with the free 5G network on the train meaning you can check your emails before you get to the office, boosting your productivity. Once at the other end, you use your phone to check which walking routes have the cleanest air, monitored by 5G-enabled sensors fitted to lampposts and buildings. Your fitness tracker sends a log of this exercise, as well as how much you slept, to your GP who schedules a digital appointment for later that week.

In the office, the light above your desk and the ambient temperature has been pre-programmed based on the weather forecast, and to your personal preference. You don't need to worry about forgetting your work pass, either, because facial recognition scans you and gives you automatic access.

At the end of the day, you pop into the supermarket to grab some food for dinner. Using your phone, you "open" your smart fridge at home to view its contents. The fridge app offers suggestions for recipes you can make with the food you already have and advises what else you need to buy. As you take the items off the shelves, their value is automatically added to an online checkout and when you leave the store, your account is charged. The store's employees are sent a notification that you've removed an onion and some peppers and replenish the shelf for the next customer. Because you didn't have to queue for your shopping, you're right on time for your train, which leaves bang on schedule. There were some leaves on the line earlier in the day, but smart sensors and AI have ensured they're cleared and make sure all the trains continue to run on time.

Click to view the above smart cities infographic full size

Before you get to your front door, which also uses facial recognition to let you in, proximity sensors have been alerted to your presence and signal for your smart home to put the kettle on. Your heating is already warming up, you'd put the washing on remotely from the office before you left, and your smart lights come on as you pass through the doorway. As you enter the kitchen, your podcast from the car carries on playing on your smart speaker and you sit down with a cup of tea.

You've not had to pay for mobile data all day, you've saved energy on your heating bills thanks to the smart grid and your train ticket is cheaper because the more cost-efficient operator has passed down its savings to its customers. You also only had to work five hours to get everything done because your productivity has been boosted by such a frictionless day. As you settle into bed later that night, your smart lights mimic the setting sun and you drift off naturally.

Discover how O2's technology is helping businesses empower their workforce.

Mobileye and Ordnance Survey have jointly developed a network location project to help improve the accuracy of autonomous car and intelligent mobility services.

Ordnance Survey's datasets including its OS MasterMap will be combined with Mobileye's car-mounted camera-based mapping, identifying where key road components are located, including lamp posts, manhole covers and road markings.

This offers a much more detailed overview of what automated cars can expect to experience as they travel around the roads.

It will also allow infrastructure-based services around smart cities to be improved, with higher levels of visibility for service providers. For example, planners will be able to see where road features are placed to improve how people travel around areas.

"OS appreciates its role as a trusted advisor in existing and new markets and will continue to invest and innovate to support our utility customers and in new discovery projects such as CAV, 5G and IoT," said Neil Ackroyd, Ordnance Survey CEO.

"One key, and common, learning is that detailed and accurate geospatial data is a must for the success of these projects. We envisage this new rich data to be key to how vehicles, infrastructure, people and more will communicate in the digital age."

The combined data will be shared with a variety of market segments including the energy and infrastructure sector to help them keep tabs on their assets and plan for new road infrastructure. It will also be used to help the rollout of 5G networking, intelligent mobility and connected cars.

Professor Amnon Shashua, president and CEO of Mobileye, added: "Using maps to improve operations between businesses and cities will bring us closer to the realisation of smart cities and safer roads."

As a guy who took ten years and seven attempts to pass his driving test, I'm arguably not the best-qualified person to lecture on traffic management. But having spent the equivalent of a working day stuck in traffic over the past month alone, I know something needs to be done.

Ironically, part of the reason that I've sat nose-to-tail on motorways recently is because of the installation of a so-called "smart motorway" at the top of the M23, near where I live. The major part of the work is the conversion of the hard shoulder into a fourth lane of traffic. The rest is the installation of new overhead signs, traffic sensors and CCTV cameras that allow the control centre to monitor traffic levels, adjust speed limits to smooth traffic flow and close lanes to allow emergency services to reach all the poor sods who will now break down in four lanes of flowing traffic instead of on the hard shoulder.

It's not all that different from the hardware installed on regular motorways today another application of the word "smart" to make something sound more sophisticated than it actually is.

My real problem with all this isn't the daft branding, however, but that it's fiddling at the edges. Another lane will become just another place to temporarily park cars if there's a smash near Gatwick or a jam on the M25. No amount of tinkering with the road signs or the speed limits is going to prevent almighty tailbacks. We need drivers to be smarter, not motorways.

Now, I'm what you might call a smart car sceptic. Do I believe that smart cars will eventually replace human drivers on the roads? Yes, it's inevitable. Will it happen within the next decade? The next 20 years?

Nope. The concept of smart cars and human-driven vehicles seamlessly mingling on the roads is for the birds. For smart cars to take off, you will need dedicated smart car lanes and proper roadside infrastructure. If it will take the Highways Agency two years to implement two junctions' worth of smart motorway on the M23 then the infrastructure required for nationwide smart cars is decades away. Trust me.

So until our GPS-enabled, self-routing smart cars are able to route around traffic for us, we need to do it ourselves. And the infrastructure to do that already exists. We've got it in our pocket.

I'm a full-blown fanboy of the Google-owned Waze. Turn off its social-networking nonsense (why would I want to see where other Waze users are on the roads?) and it's a fabulous free satnav that has the best traffic avoidance I've tested. I've even taken to using it on roads and journeys that I know well, because if there's a traffic problem in the area, it knows how to dodge round it better than I do.

How come I started this column bemoaning the fact I've spent hours in traffic, then? Because I've been travelling in vehicles coaches to football matches, friends' cars, taxis that don't use satnavs, or at least not satnavs with live traffic updates. They simply blunder down the "fastest" route, irrespective of the traffic chaos at the time.

Now, I'm not suggesting we mandate satnavs with live traffic updates. But in much the same way that the insurance companies are now offering discounts to people prepared to put one of their black boxes in their cars (and there's a whole different column on that pernicious practice, by the way), why can't the Highways Agency ease congestion by incentivising drivers to use satnavs that will steer them around the traffic hotspots?

Say, for example, that there's a smash on the M1 tonight. Satnavs could almost immediately advise drivers to take alternative A-roads. Those drivers who take the advice and don't end up contributing further to the tailbacks could then be rewarded with 50p off their next road tax bill. That may not be much of an incentive in itself, but if you did that a few dozen times over the course of the year, the savings would add up. And, more importantly, people would get to their destinations much more quickly.

None of this is rocket science. The government already attempts to re-route people around accidents and traffic jams via electronic road signs. But why not have an API accessible to all the satnav developers, free of charge that delivers all of that traffic information direct to people's smartphones? It would mean no more turning up on the M25 at 10pm to find that the junction's been shut for roadworks, for instance.

All it requires is a bit of forward thinking. Jeremy Corbyn has talked about re-nationalising the railways, but that's 20th-century thinking. Nationalise the satnav, if you have to but do something that's going to make a difference in 2019, not 1979.

Smart city projects both generate and use masses of data - that's no surprise. The projects need to analyse information in order to function efficiently, after all.

To take just one of many possible examples, imagine a cycle hire scheme. It's one thing to put bicycles in different locations and be pleased when racks show a high turnover. But that's not a smart city project.

It's only when a local authority knows the rate of turnover, where individual bicycles are being picked up and dropped off, and which are the more and less popular docking facilities that a cycle hire scheme starts to get smart. With information like this, services can be better tailored to meet demand.

But why should city authorities have all the fun with this data? Setting it free for others to use can give rise to new, imaginative uses, inspire whole new ways of addressing city management issues, provide citizens with new routes into the data, and even boost the local economy.

The importance of open data

It's becoming increasingly apparent that this data needs to be opened up if smart cities are to reach maximum effectiveness. Dale Peters, Research Director at analyst TechMarketView told us that open data is "key to accountability, service improvement and innovation in local government".

Technology Futurist Shivvy Jervis argues that open data is incredibly valuable when it comes to social projects, adding that it might be used to "spur more rapid, real-time responses to pressing 'city health' issues such as crime, road and citizen safety, or air pollution."

"I've seen extrapolations from previously untapped data preempt problematic issues for a local community before they even arise, ramp up good governance and accountability and significantly boost citizen wellbeing," says Jervis.

Reaping the rewards

The financial rewards to be reaped from open data can be significant. For example, Jervis highlights that "the freeing up of data from the UK's HM Land Registry has spurred the growth of the property tech industry here."

Transport for London (TfL) provides more than 80 open data feeds to more than 13,000 developers, and research by Deloitte has shown that this alone provides a 130 million annual boost to the London economy.

It's not just about the money, though. TfL says their data features in more than 600 apps, used by 42% of Londoners, giving that data a huge reach.

Vernon Everitt, managing director of Customers Communication and Technology at Transport for London explains that "schools and budding software developers use our open data as a test bed for how to code and analyse data".

Further north, Glasgow City Council currently operates an 'open by default' approach to data as a result of its Future Cities Demonstrator, an initiative it hopes will make the city a more productive and exciting place to live and work.

"There are many more benefits other than economic growth to be gained from open data," explains a spokesperson for the council, "and those include civic community engagement and customer satisfaction."

Identifying and releasing datasets

With such massive potential for open data, the problem many city authorities have is not whether to release open data, but deciding what data to release.

Janet Smith, data governance manager at Manchester City Council tells IT Pro that her city has become far more discerning with what data it feels will benefit the public.

"Manchester use a number of criteria to decide what data they release as open data over and above that required as part of the Local Government Transparency Code 2015," says Smith.

This includes ensuring the data in question doesn't reveal personal information, but also involves asking questions like: "Is it of good quality, can it be produced efficiently and consistently, is the format going to be usable, and is there a demand for it?"

Dale Peters at TechMarketView explains that ultimately it's the citizen that drives what can and can't be released as open data.

"Understanding the most pressing needs of citizens and creating open data initiatives focused on these areas is likely to have a higher impact - a targeted rather than a scattergun approach."

Partnership working

Releasing open data isn't a one-way street. City authorities often find that building partnerships with technology companies can help them get more benefit for themselves from their own open data.

Vernon Everitt tells us that Transport for London is "increasingly exchanging data with partners to complement what we collect ourselves. This allows us to get an even better understanding of journeys in London, to improve our transport services and make more informed investment decisions."

TechMarketView's Smith believes that partnerships like these are crucial for gaining the most from open data, and that local authorities "should not be afraid to tap into the experience that exists in the supplier community".

It's important to remember that the notion of partnership doesn't just refer to business relationships. After all, the school that uses air quality data to teach its students about data analysis and learn about air quality is also a partnership - and one that's building both the skills and knowledge of future citizens.

Image: Manchester, Media City - Shutterstock

One of the most endearing things about the Raspberry Pi is how it can be used as the computational brain for all most any tech project. Its open-source nature means it has been used to create tiny PCs to being used as a form of Hadoop data base cluster; there's a huge swathe of projects that have used the micro computer at their core.

For the security conscious, the Raspberry Pi can be used to power a fledgeling home security camera system, providing one is willing to get involved in a little bit of DIY coding.

Choosing your hardware

With the Raspberry Pi you can create a basic security camera to tinker with, but there's also scope to create a more fully-fledged system should you so desire.

That means there's an element of choice in how you approach a security camera project; you'll not only need to decide which Raspberry Pi model to go for, which will dictate the size of the camera system, but you'll also need to consider how it will connect to your home network and what type of camera module you'll want to use.

For example, a USB webcam will work as a makeshift security camera when connected to a Raspberry Pi, but you can get the official camera board to get more out of the security setup, as well as avoid any incomparability issues than might pop up.

There are two official options for this: the Raspberry Pi Camera v2 and the Raspberry Pi NoIR Camera v2, the latter being specifically designed for low-light applications. They both feature an 8 megapixel Sony IMX219 image sensor, which supports 1080p video at 30fps, 720p at 60 and 640x480p at 90fps. They connect direct to the Pi via a dedicated ribbon socket, and are supported natively in Raspbian. In short, one of these is your best choice, depending on whether you're planning mostly daytime video, or a significant amount of night/twilight work.

If you're planning a security camera system with dedicated hardware, then the cheaper Pi Zero W paired with one of the many night-vision kit cameras is worth considering, as this option keeps hardware costs, size and unwanted additional components to a minimum. Note, though, that the Pi Camera v2 needs an additional adaptor to work with the Pi Zero range.

Aside from your choice of Pi and camera combo, you'll need the usual USB power supply, an 8GB minimum SD/Micro SD card with Raspbian installed and either a monitor/keyboard/mouse or remote access enabled. Although you'll be able to get this project up and running without a case, you'll need to buy or build a suitable item depending on where you plan to monitor - weatherproof options are usually a good idea unless they''ll be living exclusively indoors.

Also bear in mind that motion-based camera systems can generate large volumes of video, which will require large amounts of either local or network storage if you want to view it later. This project can accommodate either, depending on your needs.

Once you've connected everything up - and carefully clipped the camera board in place - you're ready for the software bit. There are two simple routes to go down here - either install Motion and tweak it to suit, or go for an all-in-one option, like MotionEye, a Linux distribution that turns a single-board computer into a video surveillance system. The OS is based on BuildRoot and uses Motion as a backend and MotionEye for the frontend.

We'll go with MotionEye here, as it rounds off some of the corners without adding much in terms of complexity.

Downloading and writing MotionEye image to disk

First, download the latest version of MotionEye for your device, extract the image file from the archive and write it to your SD card. You can use Etcher.io on Windows, or in Linux there is a writeimage.sh script that will do everything for you.

Just run the script as follows (replacing the arguments with appropriate values):./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img"

Note that you'll need to specify the device path to the disk and not to some partition (for example /dev/mmcblk0 instead of /dev/mmcblk0p1).

You can preconfigure a wireless network connection - or a static IP if you'd rather not use DCHP - with the following command. Just use this command for Wi-Fi:./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img" -n 'yournet:yourkey'

...and this command for a static IP:./writeimage.sh -d /dev/mmcblk0 -i "/path/to/motioneyeos.img" -s "192.168.1.101/24:192.168.1.1:8.8.8.8"

Boot and setup

This complete, you're ready to boot the image. This will take a few minutes as the system auto-configures. Your motionEyeOS needs an IP address before you can communicate with it so you'll have to use the ethernet connection with DHCP enabled, unless you have preconfigured a static IP address.

As soon as your motionEyeOS setup is complete, it will listen on port 80 and present you with a web user interface - simply enter the IP address of your board in the address bar of your browser. Use your router to display devices on your home network, or use a network scanner to hunt for a device called "meye-".

Once found, you'll be able to click on the user icon on the upper-left side of the page to switch user to administrator. Use admin with no password when asked for credentials - the user setting is for remote monitoring, the admin for changing settings.

MotionEyeOS has a broad range of settings to play with, but the first thing you'll want to do is set up passwords for both admin and user, set the timezone and enable wireless. After that, choose the desired resolution, frame rate, and other details of your video feed, and configure file storage if you want your pictures and movies saved on a network or USB drive.

You'll be able to monitor your camera remotely (including on a smartphone) by visiting the relevant IP, inputting your 'user' login, and then using the web interface. The interface also allows you to browse, preview and download videos and images from each connected camera by using the media browser window which opens by clicking on the pictures or movies buttons.

This project gives you the beginning of a great security camera system which can scale up to monitor almost any situation, and is far more flexible than most comparable-price commercial systems. In addition, the Pi and Camera board can be the basis for a wide range of other projects too, including wildlife cameras or timelapse photography.

Thanks to Calin Crisan for his MotionEyeOS

Apple has been given permission to use drones to improve its digital mapping service after receiving approval from the US government.

The Cupertino company will be able to make improvements to Apple Maps by capturing images of North Carolina using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and add more enhanced and detailed images.

The drone testing program, launched by President Donald Trump last year, selected ten projects that it will offer waivers to for regulations that currently ban the use of drones in certain situations in the US.

In Apple's case, it will be able to ignore usual drone flight limitations permitted by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), such as flying drones at night and going beyond an operator's line of sight.

So far, Apple have only commented on the steps it will continue to take towards privacy with this new opportunity to get more detailed images to it's mapping service.

"Apple is committed to protecting people's privacy, including processing this data to blur faces and license plates prior to publication," the company said in a statement to Reuters.

Apple was one of a number of companies that applied to be part of the US drone testing program, with Intel, Airbus, Uber, FedEx and Microsoft also having drone projects approved.

Uber is working on air-taxi technology and will deliver food drones in San Diego, California. FedEx has a project using drones to inspect aircraft at its Tennessee hub and for some package deliveries between the airport and other Memphis locations.

Startup Flirtey, which successfully made the first US drone delivery in 2015, will use UAVs to deliver medical supplies for victims of cardiac arrests in Nevada and also track mosquitoes in Florida.

The ten companies granted permission to begin drone testing was announced by US Transport secretary Elaine Chao. She said the 149 bids for the tests showed the scale of drone innovation that is to come.

"The enthusiastic response to our request for applications demonstrated the many innovative technological and operational solutions already on the horizon," she said.

The UK government has flown 15 British startups to Australia on its latest Future Cities Mission to learn from the country's strategy to build smart cities.

The event kicked off in Sydney on Monday, with some of the UK's most agile smart city innovators looking for new business opportunities, partnerships and potential investment down under to help boost innovation on UK soil and to exchange smart city knowledge.

The British innovators in attendance included the creator of Heathrow Airport's self-driving pods, Westfield Technology Group, smart parking system JustPark and smart key-to-smartphone startup, Doordeck.

Others on the mission are: Inavya Ventures, Loqiva, Grid Smarter Cities, Open Energi, Predina Tech, Bulweria, Citi Logik Limited, SEaB Energy, Sunamp Ltd, MultiPass, Upside Energy Ltd, and Digital Node.

Innovate UK's innovation lead, James Taplin, said the body spends 500 million a year to grow British businesses, doing so in two ways:

"One through grants and loans and the other by connecting businesses, and that's essentially what this delegation is all about," he explained.

"With this entrepreneur mission, we wanted to help UK and Australian advanced urban services businesses find new collaborators and new opportunities, linking them all with new city opportunities and investment to mutually benefit everyone involved.

"We believe the greatest innovation comes from the mingling of diverse ideas in an environment that is conducive to their growth. With this mission to Australia, we aim to achieve just that."

While the goal of the event was to bring back lessons, business partnerships, investment and export opportunities to help grow businesses and ultimately bolster UK productivity, the mission began with the group of UK businesses identifying common problems in the cities of each of the respective countries.

While both Sydney and London are so far away and very different, entrepreneurs identified three key problems shared by both cities. The first was the issue of under-utilised transport services - for example, multiple car ownership that could help with vehicle sharing to ease congestion.

The second was the pressure on natural resources, for example, the social, economic, environmental and political problems associated with inefficient transportation in cities.

The third was the density of cities. This refers to the misuse of transport in reducing quality of life, for example through pollution caused by congestion.

"This kick off event has validated the idea that whilst UK and Australian cities may be half a world apart, their challenges are similar," said Taplin, wrapping up the day. "Not the exact same, but with the same core difficulties and opportunities that mean our UK entrepreneurs and their Australian counterparts intuitively understand one another and how they can each contribute to solving future city challenges. It has sparked some immediate close collaborations, and set a strong foundation for the rest of the programme."

While the event started in Sydney, it is moving onto Melbourne today, another eastern Australian cities that Innovate UK believes is a forward-thinking one in terms of its approach to smart infrastructure. Here, UK startups and entrepreneurs will meet with Melbourne's RMIT tech and research university, the city's town hall and The Australian Trade and Investment Commission, with potential investments and ideas to be exchanged in the form of effective future city innovations.

Uber will pay $245 million (177 million) in the form of company shares to Alphabet's Waymo after reaching a deal to settle a long-running lawsuit over the alleged theft of driverless car technology.

The warring companies struck a deal on a settlement last Friday, only the fifth day of testimony, bringing an end to a legal dispute that has plagued Uber since February last year. The settlement dictates that Uber will hand over a 0.34% equity stake to Alphabet's self-driving car unit.

On top of the fine, Uber has also agreed to not use any Waymo technology in its products, although Uber still maintains it never used trade secrets in its hardware or software.

The deal was reportedly the second attempt to settle the case, with Uber having already rejected a $500 million equity proposal from Google's parent company earlier in the week, according to sources speaking to Reuters.

The final settlement is also substantially lower than the $1 billion Waymo sought when the lawsuit was filed, and it also excludes the creation of an independent monitor to ensure trade secrets are not used. Waymo also initially sought a formal apology from Uber, which was rejected.

The case centred upon the alleged use of stolen industry secrets, thought to have been obtained after Uber bought self-driving tech startup Otto in 2016, founded by former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski.

Levandowksi is said to have taken 14,000 confidential documents with him when he left Google, secrets that Waymo alleged were then used to bolster Uber's self-driving research. While Uber acknowledged the existence of the documents, it always maintained that the information was never used as part of its designs, and that it had no idea as to how Levandowski obtained them.

The case has presented a significant obstacle to Uber's self-driving car research, which was pegged as being one of its most profitable future businesses and a means of diversifying the company.

It also allows current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi to get past of one of the many hangovers from the Kalanick years, having already dealt with the fallout from allegations of systemic sexism within the company.

While Khosrowshahi has maintained that the documents were not used, he did admit the episode could have been handled better.

"To be clear, while we do not believe that any trade secrets made their way from Waymo to Uber, nor do we believe that Uber has used any of Waymo's proprietary information in its self-driving technology, we are taking steps with Waymo to ensure our Lidar and software represents just our good work," said the CEO, in a statement.

"To our friends at Alphabet: we are partners, you are an important investor in Uber, and we share a deep belief in the power of technology to change people's lives for the better. Of course, we are also competitors. And while we won't agree on everything going forward, we agree that Uber's acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently."

In a statement to CNBC, a Waymo spokesperson said that the company remained "committed to working with Uber to make sure that each company develops its own technology".

29/11/2017: The latest twist in the self-driving-car case between Alphabet's Waymo and Uber sees the latter accused of "impeding" investigations into the company.

Google's parent firm Alphabet has accused Uber's self-driving development division of stealing its designs, after hiring a former Waymo staffer.

A day before jury selection was set to start, the trial has now been pushed back again, after revelations of a letter detailing Uber's efforts to spy on its rivals. The 37-page letter was sent by a lawyer for Richard Jacobs, a former employee, to Angela Padilla, Uber's deputy general counsel in May or June.

Jacobs told the court of an internal organisation inside Uber called "marketplace analytics" that sought out trade secrets, code and other details from rivals, according to a report in the New York Times. It also sought to "evade, impede, obstruct, influence" lawsuits against Uber, and used burner phones and devices that didn't connect to the Uber network to avoid creating a digital paper trail. Jacobs said some of the languages in the letter was "hyperbolic," according to the Guardian, but said he found the work ethically questionable.

The new information led the case's judge to put off the trial to give Waymo more time to investigate.

"I can no longer trust the words of the lawyers for Uber in this case," Judge William Alsup said. "If even half of what is in that letter is true, it would be an injustice for Waymo to go to trial."

He asked Uber to supply the full copy of the letter to Waymo.

"None of the testimony today changes the merits of the case," an Uber spokeswoman said in a statement. "Jacobs himself said on the stand today that he was not aware of any Waymo trade secrets being stolen."

12/10/2017: Google's Waymo 'wanted $1bn settlement' from Uber

Google's parent firm Alphabet wanted $1 billion in damages from Uber to settle a case surrounding the alleged theft of autonomous car Lidar technology.

Alphabet's self-driving car unit Waymo not only demanded the financial settlement but also wanted a public apology and an independent monitor at Uber to ensure it never used Waymo's intellectual property in future tech development, according to a report from Reuters.

Uber rejected those terms, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the settlement talks.

It wasn't clear when the settlement offer was made, but the court case remains ongoing. Indeed, Waymo recently delayed the suit to give it more time to sift through an Uber due diligence report that was only recently made available to Alphabet's lawyers. Waymo has estimated the total damages at $1.9 billion.

Reuters' sources said no further settlement talks are planned at the moment.

The case centres on a former Waymo staffer named Anthony Levandowski, who departed the firm and started his own self-driving lorry company, which was subsequently bought by Uber. The suit alleges Levandowski brought with him key files on Waymo's laser sensor technology, known as Lidar. Uber has since fired Levandowski for failing to hand over key evidential documents to Waymo.

03/10/2017: Google gets hands on hidden Uber report

A due diligence report Uber commissioned before buying self-driving truck firm Otto has been revealed.

Uber has fought in court to keep secret the details of the report into its own acquisition of self-driving van firm Otto, with Google's Waymo pushing for the details to be released as part of its lawsuit against the ride-hailing firm. Waymo sued Uber, accusing former Google staffer Levandowski of bringing trade secrets regarding self-driving car technology to Uber via his startup Otto.

The due diligence document was produced by a third-party security firm, Stroz Friedberg, and reportedly reveals that Uber was warned prior to its acquisition of Otto that Levandowski had Google Waymo data, including 50,000 work-related emails from his time at Google, according to a ReCode report.

The document says Levandowski "(a) possessed Google information; (b) met with a number of Google employees about joining his start-up company; (c) met with Uber executives, while employed at Google, about forming a new company; and (d) destroyed highly confidential Google proprietary information he had stored on five disks on his personal Drobo 50, including source code, files, and software pertaining to self-driving cars."

Those files included photos of components and diagrams describing Google's radar technology.

While the report sounds damning, Uber noted that it was commissioned to ensure no Google intellectual property leaked to Uber via its Otto acquisition. "Their report, which we are pleased is finally public, helps explain why even after 60 hours of inspection of our facilities, source code, documents and computers no Google material has been found at Uber," a spokesperson said.

Uber fired Levandowski in May after it said he was failing to cooperate in the case.

29/06/2017: Uber denies knowledge of Waymo theft prior to lawsuit

Uber has told a court that it never ordered self-driving car researcher Anthony Levandowski to download technical files from his former employer, Google's Waymo, according to a recent court filing.

Waymo, Google's self-driving car research division, is currently suing Uber for what it says is theft of trade secrets, after it claimed that its former employee Levandowski took almost 14,000 research documents with him went he took up a new position at the ride-sharing firm. This, according to Google, allowed Uber to gain significant ground in its own research efforts.

Uber has since fired Levandowski, and he is not a defendant in the case, however a ruling hinges on his actions and what exactly Uber knew about them.

"This is consistent with the complete lack of evidence that such files exist at, or have ever been used by, Uber," the company said, in a court filing on Wednesday, seen by TechCrunch.

Uber alleges that Levandowski downloaded the files to ensure he received a $120 million bonus from Waymo, although exactly how the files would have helped him achieve this was not explained.

However Waymo point to Uber's own testimony in an earlier filing, which said that during a meeting on 11 March 2016, Levandowski had told then-Uber CEO Travis Kalanick that he had five discs of Waymo material.

"And even after finding out that he had Waymo materials in his possession, Uber never took any steps to prohibit Levandowski from using his 'treasure trove of files' in his work at Uber," said Waymo.

While Uber acknowledges that the meeting took place, it claims it had no knowledge of how they had came into his possession. Once the source was revealed, the company claims it wanted nothing to do with the discs.

"Kalanick emphatically told Levandowski that Uber did not want any such information, that Levandowski should not bring any such information to Uber, and to talk to his lawyer," Uber said.

Waymo has since refuted this claim in a statement to Recode, saying that the evidence "clearly shows that stolen information has already made its way into Uber's technology" and that "rather than do the right thing, Uber took part in a coverup, only firing Mr Levandowski after their actions were exposed in litigation."

The case is still on going and both companies due to appear in court in October.

31/05/2017: Uber fires Anthony Levandowski

Uber has fired Anthony Levandowski after the engineer failed to cooperate in the ongoing lawsuit with Alphabet, the parent company of Google.

Uber general counsel Salle Yoo outlined in Levandowski's termination letter, dated 26 May, that his failure to comply with a court order is the reason for his firing. In the letter, Yoo also wrote that "your failure impeded Uber's internal investigation and defense of the lawsuit".

A federal judge in the ongoing court case between Uber and Alphabet's self-driving car firm, Waymo, granted a preliminary injunction against Uber on 12 May that led the ride-hailing firm to remove Levandowski from any work on Lidar, and to return any stolen documents to Waymo.

Levandowski is accused of downloading 14,000 confidential files before leaving Google's self-driving division in 2016. He went on to start his own self-driving truck company called Otto, which Uber bought in August 2016, six months after he had left his previous employer.

Yoo goes on to underline that Uber required the engineer to have "destroyed all property and confidential information belonging to any prior employer" and by not complying with the court order it's a potential breach and warranty in the employment agreement and an "additional ground for termination".

Levandowski invoked the fifth amendment in order to not to incriminate himself and refused to hand over documents or answer questions during a deposition.

Uber has insisted its technology is different to Waymo's and there is no evidence it has the stolen files on its servers, although it did not check Lewandowski's computer in its search.

Since driverless cars first started appearing in physical form, rather than as an abstract concept and longtime sci-fi staple, there have been concerns over their safety. Would they go out of control? Could they be hacked, and what would happen if they were? Are they better than a human driver?

In the end, all the incidents so far have (largely) been fender benders low speed crashes in which there were no injuries or fairly minor ones. What's intriguing, though, is that in virtually all cases, the tech companies that own and operate the self-driving car have blamed human error.

To quote Mandy Rice-Davies: "Well they would say that, wouldn't they?" But that doesn't mean it's not true. The most recent case, where a driverless shuttle in Las Vegas collided with a reversing truck, is still under investigation, but apparently the autonomous vehicle performed as it was programmed to it saw the approaching lorry and stopped. The human-operated vehicle, on the other hand, didn't, and continued to reverse until it crashed.

It's hard to say what a human driver would have done in the situation, although I suspect some creative thinking like beeping their horn or reversing themselves in order to actively avoid the collision would have been likely. The shuttle, however, wasn't programmed to do that so despite obeying its programming, the collision still happened.

And this is part of the problem with driverless cars when they share the road with human drivers; they don't have the ability to think in the abstract ways that humans do. While their reaction times may be faster, they can't problem solve in the way a person can when an unexpected situation occurs.

Does this mean we should abandon autonomous vehicles completely? Not at all. Even I, an arch sceptic on a lot of things, have come round to the idea of self-driving cars and trucks. For one, it could help counter the kinds of terrorist attacks that we've seen in London, Barcelona, Berlin, Nice and Charlottesville, where vehicles have been deliberately driven into crowds.

But while we still have human-operated vehicles, I don't think there's any way for these two vastly different driving styles to safely share the same roads at the same time. Humans are too unpredictable, they don't always obey the rules. They're not robots.

While human-driven cars still comprise the vast majority of traffic, and perhaps even when they don't, we need to determine a safe way for driverless vehicles to use the road. Though this is really a question for urban planners, separate lanes that are physically divided from the mainstream traffic (so that those unpredictable humans don't decide to just break the rules and use it), seems like an obvious solution - although standardisation is also needed.

Will that require us to rethink how our cities are laid out? Yes, but with the push for smart cities, we're going to have to do that anyway.

Driverless cars are the (eventual) future, but if we want to get there anytime soon, we need to make sure it's done smoothly and safely.

Uber has reportedly signed an investment agreement with SoftBank, in a deal that could see the Japanese giant funnel $10 billion into the ride-hailing firm.

Uber first agreed to a SoftBank investment over a month ago, but talks stalled after a lawsuit was brought against Kalanick by Benchmark Capital, according to Reuters. The suit allegedly claimed the former CEO misled stockholders to secure two additional empty board seats, which he then filled earlier this month without board approval.

As part of the agreement, Benchmark said it will suspend its lawsuit against Kalanick, which is reportedly likely to be dropped entirely once the investment has been completed. Uber has reportedly agreed terms with SoftBank, but not an overall sum.

"We've entered into an agreement with a consortium led by SoftBank and Dragoneer on a potential investment," said Uber in a statement to IT Pro. "We believe this agreement is a strong vote of confidence in Uber's long-term potential. Upon closing, it will help fuel our investments in technology and our continued expansion at home and abroad, while strengthening our corporate governance."

The Japanese investment giant will be joined by Dragoneer Investment Group, and will lead consortium of other smaller investors that are expected to invest another $1 billion and also buy up to 17% of the company's shares from existing investors at a lower valuation.

The deal will be considered a major victory for Uber and its new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Uber's board has approved a host of reforms that will remove the mechanisms that gave Kalanick disproportionately high voting power, including the super-voting rights, and new independent directors will be added to increase the board's overall number to 17.

17/10/2017: Uber's SoftBank investment to be finalised in the next week

Uber board member Arianna Huffington is confident that an Uber-SoftBank deal could be finalised within the next week.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's technology event, D.Live, yesterday, she said it was "very likely" that a deal between the Japanese tech giant and US ride-sharing firm would be struck shortly, according to TechCrunch.

Huffington said the deal would involve a direct investment in the company at the last private valuation round, and also a secondary transaction that would involve buying out existing shareholders.

But she added that Uber is still "waiting on what's going to transpire in terms of the price".

Having SoftBank "on your cap[italisation] table is very important when they're also investing in so many of our competitors around the world", she said, and expects to see more consolidation in the ride-sharing space.

Uber is trying to turn itself around after experiencing a culture crisis in 2017, during which it lost its longtime CEO and founder, Travis Kalanick, and conducted internal and external reviews as a result of allegations of widespread sexism within the firm. It also lost its London operating licence last month, affecting 40,000 drivers in the capital.

"If your culture is so driven by growth at the expense of other things, there are consequences," said Huffington. "Culture, we're now recognising, is the immune system of a company."

She called Uber's new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, "unflappable" and that his "goal is to get people to love the company and not just the product". He also has a greater focus on cost-cutting, in order to meet the goal of taking Uber public by 2019, she said.

Uber is involved in an ongoing legal battle with Google's self-driving car unit Waymo, which still needs to be resolved.

04/10/2017: Uber to go public in 2019 after board shakeup

Uber is scheduled to go public in 2019, after a shakeup to the company's board of directors was agreed last night.

The changes are designed to limit the power that Uber's founder Travis Kalanick has over the company, curtailing the inflated voting power of shares owned by Kalanick and other early staff and investors. An extra six seats have also been added to the board, making it easier to overrule Kalanick and his friends when it comes to large decisions - such as any future votes to reinstate him as CEO.

The restructuring comes as Uber frantically attempts to repair its reputation. The embattled company is coming to the end of a difficult year in which it has lurched from one scandal to the next. First came Susan Fowler's allegations of systemic sexism, followed by calls to boycott uber in the midst of outrage over Trump's travel ban.

Then came regulatory pressure over 'Greyball', a string of high-profile departures from the company (including Kalanick himself) and, most recently, the decision by TfL not to renew the company's license to operate in London.

Many, both within Uber and without, have laid the blame for the company's woes at the feet of Kalanick himself, and the founder admitted earlier this year that he "must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up".

As well as reigning in Kalanick, the decisions have also removed the last obstacles standing in the way of a $1 billion investment from Japanese tech giant Softbank. The company has been flexing its muscles this year, making a series of high-profile investments and acquisitions of companies including ARM, Slack, and possibly even Toshiba's memory chip business.

"Today, after welcoming its new directors Ursula Burns and John Thain, the board voted unanimously to move forward with the proposed investment by SoftBank and with governance changes that would strengthen its independence and ensure equality among all shareholders," Uber said.

"SoftBank's interest is an incredible vote of confidence in Uber's business and long-term potential, and we look forward to finalising the investment in the coming weeks."

Kalanick's comments on the matter were equally effusive, saying: "Today the Board came together collaboratively and took a major step forward in Uber's journey to becoming a world-class public company."

"We approved moving forward with the Softbank transaction and reached unanimous agreement on a new governance framework that will serve Uber well. Under Dara's leadership and with strong guidance from the board, we should expect great things ahead for Uber."

Not everyone is pleased about the changes, however. Top Uber investors Steve Russell and Shervin Pishevar threatened a lawsuit following the decision, which would remove the tenfold voting power of their Class B common shares compared to regular Class A shares held by other investors.

"Today's action by the board was the culmination of a blatant bait and switch, essentially robbing loyal employees, including the more than 200 early founding Uber employees and advisors, of their hard earned shareholder rights," the two investors said in a statement.

"They may think they have won a battle today but rest assured they will lose the war."

Uber has revealed it's planning to go public in 2019, despite coming under fire across the globe for failing to run its operation in the "fit and proper" way, losing its London licence for operation and shutting down in other countries.

The company's new boss, Dara Khosrowshahi, revealed the taxi service's intentions at the New York Times' Dealbook conference yesterday, saying that he expects the company to launch its bid for IPO in 2019. Previously, the company said it would be looking at a timeline of 18-36 months.

Khosrowshahi referred to the troubles the business has faced over the last 12 months, saying remaining private "has all the disadvantage of being a public company, with the spotlight on us, with none of the advantages".

Khosrowshahi's predecessor and company founder, Travis Kalanick, reportedly had no interest in taking the company to the stock exchange, but the new chief seems to think it's the right decision to grow the company's future (and possibly scrape back some of its reputation).

However, Uber's CEO did explain that going public wouldn't affect the company's negotiations with SoftBank, which is investing in the ride-hailing company, despite the Japanese firm saying it has no interest in going public.

Uber is due to receive a substantial amount of investment from SoftBank. However, just two days ago, SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son told a press conference at its earnings call that actually the company may halt its investment in Uber and instead back Lyft's services.

"Depending on the price and conditions, it is wholly possible we could shift our investment to the other main company Lyft. It is wholly possible. We won't know until the very end," he said.

He explained a number of conditions will come into play, including whether the price is right, the number of board members SoftBank will be allowed to have, voting rights and "the buying process".

Cisco and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council have teamed up on a sustainable vision to help the energy save energy, reduce carbon emissions and foster innovation and growth in the region.

The two organisations will develop a technology hub in the centre of the Essex town that will service businesses, residents and visitors to the area. It will be built on Cisco Kinetic for Smart Cities.

The initiative comprises a range of innovations, such as smart traffic access and parking to ease congestion, community management to prevent anti-social behaviour and connected residential care homes.

Environmental monitoring and management aims to improve air quality in the area and prevent a natural disaster occurring due to flooding and energy management will help businesses cut their power consumption.

"The ambition to share the benefits of digital technologies shouldn't be limited to organisations or even big cities," Stuart Higgins, head of Smart Cities and Internet of Things at Cisco, UK & Ireland said. "What Southend-on-Sea Borough Council aims to achieve is testament to that, and we are thrilled to be working with them and our partners to help enhance the lives of people who live, work and visit the town."

Working together, Cisco and Southend Borough Council will turn the seaside town into a smart city, sitting alongside much larger initiatives in Manchester with its CityVerve project and abroad, where Cisco's technology has been used in Jaipur to improve public safety.

"We want to further enable our citizens and businesses to grow and evolve, in line with the rest of the UK and with competition globally," Nick Corrigan, head of Digital Futures at Southend Borough Council said.

"With Cisco's proven expertise in the developing smart cities and technology sector, it is the perfect partner to help drive this initiative forward and demonstrate the potential of our Borough. We are looking forward to the collaboration and seeing our local residents and stakeholders realise the opportunities digitisation can offer."

EnGenius adds a new dimension to video surveillance as its EL-EWS1025CAM teams up a 2-megapixel IP camera with an integral dual-band 11n/ac wireless access point (AP). There's more, too: it can function as a standalone unit or integrate with EnGenius' Neutron WLAN management switches and join a wireless mesh network.

This ceiling-mounted camera has impressive credentials - along with a wide 120-degree diagonal FOV, the lens is encircled by 24 IR emitters for night-time operations. It has an integral mic, the Gigabit port is PoE-enabled and EnGenius also provides an external power adapter.

The kit includes a circular plastic mounting bracket and a set of clips for hanging it from the T-rails of a suspended ceiling. The lens position can be easily adjusted using its friction joints and behind the rubber cover on the side are a MicroSD card slot and reset button.

The camera is easy to deploy and on first contact, its tidy web interface sensibly advised us to change the default admin password. The Live View offers two streams using H.264 or MJPEG at up to 30fps. The first supports 1920 x 1080 while the second only goes up to 640 x 360 for mobile viewers.

The Live View image quality is excellent at the top resolution, with a sharp focus, good colour balance and smoothly conveyed motion via an H.264 feed. Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome had no problems showing the Live View, although we noted that the snapshot, full screen view, recording and audio mute buttons to the side only worked with IE11.

The camera uses a single web console for video and wireless management and provides eight SSIDs each for the 2.4GHz and 5GHz radios. All the expected security options are present and correct, plus you can assign one isolated guest network to each radio with its own DHCP server.

We used the scheduler to control availability of individual SSIDs, allowing us to turn them off outside normal working hours and on weekends. Monitoring options include lists of associated wireless clients and real-time graphs showing traffic for each radio plus system CPU load.

The EnGenius Video Management Software (VMS) provides a video wall for up to 16 IP camera feeds. The camera slotted in neatly with VMS allowing us to place it on an e-map, create recording schedules and motion detection events, store its feed on network storage and browse the recording vault.

To test the camera's efficacy with the Neutron solution we used an EnGenius EWS5912FP PoE WLAN management switch and threw in a couple of EWS360AP wireless APs for good measure. The switch has a dual-role web console providing access to the switch itself and the WLAN controller portion.

Adding the APs and camera was simple, and after they had been auto-detected by the switch, we assigned them to an AP Group containing all our wireless and security settings. We could enabled both radios, enforce security for all 16 SSIDs, broadcast them, enable or disable client isolation, create wireless VLANs and enforce upload and download traffic shaping limits.

With meshing in action, new APs don't need to be wired to the network as they'll link up wirelessly with the nearest AP and grab their settings from the switch. We tested roaming by unplugging an AP and watched connected clients transparently move over to the next available one.

The camera's video functions can still be accessed directly from its local web console so there's no change here. To simplify management further, we moved over to the VMS app loaded on a Windows 10 desktop and monitored and recorded its feed from here.

Priced right for SMBs, the EnGenius EL-EWS1025CAM is a great idea for adding surveillance and wireless access at the same location. As a standalone device it has a lot to offer but support for the EnGenius Neutron WLAN management solution probably makes it the most versatile IP camera we've seen.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 276.

Verdict

Priced right for SMBs, the EnGenius EL-EWS1025CAM is a great idea for adding surveillance and wireless access at the same location. As a standalone device it has a lot to offer but support for the EnGenius Neutron WLAN management solution probably makes it the most versatile IP camera we've seen.

1/2.9in. Sony RGB CMOS

2.8mm/F2.0 lens

1080p max res

30fps

MJPEG/H.264

Gigabit

PoE

2.4/5GHz 11/n/ac wireless AP

24 x IR LEDs

Internal mic

MicroSD/SDXC card slot

External PSU

EnGenius Video Management software

134 x 134 x 97mm (WDH)

1yr standard warranty. Options: EWS5912FP 8-port Neutron switch, £273 ex VAT

An Australian report suggests that drink-driving laws should not apply to people if they use self-driving cars, when the technology comes of age.

With autonomous cars already being tested in Australia, the The National Transport Commission (NTC) has been looking at what legislative changes will be necessary when self-driving cars become common. In fact, the NCT believes that current laws could potentially be a "barrier" to the use of these cars, which are expected in commercial rollouts by 2020.

The NTC recently published a report which looks into many different aspects of the laws that would need changing, such as whether the responsibility lies with the person in the car or the autonomous driving system.

It also suggested that drivers who are under the influence of drugs or alcohol should not be subject to drunk driving laws if using an autonomous car, stating that getting into a self-driving car drunk is similar to getting into a taxi.

The report states: "Enabling people to use an automated vehicle to drive them home despite having consumed alcohol has the potential to improve road-safety outcomes by reducing the incidence of drink-driving."

The report does, however, note that this exemption should not apply to drivers under the influence who are in vehicles that can switch to manual driving.

While the technology may still be a while away from full autonomous cars, the NTC thinks they "will have overall safety benefits for the road network by reducing the risk of human error".

Hikvision's Darkfighter is an IP camera for all seasons. This big 2MP bullet camera has an IP67 rating, indicating that it's dust-tight and able to survive the heaviest rainstorm. As the name implies, it's also designed to work even in very low light conditions.

This is no idle claim. We found the Darkfighter served up colour surveillance footage at light levels that would normally see a camera like this switch to black-and-white infrared mode. From our outdoor test location it delivered full colour images well after dusk, with only street lights to work with.

This wouldn't be useful if the images themselves were blurry and indistinct, but we found the live view was very sharply focused, with excellent colour balance and contrast. This quality was maintained in both our indoor and outdoor location tests, and even though the camera only has two IR LEDs, we found the claimed surveillance range of 20 metres was perfectly achievable once the evening became properly dark.

The camera is exceedingly well built -- it weighs a hefty 2kg -- and it offers a far more generous range of connection options than your average IP camera. No fewer than seven cables are routed out the back, offering analogue BNC, female 10/100 Ethernet, alarm input and output, RS-485 serial, audio in, audio out and a connector for the optional power supply.

There's also a waterproof slot cover underneath the camera, where you can insert a microSD card for local storage. It all comes with an internal bracket for wall or ceiling mounts, and for external mounting there's a junction box too to keep your cables dry.

Hikvision's tidy web interface provides easy access to a wealth of features. You can simply click buttons on the live view screen to change the aspect ratio, take snapshots, record to local or network storage and activate a mic and speaker connected to the camera's audio cables.

The camera can serve up three simultaneous live streams, but the primary one only supports H.264: we were able to access it with IE 11 and Firefox, but Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome wouldn't work. The second stream supports MJPEG, meaning it works in all browsers, but it's aimed at mobile users and only has a maximum resolution of 704 x 576 pixels.

Motion-detection support is excellent: you can define up to eight different areas to monitor, each with its own sensitivity settings. An arming schedule allowed us to decide when each zone was active on each day, and you can link events to actions such as recording to local or network storage, sending an email and triggering an alarm output to a device attached the camera's I/O block.

You can also configure different types of detection. Line-crossing detection triggers an alarm if an object or person moves through a line drawn on the live view: you can draw up to four lines and also set detection for either direction on one-way only.

Intrusion detection triggers an alarm if an object enters a predefined area or remains in it for up to 10 seconds, while video-tampering detection triggers an alert if an area in the live view is covered over.

There's also a target cropping option, which lets you draw a box around an area of interest and assign it to the third stream. If you see something occurring in the primary stream, you can switch to the third stream to focus on this region.

The kit includes Hikvision's iVMS-4200 software, which is a complete video management platform for multiple cameras. It worked fine with Windows 10, where it discovered our camera and offered recording and playback tools, e-mapping, event management and a video wall for up to 16 cameras.

Hikvision's Darkfighter bullet impressed us with its wide range of features, versatile software and excellent video performance, especially in low light. The IP67 rating makes it perfect for all-weather surveillance too, so even though it's a comparatively expensive camera, it's a great choice for businesses seeking surveillance without compromises.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

Hikvision's Darkfighter bullet impressed us with its wide range of features, versatile software and excellent video performance, especially in low light. The IP67 rating makes it perfect for all-weather surveillance too, so even though it's a comparatively expensive camera, it's a great choice for businesses seeking surveillance without compromises.

1/1.8in. 2MP RGB CMOS

2.8-12mm, f/1.4 lens

1080p max res

25fps

IP67 certified

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

PoE

BNC

I/O block

RS-485

audio in/out

micro-SD slot

2 x IR LEDs

Hikvision iVMS-4200 video management software

100 x 312 x 104mm (WDH)

2kg

wall mount bracket

2yr RTB warranty

Measuring just 65mm in diameter and 96mm tall, the EnGenius EDS6255 is small enough to provide discreet surveillance. With night vision and wireless network support, it's well equipped, and it's quite a bit cheaper than the Axis M1065-LW.

The kit includes a circular plastic mounting bracket and a set of clips for hanging it from the T-rails of a suspended ceiling. The orientation of the lens can be easily adjusted via a small screw in the side of the camera body, with tool that's handily secreted in a slot below. On the other side is a rubber cover for the micro-SD card slot and reset button.

We had no problems powering the camera via the lab's HPE ProCurve 2626-PWR PoE switch - although EnGenius also includes an external power adapter, for those wanting to use a wireless connection. Setting this up is pain-free: the web interface listed all SSIDs in the camera's vicinity, allowed us to add multiple SSIDs as AP profiles for quick selection and offered a quick WPS setup option.

Once it's up and running, the camera supports two live video streams, using either H.264 or MJPEG at up to 30fps. The first supports resolutions up to 1,920 x 1,080 while the second is aimed at mobile viewers and only goes up to 640 x 360. As usual, however, this is also the only stream you can access via either Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. Switching to IE 11 got everything working perfectly, and we found image quality at the top resolution to be very good. Focus is sharp, colour quality realistic and motion is conveyed over H.264 with only the slightest of delays.

It's also easy to access your video streams over the internet, thanks to Engenius' free DDNS service. After enabling this on the camera, we were able to use the EnViewer iOS app to access its live view from anywhere in the world, as well as taking snapshots to our iPad's photo library, recording and playing back video and listening to its mic. EnGenius even provides a QR code label for the camera, for effortless connection.

The bundled Video Management Software (VMS) adds more value, providing a well-designed console and a video wall for up to 16 cameras. It worked fine with Windows 10 and we used it to view live feeds, schedule recordings, set up motion detection events, browse the video archive and apply an e-map for quickly accessing different cameras.

For motion detection, you can create up the three windows, each with their own sensitivity rating, and schedule when they're active - but only one action can be applied to all of them. When any one is triggered, you can record to either local or network storage, and fire off notifications to email, mobile devices running the EnViewer app and the VMS console. The camera also supports audio and camera tampering detection, which can be linked to various alerts and recording destinations.

The EDS6255's weak suit is night vision. According to the datasheet, the EDS6255 has 12 IR LEDs - although we could only see one on each side of the lens. Whatever the reality, its night-time range is limited: after dark, we were completely unable to make out details beyond a range of four metres. An annoying quirk of the software also means that a schedule can't run past midnight, so if you want to run motion detection overnight you have to create two separate schedules.

Night-vision quibbles aside, the EDS6255 is a versatile IP camera offered at a very reasonable price. It packs a lot of useful features into its compact shell; as long as you don't need to peer too deeply into the murk, it delivers good video quality and comes with decent video management software.

This review was originally published in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

The EDS6255 is a versatile IP camera offered at a very reasonable price. It packs a lot of useful features into its compact shell; as long as you don't need too much night vision, it delivers good video quality and comes with decent video management software.

1/2.7in. RGB CMOS;

2.8mm, f/1.8 lens;

1080p max res;

30fps;

MJPEG/H.264;

10/100 Ethernet;

PoE;

802.11n wireless;

2 x IR LEDs;

Internal mic;

Micro-SD card slot;

External PSU;

EnGenius Video Management software;

65 x 65 x 96mm (WDH);

237g;

2yr RTB warranty

The Axis M1065-LW is one of the smallest IP cameras on the market, making it an attractive option for offices seeking a discreet indoor surveillance solution. What's more, despite its miniscule dimensions, it comes with a list of features to match IP cameras twice its size.

That includes a maximum resolution of 1080p at 25fps, with support for both wired and wireless network connections. With an integrated infrared illuminator and a PIR motion sensor, it can detect movement and record video in the dark as well as the daytime.

There's also an internal microphone and speaker for two-way audio, and a micro-SD card slot, so you can store video locally as well as to network storage. It's a shame that there's no PoE support, but the included PSU has a decent 2.9m cable, so your positioning options aren't too limited.

We found the camera took less than a minute to set up over a wired connection, and its native web interface is very easy to use. From here, setting up a wireless connection is simplicity itself: you can choose your SSID from a list, or simply use the WPS button on the side of the camera.

The M1065-LW impressed us with its video quality. Its live view is pin-sharp, with excellent contrast and colour balance. You can choose from 10 resolutions and configure multiple stream profiles, so you can set up different image sizes, frame rates and compression levels to suit different destinations.

For night-time operation the IR illuminator has a range of 10 metres and switches on automatically when light levels drop. We found the PIR sensor also worked well, with movement within 6 metres triggering our alert actions.

The one concession you'll probably have to make is accessing the camera via Internet Explorer. Neither Microsoft Edge nor Chrome supports the Axis Media Control plug-in required for H.264 streaming - so if you want to watch your feed in one of these browsers you'll have to live with MJPEG. And while Firefox will stream H.264 through the QuickTime plug-in, there's an annoying three-second video delay. Internet Explorer has no such limitations: we were happily able to stream in either video format, with latency of less than one second.

When we enabled audio, the web interface also installed an AAC decoder plug-in. Audio transmission is half-duplex: to speak to someone, you click and hold the Talk button at the bottom of the live view page,and let go when you want to listen to them. Overall sound quality isn't great, but it was good enough for us to hold a conversation with someone next to the camera.

The camera can be set to respond to a wide range of events, including motion (detected by either the camera or the PIR sensor), audio noise or camera tampering. The camera comes preloaded with Axis' clever Motion Detection 3 app, which offers variable sensitivity, so you can ignore small movements such as birds landing on the windowsill.

You can set up rules to link triggers to actions, such as recording to the micro-SD card or to a network share, sending images to HTTP and FTP servers or emailing them and playing a warning sound clip stored on the camera. You can also set up schedules to apply different rules at different times of the day.

It's a system with scope to grow, too: Axis' free Camera Companion software supports multiple sites, each with up to 16 cameras and provides centralised recording and playback facilities. The interface provides live views of assigned cameras, along with facilities for browsing recordings and a slick investigation mode for frame-by-frame viewing.

We found it automatically discovered our Synology NAS appliance, listed available shares for selection and set up motion detection for us. We also had no problems linking the Axis iOS app to our MyAxis cloud account and viewing camera feeds remotely from our iPad.

For a small office or shop, the M1065-LW is comparatively expensive, but it delivers premium protection for your business. It's small enough to be unobtrusive, and offers top-notch image quality and a comprehensive set of surveillance features.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro 270

Verdict

For a small office or shop, the M1065-LW is comparatively expensive, but it delivers premium protection for your business. It's small enough to be unobtrusive, and offers top-notch image quality and a comprehensive set of surveillance features.

1/3in. RGB CMOS; 2.8mm, f/2.0 lens

1080p max res

25fps

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

802.11n wireless

PIR sensor

IR illuminator

Internal mic/speaker

Micro-SD card slot

External PSU

Axis Camera Companion and Camera Station (1 licence) software

61 x 37 x 106mm (WDH)

128g

Wall mount bracket and table-top stand

3yr RTB warranty

A member of D-Link's Vigilance professional surveillance family, the DCS-4602EV is designed to go where other IP cameras fear to tread. Its IP66 rating makes it fully weather-proof against dust-storms and heavy jets of water, and its solid metal casing and polycarbonate dome have an IK10 external mechanical impact rating - the highest possible - meaning it can stand up to a physical battering too.

The DCS-4602EV is based on a 2MP CMOS with a top resolution of 1080p. It also features 15 infrared LED illuminators circling its lens, which D-Link claims will deliver night-vision at a range of up to 20 metres - something our tests bore out.

The camera supports wired connections only, and the expectation is that you'll be driving it via PoE - the 12V power supply is an optional extra. A short waterproof Ethernet cable protrudes from the camera's base, so that the RJ-45 connection doesn't become a chink in the DCS-4602EV's armour.

The tidy web interface makes light work of configuration, but as usual Microsoft Edge and Chrome don't support H.264 streams. We had no such problem with IE 11, in either format, and were also able to use Firefox via the QuickTime plugin for H.264 - although as with other cameras, this introduces an annoying three second latency for motion. D-Link tells us it's looking into these issues but is currently advising Windows 10 users to stick with IE 11.

Live view quality is reasonable, but the camera's focus is on the soft side, making the image appear very slightly blurry. Still, it's good enough for general surveillance of areas such as lobbies and corridors. The camera handles artificial lighting well, and when positioned outdoors it reacted quickly to changing light levels. We suggest you keep it out of direct sunlight, however: faced with our brightest scene, the camera turned down the exposure so far that the areas in shadow were too dark to be usable.

The web interface is standard across D-Link's range, so you'll find a PTZ control pad on the left side, even though the pan and tilt buttons do nothing on this camera. The zoom buttons do work for the DCS-4602EV, but since this is digital zoom it's only good for blowing up the image: you won't capture any more detail, and quality breaks down badly at the maximum 10X setting.

We defined two streams each with their own resolution, codec and frame rate for PC and mobile viewing, and saw quick links in the live view page, along with buttons for full-screen, taking snapshots and recording on demand.

Setting up motion detection is simple too: you can draw zones to mark where you want it be active, and set a global sensitivity level. A handy indicator in the live view shows when motion detection has been triggered, and this can be linked to a range of events. Up to five email, FTP and NAS servers are supported and we could decide whether to send snapshots, video clips or just system logs to them. You can also set events to be automatically triggered to a schedule, or to a camera reboot.

In addition to the camera's own web interface, you get D-Link's D-ViewCam software for accessing up to 32 cameras and managing recordings to multiple storage locations. The console looks dated but it works fine on Windows 10 and offers plenty of tools including a handy e-map facility. There's also an iOS app: we had no problems accessing the video server host on the LAN, but if you want to access it from outside your company network you'll need to manually set up port forwarding to allow it to get through your firewall.

The DCS-4602EV is a tough all-weather camera that's built to last and offers plenty of features. Image quality isn't the best, but if you're looking for an vandal-proof outdoor IP camera, the low price makes it an attractive choice.

This review originally appeared in PC Pro issue 270

Verdict

The DCS-4602EV is a tough all-weather camera that's built to last and offers plenty of features. Image quality isn't the best, but if you're looking for an vandal-proof outdoor IP camera, the low price makes it an attractive choice.

1/3in. 2MP RGB CMOS

2.8mm, f/1.8 lens

1080p max res

30/25fps (60/50Hz)

IP66/IK10 certified

MJPEG/H.264

10/100 Ethernet

PoE

15 x IR LEDs

10X digital zoom

D-Link D-ViewCam software

110 x 110 x 72mm (WDH)

2yr RTB warranty

Uber's new CEO is planning to take the taxi-hailing app public within three years.

Dara Khosrowshahi takes the wheel as CEO at Uber next week, but met with staff at the beleaguered company yesterday. According to a report in the Financial Times, one aspect of his plans for Uber is to take it public within 18 to 36 months.

Former CEO Travis Kalanick has previously said he was against going public, telling CNBC: "I'm going to make sure it happens as late as possible."

Despite that, Uber has long sat atop analysts and bankers' lists of expected IPOs, particularly after Kalanick's departure.

Before such a move, Khosrowshahi said Uber needs to get its business in shape and refocus on "paying the bills", the FT report said. Uber has yet to actually pull a profit, largely because of the high costs of its expansion and its "big shots" such as investment into flying cars.

He also pledged to change corporate culture the reason his predecessor was pushed out of the company. "This company has to change," Khosrowshahi reportedly said. "What got us here is not what's going to get us to the next level."

30/08/2017: Khosrowshahi says he's 'scared' about new role as Uber CEO

Former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said he is "scared" about taking on the role as Uber's new boss, in a memo announcing his official appointment to employees.

"This has been one of the toughest decisions of my life," said Khosrowshahi, in a memo obtained by Recode. "I've had the privilege to run Expedia for 12+ years now, and most of you who have been on this journey with me know it has not been easy going."

However, he added that he was worried by the idea of moving out of his comfort zone: "I have to tell you I am scared. I've been here at Expedia for so long that I've forgotten what life is like outside this place. But the times of greatest learning for me have been when I've been through big changes, or taken on new roles."

Khosrowshahi was appointed to the role by Uber's executive board on Sunday, following the dismissal of co-founder and long-term CEO Travis Kalanick. It is thought he has since been negotiating his contract, which could worth as much as $200 million, according to figures unearthed by Business Insider.

In a joint statement, the board reiterated that Khosrowshahi had received unanimous support, and welcomed him to the role.

"We're really fortunate to gain a leader with Dara's experience, talent and vision," said the statement, which included Arianna Huffington, considered to be one of the main proponents of change at the company. "The board and executive leadership team are confident that Dara is the best person to lead Uber into the future building world-class products, transforming cities, and adding value to the lives of drivers and riders around the world, while continuously improving our culture and making Uber the best place to work."

One of his first duties will be to formally greet Uber employees at a meeting today at the company's San Francisco headquarters.

Travis Kalanick also congratulated the new CEO in a statement yesterday: "Casting a vote for the new chief executive was a big moment for me and I couldn't be happier to pass the torch to such an inspiring leader."

Uber will likely see the appointment as a significant step towards cleaning up the company's image, which has been tarred over the past year by allegations of systemic sexism and anti-competitive practices.

29/08/2017: Ex-Expedia chief takes on Uber CEO vacancy

Uber has announced the appointment of ex-Expedia boss Dara Khosrowshahi as its new CEO, replacing Travis Kalanick who resigned from the company last year amid reports of a corporate culture rife with sexism and harassment.

Dara Khosrowshahi has been the chief executive of Expedia since 2005. Before this, he worked at a number of other companies also led by Expedia chairman Barry Diller, including USA Networks and IAC Travel, which purchased Expedia in 2005. Khosrowshahi has also sat on the board of the New York Times since 2015.

Diller told Expedia's staff of Khosrowshahi's plans to accept the role in a memo. "Nothing has yet been finalised, but having extensively discussed this with Dara, I believe it is his intention to accept," he said according to the BBC.

Although rumours suggested HP chief executive Meg Whitman or Jeff Immelt, the former CEO of General Electric, could take up the demanding role, Immelt announced he wouldn't be joining the taxi firm in a tweet on Sunday.

"I have decided not to pursue a leadership position at Uber. I have immense respect for the company & founders - Travis, Garrett and Ryan," he wrote on the social network. Although he didn't go into more detail about why he wouldn't be taking up the role, the New York Times speculated Immelt didn't get enough votes from the Uber board.

Whitman said last week on Twitter she hadn't even considered leaving her role: "We have a lot of work still to do at HPE."

Neither Khosrowshahi nor Uber have commented on the appointment.

28/07/2017: Who will replace Travis Kalanick at Uber?

After increasing pressure from investors, Uber's CEO Travis Kalanick resigned from the company last June. Kalanick faced criticism after numerous scandals took place over the last few months involving claims of systemic sexism and harassment in the workplace.

Kalanick has held the position of CEO since he co-founded Uber back in 2009; it's now valued at nearly $70 billion. Despite this, Uber was plagued with problems and was subject to numerous reviews, especially after ex-employee Susan Fowler wrote a blog post about her experiences of sexual harassment at the company.

Now, the ride-hailing app is on the search for someone to take Kalanick's place and steer it onto the right course. It's hoping to name a CEO by early September which means the next few weeks will be awash with rumours as to who that person might be. Since Kalanick still owns the majority of Uber, it would also make sense that a future CEO would get along well with him too.

Who could the next CEO of Uber be?

Meg Whitman, HPE CEO

There were rumours that Meg Whitman, CEO of HPE, was being considered for the position. Whitman recently stepped off the board of directors of HP Inc which fuelled rumours that she might make the move to Uber. As reported by Bloomberg, the company has drawn up a shortlist of six candidates, one of which is Whitman. According to two sources known to the publication, the HPE CEO has been meeting the firm's leadership over recent weeks too.

Despite this, Whitman took to Twitter yesterday to say that she wasn't going to leave HPE anytime soon. She said that she doesn't normally comment on rumours but the speculation of her becoming Uber's CEO had become a "distraction".

Whitman said: "I am fully committed to HPE and plan to remain the company's CEO."

In a following tweet she made this even clearer: "We have a lot of work still to do at HPE and I am not going anywhere. Uber's CEO will not be Meg Whitman."

Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric outgoing CEO

Jeffrey Immelt is set to leave General Electric and it has been suggested that he may take the steering wheel of the ride-hailing app. Bloomberg sources told the publication that he is on the shortlist too.

Immelt is leaving GE after spending 16 years at the company and his departure date is set to be on 31 December 2017, although his successor John Flannery will take over at the start of August. This may mean that he has started looking for a new role which makes him a potential candidate.

Marissa Mayer, ex-Yahoo CEO

Mayer was Yahoo's CEO before Verizon completed its acquisition of the company. She left as a result of this acquisition, receiving a $186 million payout in the process, and now is reportedly looking for her next role at a company as the CEO.

Mayer told Business Insider on 19 July that she definitely wants a new CEO role and wouldn't comment on whether she would like to take the helm of Uber. She did say, however, that Uber hadn't reached out to ask her about filling the position.

Mayer has defended Travis Kalanick in the past, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, stating that Kalanick was unaware of the toxic culture at the company because it had grown so fast. She said: "I count Travis as one of my friends. I think he's a phenomenal leader; Uber is ridiculously interesting."

Uber is the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) into potential bribery offences.

The DoJ has started the preliminary process of opening an official investigation into allegations that managers at the embattled tech company breached the Foreign Corrupt Practises Act US legislation which prohibits companies from bribing foreign government officials for business reasons it was revealed by the Wall Street Journal.

The company has confirmed to IT Pro that it will be fully co-operating with the DoJ in its investigation.

It is currently unknown which specific country or countries the investigation is focused on, but it may be related to claims that Uber may have used bribery to obtain the medical records of a Delhi woman who was raped by an Uber driver in 2014. The company hired a law firm earlier this year to mount an investigation into these claims.

Uber has been plagued by scandals and setbacks for most of this year; accusations of systemic sexism from a female former engineer kicked off a chain reaction which saw the company shed numerous executives, including founder and then-CEO Travis Kalanick.

The top spot has now been accepted by Expedia's former CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, who assumes command at a time when the company is embroiled in a number of serious legal cases and investigations, many centering around its tumultuous relationship with regulatory authorities and law enforcement.

Uber is still under investigation by the DoJ over its use of 'Greyball' software, which helped it to identify and avoid government officials who may have been attempting to investigate it. The company is also fending off claims from Google-owned Waymo that former Waymo employee Anthony Levandowski stole trade secrets and research when he left to join Uber.

News has come out today about Domino's Pizza collaborating with Ford to create self-driving pizza delivery vehicles.

I have a fundamental problem with this proposition and it's not one of my normal hobby horses. No, my issue is that were this to become the standard method of delivery I would never receive another pizza again, which is sad because pizza is my favourite food.

This probably sounds a bit dramatic, but it's true for one simple fact: my house isn't easily accessible by car.

Also, even human deliverers, who have the advantage of being able to get out of their car and walk to the door, find delivering pizza to me difficult as applications like Google Maps simply aren't capable of directing people to my house. I can always tell when a newbie has joined the Domino's team because I'll get a slightly panicked phone call from someone driving up and down the very short adjoining street looking for this phantom house of mine.

I also have better things to do than staring at a GPS tracker while I wait for my food to arrive (as is required by this service).

When it comes to finding problems with stories like this, I often hark back to my rural roots and I'm certain it will be a problem there (for reasons that go beyond the issue of Sat Nav), but I'm now an urbanite and can't imagine I'm the only one in this scenario either.

Aside from the problem solving and access aspects outlined above, which an autonomous car simply wouldn't be able to solve, this idea overlooks a number of (in my opinion) obvious problems.

People have to go to the car to pick up their meal: How do they know which is theirs? How can you ensure they only take what they ordered? If the answer is that each vehicle only carries one order at a time, isn't that wasteful, particularly at peak times? And what about people with limited mobility or who would find it hard to otherwise leave the house? (This does seem to have occurred to the president of Domino's USA as well, at least in part).

An unmanned car is also surely more vulnerable to vandalism, too. And that's before I get onto my usual "what about the workers?" quest.

This isn't to say I rubbish the idea of autonomous vehicles all together, or at least not any more the recent spate of terrorist attacks that use vehicular homicide as the method of choice changed that. But gimmicks like this (and I'm sorry, it's a gimmick) won't do much to help further the idea of driverless vehicles being useful and worthwhile in the eyes of the public.

It's been said that the future is here, it's just not evenly distributed and that's true of self-driving cars.

For most of us in the UK, the only driverless vehicle we're likely to get a ride from anytime soon is East London's DLR, but head to Greenwich, Milton Keynes and Bristol if you want a sneak peak at the future of automated automotives in action. There are three main government-backed, British-led projects across the UK: GATEway in Greenwich; UK Autodrive in Milton Keynes and Coventry; and Venturer in Bristol.

Greenwich

Head to Greenwich on the right day and you could be forgiven for thinking you've stepped a few years into the future. The London borough is home to a variety of driverless projects, including take-away delivery robots, shuttle buses, and Ocado delivery trucks.

Under the GATEway programme, the first driverless cars to hit London's roads were developed by Oxbotica, a spin-out from the University of Oxford. Described as "pods" or "shuttles", they're essentially small buses without a driver. They travel up to 10mph carrying four passengers, guided by LIDAR and cameras through routes near the O2 Arena in Greenwich.

Credit: the GATEway project

Dr Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, said at the time that the shuttle "represents an enormous step forward on our journey of implementing real world mobility-as-a-service capability in an operational fleet which can ultimately run without human intervention".

Head further east to Woolwich and as part of the GATEway project, grocery delivery service Ocado has been trialling tiny lorries, also developed by Oxbotica and using its Selenium software. The CargoPod lorries shuttle eight boxes of groceries over a 3km route through a local estate, dodging gates, street furniture and cyclists. During the ten-day trial, the CargoPod also carried two humans in the front seats.

Credit: Oxbotica

"The GATEway project is unique in that it considers the effect of automated vehicles on the movement of goods as well as the movement of people," Simon Tong, principal research scientist at transport firm Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) and technical lead for the GATEway project, said in a statement. "This trial with Ocado Technology provides an ideal platform to help us understand how and where these vehicles could best operate and whether people would accept, trust and like them as an automated delivery service in the city. We envisage that cities could benefit massively if deliveries could be made by quiet, zero emission, automated vehicles when congestion is minimal."

Cars, rather than pods, are also being trialled elsewhere in London, as part of private firms' efforts to develop driverless technologies. Nissan tested its automated Leaf electric car on a course around the Excel Centre in East London. Nissan's ProPilot tech is designed to let drivers have a break and take their hands off the wheel from time to time, rather than be entirely automated, with the car maker saying it plans to offer models that can handle most driving by 2020, with drivers only required to take the wheel in an emergency. Volvo aims to run similar trials on roads in West London later this year, using its Intellisafe Autopilot system.

Milton Keynes, Nuneaton and Coventry

The city of Coventry has become a driverless hub, with demos and trials of automated vehicles already shuttling locals between the train station and other destinations. The first project was the LUTZ Pathfinder, designed in part by Oxbotica. Those pods are two-seater, 15mph vehicles that operate on pavements rather than roads, watching for obstacles via lasers and cameras.

Some of the members of that project have joined the UK Autodrive programme, which alongside rolling out a fleet of 40 of the pavement pods is looking to trial more standard cars with automated skills later this year.

The UK Autodrive consortium which includes Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata isn't only looking into fully driverless cars but connected ones, with vehicles able to communicate and share information.

In a demonstration at a private track in Nuneaton in June, the cars were shown warning drivers that an emergency vehicle was approaching from a certain direction and sent traffic information from road-side units, including warnings on speed limit changes or temporary lane closures. Plus, the connected cars knew when other vehicles were approaching a junction and could warn drivers that a collision was likely. Future versions of the connected cars will alert drivers when a car in front brakes, time driving speed to hit more green lights than red, and assign priority to a car when two approach an intersection without lights or signs.

The UK Autodrive project also showed off driverless technology at the Nuneaton track, with a Range Rover Sport autonomously steering through junctions and roundabouts, and dodging obstacles.

Those technologies are soon set for public road trials. Later this year, they'll head to Milton Keynes and Coventry on segregated bits of road, before fully open trials in 2018. "The successful completion of the proving ground trials marks a significant milestone for the project team, and we are now looking forward to demonstrating the benefits of these exciting new technologies in the real-world settings of Milton Keynes and Coventry," said Tim Armitage, Arup's UK Autodrive project director, in a statement.

Bristol

A third British autonomous project is working out of Bristol. Called Venturer, this project is focusing less on driverless cars and more on how we interact with them and how they interact with each other.

The research is based out of the University of the West of England, with the trials happening across the private roads on the campus using a BAE Systems Wildcat. The first tranche of research has now been published, looking at how people handover driving to the car and vice versa.

The research found that people took 1.77 seconds to respond to a handover request the car telling the human driver to take the wheel and a further one second to resume active driving. That means the total handover time was close to three seconds. After a handover, drivers tended to keep below recommended speed limits.

"The findings from the driving simulator study, supported by similar experimental conditions used in the road study, suggest that designers of AV technology with handover functionality need to proceed with caution," the study said. "The experiments highlight the need to consider human performance under multiple driving conditions and scenarios in order to plot accurate takeover and handover time safety curves."

The next rounds of research will look at how autonomous vehicles interact with other road users at junctions how computer-driven cars can understand interactions such as when people indicate to each other with a nod of the head or waving each other through and also examine at interactions between buses, pedestrians and cyclists.

As part of the work, Venturer will not only stay on campus, but use a driverless pod on public roads later this year.

Where next?

Oxbotica and its partners will get on the motorways between Oxford and London in 2019, with the DRIVEN consortium set to test autonomous cars as part of a 8.6 million project. Those cars will require level four automation meaning they can handle the road and all safety-critical functions without any human interaction and use Oxbotica's Selenium software.

The DRIVEN consortium includes Oxbotica, Telefonica O2, Transport Research Laboratory, Transport for London, and more including insurance firm XL Catlin, as figuring out how to insure automated vehicles presents a challenge. Oxbotica's Dr Smith, said: "We are seeking to address some of the most fundamental challenges preventing the future commercial deployment of fully autonomous vehicles."

Main image credit: Oxbotica

Ocado is the latest retailer to try out driverless deliveries, using Oxbotica's CargoPod as part of the government's GATEway Project, led by transport research firm TRL.

The trials took place in Greenwich, where the GATEway (Greenwich Automated Transport Environment) is focused and takes on the "last mile" challenge, which addresses how to get goods to customers more efficiently, linking between distribution and transport hubs without generating emissions or noise.

"The GATEway project is unique in that it considers the effect of automated vehicles on the movement of goods as well as the movement of people," said Simon Tong, principal research scientist for TRL and technical lead for the GATEway project.

"This trial with Ocado Technology provides an ideal platform to help us understand how and where these vehicles could best operate and whether people would accept, trust and like them as an automated delivery service in the city. We envisage that cities could benefit massively if deliveries could be made by quiet, zero emission, automated vehicles when congestion is minimal."

Oxbotica's CargoPod runs on the company's autonomous platform, Selenium, which offers real-time navigation around obstacles and people. The autonomous pods can carry up to 128kg worth of groceries, making them well-suited to transporting goods.

"We are always looking to come up with unique, innovative solutions to the real-world challenge of delivering groceries in densely-populated urban environments," David Sharp, Head of 10x department at Ocado Technology said. "This project is part of the on-going journey to be at the edge of what is practical and offer our Ocado Smart Platform customers new and exciting solutions for last mile deliveries."

This is the third trial conducted by the government and industry funded GATEway project, with its previous tests including the transportation of people around the Greenwich area in vehicles provided by Westfield Sportscars, Heathrow Enterprises and Oxbotica.

"The GATEway project takes us another step closer to seeing self-driving vehicles on UK roads, and has the potential to reduce congestion in urban areas while reducing emissions," said business minister Claire Perry. "Backed by government, this project firmly establishes the UK as a global centre for developing self-driving innovation."

Flying taxis that take you around cities at the press of a button sounds like the far flung future - or at least like the setting of The Fifth Element.

But Uber wants to make that vision reality much sooner - by 2020, in fact. The ride-hailing firm aims to demonstrate its airborne cabs, which people can order to take them around cities - during the 2020 World Expo in Dubai.

Revealing its plans during its inaugural Elevate summit yesterday, Uber also unveiled a series of partnerships known as the Elevate initiative with real estate companies, aircraft manufacturers, electric vehicle manufacturers and two cities.

The first partner cities are Dallas-Fort Worth and Dubai. Dallas-Fort Worth is looking to be the first metropolitan area in the US to explore a flying car pilot and Uber also recently entered into a partnership with the Dubai Road and Transport Authority, which will be funding studies for demand modelling in the region to better understand pricing and network optimisation.

In both of these cities, Uber said it needs to develop infrastructure partnerships with local real estate companies in order to construct vertiports for a future Uber Elevate Network. The company has already partnered with Hillwood Properties in Dallas-Fort Worth and is looking to partner with several real estate companies in Dubai in order to do this.

Uber also partnered with aircraft manufacturers who are developing electric VTOL vehicles such as Aurora Flight Sciences, Pipistrel Aircraft, Embraer, Mooney and Bell Helicopter. The company also needs to develop a VTOL charger for the Uber Elevate Network so has partnered with ChargePoint for this to happen.

Chief Product Officer at Uber Jeff Holden said: "What started as a simple question 'why can't I push a button and get a ride?' has turned, for Uber, into a passionate pursuit of the pinnacle of urban mobility - the reduction of congestion and pollution from transportation, giving people their time back, freeing up real estate dedicated to parking and providing access to mobility in all corners of a city. Urban Aviation is a natural next step for Uber in this pursuit, which is why we are working to make push a button, get a flight a reality."

The event will prove a welcome relief to the embattled company from headlines about its investigation into claims of sexism at the firm, breaking Apple's privacy rules, and court battles.

Pictures courtesy of Uber

08/02/2017:Uber hires NASA expert to research flying car

Uber has appointed ex-NASA executive Mark Moore as director of engineering for aviation in its Elevate division - the department that is trying to develop a flying taxi.

It's hoped Moore can provide the knowledge necessary to make Uber's dream a reality and transport the automated cars it's researching from the road up into the skies.

Uber released a whitepaper back in October explaining its decision to research drone vehicles, which will feature vertical take-off and landing technology to ensure they can launch from almost anywhere.

It discussed the benefits of on-demand urban air transportation, explaining it will enable commuters to get to their place of work in minutes rather than hours.

"Imagine traveling from San Francisco's Marina to work in downtown San Jose a drive that would normally occupy the better part of two hoursin only 15 minutes," the company said. "What if you could save nearly four hours round-trip between So Paulo's city center and the suburbs in Campinas?"

The white paper included Moore as one of the contributors to its research, so it's not surprising he decided to make the jump to the on-demand taxi service when they realised his expertise in the field. In fact, his work on a similar project for NASA made him perfect to fill the vacancy at Uber's flying car division.

Moore said the main problem with flying cars is that battery technology hasn't developed far enough to provide the vehicles with the power they need to stay in the air for prolonged periods of time.

Uber is working with Volvo and Daimler for its road-based automated car technology, but it's not clear if it'll be working with other partners for its air vehicles.

Image credit: Uber

25/04/2017: Uber has been hit by another blow this week, as a former Lyft driver has filed a complaint against the company alleging it used bespoke software to spy on rivals' drivers, an action that would violate US state privacy laws.

The lawsuit claims that a secret internal program known as 'Hell' was used to track drivers and build a database of those employees that worked for both Uber and Lyft. This data would then be used to prioritise sending work to those employees who used both services, in an effort to tempt drivers away from using Lyft.

By using Hell spyware, "Uber employees, contractors, and/or agents were able to access the location of up to eight Lyft drivers at one time and obtain their unique Lyft ID. Each Lyft ID is unique, akin to a social security number, which allowed Uber to track Lyft drivers' locations over time", the filing to the US District Court for the Northern District of California reads.

"Uber was looking for overlap between the location data so that it could target drivers working for both platforms in order to improve the Uber platform and harm the Lyft platform," the complaint states.

Uber's Hell program was used "millions of times" between 2014 and 2016, according to the complaint. As a result, Lyft reportedly suffered from a lack of drivers, preventing the company from operating a cheap service, and leaving customers with inflated wait times.

The former Lyft employee argues that this represents "unlawful invasion of privacy and interception of electronic communications and images in violation of the Federal Wiretap Act".

The suit states that around 315,000 drivers were working for Lyft in 2016, 60% of whom had also worked for Uber. The remainder, about 126,000 drivers, worked exclusively for Lyft and could be considered an entire class of plaintiff, the filing argues.

The Hell program, first surfaced by the Information on 12 April, was initially dismissed by Uber, which refuted claims it prioritised drivers. However, since then the company has been silent.

This is not the first time Uber has been accused of misusing tracking software. Uber allegedly violated data protection laws when it apparently used software known as "Heaven View" to track the positions of "high profile politicians, celebrities, and even personal acquaintances of Uber employees, including ex-boyfriends/girlfriends and ex-spouses", according to a lawsuit last year.

Meanwhile, Uber made use of a tool known as "Greyball", the New York Times revealed last month, to track law enforcement and officials trying to clamp down on Uber services. As the company was operating in cities such as Boston and Portland without state permission, the program allowed Uber to avoid sting operations trying to shut down its service.

The NYT this week reported that Apple threatened to kick Uber's app off iOS for violating Apple privacy rules by using tracking software to stop fraud in China.

IT Pro has approached both Uber and Lyft for comment, but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.

13/04/2017: Uber reportedly targeted Lyft drivers with "Hell" program

In an effort to remain at the top of the ride-hailing pyramid, Uber reportedly developed a program that exploited its major competitor, Lyft.

A report by The Information claimed the secretive software-based program, referred to as "Hell," kept tabs on Lyft drivers between 2014 and 2016, before Uber ended it sometime in 2016. The devilish name was allegedly given to contrast the previous "God View" and "Heaven" programs, which allowed Uber to internally track its own drivers and employees.

A small group of data scientists and top Uber executives, including CEO Travis Kalanick, initially developed Hell by creating fake rider accounts for Lyft, it's alleged. The location of these accounts were then edited, allowing those behind the program to see where Lyft vehicles were throughout an entire city.

The report suggests the employees were also able to determine which drivers were "double-apping," or driving for both Lyft and Uber. Uber supposedly obtained this information upon realising that Lyft drivers had unchanging, special numbered IDs. These IDs allowed the group to continuously monitor pinpointed Lyft drivers.

The ride-hailing giant then reportedly offered incentives to these drivers, such as bonuses for reaching a target amount of rides, in the hope of getting them to ditch Lyft and drive solely for Uber.

Kalanick and his secretive group also allegedly sent more riders to double-apping drivers than to drivers who worked exclusively for Uber.

IT Pro has contacted both Uber and Lyft for comment, but hadn't received a response at the time of publication.

A Lyft spokesperson did, however, provide The Information with a statement (via TechCrunch), saying: "We are in a competitive industry. However, if true, these allegations are very concerning."

Uber is facing the prospect of a substantial increase to its operating costs in London, if changes proposed on Thursday are passed by the city's transport authority.

As part of an on-going consultation, Transport for London (TfL) is considering plans to restructure the fees that private hire companies are charged for operating within the city, ensuring that operators are paying an amount appropriate to the resources needed to regulate their services.

Under the current system, private hire companies such as Uber and Addison Lee are bundled into two tiers for a five-year license. 'Small' operators, those with no more than two vehicles, currently pay 1,488 for their license fee, while 'large' firms pay 2,826, regardless of the size of their vehicle fleet.

The proposals would scrap this in favour of a five-tier system, accounting for a range of company sizes and licensing lengths. A company such as Uber, which has over 30,000 licensed drivers in London, would be slapped with the top tier fee, paying 167,000 for a license, plus 68 per car.

TfL has said the private hire industry has seen dramatic growth, rising from 65,000 licensed drivers in 2013 to more than 117,000 today. As a result the changes are necessary to account for the "substantial increase in the cost of ensuring private hire operators fulfill their licensing obligations and in tackling illegal activity to keep passengers safe", according to TfL.

The authority estimates that the cost of enforcing regulations alone will reach 30 million over the next five years, up from an original estimate of 4 million.

Helen Chapman, general manager of Taxi & Private Hire, said: "The operator fees system is no longer fit for purpose. It is only fair that licence fees for private hire operators accurately reflect the costs of enforcement and regulating the trade. The changes to fees would also enable us to fund additional compliance officers to help crackdown on illegal and dangerous activity."

IT Pro has reached out to Uber for a statement, but has yet to hear back.

If accepted, this change would mark the latest setback Uber has faced in the UK over the past year. The company has faced multiple legal challenges, losing a case in March to prevent TfL from imposing English reading and writing standards on Uber drivers.

In a separate case, a London tribunal ruled in October that Uber drivers should be considered as employees, earning them the right to minimum wage and holiday pay. Uber has always argued its drivers are self-employeed, and has since stated it would be appealing the decision in September.

Uber has been granted the right to appeal against a ruling last year that deemed its drivers to be employees, giving them basic employment rights such as minimum wage and holiday and sickness pay.

The employment appeals tribunal has set the appeal date for 27 September, and the hearing will last for two days.

Last October's ruling, by a London employment tribunal, declared that Uber drivers cannot receive below minimum wage. Uber drivers are not paid a salary but are given a commission of each ride they provide, with the company taking a cut too.

Uber had argued that its drivers are self-employed contractors who choose when and where they work, rather than employees who work set hours from specific locations.

An Uber spokesperson said: "Almost all taxi and private hire drivers in the UK have been self-employed for decades and with Uber they have more control over what they do. Licensed drivers who use our app are totally free to choose if, when and where they drive with no shifts, minimum hours or uniforms. The vast majority of drivers who use Uber tell us they want to remain their own boss as that's the main reason why they signed up to us in the first place".

The original ruling against Uber was fierce, with the judges stating: "The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common 'platform' is to our minds faintly ridiculous. Drivers do not and cannot negotiate with passengers ... They are offered and accept trips strictly on Uber's terms."

Last year, drivers using the app in the UK made average fares of 15 per hour after Uber's service fee, Uber said. Uber has highlighted how drivers choose for how long they drive, they can take or ignore trips, they own or rent their own cars and can complete other work or jobs as it suits them.

31/10/2016: A UK employment court has ruled Uber drivers must have the same benefits of employees including holiday pay

A court has ruled that Uber drivers in the UK should be counted as employees of the company rather than contractors, meaning they must get the same benefits including holiday pay.

Additionally, the court said drivers must receive the national living wage rather than lower rates of pay as they currently do, because their wages are based upon the number of trips they make and customers they serve. They are currently paid commission on the income, rather than a salary.

Following the news, experts predict the company could receive claims from its 40,000 drivers working in the UK, arguing that they are owed employee benefits and the company should start offering other extras such as pension schemes.

Uber has consistently argued it's a technology firm, not a transport company, and that its drivers are self-employed contractors who have the benefits of choosing when and where they work, rather than employees who must work from the office at set hours.

"The notion that Uber in London is a mosaic of 30,000 small businesses linked by a common platform' is to our minds faintly ridiculous," the judges said. "Drivers do not and cannot negotiate with passengers They are offered and accept trips strictly on Uber's terms."

The Citizens Advice Bureau carried out research around the contracting industry that revealed many workers in industries outside of the on-demand economy could be falsely classified as self-employed, which means the government is losing 314 million a year in lost tax and employer National Insurance contributions.

"We are pleased that the employment tribunal has agreed with our arguments that drivers are entitled to the most basic workers' rights, including to be paid the [national living wage] and to receive paid holiday, which were previously denied to them," Nigel Mackay from the employment team at law firm Leigh Day, which represented the drivers, said in a statement.

"This is a ground-breaking decision. It will impact not just on the thousands of Uber drivers working in this country, but on all workers in the so-called gig economy whose employers wrongly classify them as self-employed and deny them the rights to which they are entitled."

Uber's first diversity report has finally been released, revealing the same underrepresentation of female and non-white employees that exists at many other technology firms.

The report, which appeared on Tuesday, was promised by the ride-hailing service in response to allegations of systemic sexism that have plagued the company over the past few months.

Uber's total workforce is comprised of 36% female employees, which puts it in line with a number of other Silicon Valley companies. Google's workforce is made up of 31% women, Twitter is currently at 37% women, and Slack is out in front at 43%.

Uber's overall employee diversity figures

However there is a substantial drop in Uber's technical roles, where just 15% of the workforce is women.

"Of course, we need to do better and have much more work to do," said Liane Hornsey, Uber's chief human resources officer, in the report. "It's no secret that we're late to release these numbers. And I'd like to thank our employees for their tenacity in arguing the case for greater transparency."

In terms of ethnicity, half of the overall Uber workforce is white, while Asians make up the second largest group at 31%. Black and Hispanic employees represent just 9% and 6% respectively.

Again, these numbers drop drastically when looking at specific roles, as Hispanic and black employees collectively make up just 3% of the entire technical workforce.

Uber has been working to try and repair the damage from a string of PR disasters over the past few months. Former employee Susan Fowler made a dramatic exit from the company in December, claiming that she had suffered sexual harassment by her manager and that Uber decided not to reprimand him due to his strong performance record. Fowler estimated that, within her engineering division, women made up just 3% of the workforce by the time she left.

The allegations prompted an internal investigation led by former US Attorney General Eric Holder, assisted by Uber board member Arianna Huffington and associate general counsel Angela Padilla.

Uber has since hired a new chief human resources officer and a global head of diversity and inclusion, two appointees that have "hit the ground running" in their attempts to recruit underrepresented groups.

Most recently a manager at Uber's engineering division has claimed that sexism is "systemic in tech", and not just a problem at Uber. His comments have since sparked outrage from activists, who claim Uber is trying to sidestep criticism and avoid responsibility for solving their issues.

Alongside Tuesday's report, Uber made a commitment to investing $3 million (2.41 million) over the next three years to support organisations in their attempts to recruit more women into tech, although specific companies were not mentioned.

Picture courtesy of Uber

Uber has once again found itself mired in controversy, after one of its engineering managers tried to sidestep allegations of widespread sexism within the company by claiming the issue "is systemic in tech".

The incident was reported by Kamilah Taylor, a senior software engineer at LinkedIn. Taylor was approached by the Uber manager in an attempt to recruit her for a role at the company, but said she had "no interest in joining Uber" due to the company's "questionable business practises and sexism".

Rather than attempting to reassure Taylor that Uber is working to ameliorate the problem, however, the female manager apparently attempted to dismiss her concerns. "I understand your concern," she wrote. "I just want to say that sexism is systemic in tech and other industries."

This has prompted outrage from activists and onlookers, who have suggested that this attitude shows Uber is failing to take responsibility for the cultural problems within its organisation.

Many Silicon Valley figures have also pointed out that just because the tech industry continues to struggle with sexism, this does not mean that companies should not be working to change. "I was really shocked," Taylor told the Guardian. "Wouldn't you want to be better than that? Why are you telling me that? Is that your bar?"

When we contacted Uber for comment on the story, the company has yet to reply. However, a spokesperson told the Guardian: "We are investigating," adding, "this message was not sanctioned by Uber's recruiting department."

Uber has been reeling from a seemingly never-ending series of scandals and PR gaffes over the last few months. Kicked off by former Uber engineer Susan Fowler's lengthy expos of the company's endemic sexism, the company has suffered a series of damaging incidents which culminated with the company's president quitting the job after just six months. He blamed the departure on Uber's values, which he said were "inconsistent" with his own.

The company has been attempting to fight these fires, with HuffPo founder and Uber board member Ariana Huffington heading up an internal investigation into its workplace culture. In contrast to the comments reported by Taylor, Huffington recently told reporters that sexism "is not a systemic problem" at Uber.

As part of efforts to combat allegations of sexism, the company will be revealing data on the diversity of its workforce for the first time ever. The data will be made public at Silicon Valley's PUSH Tech 2020 summit, an event organised by Rev. Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Push Coalition in order to promote black and minority inclusion in tech industry roles.

Public privacy is at risk of mass scale invasion as an increasing use of Big Data and a surge in the amount of overt CCTV has left regulators struggling to keep pace, according to the UK's surveillance commissioner.

Alongside the launch of a new three-year strategy on Tuesday, surveillance camera commissioner Tony Porter told the Guardian that the UK government is falling behind the pace at which new CCTV technology is being implemented.

The 2017-2020 National Surveillance Camera Strategy for England and Wales, which was first proposed in October and has now passed through its consultation phase, aims to establish a code of practice for the use of CCTV equipment, including the use of body worn cameras and automatic number plate recognition.

Under the strategy, disparate groups and regulators would be brought together in an attempt to create a set of coherent rules, limiting the use of surveillance cameras to times when it was deemed proportionate and necessary.

However, Porter has expressed alarm that the increasing number of CCTV devices could lead to more invasive surveillance tactics than anticipated, as video footage is now being linked with data analysis tools like facial recognition or being cross referenced with other monitored personal data and activities.

"I'm worried about over surveillance becoming much more invasive because it is linked to everything else," Porter told the Guardian. "You might have a video photograph of somebody shopping in Tesco - now it is possible to link that person to their pre-movements, their mobile phone records, any sensor detectors within their house of locality."

"As smart cities move forward, these challenges are so much greater for people like myself, and members of the public need to decide whether they are still happy with this."

His comments come after Parliament passed the Investigatory Powers Act, allowing spy agencies to monitor people's web browsing habits and collect bulk personal datasets.

"Fast and loose"

Although there are an estimated four to six million CCTV cameras in the UK, new technology is changing the nature of surveillance, as we no longer rely on just cameras for spotting crimes. The use of body worn cameras is becoming the norm for police forces across the country, and drone technology is regularly being deployed to help solve crimes or missing person reports.

However despite the benefits to policing, Porter argues that privacy is not always a priority when deciding to use the technology, adding that the Metropolitan police in particular were playing "fast and loose" with public privacy by planning not to erase number plate records after a two-year period.

Porter highlighted the case of the London Olympics in 2012, in which millions of vehicle registration plate records were obtained, but subsequently never deleted in the time since. Police forces are obligated to delete number plate records after two years, or they risk the possibility of legal challenges.

"The nightmare scenario is that there is a lack of understanding about how big and effective this can be," said Porter. "This technology is there to protect us, but there needs to be informed consent about what it is capable of doing. Body-worn video or facial recognition - that can identify people on databases who didn't know they were on databases."

Porter has urged authorities to adopt his code of practice set out in the three-year strategy, which would limit the use of surveillance cameras to only when there is a clear need to safeguard the public.

Picture: Bigstock

After a string of incidents that have damaged Uber's image in the eyes of the public, CEO Travis Kalanick is now seeking the help of a new partner to help him manage the troubled ride-hailing firm.

First reported by Recode, Kalanick is looking to hire a COO to help run the company.In a short statement released shortly afterwards, Kalanick said: "This morning I told the Uber team that we're actively looking for a chief operating officer: a peer who can partner with me to write the next chapter in our journey."

The decision comes as Uber faces a crisis both in terms of its public image, but also its morale within the company. In January the #DeleteUber campaign went viral on Twitter after Uber was accused of taking advantage of a taxi strike at JFK airport following President Donald Trump's executive travel ban, by dropping surge pricing on Uber rides.

Uber was then forced to launch an internal investigation after former employee Susan Fowler published a blog post alleging systemic sexism and a practice of covering up sexual harassment. This led to the departure of engineering head Amit Singhal after claims of improper conduct against women during a former role at Google.

As if the situation could not get any worse for Uber, Kalanick was then caught on video arguing with an employee over falling wages, an exchange that ended with Kalanick swearing at the driver.

Who Uber will target remains to be seen, although it would make sense for Uber to bring in a female executive, at least to reassure the public and investors that there is a genuine effort to reform the company.

Uber has also yet to fill an empty board seat after Google's executive David Drummond left the company last year, and according to Recode, mostly female candidates are being considered as a replacement.

01/03/2017:'Ashamed' Uber boss filmed swearing at employee

As if Uber wasn't suffering from enough bad publicity from recent allegations of systemic sexism, its CEO has now apologised for swearing at an Uber driver who raised concerns over falling income.

Uber boss Travis Kalanick was hitching a ride inside a car driven by long-time employee Fawzi Kamel, when a heated exchange was captured by the car's dashboard camera, footage that Bloombergobtained.

With the CEO in his car, Kamel took the opportunity to confront Kalanick about Uber's falling fares and his shrinking income. A heated exchange then followed, in which Kalanick becomes increasingly irritable and dismissive of the driver's claims.

In the video, Kamel said: "You're raising the standards, and you're dropping the prices."

"We're not dropping the prices on Black," said Kalanick, Black being Uber's premium service. "We have to; we have competitors; otherwise, we'd go out of business."

"Competitors? Man, you had the business model in your hands. You could have the prices you want, but you choose to buy everybody a ride," added Kamel. The disgruntled driver then explained that recent business decisions to focus on low-end drivers has meant high-end premium drivers are struggling to secure an income.

"I lost $97,000 because of you," said Kamel. "I'm bankrupt because of you. You keep changing every day."

Uber has indeed cut fares for its Black service on multiple occasions since 2012, as much as 10% in a single price gouge, which has led to a reduction of earnings for long-time drivers.

"Bullshit," said Kalanick. "Some people don't like to take responsibility for their own shit. They blame everything in their life on somebody else." With that, Kalanick leaves the car and slams the door behind him.

Kalanick has since appologised for the content of the video, saying in a memo to employees: "To say that I am ashamed is an extreme understatement. It's clear this video is a reflection of me - and the criticism we've received is a stark reminder that I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up. This is the first time I've been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it."

Given Uber's position in the market is somewhat troubled by strong competition from the likes of Lyft, and smaller ride hailing services in other regions, significant price adjustments are understandable. But Kalanick's abrasive personality, coupled with recent allegations of systemic sexism within Uber, has given the impression of a company that does not prioritise the welfare of its staff.

Picture credit: Adam Tinworth

WikiLeaks has claimed the CIA can pretty much hack into any device, even smart TVs, with its range of hacking tools, designed to read and lift data from electronic devices.

The information obtained is "the largest ever publication of confidential documents on the agency," according to a statement released by WikiLeaks.

The first batch to be leaked, dubbed 'Year Zero' is comprised of 8,761 documents and files that reportedly detail how authorities have discovered a way to bypass the encryption in highly secure messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal. This is done by accessing the data on devices before encryption is applied on Android and using other methods on the iPhone, Microsoft Windows and even Samsung smart TVs. However, privacy campaigners dispute this claim.

The files were accessed via an internal network inside the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence in Langley, Virgina.

The engineering development group (EDG) is responsible for developing, testing and supporting the tools that the CIA uses for this type of surveillance. The EDG sits within the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI), which itself is a sub-department of the Directorate for Digital Innovation (DDI), one of the CIA's five major directorates.

One particular method of surveillance, dubbed "Weeping Angel", was developed by the CIA's embedded devices branch (EDB) and focused on turning Samsung smart TVs into covert microphones. When users think the TV is off, it's actually a 'fake-off' mode that records conversations and send them to a covert CIA server. It is believed that the CIA didn't act alone for this attack and worked in co-operation with MI5/BTSS (British Security Service).

WikiLeaks explained that the agency "lost control" of its hacking weapons, including malware, viruses, trojans, weaponised "zero day" exploits, malware remote control systems and associated documentation. Anyone finding the information could use it to launch a serious attack on anyone. However, the notes don't include the hacking files themselves, merely the information about how the CIA is believed to be using them.

The anonymous source who sent the materials to WikiLeaks is apparently hoping that the documents will trigger a conversation about "whether the CIA's hacking capabilities exceed its mandated powers and the problem of public oversight of the agency," WikiLeaks said.

"There is an extreme proliferation risk in the development of cyber 'weapons'," said Julian Assange, WikiLeaks editor. "Comparisons can be drawn between the uncontrolled proliferation of such 'weapons', which results from the inability to contain them combined with their high market value, and the global arms trade.

"But the significance of 'Year Zero' goes well beyond the choice between cyberwar and cyberpeace. The disclosure is also exceptional from a political, legal and forensic perspective."

Read our analysis of the WikiLeaks revelations here.

Picture: Bigstock

Uber's CEO has dropped out of Trump's business group after 200,000 users deleted the ride-sharing app - though Telsa founder Elon Musk will stay on.

Travis Kalanick has resigned his seat on US President Donald Trump's business advisory council, following public criticism and an online campaign to #DeleteUber.

That follows Trump's weekend executive order that banned people (mainly Muslims) from seven countries from entering the US, catching out Silicon Valley workers and leading to protests at major airports around the country. In New York, taxi drivers refused fares from JFK International Airport for an hour, prompting Uber to remove its surge charges during the mini-strike, which some took as a pro-Trump tactic.

That sparked a call to ditch Uber, encouraging users to not only uninstall the app but to delete their accounts. So many people took part that Uber had to automate its response. Reports suggest the company saw as many as 200,000 deletions out of its user base of some 16 million people.

Kalanick appears to be listening to users and his critics. He had pledged to bring up the executive order at the council, but in an email to staff, said he has quit before the first meeting, expected to be held today.

Kalanick said he spoke "briefly" to Trump about the executive order and "its issues for our community".

"I also let him know that I would not be able to participate on his economic council," he continued. "Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the President or his agenda, but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that."

He said that Uber would advocate for change on the immigration issue, saying it was tearing apart families and harmful to Uber's business, "but staying on the council was going to get in the way of that".

Kalanick said that Uber staff - including drivers - helped remind him of "our most essential cultural values".

While Uber CEO has left Trump's council, two tech leaders remain members: Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Ginny Rometty, IBM's chairman, president and CEO. IBM's statement on the executive order has been described as "embarrassingly weak".

Following Kalanick's departure, Musk has said he intends to stay on the council - and pledged that he and others attending "will express our objections to the recent executive order on immigration and offer suggestion for changes to the policy".

Musk added: "Advisory councils simply provide advice and attending does not mean that I agree with actions by the Administration I understand the perspective of those who object to my attending this meeting, but I believe at this time that engaging on critical issues will on balance serve the greater good."

Other members of the council include include the CEOs of Wal-Mart, Walt Disney, GM and General Electric.