Autonomous vehicles could have saved ?13.9 bn in Istanbul, Facebook is open sourcing telecommunications equipments - Last Week's Tech News Roundup

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1. Autonomous vehicles could have saved ?13.9 bn in Istanbul

I have been thinking and researching artificial intelligence for quite a while, and its impact on transportation particularly seizes my attention. Autonomous vehicle technology bears immense potential to save lives, reduce costs and greenhouse gas emmissions, let alone transform industries. Knowing Istanbul is the third most congested city in the world, I've started a thought experiment on how much we could have saved last year if all vehicles were autonomous in Istanbul. According to my estimates TL13.9 bn. I'll be releasing more details later next week, so stay tuned!

2. Facebook is open sourcing telecommunications equipments

Facebook has been leading multiple open source projects on telecommunications equipment. Last week the company released the design of a networking equipment, and schematic, layout, CAD files and software of a wireless access solution. 

Open sourcing has huge benefits. On this instance, it lowers the barriers to entry, therefore increase the odds for better and cheaper solutions. Building equipment requires significant R&D and most of the firms (especially Chinese manufacturers) lack funds, incentives and accumulated know-how to design communications equipment, although they possess the knowledge to manufacture. Giving technology away opens market for those manufacturers and allow them to reduce prices with their competitive manufacturing processes. Also, an open source project is likely to develop into a better form by crowdsourced efforts. Not only it will evolve into a more efficient solution, but also be more secure. Recent attacks showed that manufacturers lacking technical skills and decent regulation pose a great threat to the internet ecosystem.

Infrastructure costs are one of the most important arguments of communication service providers (CSP) around the world against over the top (OTT) service providers such as Facebook. CSPs believe OTT services providers should cover transmission costs to deliver their services to customers. Open sourcing has a potential to bring costs down for infrastructure owners, however currently efforts to undermine anti net neutrality arguments are far from being substantial. Reduced costs also changes profitability formulas for a challenger operator or a newcomer and increase fragmentation in global telecommunications market which has been on consolidation phase. Competitive CSP landscape is beneficial for us all, not just OTT service providers. Competition guarantees decreased total cost of ownership (TCO) and increases the coverage for low income individuals. 

A month ago I commented on a new patent house which consolidates IoT patents from technology powerhouses such as Qualcomm and Ericsson. Facebook's attempts, backed by the most powerful technology companies in the world, will render those patent houses' and trolls' attempts baseless without a doubt.

3. Google responds back to Statement of Objection of European Commission (EC)

EC has been investigating Google on the premise that company has abused its dominant position by systematically favoring its comparison shopping service in its search result pages. Google rejects allegations and argues providing better solutions for users is not abusing and reiterates its initial claim that users are also using other channels, such as Facebook, Pinterest, to reach merchant sites. Google fortifies its arguments with a U.S. study showing 55% of consumers start product search from Amazon. 

European Commission has been actively engaging big U.S. firms on their competitive and financial conducts. EC fights a valid case but the intrinsic motivations, in my opinion, it harbors works against itself. EU doesn't like the reach and dominance of U.S. firms, and believes they have sapped EU startup ecosystem. China, which backs homegrown firms against foreign companies and hold tight regulations, clearly benefits by slamming doors but the EU has very different dynamics. I believe rather than shutting competition out they should find a way to ignite a more competitive startup ecosystem, especially after Brexit which changes the importance of UK as an investment hub.

4. Google Capital invested in Snap Inc.

Google Capital, recently rebranded as CapitalG, invested in Snap Inc. Details on how much and when were unavailable at the time of this writing, but why is obvious. Snapchat's potentcy has led Facebook to copy features, down to name, to give Facebook universe users a reason not to try Snapchat. Google has tried to penetrate social network market before, unfortunately Facebook's iron grip held the market captive. Facebook also acquired up and coming threats (Instagram and WhatsApp) to remain uncontested. However, Snapchat, defying a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook, remained as an anomaly in the Facebook's social networking realm. Snap Inc. is, with an impending IPO, now valued $40 billion. It recently repositioned itself as a camera company and that is where social media is heading towards.

5. Mobile and tablet internet traffic exceeds desktop traffic worldwide

Increase in mobile devices, especially in emerging markets where most of the population's first internet device is a smartphone, has led to finally mobile traffic exceed desktop traffic worldwide. Smartphone sales surpassed PCs in in 4Q11.