AS HEARD ON - The Jim Polito Show - WTAG 580 AM: Voting and Tesla Driver Assist.

Welcome!

Good morning, everybody. I was on WTAG this morning with Jim Polito.  Since it was Voting day, of course, we had to talk about that but then we got into a discussion about Tesla, Alpha and Beta tests, how they are perfecting their software, and what we can really expect.  Here we go with Jim.

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Automated Machine Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson: [00:00:00] There's been a lot of speculation about what that second computer is being used for and without getting into the nitty-gritty too much, the Teslas are connecting, calling home on a daily basis, typically.

Hi everybody. Yeah, I was on with Mr. Polito this morning. We had a great time talking about a couple of things, but, he was a little surprised about Tesla. In fact, he's a little afraid, but, I'll let him tell that too. All right. So here we go with Mr. Jim Polito.

Jim Polito: [00:00:33] Here he is the man, the myth, the legend. I am talking of course about our very good friend and tech talk guru, Craig Peterson. Good morning, sir.

Craig Peterson: [00:00:48] Good morning, Jim. Happy voting day.

Jim Polito: [00:00:51] Yeah. listen. I'm good. I vote. As they say vote early and often, Yeah. Hey,  I wanted to ask you if there's anything in particular, in voting, that you wanted to talk about. Any kind of a tech talk angle, but then I have questions about Tesla.

So let's start with the vote. Yeah. Let's start with voting.

Craig Peterson: [00:01:13] Unfortunately, we've got reports, major warnings out, and I got a flash alert from the FBI about that this week. The bad guys are into our voting systems very deeply, in some cases.

That's really concerning to me and obviously the FBI and Homeland security. They're saying that it looks like it's probably Russian hackers. They are getting in. Yeah and are affiliated, at least in the past, they have been affiliated with the Kremlin.  Just throw another monkey wrench into this whole mess.

There's not much we could do. It's too late. You got to show up and as bring in your ballot or vote right there. In the future. I don't know, Jim, if we're going to be able to have a really secure system. There are so many great types of technology using public keys and things. The thing that scares me about every one of those is that they're tracking your vote, which means it could easily get to the point where it's no longer secret ballot.

Jim Polito: [00:02:21] I do worry about that. Joel had mentioned earlier, like people saying, wait a minute, it's not public information who you vote for, but it is public information if you vote.

Sounds like a threat. Yeah. it's all out there. I just wonder, because in the future what's going to happen. Is it going to stay that type of activity where you walk into a building and you vote, or is this mail thing going to continue? And then eventually they're going to want to make the leap to, okay. You can do it online in a secure way. And I just worry about that.

Craig Peterson: [00:03:00] We're looking at places like Facebook, right? These online sites, Facebook, particularly where they really want to be the center of your life. you couldn't go on Facebook without seeing a hundred thousand different reminders to vote today.

 I strongly suspect that Facebook's going to come out before the election and say, Hey, we've got a secure voting platform. What could possibly go wrong? There's really a lot of companies in that boat.

Jim Polito: [00:03:34] I don't think so, Facebook. By the way, Facebook and Twitter have said today, if anybody calls the election for themselves unless two major media organizations have done it, they're going to block it or suppress it. I don't know.

Who makes that decision? What are the two major news organizations?

Craig Peterson: [00:03:52] Huffington post and Fox, right? Those two.

Jim Polito: [00:03:57] Huffington Post and Fox. Right? Good thinking.

All right, let's get off this and get on the road. That one of my greatest fears is that one day people will be able to sit in their car and watch a video.

They'll be watching TV in their car and they won't feel the need to hear old Jim's take on the day's news. I feel like that's still a long way off because, for the most part, self-driving cars are not there yet, buddy. They may want to tell you that they are, but they're not there yet.

Can you tell me about Tesla's latest, self-driving beta release?

Craig Peterson: [00:04:41] Here's what's going on with Tesla. Of course, they've got these electric cars and it's all controlled via the computer. Tesla has two different computer systems onboard and we know that one of those computer systems is being used for staying in the lane and the automatic control of distance, so like cruise control. There's been a lot of speculation about what that second computer is being used for. Without getting into the nitty-gritty too much, the Teslas are connecting, calling home, on a daily basis, typically. Tesla's trying to make a self-driving car.

If I was trying to make a self-driving car, the best way to do this is with "I've got a hundred thousand cars on the street" is have the cars run the normal software and on that second computer run tests, software, and any time there's an exception, like the driver hits the brakes or grabs the steering wheel to turn or something. I analyze it.

Analyzes what happened and then sends out to Tesla's home office. Hey, we just had a condition 63 and let me know if you want more details and then the car could potentially upload it.  There was no way you could upload all of the data these cars are collecting. We're talking about terabytes a day for these Teslas driving long distances.

The thinking is that Elon Musk and Tesla have tons of data and analyses done by the computer in your car. That way they don't have to build as big a data center or anything else. So Tesla has probably been running alpha self-driving code. In other words, code that's not ready for release at all on your Tesla for years, frankly.

Now we've got what you just pointed out is that beta release. Tesla has been raising the price all of the time, Hey, do you want self-driving, no problem. So I think it's an $8,000, maybe $10,000 add on. There is no self-driving Tesla right now. Remember it's an assist. Okay.

Jim Polito: [00:06:57] Yeah. It's called driver assist. Means, I passed it to, Craig Peterson and then he does the layup, you know what I mean? I'm not shooting the shot.

Craig Peterson: [00:07:08] Yeah. exactly right. So that's what it is today. So there's not this self-driving beta release that they released to just a few people.

There's a great article in Ars Technica, this week, where a YouTuber called Brandon M. Captured drone footage of his Tesla self-parking. Now there are four parking spots here. One of the spots had a red car parked in it and the other three are empty. And yet Brandon's Tesla is heading right for a rear-end collision with this red car. Exactly.

It's not ready yet. Some other people are saying, Brandon, again, saying it's crazy. It's scary. And it's unbelievably good. That means it's getting close to that time where the software performances may be there. We'll see. But you know what, Jim, I think Tesla is already won the self-driving car business, but it's not there yet.

You can't trust it yet. It's still making major mistakes.

Jim Polito: [00:08:11] We're talking with Craig Peterson, our tech guru. So, Craig, your assessment looks they're way out ahead of everyone else. But they haven't arrived at the, not to make a pun. They haven't arrived at the destination yet, but they're leaps and bounds.

Yeah. You know what, by the way, with the assist, I should have used a hockey metaphor, not a basketball one, with UI. I apologize, my Canadian friend. That I didn't use a hockey metaphor.

No, but you're saying Tesla. Has it'd be tough for somebody to catch up with them. Unless of course, all of a sudden the Chinese company has a self-driving system, and coincidentally, it's going to look just like a Teslas.

Craig Peterson: [00:08:51] This is a hat trick now. They've got it out there. It's working. It's working pretty darn well. It's known to be beta. We've got Elon Musk saying that by the end of this year, full self-driving with the exception of maybe the last hundred yards is going to be available to the average Tesla owner.

He says buy it now. This is the only car it is going to appreciate in value over time because the value and the cost of the self-driving add-ons are going to continue to increase. So that Tesla you bought the self-driving at $4,000 while selling at 10 means there's a $6,000 increase in the value of that car.

Now, of course, he's wrong because, in reality, there is wear particularly on the batteries, and the hundred thousand dish miles, it's you've got to put another $20,000 into your car. This is interesting and I think he's gonna win. I think Waymo is just too far behind as is everybody else

Jim Polito: [00:09:55] Interesting.

Alright, so there you have it. All from Craig Peterson. I have job security. They're not there yet. I feel good about that. Craig has a great show every Sunday at 11 o'clock on W T A G and W H Y N, where you can get more and more from him.

But, Craig, if folks want to reach out to you now,

Craig Peterson: [00:10:17] Well, the best way is just to go to Craig peterson.com/subscribe.

And if you subscribe right now, I'm going to be sending you a security reboot. because as you know that's what I pay a lot of attention to. This weekend on the show, we're going to talk about the new ransomware demands are doubling every six months, teaching your employees about spotting, smashing, and vishing.

If you're a home user, what does that even mean? And what should you do? And, that's really what we're focusing on  Sunday at 11.

Jim Polito: [00:10:49] And John Bay back. My, Intrepid newsman reminded me that it was okay to use the basketball metaphor because Naismith the inventor of basketball was Canadian.

Craig Peterson: [00:10:58] That's right, I forgot about that.

Jim Polito: [00:11:02] There you go. I use the right one, John. Thank you for having my back. Craig, always thank you for being here with us. You're a great asset to the show and we'll catch up with you next week. Unless of course something big happens between now and then.

Craig Peterson: [00:11:16] Absolutely. From what I heard, Kamala was also not born, but raised in Montreal and was at least a Canadian. If she's not still.

Jim Polito: [00:11:26] She would claim everything, you know what I mean? If it meant a vote. She would claim just about everything. If it meant a vote. Craig Peterson, everyone. Thank you, sir.

Craig Peterson: [00:11:36] Take Care.

Jim Polito: [00:11:37] All right. Bye-bye

Craig Peterson: [00:11:38] So there's Mr. Jim Pollito.

I hope everybody took the chance to vote. At least those of you that are voting the right way. And man, I don't know what's going to happen here in another four years with technology and voting and where it's all going to go. It's going to be an interesting time and you can be sure I'll keep you up on all of it.

By the way, I have had a lot of feedback about the one-hour radio show, as opposed to the. No, what is it? Eight different segments. And, people love it. So expect that in the future, if you are subscribed, you're going to get my show as one big chunk. It is a podcast as opposed to just a copy of the radio show. So we've been changing that up. Karen has been busy doing all of that stuff for us.

So if you're not subscribed, go to your favorite podcast app and subscribe there. You can use the iHeart radio app, but one of the easiest ways to find out how to subscribe, just go to Craig peterson.com/iheart, for instance, and it will automatically redirect you right to that I heart page, or you can go Craig peterson.com/itunes if you're using an iPhone and subscribe.

 I'd really appreciate it. It helps with the numbers and that helps to get the people out and listening.

Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

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