Amazon to spy on drivers, not just steal from them

Amazon’s working conditions are notoriously horrible, but the company thinks its drivers are the problem. All this and more in The morning shift for February 4, 2021.

1st gear: it’s just a giant panel to spy on drivers

In a video not listed on the embedded Vimeo below, Amazon said it is “preparing its drivers for success” with what appears to be a combination of a four-way camera and OnStar.

It watches drivers and initiates an alert if it detects what it considers to be distracted driving or any other unsafe behavior, such as The Verge news reports broken by The Information:

THE unlisted video from a week hosted on the Vimeo website details the partnership. It is narrated by Karolina Haraldsdottir, Amazon’s senior manager for safety in the last mile, and describes the company’s objectives such as collision reduction and drivers’ accountability for errors on the road. The initiative reflects an initiative by Amazon with its fleet of long-haul trucks, in which SmartDrive cameras monitor cargo drivers for signs of fatigue and distraction while driving, according to a separate report from The information.

The marketing video shows how the cameras record “100% of the time” (although without audio and not visible live) and upload the footage to a dedicated security team for review if any of the 16 signals are triggered by an incident happening on the road or an action that the driver performs. The driver can manually disable the camera, but only when the ignition is off. Drivers can also upload images manually, whenever they wish.

The root of the problem here is that drivers are overwhelmed and underpaid, and treating them like children shows Amazon’s deep-seated disrespect for the people who earn from it.

That this is being presented as a security aid is a joke, as Edward Ongweso Jr of Vice explains:

This all works with a company that already supervised its Flex drivers, as noted by The Verge, and stealing millions of them too.

2nd gear: chip shortages hit GM hard

The global scarcity of semiconductor chips has hit GM, with three plants closing here in the U.S., as Bloomberg reports:

General Motors Co. has warned that a global semiconductor shortage will reduce production this year, as the automaker plans shutdowns at three plants, making it the latest in a series of automotive companies affected by limited chip availability.

The company said on Wednesday that three factories in North America, including one in Kansas and others in Mexico and Canada, will close in the week of February 8. It will also operate a factory in South Korea at half capacity that week, he said.

3rd gear: Ford cuts Chinese EV joint venture

As Ford increases Mach E in China, it closes its electric vehicle manufacturing joint venture with Chinese company Zotye, as Reuters reports:

Ford Motor has decided to end plans to launch electric vehicle joint ventures with China’s Zotye Automobile, the U.S. automotive giant said on Thursday.

He said China’s electric vehicle industry and government policies have undergone major changes since the agreements were signed in 2017 and 2018, leading to Ford’s decision. Ford did not specify which changes triggered its move.

I’m sure this has nothing to do with the production of Mach E! It could be anything, really.

4th gear: the federal government can give billions to bring down our worst highways

America’s extensive elevated highways were often built by cutting historic neighborhoods from minorities, separating communities. Recently, there has been activism to encourage the demolition of these highways, and now there may be money from the Federal Government to do this, as Bloomberg reports:

A new Senate bill includes a $ 10 billion program aimed at cities that are considering removing urban highways and repairing the damage these projects inflicted on vulnerable communities decades ago.

This account is not new, as Streetsblog reported about it on January 11:

Just before the holiday break, then-Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and a coalition of 25 Democratic senators introduced a $ 435 billion economic justice project called S5065 which included a $ 10 billion pilot program to help communities tear down urban highways and rebuild neighboring neighborhoods with the needs of underserved communities in mind. The Restoring Neighborhoods and Strengthening Communities Program – known among advocates as the “Roads to Boulevards” initiative – would only be available for projects located in regions with a high concentration of low-income or colored residents.

The novelty is that Buttigieg was confirmed this week and we can see some more serious action on that.

If you live in Syracuse, you may want to say goodbye to I-81.

5th gear: researchers working on the universal fitting for wheelchairs in autonomous vehicles

As the auto industry ends up promoting self-driving vehicles as the next big thing for everyone, the mobility industry continues to discuss them in terms of wheelchair users and the “gray wave” of aging boomers.

A part of the technology being discussed is a universal docking interface for people in wheelchairs entering autonomous vehicles. Here is a great topic about the work in progress at the University of Michigan:

I cannot say that the idea of ​​autonomous vehicles reaching retirement communities first as the coolest development in terms of autonomy, but it’s the one I’m most optimistic about.

Reverse: I Always Forget The Same Guy Started Cadillac AND Lincoln