In Wheel Time Podcast: Your Go-To Automotive Talk Show Oct 17, 2023

Exploring the Future of Autonomous Driving with Smarter AI Founder Chris Piche, and a review of the GMC Canyon Denali.

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I love it when a plan comes together Bump.

Studio A in Texas, usa, it's the in wheel time car talk show Coming up.

We're going to talk with the founder of Smarter AI.

We'll have the upcoming events calendar.

Mars reviews the new GMC Canyon and later you'll hear the stories making automotive news headlines.

Howdy, along with Mike, out of this world.

King Conrad, the long we always need more.

Jeff Zekin.

I'm Don Armstrong, glad you could join us today.

Okay, mr Mars, it's all yours.

Right If he puts the right headset on, come on, tom I had to swap headsets.

Come on, ezekiel, you got this.

Yes, yes, so coming up, we're going to talk.

No, we're not coming up.

It's just right here, right now.

Well.

I still hear I'm interested in the Chris.

The background in the big ground, yeah, in the big ground.

Come on Mars, all right, so we're going to be talking with Chris.

No, we are talking.

We are talking with Pichet.

Chris.

Pichet Is I'm going to say that right, Chris?

Yes, you got it, Michael.

Okay, Do me a while but I had to practice.

I'm not.

I'm not as good at that as you are, Don Chris, how you doing.

I'm doing great.

Pardon our interruption.

Chris, you know it's not our fault, it's all Mars fault, and we've played with this for years and years and years and it's always the same it's always Mars fault.

So, no matter what it is somebody, let the dog.

It's like being at home.

That's right.

So when he drives his 90 miles over here, he just continues feeling the same way that he does at home Beat up and put down.

So, at any rate well, Chris, it's great to talk to you Tell us what a smarter AI is.

Sparner AI is a software platform for AI cameras, including the kind of AI cameras that are used in vehicles for different applications, including driver safety and autonomous driving.

Okay, and how does it so?

In other words, is it like a distance keeping thing when I turn on the cruise control, or is it more than that?

It's more than that, so our software platform can support any number of cameras.

The cameras can be what we call OEM cameras, so designed into the you know, into the vehicle, and installed in the factory.

The cameras can also be aftermarket cameras, so the kinds of dash cams or other vehicle cameras that different people in the audience have probably put into their cars already.

And then, once our software platform is in place, it can be used to download different AI models onto each camera.

So what do you mean by that?

What do you mean by AI models?

What does that mean?

So an AI model.

I'll use a smartphone analogy.

You can think of our software platform as being similar to Android or iOS.

So, in the same way that Android and iOS manage your smartphone, our software platform, smarter AI, manages your cameras, and then with your smartphone, as we all know, we can download different apps onto our phones, whether it's for email or documents or social media or whatever.

In the same way, our customers can download different AI models onto their cameras, and each AI model enables the camera to detect a certain kind or a certain set of objects or of actions.

So I'll give you a couple of examples.

One of our AI models helps with driver assistance or autonomous driving, and it does that by constantly monitoring the distance between your car and the other cars around it, including especially, the car in front of you.

So it'll keep the appropriate distance to the car in front of you.

If we're talking about autonomous driving or if we're talking about driver assistance, it'll warn you if you're getting a little bit too close to the car in front of you.

On the other hand, there are other models for problems like texting and driving.

So, as we all know, texting and driving is a huge problem and it's only getting bigger.

We have AI models that will detect if the driver is not paying appropriate attention to what's happening in front of the vehicle.

How does it do that Does?

it look at your eyes.

It does a few things.

It'll look at the orientation of your head, so if your head is pointing a little more down than it should, it'll also look at.

As you said, it'll also look at the direction or orientation of your eyes.

It'll look at the rotation of your head.

All of that together.

We just call that the head pose.

And then of course, it'll look at if there's different objects, like if you're holding one of these.

It'll spot that pretty quickly too, that is truly amazing Is the camera adjustable.

Yes, the cameras are typically adjustable, at least if we're talking about aftermarket cameras.

If we're talking about OEM cameras, they will generally not be adjustable because the engineers that designed the car will make sure that they're aligned perfectly for whatever the purpose is.

But if we're talking about an aftermarket camera that somebody would install in their own vehicle, those are typically adjustable.

Yes, obviously, to take into account different types of vehicles, sizes of vehicles and so forth.

So can the AI function do object recognition to know that that's a person in front of my car or that's a child's toy or that's another vehicle?

Yeah, absolutely so.

The AI cameras and all of the models that run on these cameras.

They all perform object detection.

If we're talking about, if we go back to the texting and driving example, obviously we're going to detect okay, there's a driver and there's a phone.

If we're talking about the sort of AI model that would help with autonomous driving or driver assistance, then it's going to detect objects that are commonly found outside of the car.

It's going to detect different traffic infrastructures, stop signs, red lights, lane markings.

It's going to detect two-wheelers, it's going to detect other vehicles, pedestrians, and it'll constantly monitor all of those things.

Obviously, it depends on the AI model, but typically the purpose of the AI model is to monitor those things and to warn in case of any unsafe situation.

So you, basically are the software component of it.

If I'm the manufacturer, it's up to me to put whatever cameras, and then I come to you and say this is what I got and this is what I want it to see.

I want it to recognize a person in front of me, or I don't necessarily need to do that, I just want to focus on a car.

Is that kind of the way it works?

So a couple of things In terms of getting the cameras into your car.

That can work in a couple of ways, as you described, mike.

If you've got a particular kind of camera that maybe you've already installed it or you just happen to think it's appropriate for your fleet of vehicles, yes, we can generally get our software to work with your cameras.

More commonly, though, a customer will come to us and ask for a complete solution, and so we have relationships with a few different camera manufacturers, and it doesn't matter if you've got a big rig or passenger vehicle.

We typically have a partner that we work with that manufactures the right kind of camera form factor for whatever kind of vehicles you have.

Now, once you have the cameras installed, the process of enabling the camera with different AI models that's something that can happen over the air in real time.

So, in the same way that I bought this smartphone, I didn't necessarily have to know all of the different apps that I would eventually download and use on my phone.

I can change my mind, or maybe six months after I bought the phone, some new apps come out, and I want to try those.

The same thing is true of our cameras, so typically, customers are buying our cameras for some sort of specific, immediate problem that they want to solve, whether it's texting and driving or driver assistance or whatever the case may be but then, once the cameras are installed, customers can pick and choose and download additional models to solve other problems.

If I had this camera and this software installed in my fleet of vehicles, would I be able to pull that information live from the car, or is it all recorded?

Types of information Well, both.

So our camera platform supports what we call edge AI, and what this basically means is, if something unsafe is happening either inside or around the vehicle, the camera can alert the driver immediately.

You know, typically within, say, less than 100 milliseconds.

At the same time, all of these events, they can get collected in one of our servers, and so, if you're managing a fleet of vehicles, you can aggregate all of these events over whatever period of time, and you can use what we call big data to do predictive analytics based on all of this data.

So, in other words, you can identify, you know.

You know, mike's a little bit heavy on the accelerator.

Yes, he is Based on the last 30 days of data understatement.

You know, have a little chat with Mike about laying off the accelerator, or maybe you've got somebody else that is a little bit more distracted than they should be when they're driving and we need to talk to them about putting the phone down or whatever the case may be.

So would you work with insurance companies for discounts or different rates by having this product in the vehicle?

Yeah, absolutely so that we're again that works in both directions.

We work with insurance companies and they supply.

They supply or recommend our cameras to their customers.

On the other hand, some customers approach us and they know that if they have a camera solution like ours, they can get a better rate on their insurance.

So they'll, they'll.

So I'm thinking, maybe, perhaps we're going to start changing the name from Smarter AI to Big Brother AI.

How's that?

Did I get the impression, though, that I, as an individual consumer, could use something, use your application, get your cameras and put that in my car, just as you can.

I want to watch my teenage kids or something.

Yeah, so exactly so most of our customers are vehicle fleets, right but, but absolutely we have, we do have kind of a consumer grade We've got yeah, we've got consumers that are using our cameras, either in a situation like like you described, mike, where there's maybe a new driver in the family or somebody just wants to, wants to police themselves.

Well, you could also use it for, like an Uber driver or a Lyft driver would always have that.

They do that now with their smartphones and whatever aftermarket cameras they have, but you see that in the cab.

And what about litigation?

You know I've had an accident.

Does your you talked about?

This information is downloaded to your server.

So you're actually downloading recordings to your server and that could be accessed for litigation in the future.

Yeah, so we call that.

We call that exoneration.

With our camera platform, we are what we call a data processor.

Our customers are the data controllers, and so what this means is that each customer can decide for themselves what, what data they want to record, what data they want us to store for them, how long they want us to store that data.

So it's up to each customer to to to make their own decisions about that.

But, yes, typically customers are retaining this data for a certain period of time and in case there's any you know any kind of incident that that they would like to investigate, you know they'll have that data.

And you have and I know the phrase will be wrong.

You have live operators that are, if it's within the company's constraints, you have live operators that can be observing what's going on.

Or is this purely AI that says, hey, knock, knock, knock.

Something's wrong here.

Pay attention to it.

Right.

So we smart array.

I do not have those kinds of human operators.

We, we run a software platform and we enable all sorts of AI with our cameras.

Some of our customers have, whether it's a fleet manager or whatever title they might give the person.

Our customers have different people that are responsible for you know, either it depends on the use case, but probably in most cases they're responsible for the safety of the fleet.

If you think about different industries, they might be responsible for the timeliness and the quality of a service.

If we think about something like waste management or street, you know street sweeping and so you know.

For people like that, yes, our camera platform does support what we call live streaming or live view, and the and the fleet managers can actually, you know, monitor what's happening in real time and make any decisions that need to be made.

So, chris, I guess that you have the information regarding the acceptability and the uptake, if you will, of self driving cars, and that has become a major issue for self driving cars, particularly in San Francisco.

We've seen them all bunched up together and they've had a big brew, ha ha out of the streets.

And or you know, one of them I think recently may have been Las Vegas, I'm not sure a self driving car ran at the side of a fire truck.

So is self driving?

Is everybody going?

Wait just a minute, maybe this isn't such a great idea.

You know?

I think that you know.

Based on the mainstream media coverage, you might think so, but there's a lot of data that suggests the opposite.

So, first of all, as we all know, tesla is the is the leader in self-driving cars.

Right, and when somebody buys a new Tesla vehicle, the self-driving features are not included.

Somebody has to pay an additional $10,000 or $15,000 to get the self-driving option, and there are hundreds of thousands of people every year that are buying that feature from Tesla.

So these people are voting with their wallets that this is something that they want to have.

So if I'm a manufacturer, then I'm going to go well, maybe I need to offer that as well.

I legacy car manufacturers are.

They're playing catch up right now, but they all have, you know, at least some sort of lane keeping and distance control, and they're all working towards the same sort of Emergency braking systems.

I think there's been rumors that Ford might be thinking about licensing the self-driving technology from Tesla.

I'm not sure if that's going to happen or not, but certainly you're going to see.

Eventually all of the automakers are going to have this technology.

So, chris, do you have a website that we can get more information about smarter AI and learn more about what we're talking about today?

Yeah, because I got lots more questions.

Well, you ain't got time.

Smart, smarter AIcamera.

Seriously smarter AIcamera.

That's it.

I had no clue that it was a camera address.

Okay, well, that's great, Chris, we could talk.

We could talk to you for the entire show.

Can we call you back maybe in a couple of weeks and redo this again, or can we just peek?

in on your camera when you're in the car.

Yeah, let's do both.

I'll set you guys up with some software.

To take a peek at my car Do it for Mike.

I want to see Mike.

I'll send you one for Mike and I'll look forward to coming back on the show whenever you'll have.

My daughter works in the space industry and she has always called herself a nerd, but at the peak performance of nerds.

And I'll tell you what man I love nerds and obviously I've got one in the family, so this kind of falls under that category in the past.

Today, not so much, it's like wow, I want to be you.

But, Chris, it's great to talk to you.

Thank you so much, Great information and we look forward to rejoining and picking this conversation up here in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for having me guys.

Thank you very much, Chris.

Appreciate how cool is that.

Yes, exactly With smarter AI.

I have posted his link on our social media.

Very, nice.

Well, it's good.

Dot camera, who knew?

Yeah, exactly, all right Time now for the events calendar.

And Conrad has events and I have an event that I'm it's actually it's an event slash cruise in that I'm going to go to.

It's taking place today.

Matter of fact, it started at 8 30 this morning, goes to three o'clock this afternoon.

Good grub and gears Car show and fall festival down at the Stephenson Park in Friendswood.

So I'm going to go.

I'm leaving here at 11 o'clock when I get off the air and I'm going to head down there.

So if you're listening, get a parking spot for him.

Yeah, save me a parking spot or not, I don't care.

Anyway, go ahead.

And you remember, today is the all British car show at the Butler House off Gosling Road in Spring.

So if you've got a wrecker and a trailer, bring a trailer, because they're going to need to haul some of that stuff out of their parking lot.

Friday, october 20th, is the 38th annual Wolf Creek car and truck and bike show in Cold Spring, texas.

October 29th is the all Bronco meet in Katie, texas, at 5733 Second Street in Katie.

Should be pretty cool with the blend of older Broncos and the newer.

Broncos, you would think yeah.

And I'm thinking OJ may show up with his Broncos.

Absolutely.

That's what we need to have there.

And then I know we're going to have a Northside Mustang Club on here shortly.

Well, they're getting together with the H-Town Camaro Club and they're going to be having a meet at the Anheuser-Busch Brewery together and doing some fundraising.

The Camaro Club is raising money for families of fallen heroes through the 100 Club and the Northside Mustang Club will be making donations to Honor Flight for Houstonians who fly veterans, that fly veterans for their first visit to the War Memorials in Washington DC.

Both of them very honorable charities to be involved with.

My father went on that and he was in a wheelchair.

Even it was great Honor Flight.

Yes.

And then, of course, northside Mustangs having their fall open car show November 4th at Bull Salas Park in New Cane.

Also, october 28th is OCTURBOFEST in Waco.

Texas Veterans weekend is the 17th annual Heroes and Hot Rods Veterans Day weekend in downtown Bastrop.

Visit BastropAreaCruiserscom for more information.

Thank you, sir.

Time now for this hour's car review.

Mr Mars has the Kia Kona.

Last week.

You see the information that he's going to do the key of Kona.

No, it wasn't anywhere close to the test.

It was a test of my ability to comprehend the emergency broadcast.

That's right.

So this week we're going to talk about the 2023 GMC four wheel drive, canyon, denali, crew cab.

Now it did get the canyon, got a full redesign in 2023 and now it only comes in a crew cab, short bed.

All four trim levels get the off road suspension.

So you're talking about the elevation, the 84.

I believe you had the 84 X last week and then Denali.

Now I was driving into the knowledge.

The elevation comes in two wheel drive.

You can option it up to a four wheel drive, but the other three levels come in with a four wheel drive.

Now this is a mid-sized truck, but now this is a rather large mid-sized truck and I did a little bit of looking.

When first in 2004 it was 207 inches long, it's 213 now, so six inches really isn't that much in length.

Well, but the difference is if you say so it's 13 inches higher the height on it, 13 inches more 30 seconds, and it's actually an inch taller than my 2015 full size truck.

And so it's got the redesign.

In your out front You're going to find LED lighting all the way around the front lights, fog lights, rear lights.

We got we had the assist steps.

It's a five inch chrome step on a mid-sized truck and to me it works great.

My wife loved it, but for me it's a little too high.

I could have done without them, but she loved it.

We had the sunroof.

We had the tailgate storage compartment.

Now this is the compartment.

Don talked about it last week.

I'd never seen it until I actually got my hands on it and there's actually a really nice compartment in the tailgate.

I showed it to some friends of mine and they thought it would be great.

You know, put wet stuff back there, put.

One guy even said man, I could put my rifle back there.

Okay, yeah, you can.

But anyway, we 18 inch wheels are standard.

We were rolling on some 20 inch dark gray aluminum alloy wheels inside because we had the Denali.

We absolutely setting here with some really nice leather seating.

The front seats are heated and ventilated.

Now the rear seat folds up and it's got storage underneath it.

I went to put some stuff back there and I was looking for a flat floor.

It wasn't, but the actual storage underneath there was a lot better if you were putting some things up.

Underneath.

The seat had the 11 inch digital instrument cluster, 11.3

inch touchscreen where we had the nav system, the infotainment, all your convenience controls, surround view camera.

We had a premium audio, bose speakers seven speakers.

You kind of sound like Kermit there.

Yeah, it was really.

He's excited.

I was yes, because I cranked that little baby up and the controls I wanted to say in particular the controls above the wireless charger were very easy to reach, very once you figured out where everything was worked like a champ Under the hood.

2.7

liter turbo, high output, 310 horsepower, 430 pound feet of torque, and again, this is a four wheel drive as standard on this vehicle, eight speed automatic.

Epa says you should be looking for 17 in the city, 21 in the highway, 19 combined.

Now I drove this car 244.7

miles and I got 16.9

over that time frame Lead foot.

Well, and I will say, because of the turbo engine, you might think a 2.7

liter is kind of small, but it has plenty of power, has a nice power range and you get up to the top end of it and needs a little more air, but it worked great at where you would normally drive it.

Now I will say it's also very off roady in the ride and handling, and by that I mean it's firm, because it's that's the suspension you're going to get with.

It's a truck, it was.

It caught me, I guess, a little surprised because of the Denali.

I was expecting something a little more soft, I guess, but it's not.

It's very focused on the off road components of it, like the way that it sits up high.

Because of all that, you got a great field of view whenever you're driving it.

That worked perfect.

Base trim price Base model price of the elevation is $38,095.

Not bad.

The base trim price for the Denali is $51,000, as tested $53,999.

Now you might look at a Ford Ranger, which you can get, a Lariat 4-wheel drive $38,985 on the bottom end.

Toyota Tacoma SR5, $38,555, and even a Jeep Gladiator you can get it at $38,775.

So in your that base trim level they're all basically in that same price range.

They're about the same price and if you're looking at the Denali's I would absolutely look at this particular vehicle.

It's a good-looking truck.

I mean physically it's a good-looking truck.

It's one of the few vehicles my wife asked me if we could keep it.

I will tell you this and I rarely say this that I really do like this the GMC, the Colorado, the Canyon.

I like those, I like the way that they look and I like that turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

Well, it's been redesigned too, and that makes it.

I want to remind you that this program is available 24-7 on iHeart Radio.

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The InWheelTime Car Talk show continues right after this quick break.

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About this episode

Chris Piche, founder of Smarter AI, discusses the innovative software platform that enhances vehicle cameras for driver safety and autonomous driving. The conversation dives into how their AI models can detect objects, monitor driver attention, and provide real-time alerts. Additionally, the episode features a review of the redesigned 2023 GMC Canyon Denali, highlighting its off-road capabilities, advanced tech features, and competitive pricing. The hosts also touch on upcoming automotive events and the evolving landscape of self-driving technology.

Chevrolet Camaro Chevrolet Corvette Ford Ranger GMC Canyon Crew Cab Hyundai Kona Jeep Gladiator Lucid Air Toyota Tacoma

Original notes

Join us as we journey into the world of autonomous driving with our guest, Chris Piche, founder of Smarter AI, who's all set to enlighten us with his knowledge in autonomous vehicle advances. Chris sheds light on how their AI camera software platform functions, providing the capability to download various AI models for distinct purposes - be it alerting risks of close proximity with other vehicles or identifying driver distractions. A promising cornerstone for autonomous driving and road safety, this innovative technology brings a whole new perspective to our views on vehicular security.

That's not all - Chris also shares insights on aftermarket cameras and how their software can adapt to a variety of vehicles, detecting the presence of other vehicles, pedestrians, and traffic infrastructure. With the ability to manage cameras over-the-air in real-time and utilize predictive analytics to monitor driver activities, this platform presents an array of benefits not just for individual consumers but also for Uber/Lyft drivers and insurance companies. It's the future of road safety and autonomous driving at your fingertips!

In our feature segment, we take our conversation towards exciting car shows, reviews, and so much more. There's an update on the imminent car, truck, and bike event in Cold Spring, Texas, and other exhilarating meets. And guess what's under our review spotlight? The 2023 GMC Canyon Denali Crew Cab! This redesigned beauty comes with a plethora of features like LED lighting, off-road suspension, and a turbo high output engine that makes it a standout.

So, join us for an exciting ride into the world of cars and technology while we take you on this thrilling journey!

Be sure to subscribe for more In Wheel Time Car Talk!

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