IoT news of the week for July 14, 2023

ChatGPT steps on the gas for Mercedes-Benz: Yes, I’m as sick of hearing about ChatGPT as you are. Still, the large language model service is worth paying attention to as more companies make use of it. Among the latest is Mercedes-Benz, which this week announced a test of ChatGPT for intelligent vehicle production. The idea is for the system to learn over time, based on car production data points, and provide quick, strategic decision-making skills. Aside from (hopefully) making better production decisions, integrating ChatGPT will open up technical information access to non-technical employees. (Mercedes-Benz) — Kevin C. Tofel

You too can be a food delivery robot: I really like this story about Coco, a food delivery startup in California. Why? Because it doesn’t show robotic food delivery as a magical solution. Instead, it’s more down to earth because the age of useful, autonomous robotics is still a ways off. Coco looks like an autonomous food warmer on wheels, not like a robot decked out with tons of cameras and sensors. So how does it deliver food without smarts and sensors? Thanks to the built-in connectivity, human drivers remotely control Coco with Xbox game controllers. And here we thought robots would be taking our jobs. Instead, it’s gamers taking jobs away from robots! (Marketplace) — Kevin C. Tofel

Control your smart home with a custom universal remote: Admittedly, this DIY project isn’t for everyone. You’ll need an ESP32 module, small touchscreen, and custom printed circuit board. Oh and a little bit of code, too. But if you’re game, you can stop using your phone or tablet to control your smart home with this open source universal remote thanks to both the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support along with infrared support for older devices, such as televisions and fans. Honestly, I like the look of this more than the old Harmony remotes that can cost $200 to $300 or more. (HackADay) — Kevin C. Tofel

Honeywell spends “tens of millions” on a cybersecurity company: It’s not cheap to keep operational technology (OT) and the IoT safe from cyber threats. That’s why I’m not surprised to hear that Honeywell spent an estimated “tens of millions” to purchase Scadafence, an Israeli cybersecurity firm. This deal is more about large-scale networks with connected devices than it is about the smart home. And to a degree, protecting OT assets may be more important. No, I don’t want intrusions into my smart home. However, keeping large public utilities and industrial companies safe provides value to more than just individuals. As part of the deal, the SCADAfence platform will become part of Honeywell’s Cybersecurity Center of Excellence in Tel Aviv. (The Wall Street Journal) — Kevin C. Tofel

Certification plans for cellular NB-IoT to satellite connections: This week, Keysight Technologies and Skylo Technologies decided to have their technologies work together. That’s a lot of technology! This is a good fit because Keysight offers cellular testing expertise while Skylo provides cellular-to-satellite connectivity. The idea as per the two companies’ memorandum of understanding is to create a standard certification process and tests for satellite chipsets and the use of the NB-IoT protocol over such connections. (Business Wire) — Kevin C. Tofel

Don’t count 5G out of the IoT just yet: A report out of Juniper Research this week is the perfect counterpoint to the above satellite connectivity story. Juniper forecasts 5G IoT roaming connections will rise from 15 million in 2023 to 142 million by 2027. That number pales in comparison to the number of 5G connections the world has from phones and tablets. However, it’s a massive growth rate — namely 800% over the next four years. I do wonder if the higher price of 5G relative to other slower, low-cost connectivity options might put a dent in Juniper’s 5G roaming numbers. Think not just cellular to satellite but also LoRA and distributed networks, which are far cheaper for, and better suited towards, many connected devices today. (Juniper Research) — Kevin C. Tofel

Yesterday’s riskiest devices are unsurprisingly, still today’s riskiest devices: Forescout’s security research team has released the latest iteration of its annual riskiest devices survey and discovered that of the 20 listed device types, 13 are holdovers from the year before. Also of note is that at least 10% of devices across all industries that have endpoint protection installed have it disabled. This figure is highest in government and financial services (both with almost 24%), followed closely by healthcare (21%), which also happens to be the industry that has the highest percentage of risky devices. For more facts designed to keep you up at night, check out the report. (Forescout) — Stacey Higginbotham

Li-Fi gets another day in the sun: This week the IEEE approved the 802.11bb standard that seeks to use light instead of radio waves to send data. Tech publications greeted the news of the standard with headlines crowing that “your next Wi-Fi router could be a light bulb,” but that’s not really what LiFi is for. The standard can send data really quickly, but it requires line-of-sight between the transmitter and receiver, so it won’t replace radio waves anytime soon. There’s a lot of hope for the technology for way finding and other tasks where a computer and a transmitter might be sharing information out in the open, as opposed to having the device connected while tucked into a pocket or purse. There is also potential for secure computing, as anyone wanting to access the data transferred via Li-Fi would need to be in the range of the visible light.  (Fierce Wiresless) — Stacey Higginbotham