Uber plans to exit its self-driving business. That is a good thing because I do think the company should focus on controlling demand and not supply. Under digital aggregation, the companies that thrive and win are those that control demand and not necessarily supply.

 A group of investors including SoftBank are in talks with the ride-sharing company to buy a $1 billion stake (paywall) in its self-driving vehicle unit ahead of its public listing. (QZ Newsletter)

That is so because supply is largely unbounded via the web: simply, making more cars available in the market, is not what will win the future, but controlling those that will use the cars. Uber already has a first-mover advantage via its platform. I do think it should focus on expanding that over spending efforts to add more cars in the world. Cars will always be here, and self-driving will make them super-commoditized. The entities that will win the race of future vehicular mobility are those with platforms like Uber.

Uber is the category-king ride-hailing business in North America. It makes more money than all the competitors in North America combined. But Uber made a very poor strategic decision many years ago: getting into self-driving business.  Sure, Uber’s major cost element is drivers, and removing drivers will improve its margins. But that argument does not account for the fact that Uber is not the right company to bring to fruition the generation-shaping technology leap of autonomous vehicles. Simply, Uber is a cash-poor company to fund and develop self-driving cars.

The saving on labour is marginal for the risk and distraction making cars will bring to Uber operations. Simply, the firm should build the largest demand mobility operating system and then define protocols for car makers to be integrated into it. It is a great call [I wrote in Aug 2018 that Uber should exit self-driving business] that Uber is thinking along this line: the self-driving unit should go; Uber already has a great business model on its aggregation framework.

LinkedIn Comment on Feed

Sometimes when you have plenty money to play around with, you tend to forget what made you wealthy in the first place.

Uber became wealthy without owning any taxi, no significant asset base, and suddenly it felt that by investing and owning autonomous vehicles; its greatness could become grander…

We see same in many businesses: as a start-up, you tend to be nimble, agile, offering unrivalled customer experience. Then when the money becomes plenty, you get entangled and muddled in unnecessary and suffocating bureaucracies; making sure that all the good things you were known for would be forgotten.

Well, when you are poor, there is a tendency to appear humble and gentle, and when you suddenly become rich? You know how most end up misbehaving.

Maybe Uber still have time to rediscover its root, and then shun any form of ‘misbehaviour’ in its business model.

Uber Should Exit Self-Driving Business

A great worker does the best possible job, at the shortest time possible, on something with the highest impacts.

By Nnamdi Odumody

African women are amazing. From Queen Amina who fought invaders that threatened Zaria to Princess Inikpi and Queen Idia who paid the ultimate sacrifices to save their respective kingdoms, women have always stood in the gap when demanded. Across the continent, a new generation of women is innovating, and creating disruptive solutions to some common problems.

Brenda Katwesigye was shortsighted. This compelled her to start Wazi Vision which provides affordable and accessible eye care services to children. Her affordable eyeglasses, made out of recycled plastics by female artisans in Uganda, reduce the cost of eyeglasses by 80 percent while increasing accessibility for people. Also, she managed the development of a mobile application that uses virtual reality to perform visual acuity tests, bringing eye testing closer to people in areas that cannot afford expensive eye testing equipment.

Beth Koigi witnessed water scarcity in her native Kenya. This led her to start Majik Water which harvests water from air and converts it to drinking water using solar energy. Her device which won first prize at the EDF Africa awards this year could provide a solution for 1.8 billion people which are estimated to have water shortage globally. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 319 million people do not have access to clean and safe water. Out of this amount, 12 million people don’t have access to adequate clean drinking water, and over the next decade water shortages are expected to get much worse.

Majik Water uses desiccants such as silica gels to draw water from the air. The gels are then heated up with solar power to release the water and then collect the released water vapour, making it energy efficient. The current system can generate up to 10 litres of filtered water per day with the team looking to scale up to 100 litres at a cost of only 0.08 pounds per 10 litres. According to her, there are six times more water in the air than in all the rivers in the world. Majik’s Water device can work in low humidity of 35 percent and above in most and semi arid areas in Kenya.

Nneile Nkholise is the founder of IMed Tech, a biotechnology company, specializing in the design and manufacturing of custom made medical solutions to improve lives of Africans with 3D printing. Their products are produced with the goal of creating innovative medical solutions to help people requiring custom made medical prosthesis, bio-implants and other medical solutions to assist in enhancing lives and improving the overall health of Africans. She also founded 3DIMO that optimizes injury detection and prevention using athlete specific biomechanics data.

Dr Omolabake Adenle, founder of Ajala Studios, created voice recognition and speech synthesis software that can understand and digitize spoken African languages. The solution can synthesize speech from African languages and present them as digitized text. Digitizing African languages in this way allows Africans to interact with hardware devices such as mobile phones and digital services such as call centre applications by speaking their local languages. The software can be integrated into a wide range of devices and third party software applications.

Philipa Ngaju Makobore from Uganda invented an Electronically Controlled Gravity Feed (ECGF) infusion set, a medical device designed to accurately administer intravenous (IV) fluids and drugs by controlling the rate of fluid flow based on feedback from a drop sensor. Over 10 percent of children admitted to East African hospitals need immediate infusion therapy. Findings from a trial indicates that over infusion in children increased the absolute risk of death by 3.3 percent at 48 hours. Erroneous delivery rates can result into serious adverse effects. The ECGF solves this problem as it is very easy to operate and has key safety features which include alarms for rate of infusion (rapid or slow), total volume (over or under) and faulty sensors. A battery utilizing a hybrid (AC main and solar) charging bed powers the device. The ECGF has the potential to save lives by providing accuracy and safety at 8 percent the cost of a brand new infusion pump.

Across generations and in our own time, African women continue to lead. Even in this new era, their works continue to inspire.