By Kevin Reilly, Editorial Communications Manager, The CEI Group, Inc.

Predictive Analytics is nothing new, but the application of predictive techniques has been seeping into every facet of business and government operations.

The market for predictive analytics technologies tripled, from 11 billion to 35 billion dollars, from 2000 to 2012. It is now estimated that the US alone will need 190,000 more analytics experts and 1.5 million more data-literate managers by 2018. These figures are derived from FICO analytics.

In the past few years, however, even predictive analytics is progressing. It has given way to prescriptive analytics. This change is more than wordplay, introducing a more proactive approach to data analysis. For fleet safety decision-makers, a prescriptive approach introduces a customized process for effectively identifying and remediating hidden high-risk drivers within a specific organizational culture.

Fleet Application of Analytics
Prescriptive analytics in fleet management helps take some of the guesswork out of budgeting for repair costs, and allows fleet managers the opportunity to work with drivers towards accident prevention. Managers and drivers can work together to improve safe driving techniques. This has an effect on driver behavior that leads to better driver retention rates.

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McKinsey Quarterly

Research shows that hurtful workplace behavior can depress performance, increase employee turnover, and even mar customer relationships.

As the workplace becomes faster-paced, more technologically complex, and culturally diverse, civility matters. Among other things, it helps dampen potential tensions and furthers information sharing and team building.

Yet workplace incivility is rampant and on the rise. The accumulation of thoughtless actions that leave employees feeling disrespected—intentionally ignored, undermined by colleagues, or publicly belittled by an insensitive manager—can create lasting damage that should worry every organization.

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“I can live for two weeks on a good compliment” – Mark Twain

By Mike Cieri, MSIR, Vice President of Mardac Consultants

Last month, we looked at ways to correct behavior effectively. Now let’s look at the importance of recognition and praise. If we want to be assured that certain behaviors will continue, we need to identify and reinforce that behavior with praise.

A survey by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found that recognition activities contributed significantly to employee job satisfaction. Most respondents said they valued day-to-day recognition from their supervisors, peers, and team members.

Zenger & Folkman’s research shows that the average ratio for the highest-performing teams was 5.6 (that is, nearly six positive comments for every negative one). The medium-performance teams averaged 1.9 (almost twice as many positive comments than negative ones.) But the average for the low-performing teams, at 0.36 to 1, was almost three negative comments for every positive one. Thus, to have an average performing team, you need at a 2:1 ratio.

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The Washington Post

What would it take to unseat New York City’s iconic yellow cab as the king of the street hail?

Three thousand Ubers and a computer algorithm, according to a new study.

Although about 14,000 yellow cabs have licenses to roam the city, new research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that the city’s transportation network could be supported with just a quarter of that — if passengers were willing to carpool through services such as Uber and Lyft.

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The Detroit Bureau

Ford is intensely proud of building America’s top selling truck for 40 consecutive years but insists it isn’t about to rest on its laurels.

So for the 2017 North American International Auto Show it is showing off some changes that it’s preparing to make to the company’s 2018 F-150 pickup truck, which has routinely outsold its competitors for the past four decades.

The changes include the addition of 3.0-liter diesel engine to range of powertrains offered in the F-150, which will be augmented for 2018 with the expanded use of the 10-speed transmission available in all but the base F-150. In addition, a stop-start system, which helps boost fuel economy by shutting down the engine when the truck comes to a complete stop at a traffic light or stop sign.

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Detroit Free Press

Whether you regard “new mobility” as an over-hyped trend of the moment or a preview of our future, it threatens the foundation of an auto industry built on the premise that more is better.

Indeed, there are a slew of unanswered questions.

Do we really want robots driving us around? Won’t they eliminate jobs? Can anyone make money at this?

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The Washington Post

Toyota’s empathetic car of the future is there for you.

You’ve had a frustrating day at work; it plays soft music and lowers the temperature. You’re lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood; it offers to take over the driving.

You start to nod off at the wheel; it taps you on the shoulder and starts up a conversation.

The auto industry’s pursuit of a hyper-personal experience comes as the very nature of automotive transportation is in flux. Many industry observers expect ride-sharing services will become more popular, with autonomous driving to follow. People may rely less on personal cars to get around, a prospect that is “going to change the business model of private car ownership dramatically,” said Karl Brauer, a Kelley Blue Book analyst.

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The New York Times

Every once in a while, just for laughs, Kevin Smith-Fagan tries to call a friend of his, Priscilla, using the voice-recognition system in his 2013 Chevrolet Volt.

“I’ve tried it so many times and it never gets it right,” said Mr. Smith-Fagan, an executive at a public television station in Sacramento. “It always thinks I’m saying ‘Chris,’ and I have like five people named Chris in my phone book, so it’s always interesting to see who’s getting the call.”

Voice control systems have been in cars for more than a decade, and great strides have been made in the technology’s ability to understand human speech.

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Forbes

2017 will go down as the year that autonomous cars swarm the roads in certain states to test and refine the technology.

Google is expanding its stable of self-driving test vehicles via deals with Fiat Chrysler and now Honda, while Uber launched a fleet of autonomous Ford Fusions in Pittsburgh earlier this year and is expanding to Arizona after running afoul of the law in California.

And GM announced plans this month to immediately start testing autonomous Chevy Bolts on roads around Detroit after dispatching 40 of the self-driving EVs to San Francisco and Scottsdale, Arizona for similar purposes.

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Wired

In a surprisingly collaborative move, BMW has revealed that it wants to share data and development expertise with competitors to ensure the driverless car future.

Offering more detail on its roadmap for rolling out its own autonomous cars, BMW, working in collaboration with Intel and Mobileye, an Israeli tech company that develops vision-based driver assistance systems, says it will put a fleet of 40 autonomous test vehicles on the roads by the second half of 2017.

At a joint press conference at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas, the three companies stated that the BMW 7 Series will employ the latest Intel and Mobileye technologies during global trials starting in the US and Europe.

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