Gear Up On IoT: Obama's $4 Billion Smart Car Investment + Nest Posts a Fix It

Five IoT news bites to start your Friday.

Even as self-driving cars are still working out the kinks, the U.S. Transportation Secretary has just green-lit self-parking as a tool BMW can add to its 20167 series of cars. Lest you think this removes your obligation from learning how to parallel park, the technology from BMW does require that a driver actually parks the car, turns off the motor and then locks the doors. The car then fine-tunes the job.

How committed to driverless cars is the U.S.? About $4 billion worth, the amount that the Obama administration says it wants to spend over the next 10 years to develop policies and pilots to encourage connected vehicle use. Even with Obama saying yes, Congress still has to approve.

Smart home developments are beginning to break ground across the country — with the newest in Tuscon, AZ. Park Modern will feature Nest thermostats, WI-Fi as well as USB outlets that are worked into the electrical outlets.

Swallowing your pill may now come with a micro sensor attached. Proteus Digital Health is launching an ingestible, digital medicine for hypertension which will collect data on not just when the pill was swallowed, but also record information including heart rate.

Finally, the Nest thermometer dust-up continues with users of the smart home device heading online to voice their complaints about problems with their smart home gadget. Nest has even posted a DIY fix-all on how to handle the issues that cause the battery to run down — and then shut-down the system.