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Elon Musk Reopens Door to Daimler With Vow to Inquire on Electric Van

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The Fight For A Tesla Gigafactory In Poland

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Published on November 18th, 2018 |

by Jacek Fior

The Fight For A Tesla Gigafactory In Poland

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November 18th, 2018 by Jacek Fior

When writing my letter to Elon Musk a few weeks ago, little did I know about the real actions undertaken by so few for so many. Tesla is a dream — a dream of an extraordinary electric vehicle everybody wants to own, a dream of an out-of-the-universe leader, Elon Musk, who everybody wants to follow, and a dream of a gigafactory every nation wants to attract. It seems now that Poles around the world are joining forces to save Elon from making a terrible mistake by going some other place than Poland. 🙂 Here is the story.

There is a Polish woman in America who is strongly involved in the space industry and rocket science. Ewa is a passionate investor in new technologies and a space adventurer. She apparently has “access” to Elon when attending SpaceX rocket launches and has become quite determined to help Poland make the right pitch.

There is a Polish man in Poland who runs the most popular Facebook fan page here, called Tesla Klub Polska. Mariusz is passionate about Tesla and runs the fan page as a hobby. He knows more about Tesla than most other people I know. So, Mariusz is in touch with Ewa and chat after chat he suggests he could help connect the US team with our government authorities. He has prepared a huge portfolio of information about Tesla, its operations, its CEO, its investment plans, and its gigafactories. The file has gone to the Polish Minister of Investment and Economic Development, Jerzy Kwieciński.

What happens next is … not much. Kind of classic, as it boils down to mutual talks between the American supporter, Ewa, and the ministry about the terms and conditions of cooperation. Being a patriot is one thing. Doing significant work for the country is another and needs to be remunerated, and I mean remunerated well. The state of affairs a month ago, when I first learnt about it, was that Poland had never been in the cards for Elon and Tesla (something I find difficult to believe after my persuasive letter to Elon) and it would take a lot of effort and wit to be allowed at the table. As far as we could learn, nobody from Poland, apart from crazy enthusiasts like myself or Mariusz, had ever reached out to Tesla before the joint efforts of Mariusz and Ewa. Somehow disappointing. [Editor’s note: It was near the top of my list of question during the past two Tesla conference calls]

The good thing is that the Polish government has finally understood what scale of investment we are talking about here and has braced itself to join the race. As we have reportedly reached the Prime Minster level of involvement, chances are Poland will at least have an opportunity to pitch directly to Tesla. Not a place nor time to repeat all the arguments I have quoted before (hint, hint). I do believe we are the best choice for Tesla for many reasons. However, what our government must realize is that the competition is fierce – Germany is in the game as a country and various individual German states are making their own pitches, with Berlin on top of them in its recent bid. Can we beat other competitors and prevail? Yes! Influential advocates in the USA and determined authorities here in Poland need to believe it, too. I’m here to help, by the way.

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About the Author

Jacek Fior Jacek is an entrepreneurial type who sees opportunities all around. He runs his own corporate language training company and international translation agency, Better Horizons. One of his many passions, besides card tricks and mixology, is electric cars and their introduction on the market. He is currently working on launching the Polish platform of CleanTechnica — cleantechnica.pl — in the hopes of helping people to understand the revolution we are witnessing. Jacek is also a founding partner of Tesla Shuttle.

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Nuance spins off automotive segment into new publicly traded company

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Ford hits the road in Miami, in a big bet on autonomous vehicles, ride sharing and delivery services

Ford's autonomous vehicle fleet
10:04 AM ET Fri, 16 Nov 2018 | 02:45

Ford is road testing its autonomous vehicles in partnership with the city of Miami, as the legacy automaker hopes to capitalize on the emerging technology in ride-share and business delivery.

The automaker has been testing a Ford Fusion equipped with autonomous vehicle tech, or AV, in Miami since February. It chose the city because of its congestion and the unpredictability of the traffic there. Tests are also being done in three other cities: Pittsburgh, Detroit and Washington, D.C.

Ford has said it plans to begin selling self-driving cars by 2021, but it is also testing out ways it can use these vehicles to carry people and things. Sherif Marakby, CEO of Ford Autonomous Vehicles, told CNBC the company is focused on profitability and scalability.

“We're laser focused on profitability,” said Marakby, who said autonomous vehicles provide transportation at a lower cost than current vehicles. “While the vehicle is expensive, initially we're deploying it in service so the cost per mile for transportation for a person or a business is going to be lower and will be profitable for us,” he said.

Ford has said it plans to invest a total of $4 billion into AV technology through 2023.

On Wednesday, the company announced a partnership with Walmart and Postmates to collaborate on a delivery service that will one day use autonomous vehicles.

During a test ride with CNBC, Ford used a car that was autonomous, however, it did travel along a predetermined and pre-programmed route. Ford also manned the vehicle with a safety driver, whose hands hovered over the wheel, which the company said was a “precaution.”

Source: Ford
Ford AV Argo autonomous vehicle test car

Waymo, the self-driving car unit of Alphabet, will launch its first AV service by the end of the year and expects to attract business customers. General Motors' Cruise says it will have an autonomous ride-share service by next year.

Some analysts have said Ford is lagging behind in self-driving technology, but Marakby pushed back on that notion.

“I want investors and I want everyone to know that we are developing an autonomous vehicle service that means a whole lot more than the car,” Marakby said. “What that means is … when we launch these cars it's not just going to be the car. It's going to be an app. It's going to be the cloud … The autonomous car will know where to go when someone orders it.”

Ford is phasing out its manufacturing of most cars and increasing production of trucks and SUVs. Marakby said Ford's ride-share vehicle will be designed for that business.

“We feel that what we're building is an autonomous vehicle mobility service and we think the future is going to continue to have more and more of these transportation methods,” he said.

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