Category: Automotive

Avis Budget Group partners with Otonomo to unlock the potential of its connected car data

Avis Budget Group announced a partnership with Otonomo, the automotive data services platform, to unlock new avenues for value creation from the data generated by its connected fleet. The fleet will cover an estimated 4 billion road miles this year and is anticipated to generate over 7 billion road miles of data with its fully connected… Continue reading Avis Budget Group partners with Otonomo to unlock the potential of its connected car data

Human Horizons unveils first vehicle ready for production

Chinese startup Human Horizons unveiled its first production-ready prototype vehicle, called HiPhi 1, last week in Shanghai, targeting the premium segment of the growing electric car market.It aims to create the ultimate mobility solution composed of smart cities, smart infrastructure and smart vehicles.Human Horizons also launched a pilot smart road program in January this year in Yancheng, Jiangsu province.

BAIC Group thinks beyond carmaking to drive business

China’s BAIC Group is planning to step up efforts in non-vehicle making businesses amid changes in customer preferences about mobility and the downward pressure in the overall automotive market.Despite the drop in sales, the group’s operating revenue increased 6 percent to 246.45 billion yuan.The largest revenue generator of BAIC’s non-vehicle businesses is Beijing Hainachuan Automotive Parts.

GAC Group keeping pace with fast-changing new energy car sector

The new energy vehicle sector is changing at a pace that is faster than most expected, but Guangzhou-based carmaker GAC Group is adapting its efforts in a bid to innovate and lead the way.GAC reached a deal with the Shaoguan government in Guangdong province to establish a test hub focusing on new energy vehicles, intelligent connectivity and autonomous driving sectors in January.When GAC New Energy Automobile launches the Aion LX SUV, it will have a mileage of more than 600 km.

VW subsidiary to help with pilot of robotic charging stations for self-driving vehicles

Electrify AmericaElectrify America, a subsidiary of Volkswagen Group of America, will work with fleet charging firm Stable Auto to roll out robotic fast charging systems for self-driving electric vehicles (EVs).
In an announcement toward the end of last week, Electrify America said the pilot would be based in San Francisco, with the charging site slated to open at the beginning of 2020.
The goal of the trial is to charge autonomous electric vehicles without requiring “human intervention”. A “robotic solution” will be connected to a 150-kilowatt, direct current fast charger. Electrify America will supply chargers for the project.
The idea is that the site will enable electric vehicle fleets to charge up with “no operators present.” Vehicles will drive into a parking space and one of Stable Auto's robots will be used to “automate the connection between the vehicle and the charger.”
Electrify America's director for infrastructure planning and business development, Wayne Killen, said in a statement that autonomous vehicles would “play an important role in the future of driving, particularly with fleets, and tailored charging options for self-driving EVs will be critical to develop that effort.”
While there is excitement in some quarters regarding the potential of autonomous vehicles, work remains to be done.
In February 2019, the CEO of Arm Holdings told CNBC that it would be “a while” before self-driving cars became mainstream.
“It is a phenomenally hard problem to anticipate what a car could do under absolutely any set of circumstances,” Simon Segars, who was speaking to CNBC's Karen Tso at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, added.
“I think you're going to start to see early services, in quite a constrained way, quite soon over the next couple of years,” he added, explaining that there was “some way to come” before the technology was “completely mainstream.”

‘Curbing car imports won’t kill competition’

Assemblers of 660-1,000cc cars are lucky in the sense that the market is now getting wide open for them to take advantage of shrinking used car imports.Iconic Suzuki Mehran (800cc) continued to sail smoothly in the presence of imported 660cc used cars like Daihatsu Mira, Daihatsu Move, Nissan Dayz, Nissan Moco, Suzuki Alto, Suzuki Hustler and commercial picks of Daihatsu, Suzuki and Nissan.Some analysts fear that controlling used car imports will strengthen the monopoly of local assemblers that jack up prices multiple times every year citing the exchange rate movement.