Autonomous – Page 2522 – I wish I had more to offer

Blu Smart Chooses Ridecell to Power First All-Electric Ride Sharing Car Service in India – PRNewswire

SAN FRANCISCO, July 9, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Ridecell Inc., the leading platform provider for shared and autonomous mobility operators, and Blu Smart, the pioneers in all-electric shared smart mobility, today announced Ridecell as the platform provider for the recently launched Blu Smart Mobility ride share service in India. The first all-electric rideshare service on the Indian… Continue reading Blu Smart Chooses Ridecell to Power First All-Electric Ride Sharing Car Service in India – PRNewswire

Former Tesla employee admits uploading Autopilot source code to his iCloud

Guangzhi Cao, a former engineer at Tesla, admitted in a court filing this week that he uploaded zip files containing Autopilot source code to his personal iCloud account in late 2018 while still working for the company. Tesla sued Cao earlier this year for allegedly stealing trade secrets related to Autopilot and bringing them to… Continue reading Former Tesla employee admits uploading Autopilot source code to his iCloud

Waymo has now driven 10 billion autonomous miles in simulation

Alphabet’s Waymo autonomous driving company announced a new milestone at TechCrunch Sessions: Mobility on Wednesday: 10 billion miles driving in simulation. This is a significant achievement for the company, because all those simulated miles on the road for its self-driving software add up to considerable training experience. Waymo also probably has the most experience when… Continue reading Waymo has now driven 10 billion autonomous miles in simulation

Zoox’s self-driving car will provide a smooth ride via independent active suspension

Zoox CTO and co-founder Jesse Levinson revealed a few more details today about the company’s autonomous vehicle hardware, which it’s designing along with its software stack from the ground up. Levinson told us onstage at TC Sessions: Mobility that Zoox’s vehicle will have fully independent active four-wheel suspension — a design detail that will translate… Continue reading Zoox’s self-driving car will provide a smooth ride via independent active suspension

NIO Inc. Provides Second Quarter 2019 Delivery Update

Delivered 3,553 ES8 and ES6 vehicles in the second quarter of 2019 Delivered 1,340 vehicles in June 2019, including 927 ES8s and 413 ES6s Cumulative deliveries of ES8 and ES6 reached 18,890 SHANGHAI, China, July 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NIO Inc. (“NIO” or the “Company”) (NYSE: NIO), a pioneer in China’s premium electric vehicle market,… Continue reading NIO Inc. Provides Second Quarter 2019 Delivery Update

Udelv partners with HEB on Texas autonomous grocery delivery pilot

Autonomous delivery company Udelv has signed yet another partner to launch a new pilot of its self-driving goods delivery service: Texas-based supermarket chain HEB Group. The pilot will provide service to customers in Olmos Park, just outside of downtown San Antonio where the grocery retailer is based. California-based Udelv will provide HEB with one of… Continue reading Udelv partners with HEB on Texas autonomous grocery delivery pilot

Volvo solves autonomous revenue riddle with package deals

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish truckmaker AB Volvo’s first commercial autonomous truck deal shows how it is bundling services to generate revenue from a technology that is years away from wide deployment. FILE PHOTO: A self-driving Volvo electric truck with no cab called Vera is seen during a presentation in Berlin, Germany, September 12, 2018. REUTERS/Emma… Continue reading Volvo solves autonomous revenue riddle with package deals

City of Newcastle to trial its first driverless shuttle bus

City Council Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes standing inside the new shuttle bus. (Image: City of Newcastle) The City of Newcastle has unveiled its first driverless shuttle bus which will undergo a trial along a circuit around Newcastle. The trial will last for 12 months and be conducted by the City of Newcastle, Transport for NSW,… Continue reading City of Newcastle to trial its first driverless shuttle bus

Navigating the Winding Road Toward Driverless Mobility

By Professor Amnon Shashua As we all watch automakers and autonomous tech companies team up in various alliances, it’s natural to wonder about their significance and what the future will bring. Are we realizing that autonomous driving technology and its acceptance by society could take longer than expected? Is the cost of investing in such… Continue reading Navigating the Winding Road Toward Driverless Mobility

Harald Krüger To Step Down As CEO Of BMW

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Published on July 6th, 2019 |

by Steve Hanley

Harald Krüger To Step Down As CEO Of BMW

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July 6th, 2019 by Steve Hanley

Just a few days ago, Klaus Fröhlich, the head of research and development for BMW, was whining to the press that nobody wants to buy electric cars. Well, actually, as it turns out, nobody wants to buy BMWs if the latest financials for the company are any indication. According to the Toronto Star, BMW has seen its position as Germany’s luxury car leader evaporate over the past few years and is facing strong financial pressure associated with developing electric and self driving cars that can compete with the likes of Tesla and other manufacturers.

The BMW Group has delivered more than 100,000 electrified vehicles to customers worldwide in 2017, as promised at the beginning of the year. An eye-catching light installation transformed the BMW Group headquarters, the world-famous “Four-Cylinder” in the north of Munich, on the evening of 18 December 2017 into a battery. (Ralph Larmann, 12/2017)

Now it reportedly will not renew the current contract for its CEO, Harald Krüger, when it expires next April. The company has just reported its weakest earnings in a decade, a reversal after sporting some of the highest profit margins in the automotive business for many years.

Krüger was chosen to lead the company in December, 2014 after his predecessor, Herbert Diess, left unexpectedly to take the reins at rival Volkswagen. In a statement to the press, he said, “After more than 10 years in the board of management, more than four of which as the CEO of the BMW Group, I would like to pursue new professional endeavors and leverage my diverse international experience for new projects and ventures.”

It is customary for German companies to renew the CEO’s contract one year before its termination. When BMW did not do so in April of this year, it started speculation that Krüger would step aside when his contract ended instead of signing on for another 5 year term.

BMW was once thought of as a leader in the nascent electric car field when it brought its highly innovative BMW i3 electric car to market in 2013. But, the company failed to capitalize on its early lead as it struggled to find a way forward for EVs.

BMW i3s at the National Drive Electric Week Event in Oxnard, California. Image credit: Kyle Field | CleanTechnica

Krüger was “too cautious,” Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, director of the CAR Center for Automotive Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen tells The Star. “BMW was not able to use the head start for a new generation of electric vehicles.”

David Bailey, a professor at the Birmingham Business School, told CNN that BMW needed to accelerate its move into new technologies. “[Krüger has] done a very good job in recent years, but BMW faces some very big challenges going ahead. They felt the needed to bring in somebody new given the scale of the challenge.”

The Tesla Effect
It has not been lost on management or customers that the Tesla Model S is now the best selling large luxury car in Germany, which is hugely embarrassing to BMW as well as Mercedes-Benz and Audi. We may never know exactly how the changes in the marketplace brought about by Tesla have affected the fortunes of those companies but there is little question it has roiled the industry and forced companies to confront the coming electric vehicle revolution faster than they might done otherwise.

The Tesla Model S. Image courtesy: Tesla

In addition to being hit with an antitrust penalty of $1.6 billion by EU authorities recently, BMW has has been adversely affected by a rise in tariffs on vehicles exported to China from its plant in South Carolina due to the tariff war going on between the US and China. In March, it downgraded its profit projections for 2019 and announced a cost saving plan that will trim $13.6 billion in costs by the end of 2022. That plan focuses on dropping some models and streamlining vehicle development.

Bankwupt?
BMW says it is rushing to bring electric cars to market, but in truth, when your head of R&D says nobody wants to buy electric cars it is hard to take such statements seriously. At CleanTechnica, we have said for a while that some traditional car companies may go out of business or be forced to merge with other companies as a result of the arrival of electric vehicles.

BMW and Mercedes have indicated they will collaborate on the development of electric and self driving cars, a sign that a consolidation in the industry may already be under way. Unless BMW can get back on track with its development of competitive electric, autonomous vehicles, it could even be the first traditional automaker to go bankwupt — but it probably won’t be the last.

About the Author

Steve Hanley Steve writes about the interface between technology and sustainability from his home in Rhode Island and anywhere else the Singularity may lead him. His motto is, “Life is not measured by how many breaths we take but by the number of moments that take our breath away!” You can follow him on Google + and on Twitter.

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