Mobility – Page 7129 – I wish I had more to offer

Startup Unveils Freakish-Looking Flying Car With Folding Wings

Turning Heads On Friday, CNET published an exclusive first look at startup New Future Transportation’s flying car, and it is wild. In driving mode, the Aska looks something like what might happen if the Batmobile and a Delorean had a baby. But when it’s time to fly, the car gets even weirder — by unfolding… Continue reading Startup Unveils Freakish-Looking Flying Car With Folding Wings

Hyundai Mobis Expands Its Global Base for Open Innovation

SEOUL, South Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–On the 4th, Hyundai Mobis (KRX:012330), which is strengthening its open cooperation with other entities in preparation for a paradigm shift to future vehicles, announced the launch of M. Cube in China’s Shenzhen, a mecca for Chinese start-ups. M. Cube is the name of Hyundai Mobis’s open innovation center intended to discover… Continue reading Hyundai Mobis Expands Its Global Base for Open Innovation

Cohda Wireless and Sasken partner to accelerate the adoption of V2X in connected vehicles

Cohda Wireless, a Connected Autonomous Vehicles technologies provider, and Sasken Technologies Ltd, an engineering and digital transformation services provider, announced a strategic technology partnership to accelerate the adoption of V2X (vehicle-to-anything) in the connected vehicles space utilizing either cellular or DSRC (dedicated short range communication) technologies. The companies have come together to create a complete TCU… Continue reading Cohda Wireless and Sasken partner to accelerate the adoption of V2X in connected vehicles

Ford proposing autonomous mail truck tech to the USPS

Ford is one of the finalists vying for a $6.3 billion contract to build the next generation U.S. Postal Service delivery truck, and it’s already thinking about taking them to the next level.The USPS recently launched a two-week trial of a self-driving semi-truck developed by TuSimple that made five deliveries between its processing centers in Phoenix and Dallas.As far as the conventional trucks are concerned, Ford has partnered with Oshkosh on a Ford Transit-based vehicle to replace the iconic Grumman LLV, but is keeping details close to the vest, as are the other four bidders.

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Child Safety Day: Greater protection for the smallest passengers in child seats

A new concept for child safety in the ESF 2019 Experimental Safety Vehicle which was recently presented by Mercedes-Benz shows how protection for children can be further improved. With this child seat with PRE-SAFE® functions, the seat belts are preventively tensioned before a crash and side impact protection elements are extended. Monitoring of seat installation… Continue reading Child Safety Day: Greater protection for the smallest passengers in child seats

Germany’s Opel town shows struggle for Europe to plug in electric cars

RUESSELSHEIM, Germany, June 7 (Reuters) – Carmakers and policymakers in Europe are staking their futures on a race to electric vehicles. But the vast charging network needed to sustain their vision is patchy, and it's not clear who'll pay for it.
The central German city of Ruesselsheim, home to carmaker Opel, wants to build 1,300 electric car charging points by 2020, plans that would make it a frontrunner on the continent.
It has advantages enjoyed by few in Europe, including a powerful local car industry player and wealthy national economy. In Germany itself the city has an edge, having won a government grant of 12.8 million euros ($14.4 million) to fund the rollout.
Yet, even here, red tape, shortages of qualified staff and the requisite hardware are likely to delay the installation by around two years, local officials told Reuters.
The project will also need more money, said the officials who are running up against the complexity of civil engineering, potential power grid ..

Self-driving delivery van startup Gatik AI comes out of stealth with Walmart partnership

Gatik AI, an autonomous vehicle startup that came out of stealth Thursday with $4.5 million in funding and Walmart as a customer, is aiming for the sweet middle spot in the world of logistics. The company, which operates out of Palo Alto and Toronto, isn’t deploying autonomous delivery bots built for sidewalks, nor is it… Continue reading Self-driving delivery van startup Gatik AI comes out of stealth with Walmart partnership

GM’s Cruise Is Valued At $19 Billion — Does That Make Any Sense?

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Published on June 6th, 2019 |

by Zachary Shahan

GM’s Cruise Is Valued At $19 Billion — Does That Make Any Sense?

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June 6th, 2019 by Zachary Shahan

The self-driving vehicle startup Cruise that GM acquired in 2016 was recently valued at $19 billion after another round of investments.

That puts Cruise’s valuation at more than half the value of Tesla, and 38% the value of GM as a whole (as of this moment).

That implies, of course, that certain portions of the investment world expect a lot from Cruise, and think it is well on its way to a promising future.

I find the whole thing tremendously interesting. I understand that some auto industry players think Cruise as the perfect approach to autonomous driving, but others think it has fatal flaws and will never outcompete what Tesla is developing. Fine and good — there are differences of opinion in the auto world, and more specifically in a burgeoning new new industry that most consider to be the future. But it still blows my mind a little bit that very little money is invested in the idea Tesla is the world’s autonomous driving leader while Cruise is being valued at $19 billion.

First, though, a few more details on the news. GM raised “an equity investment of $1.15 billion from a group comprising institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and existing partners General Motors, SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda.” The result: “This investment increases Cruise’s post-money valuation to $19.0 billion, inclusive of SoftBank Vision Fund’s previously announced investment commitment. In the last year, Cruise has secured capital commitments totaling $7.25 billion.”

From what I’ve gathered, Cruise’s autonomous driving architecture is much more similar to Waymo’s than Tesla’s. We’ve never done a deep dive on Cruise versus Tesla Autopilot/Full Self Driving, but we have published these comparisons of Tesla’s system with Waymo’s:

Tesla Autopilot Hits 1 Billion Miles! & Why Tesla Autopilot Is The Top Approach To Autonomy
Deep Dive Into Tesla’s Autopilot & Self-Driving Architecture vs Lidar-Based Systems

Aside from those, the following may bring some useful light to the overall story:

Tesla vs. Self-Driving Competition — New MIT Video
Elon Musk Calls Lidar “A Fool’s Errand” … & Other Autonomous Driving Experts Starting To Agree
Tesla Autopilot Miles Soaring
Tesla Autonomy Day: What We Learned
Tesla Autonomy Day Video & Dozens Of Quotes

See more in our Tesla Autonomy Day archives.

Is Cruise worth $19 billion? Well, I certainly couldn’t tell you. Should it be worth $19 billion when Wall Street hardly values Tesla’s autonomous driving leadership? Well, that seems crazy to me, but such is the market today.

About the Author

Zachary Shahan Zach is tryin' to help society help itself (and other species). He spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as its director and chief editor. He's also the president of Important Media and the director/founder of EV Obsession and Solar Love. Zach is recognized globally as an electric vehicle, solar energy, and energy storage expert. He has presented about cleantech at conferences in India, the UAE, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, and Canada.

Zach has long-term investments in TSLA, FSLR, SPWR, SEDG, & ABB — after years of covering solar and EVs, he simply has a lot of faith in these particular companies and feels like they are good cleantech companies to invest in. But he offers no professional investment advice and would rather not be responsible for you losing money, so don't jump to conclusions.

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