Afrogalaxy

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

Is a beautiful design worth an extra $9,000?

Logically, you should buy the lower-cost Audi A6. I made an argument that when it comes to the A6 and A7. They share the same powertrain. They handle nearly identically. The problem is, we don't buy cars based on logic. Which is good news for the wonderful looking A7.

The Audi A7 (starting at $68,000) looks spectacular. When you look at the A6 and A7 together, the A7 is just a cooler car. The low-slung Sportback design looks like it slices through the wind with ease. The four-door sedan resembles a coupe. Sort of like Mercedes CLA but without the "coupe" moniker. But it's also a hatchback -- it actually has a hatchback for the trunk. The entire rear window and rear of the vehicle swing up. It's huge and it's also part of the A7's charm.

It needs those bits of luxury and wonderment to stand out from the A6 since it shares quite a lot of performance specifications with the less expensive vehicle. The A7 has the same turbocharged 3.0-liter V6 engine found in the A6. Like its more cost efficient sibling, it outputs 335 horsepower and 369 foot-pounds of torque. But that extra styling (and giant hatch) adds weight. The A6 will go from zero to 60 in 5.1 seconds. The A7 does the same in 5.2 seconds. In other words, you won't notice.

You also probably won't notice the hidden adaptive wing that appears at speeds above 75 miles per hour. If you're not breaking the speed laws of most states, you wouldn't even know that it was there. Sure you want to look like you're ready to go fast at a moments notice, but it's also important to play it James Bond cool.

The interior also conveys a bit of tech chic. Audi says it removed 43 buttons that were found on the previous generation A7. The result is a cleaner cabin that's comfortable while leaning towards a minimalist aesthetic that tilts the controls and displays towards the driver. My only real issue with the physical interior is Audi's continued use of an almost hidden stalk for adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist.

The screens are just as well thought out, like the A6 it has Audi's latest MMI infotainment system. I'd already written about the impressive system in the A6 but as a reminder here goes (again). The system uses two displays. The top touchscreen serves up all the usual infotainment system information: Navigation, media, vehicle settings. The bottom screen houses the climate controls and favorites. It also now has better voice control so you can say things like "I'm cold" and it'll turn up the temperature. Or you can tap yourself warm.

Typically I'd want physical buttons to adjust the temperature in a car, but Audi does a commendable job placing the touchscreen ahead of the gear shift so you can rest your wrist while navigating climate controls.

When I wasn't trying to find the right temperature I was whipping the A7 around Napa's backroads. I drove the European spec version earlier in the year and it felt like the steering was tighter in the US-ready vehicle I drove. I also spent a lot of time on the Autobahn with the European A7 so that might have had something to do with it. Regardless, the steel suspension lends itself to not-quite-as-aggressive-as-BMW handling coupled with an understanding that most folks that buy this car want to feel pampered while cruising through town.

Overall the A7 luxury sportsback sedan hits all the right marks. It handles well at speed without sacrificing the polished luxury ride buyers expect from a car in this segment. Audi's latest MMI pairs nicely with the exterior design that again, looks outstanding. And yes, the A6 is about $9,000 cheaper for the same engine, MMI, interior and handling. That's the logical choice. But have you seen the A7? Because it'll quickly make you throw logic out the window.

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/53172

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

It received approval for the first all-autonomous factory in the world.

Waymo just took another major step toward bringing self-driving cars into the mainstream. The Alphabet-owned brand has received approval to establish a factory for its driverless vehicles in Michigan. This will be the first factory in the world to be completely devoted to mass-producing Level 4 autonomous vehicles, the company said.

It may be a while before the first vehicles roll off the line. Waymo first plans to "identify a facility" somewhere in southeastern Michigan, and it's not clear when that factory might be ready. The company hopes to create "hundreds" of local jobs over the space of a few years.

The state is an obvious choice for manufacturing self-driving cars. On top of its close association with the car industry and the sheer number of qualified workers, it's a good testing environment. This gives Waymo a better opportunity to prove that its cars can handle snow and other less-than-forgiving weather conditions. Many self-driving projects in the US, including Waymo's own work in Arizona, tend to favor southern states where conditions are favorable year-round.

It's not certain just what mix of vehicles Waymo will produce. However, it suggests the planned factory is mainly meant for integrating autonomy into existing vehicles, as it does with Fiat Chrysler and Jaguar. You might not see it produce driverless cars made completely from scratch as a result. It's nonetheless a start, and it's no secret that many established brands see autonomous car production as the future.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/52766

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company, by Bryce G. Hoffman, is a great business book about one of the best CEOs of all time, in my opinion. It also is the story of a business leader who, as I like to say, thinks like a designer.

"Running a business is a design job. You need a point of view about the future, a really good plan to deliver that future, and then relentless implementation," Mulally told the author.

If you have optimism, empathy, holistic thinking, collaboration, and an open mind--then you are thinking like a designer. You have a high design quotient (DQ), just as Alan Mulally does.

Here are five principles for how you can think like Mulally, a designer of business.
1. Think positively.

Mulally's optimism is famous. As Hoffman notes in American Icon, "Clearly Ford faced a long, uphill battle back to profitability--a daunting prospect for everybody but Mulally. Belying the predictions that the harsh realities of the American automobile industry would soon grind him down, he seemed to be having the time of his life." Even in the worst moments at Ford, and it's had more than its fair share, Mulally approached every problem with the belief that a better solution was possible. This is central to thinking like a designer.

How:

While it may be true Mulally was born an optimist, two strategic tools made him a positive thinker as a leader. One was his belief in the process, what he calls "emotional resilience" that comes from trusting the process will work. The other is his "find-a-way" attitude" that is about proposing a plan, rather than stating the problem.
2. Have empathy.

Empathy is putting yourself in other people's shoes to see things from their perspective. When you empathize, you are human-centered. Empathy is not something you can develop and nurture in the safety of your office. You need to get out, meet people, talk to them, and observe them--to take away the layers of hierarchy between you and your customers until you're literally face-to-face with them in their natural habitat.

How:

Mulally did this by working as a salesperson in a dealership. A. G. Lafley, the former CEO of P&G, did it by washing laundry with customers. Empathy building with customers also builds trust, as Hoffman's description of Mulally demonstrates: "A few minutes later, Mulally had made his first sale. In less than an hour, he made two more. Another was pending. It would not be the last time Mulally played at being a car salesman. This was a way for him to see firsthand how Ford's customers approached its cars and trucks. But it also generated a huge amount of goodwill for the company. Everybody who met Mulally walked away an ambassador for Ford. He had that effect on people."
3. Think holistically.

Thinking like a designer is about opening your viewing angle really, really wide to see the big picture. It's seeing things from different points of view so that you can connect the dots in new and valuable ways. Gather inspiration and information like a bee pollinating from many flowers.

How:

Mulally cast a wide net to see the big picture--he talked to industry experts, veteran journalists, and even to his competitors (like then GM CEO Rick Wagoner); he read reports, white papers, newspaper articles; he flew to Consumer Reports' automotive testing division; he talked to customers, dealers, investors, and employees; he looked at Ford's archives for inspiration, as Hoffman describes, "like a miner convinced that the goal was close at hand."
4. Collaborate.

If you want to improve people's lives, you need to collaborate. It is too big an undertaking to pull off alone. Working in silos, in the isolation of the different departments, can lead to serious mistakes that can be avoided through collaboration. The value of helping one another across disciplines, departments, regions is indispensable. Collaboration means design, engineering, manufacturing, purchasing, sales--all disciplines literally having a seat at the table together.

How:

Mulally held a business plan review (BPR) every week, same time, place, and day, with mandatory attendance and where collaboration was not only encouraged but necessary. Holding a BPR, or a variation of it, is a must-have tool for any leader serious about collaboration. As Mulally told Hoffman, "Working together always works. It always works. Everybody has to be on the team. They have to be interdependent with each other."
5. Have an open mind.

Thinking like a designer is having an open enough mind to imagine the future using what you know today. It's asking "what if" questions to explore what can be versus what already exists.

How:

Despite his incredible success and experience at Boeing, Mulally brought a beginner's mind to Ford. He was unafraid to ask questions like a novice and learn like a student, captured by Hoffman, "Mulally knew he still had a lot to learn before he could finalize his plan, and he threw himself at that task like a senior before finals week."

After I wrote this post, I reached out to Mulally to ask what he'd like to add.

"The leader holds themselves and all the participants responsible and accountable for following our agreed-to process and expected behaviors, with zero tolerance for violating either," he told me.

Among his many exceptional leadership qualities, Mulally has an exceptionally high DQ, the ability to think like a designer. You can increase your DQ, too, by building these principles into your leadership skills and by practicing them, bringing everyone together.

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/52355

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

The automaker is considering commercializing the technology by 2025.

Automakers and other companies are planning to ramp up charger installations to keep up with the increasing interest in electric vehicles. But if they can't keep up with growing EV sales, overcrowding at public charging stations could become an enormous problem -- especially since (as CNET noted) people tend to leave their cars plugged in while they wander off instead of monitoring them and unplugging as soon as they're done. Hyundai and Kia believe the solution to that problem is a system that can automatically guide an EV to a wireless charging station and then drive it away as soon as it's fully charged.

In a concept video the companies have unveiled, they showed how they plan to combine wireless charging with their Automated Valet Parking System. An app will be able to tell owners if there's a public charger in a building, after which they can simply step out and send a command to the vehicle to find an available charger. The EV will then charge itself through wireless magnetic induction and then automatically move to an empty parking spot when its battery reaches 100 percent to make way for the next vehicle in line. Its owner, who'll know once it's done through real-time updates via the application, can then summon the EV back using the same app.

The system is just a concept at the moment, and it'll probably take years before anybody can use it. That is, if the automakers decides to go through with its development. In their announcement, Hyundai and Kia said they're "considering on commercializing the technology upon the launch of level 4 autonomous vehicles around year 2025."

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

Entrepreneur Elon Musk has unveiled a prototype underground tunnel in Los Angeles which is designed to transport cars at high speed around the city.

The tunnel is only a mile (1.6km) long at the moment but the goal is a network to ease chronic traffic congestion.

Modified electric cars would be lowered into the tunnel and travel at speeds up to 150mph (240km/h), Mr Musk says.

The tunnel has been built by Mr Musk's Boring Company, which boasts state-of-the-art engineering techniques.

Mr Musk, best known as the head of Tesla electric cars and the commercial SpaceX programme, arrived at the launch on Tuesday in a Tesla car modified to work on the "loop" system.

He was cheered by a small crowd as he emerged from the car at one end of the tunnel bathed in green and blue interior lights.
How will it work?

The plan envisages modified cars being lowered into the tunnel network by lifts and then slotted into tracks on the "loop".

"The profound breakthrough is very simple: it's the ability to turn a normal car into a passively stable vehicle by adding the deployable tracking wheels, stabilising wheels, so that it can travel at high speed through a small tunnel," Mr Musk said.

"The way the loop will work is you will have main arteries that are travelling at 150mph and when you want to go to an exit, you will have an off ramp," he added.

"So you can travel the vast majority of your journey without stopping at 150mph and only slow down when you get to your exit, and then automatically transfer from one tunnel to another. It's like a 3D highway system underground basically."
Traffic solution?

Alana Semuels, of The Atlantic, told the BBC World Service that Mr Musk had yet to unveil the technology that would allow vehicles to travel at such high speeds through the system.

"At first he said we're going have these tunnels and transport people in pods, now he's saying we're going to transport them in cars, so I'm not sure even he knows how it works," she said.

Mr Musk first unveiled the tunnel plan earlier this year, saying he wanted to alleviate Los Angeles's "soul-destroying" traffic congestion.

On Tuesday he said his Boring Company had built the tunnel segment for $10m ($NZ14.7m), adding that traditional tunnel-building technology would have cost up to $1bn.

The tunnel runs beneath the municipality of Hawthorne, where the Boring Company and SpaceX are both based.

- BBC

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/50247

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

Brazilian-born Carlos Ghosn, who is facing a pay scandal in Japan, has long stood out among the world's auto executives as a hard-nosed workaholic willing to take drastic measures to get companies back on their feet quickly.

As head of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, Ghosn has created an industrial behemoth, its combined 470,000 employees selling 10.6 million vehicles last year from 122 factories around the globe.

But the group now looks troubled after Japanese police reportedly arrested Ghosn on suspicion he failed to report his full compensation to stock market authorities as chairman of Nissan.

Nissan's board has said it will seek his removal after a months-long inquiry prompted by a whistle-blower uncovered "significant acts of misconduct."

It is not the first time Ghosn has gotten into hot water over pay, in particular a combined salary that makes him one of the highest-paid CEOs in France and one of the best-paid foreign executives in Japan.

Last year he denied a report the alliance was planning to pay hidden bonuses to its executives by setting up a company in the Netherlands.

And in February the French state, which owns a 15 percent stake in Renault, forced Ghosn to accept a 30 percent pay cut from the 7.25 million euros ($8.3 million) he took home as Renault CEO last year, calling the amount "excessive".

The government had already put its foot down in 2016, joining with 54 percent of voters at Renault's annual meeting in refusing to authorise a 7.25-million-euro pay package.

The vote was overruled by Renault's board, but Ghosn later accepted a pay cut after Emmanuel Macron, France's finance minister at the time, threatened to step in with a new compensation law.

"Compensation is more scrutinised today than in the past," Ghosn told The Financial Times in June, but added: "You won't have any CEO say, 'I'm overly compensated'."

- 'Never accept interference' -

Long nicknamed "Le Cost Killer" in France, Ghosn began his career with the tyre-maker Michelin and, after a early stint in Brazil, was quickly promoted and earned a reputation for turning around its North American operations.

From there, he was recruited by Renault in 1996 to work alongside then CEO Louis Schweitzer, where he helped return the company to profitability by making the former state-owned carmaker leaner and more efficient.

Just three years later, he was sent to head the newly acquired Nissan group with the challenge of doing the same thing within two years. He managed it within one.

The performance made him a hero in Japan, where manga comics are devoted to the suave businessman known for always being up before dawn after just six hours of sleep a night.

"A boss has to have 100 percent freedom to act and 100 percent responsibility for what he does. I have never tolerated any wavering from that principle, I will never accept any interference," he once said.

After restoring Renault and Nissan to sound financial footing -- in the process shedding thousands of jobs at each company -- Ghosn, who has French citizenship, quickly shifted into higher gear by pressing hard to develop electric cars.

More recently he has been focusing on reviving Mitsubishi, which secured a lifeline in 2016 from Nissan after it bought a 34 percent stake.

- Globetrotter -

Crossing borders and adapting to different cultures have never been a problem for 64-year-old Ghosn.

Born in Brazil on March 9, 1954, to Lebanese parents, he was reportedly able to distinguish types of cars at the age of five just by the sound of their horns.

At the age of six, he went to live in the Lebanese capital Beirut with his mother and attended a Jesuit high school there.

Later he moved to Paris where he picked up degrees at two of France's most elite schools, including the Polytechnique engineering university.

His Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French and English are fluent, and he has picked up a working knowledge of Japanese during his time at Nissan.

Yet he also fiercely guarded his personal time and maintains his ties with Lebanon, where he has invested in a winery.

"I do not bring my work home. I play with my four children and spend time with my family on weekends," he once told Fortune magazine.

"When I go to work on Monday... I come up with good ideas as a result of becoming stronger after being recharged."
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/47218

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

They'll charge batteries and improve fuel efficiency.

Solar panels on cars aren't just reserved for luxury brands or experimental vehicles. Hyundai and Kia have laid out plans to equip "selected" cars with solar panels on their roofs or hoods. They'll help charge batteries for electric vehicles and hybrids, but they'll also be useful for combustion-only vehicles. You won't have to settle for solar panels blocking your view of the sky above, either.

While the first-gen solar roof will be limited to hybrids with conventional roofs, a second-wave semi-transparent roof will be available on cars (including combustion-only models) as part of a panoramic sunroof system. There's also a third-gen system in a pilot phase that will provide power from the roof and hood at the same time.

It promises to be effective. The first-gen model can charge 30 to 60 percent of a hybrid's battery per day depending on both the weather and the overall environment. While that's not spectacular, it could significantly reduce charging times and keep you from using gas on those days when you don't have chances to plug in.

You won't see the first-gen solar tech until "after 2019." With that said, it could become commonplace among automakers if it proves successful. It's a good selling point for cost-conscious and eco-friendly drivers, but it could also be alluring to companies struggling to meet fuel efficiency and emissions standards. They could put solar panels on enough vehicles to raise fuel economy figures without having to make dramatic changes to engines or the overall designs.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/45175

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

Volvo Cars has teamed up with Chinese search engine operator Baidu to develop a self-driving taxi for China, it said on Thursday, opening another frontier to secure its place in the robotaxi market while its Uber supply deal remains in limbo.

STOCKHOLM: Volvo Cars has teamed up with Chinese search engine operator Baidu to develop a self-driving taxi for China, it said on Thursday, opening another frontier to secure its place in the robotaxi market while its Uber supply deal remains in limbo.

The Chinese-owned Swedish carmaker is one of a growing list of auto manufacturers tying up with technology companies or rivals to split the huge cost of developing functional and safe self-drive systems.

Volvo said the venture will give it access to Baidu's autonomous driving software Apollo, which it intends to use to develop a so-called Level 4 car, only one off the top level and the most sophisticated yet attempted by Volvo.

The top Level 5 designation is for vehicles that should be capable of navigating roads without any driver input in all conditions.

CEO Hakan Samuelsson said he expects sales of robotaxis to ride-hailing operators to account for a "significant portion" of the vehicles needed to hit its target of achieving a third of its sales from self-driving cars by 2025.

"Robotaxis is a segment where we will compete not as operators but by selling cars to companies we've sold to previously," he told Reuters.

The race is on to be the first to introduce an autonomous product to the ride-hailing market, which already accounts for more than 30 percent of the global taxi market. Goldman Sachs analysts believe the value of the ride-hailing market could achieve an eightfold increase to US$285 billion by 2030.

Volvo is trying to make headway as a mid-size luxury player with more limited resources than a BMW or Audi and was forced to drop plans for an initial public offering this year because of international trade tensions and a downturn in share prices across the auto sector.

PARTNERSHIPS KEY

Samuelsson said he expects development costs for self-driving and electric vehicles will be about 5 percent of turnover and that partnerships are essential, such as its venture with technology company Veoneer to develop autopilots for cars to sell to individuals.

"We need to be humble and say that we need new partnerships to be strong in this segment ... We definitely cannot do this in our normal development area," he said.

Samuelsson expects partnerships with battery suppliers as well as producers of components such as electric motors, inverters and chargers, but said the company still intends to develop its own electric powertrain.

Volvo didn't say when the Baidu car would be production ready and its actual sales programme in robotaxis depends largely on its deal to supply up to 24,000 Level 1 and Level 2 autodrive cars to Uber between 2019 and 2021.

That deal was thrown into doubt when Uber halted its road-testing programme after a recent fatal collision, but Samuelsson said the deal was "back on track" with deliveries planned for next year.

However, three sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters that Uber has no intention of buying anywhere near the 24,000 cars the deal allows for, making the Baidu tie-up all the more important for Volvo.

The Baidu deal has no supply agreement, Samuelsson said, but is being viewed as a first step into the China market, which industry forecasts suggest could become the single largest market for autonomous cars in the coming decades.

Baidu last year opened Apollo to third parties to accelerate development in the face of stiff competition from Google's Waymo and U.S. carmaker Tesla.

It has since brought on BMW as an adviser and announced plans to begin testing self-driving cars with Ford by the end of this year.

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/45009

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

GM might not hit its 2019 goals

In brief: Uber and Tesla aren't the only companies in the self-driving car industry who are facing some technical problems. GM and its autonomous car division Cruise are dealing with similar issues - according to anonymous sources, Cruise's vehicles have failed to detect pedestrians and have detected "phantom" bicycles that don't exist, prompting the cars to slam on their breaks erratically.

Carmaker General Motors acquired self-driving car startup Cruise way back in 2016, and it's made good use of its purchase ever since. Much like other companies in the tech and vehicle industries (such as Waymo, Uber, and Cadillac), General Motors (GM) views self-driving cars as the way of the future - as such, it's put quite a few resources into researching the tech and developing its own autonomous systems.

Indeed, in January, GM said it wanted to deploy fully autonomous, manual control-free vehicles by 2019; an ambitious goal, to be sure, but it began to look much more likely following GM's recent investment partnership with Honda.

Unfortunately, GM's plans may have hit a slight roadblock now. According to sources who spoke to Reuters, the carmaker's self-driving cars are having a difficult time identifying objects in motion, including pedestrians. Furthermore, the anonymous individuals said GM's vehicles have been known to see "phantom" bicycles, prompting them to slam on the breaks "erratically."

Given these (and other) hurdles, sources believe it is "highly unlikely" that GM will be able to hit its 2019 targets. Of course, considering the issues the industry has faced as of late -- including a handful of fatal self-driving crashes -- GM will likely not have any major qualms about delaying their plans if it results in a safer product for consumers.

At any rate, GM probably doesn't have much to worry about from its competition at the moment. Virtually every company in the autonomous car industry is facing similar problems (with the exception, perhaps, of Waymo), and few have come up with surefire solutions.

With this in mind, as consumers, we can probably expect at least a couple more years of testing and experimentation before we begin seeing true Level 5 automation in mass-market vehicles.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/44182

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

The ride-haling firm’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is in London today and dropped a number of interesting tidbits about the company to reporters, reports Reuters:

Uber plans for all cars used to ferry passengers in the capital will be fully electric by 2025.
The company will add a “clean air” fee to every London trip beginning early next year.
Though Khosrowshahi says the company is very happy with its Uber Eats service, the CEO noted that it’s talking to many food delivery startups around the world–and some of those talks could possibly involve a buyout offer. “Is something going to happen with Deliveroo? Who knows?” Khosrowshahi said.
Khosrowshahi also revealed that Uber would wait to see how the journalist Jamal Khashoggi incident plays out to determine whether Uber will allow Saudi investment in its stock market flotation. “First we want to get the facts and we will make that determination about how we go forward, how we raise money going forward, what our post-IPO board make-up is. All of those are options and again we make conclusions based on all the facts,” he said.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/44075

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

In the last few years, General Motors has placed big bets on the future of how people get around. For instance, it has acquired the self-driving car startup Cruise, and it kickstarted a car-sharing platform called Maven. This summer, the auto manufacturer moved beyond renting its own cars to renting out those of its customers. Maven initially offered peer-to-peer car sharing in Detroit, Chicago, and Denver. Now it’s expanding to Ann Arbor, Michigan; Baltimore; Boston; Washington, D.C.; Jersey City; Los Angeles; and San Francisco.

That’s some fast growth–Maven is only two years old, after all. But Julia Steyn, vice president of mobility at General Motors, says she has to move quickly to create the future she believes her customers want.

“The biggest trend around all of this is that folks want to eliminate all the waste out of their lives,” says Steyn. In building out a marketplace for cars, she says she has focused on “access over ownership.” She wants consumers to see General Motors as a brand that provides transportation when they need it and on their terms, rather than just a purveyor of cars.

Maven is a big piece of that rebrand. When the platform first rolled out, it was to all appearances a Zipcar competitor. GM set up fleets of cars on university campuses and within residential buildings that could be rented for as little as an hour. It then expanded beyond parking lots and onto streets, competing more directly with services like Car2Go. Roughly 10 months after the platform’s debut, General Motors launched Maven Gig, a rental car program designed specifically for people who needed a car to work shifts on platforms like Uber, Lyft, HopSkipDrive, Grubhub, or Instacart.

The general rental platform is now available in 17 markets, while Maven Gig is in nine of them. Over the last year and five months, the general user base has grown from 20,000 people to over 190,000.
The future is sharing

Early on, Maven seemed like a prelude to a ride-hailing service for self-driving cars. GM is currently developing autonomous vehicles through Cruise, which it acquired in 2016. Spectators believed the car-sharing service was basically an opportunity for the auto manufacturer to develop a direct relationship with consumers. But as the immediate promise of self-driving cars has started to fade across the mobility space, car sharing now seems less like a stepping stone to the future of transportation and more like the future itself.

Car sharing is expected to take off. Global Market Insights estimates that the global car-sharing market will surpass $11 billion by 2024, propelled in part by promotion from major governments hoping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Two other data points have some heralding the “death of car ownership.” Between 2007 and 2012, car ownership declined. During that same period, companies like Uber and Lyft started to offer alternative visions for how transportation should work.

Still, the eulogies may have come too soon. Though car sales are down in the United States, more people are buying lightweight trucks, according to data from the Wall Street Journal. Overall, vehicles sales are up 6% from a year ago. And car ownership has been on the rise for the last four years, according to a 2018 study from the University of Michigan.

Although car ownership may not be dead, car sharing may still thrive–even if it’s not for everyone. The people Steyn is courting are hustlers who want to make money off their idle assets. She thinks there’s lot of room for growth there.

“I think there’s a phenomenal opportunity when you talk about people putting fleets of vehicles on the marketplace,” she says. “Let’s say I have five trucks and I use them from 1-5 p.m., and when I don’t use them, I put them on the platform for someone else to use as they please.” Suddenly, small business owners and independent contractors have a new way to make money after they hang up their hats.

Regardless of whether car ownership dies or lives on, GM has already figured out how to monetize its cars long after they roll off the lot.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/44073

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

The upcoming 2019 Mustang Shelby GT500 is one of the most anticipated cars of 2019, and Ford has carefully built up hype around it. But all that might have been for naught as it appears a 20-year-old with the Instagram handle @sinister_lifestyle just leaked the first clear photograph of the car months before its official unveiling at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this upcoming January.

@sinister_lifestyle, also known as Kyle, posted a photo he said was sent to him that is allegedly a legit pic of the 2019/2020 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. But if it is legit (and the consensus says it is), how did Kyle get the snap? Most likely it was sent to him by a car dealer attending a national dealer meeting in Las Vegas. Ford would presumably show off the car there–under tight NDAs–to dealers to whet their appetite for their 2019 flagship, says Road and Track.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/43821

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

If you’ve been waiting for the price of a Tesla to drop before you buy one, now might be the time to plunk down that cash. The company has announced a new midrange version of the Model 3 that starts at $45,000.

The midrange version has the same battery pack as the long-range model but uses fewer cells. That means the midrange model will get you 260 miles on a charge and has a top speed of 125 mph and goes from 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds. That compares with the long-range Model 3 that has a top speed of 145 mph and goes from 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds. Announcing the new version of the Model 3, Tesla said in a statement:

“As Model 3 production and sales continue to grow rapidly, we’ve achieved a steady volume in manufacturing capacity, allowing us to diversify our product offering to even more customers. Our new mid-range battery is being introduced this week in the US and Canada to better meet the varying range needs of the many customers eager to own Model 3, and our delivery estimate for customers who have ordered the Standard Battery is 4-6 months.”

But if you still want to hold out for an even cheaper Tesla, the company has promised a base model that will cost $35,000 sometime in 2019.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/43820

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

After undertaking a year-long investigation with Ford and four other mobility specialists on how to build self-driving systems that integrate with London’s existing transport infrastructure, Addison Lee today is announcing the next step in its autonomous strategy.

The on-demand ride company — which competes with black cabs, Uber and other car services — announced a deal with self-driving startup Oxbotica to develop autonomous vehicles, with the aim of getting them in service in London by 2021.

No financial details are being revealed about the deal. Addison Lee CEO Andy Boland, in an interview, described it as “purely commercial.” Currently Addison Lee is “unfashionably profitable,” he added, and so it is working on its current self-driving efforts off its own balance sheet. It is also wholly owned by PE firm the Carlyle Group, so it’s likely that this will help with future funding, although Boland did not rule out that when the company gets closer to a commercial launch, that it might need to look for funding to do this.

Meanwhile, Oxbotica — a spin-out from Oxford University — has raised around $18 million to date, with backers including Oxford, Innovate UK, the Ministry of Defence, the IP Group, insurers Axa XL and others.

The deal potentially sets up an interesting new avenue in how we might see autonomous cars being built, rolled out and operated.

Today, a number of transportation-on-demand companies that have roots in the tech world (Uber, Didi and Yandex Taxi are three examples) are trying to build their own self-driving tech. Alongside them, there are also a plethora of car makers who are also intent on building and running that experience.

Now, Addison Lee and Oxbotica are essentially presenting a third option: a system not built by the car service-operator, and not by a car maker, but by a third-party tech company that overlays the tech on top of whatever vehicle the service provider chooses to have.

Oxbotica was the first company to get a green light to start any kind of self-driving car test on a UK road, when it tested its equipment on a modified Renault driving five miles per hour in the town of Milton Keynes in 2016.

That early start was one of the reasons why Addison Lee decided to go with Oxbotica for its own efforts.

“The way they have built their technology and how they are already provisioning it has been impressive,” said Boland. “They have the most tangible capability that we could go with, and we felt that the way they were thinking about it, the business model isn’t just for ride share or car share, it’s across a range of other industry applications, and we like that, too. It’s now getting serious, and real-life-scale operators like Addison Lee are looking to bring this to market.” That would include shuttle services but potentially other kinds of commercial transportation (note that Oxbotica counts a commercial insurer as a backer).

“This represents a huge leap towards bringing autonomous vehicles into mainstream use on the streets of London, and eventually in cities across the United Kingdom and beyond,” said Graeme Smith, CEO of Oxbotica, in a statement. “Our partnership with Addison Lee Group represents another milestone for the commercial deployment of our integrated autonomous vehicle and fleet management software systems in complex urban transport conditions. Together, we are taking a major step in delivering the future of mobility.”

The two will start first with a comprehensive 3D mapping sweep before moving on to other aspects of building the service to prepare a autonomous vehicle service for trials.

For now Addison Lee has not named a vehicle partner, and Boland said that this was intentional.

The initial mapping exercise will be on the company’s existing fleet of vehicles working on autonomous research around London today – those will be the Fords from last year’s deal, he said. “But in terms of future service provision in 2021, that decision is yet to be made. Oxbotica is agnostic to manufacturers, and that was also interesting to us at the moment.”

Although Addison Lee competes with the likes of Uber — which had to appeal for a provisional 15-month right to operate in London after initially losing its license — it is different in that it owns its own fleet of vehicles. That has given the company more of an incentive to try to develop its own technology that it might use across whatever vehicles it chooses to use in its fleet. It’s not clear how this will work alongside the fact that many car makers are also working on their own autonomous technology and subsequent strategy to “own” the self-driving experience — at some point they might even directly conflict — but for now following this route could be Addison Lee’s strongest bet for continuing to keep a close service for its drivers and its fleet, developing it in the way it feels is best for its own business.

“It’s about having a bit more control between us,” Boland said of the deal with Oxbotica, ” and creating and building those services together without the dependencies without the changing priorities of an OEM. So that we can do what we need to do.”

The self-driving car market is expected to be worth some £28 billion in the UK alone by 2035, and car services — versus private ownership — are shaping up to be a large part of how it might play out. Startups like FiveAI are also focusing on building self-driving car systems, specifically so that they can run in their own fleets of vehicles and in a service run by FiveAI: its reasoning is that autonomous vehicles will be too cost prohibitive to own for the majority of people.

As car ownership is predicted to decline as cars become ever-more sophisticated and expensive, car services are already on the rise and are predicted to grow some 21 per cent by 2030.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/43770

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>

You'll barely notice the lack of engine noise over all your oohs and ahhs.

Hyundai likely isn't the first automaker that springs to mind when talking about electric vehicles, but maybe it should be. While industry stalwarts like Ford and startups like Tesla dominate the conversation around the future of the EV market, Hyundai is out here quietly developing a a crossover SUV that can travel farther on a single charge -- 258 miles, to be precise -- than any other electric vehicle on the market (that isn't presently built by Elon Musk).

The Kona Electric (or Kona EV, in Hyundai's marketing shorthand) is, unsurprisingly, based on the existing Hyundai Kona gas-powered platform, which we were also very impressed with. The exterior stylings are virtually identical, with the EV just 0.6-inches longer and 0.2 inches taller. The two models also share the same trio of trim packages. You've got the base SEL, then Limited and Ultimate. The Kona EV will be available in six colors, two of which are exclusive to the electric model. The vehicle was designed, as Chris Chapman, Senior Chief Designer at the Hyundai Design Center explained, with the motifs of circuitry and flow in mind.

The trim package you select will have a bigger impact on the interior of the vehicle. They all share the same basic layout with plenty of leg and head room. The Kona EVs also offer 19.2 cubic feet of trunk storage, second in the market only to the Nissan Leaf, which is more than a foot longer overall. The SEL package nets you a 7-inch touchscreen infotainment display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto compatibility as well as Sirius XM radio and BlueLink connectivity (which enables you to control various cabin, battery charging and conditioning features through your smartphone). You'll also get some helpful driver assist features at the SEL level including forward collision-avoidance assist, blind-spot collision warning, lane keeping assist, and driver attention warnings.

The Limited package includes everything from the SEL and tosses in LED head and tail lights, a sunroof, high beam driver assist, Qi-compatible wireless device charging and Homelink connectivity.

Springing for the top-of-the-line Ultimate trim package gets you the whole high-tech shebang: everything from Limited plus an 8-inch LCD touchscreen navigation system, forward collision-avoidance assist (with pedestrian detection this time), an Infinity audio system by Harman, rain-sensing wipers; heated, ventilated and powered front seats; a heated steering wheel for some reason and, most importantly, adaptive cruise control that actively follows the car in front of you.

Adaptive cruise control availability generally isn't the best automotive hill to die on, but this is a feature that was obviously and sorely lacking in the Kona gas model. Unfortunately, its inclusion with the EV model leaves car buyers with a Sophie's Choice situation. Do you go with the gas version that has 4WD but no smart cruise control or do you get the electric with adaptive cruise but has only front wheel drive?

It depends on where you live, a Hyundai rep explained to me during our demo drive through the Topanga State Park, just outside of Santa Monica California. For folks that live and commute through urban Los Angeles or San Francisco the cruise control will likely be more intriguing, while folks living in, say, more sparsely populated Calaveras County (where it often snows during winter months) will be more apt to spring for the AWD. So make like Indiana Jones and choose wisely.

The Ultimate trim package also includes, in my opinion, the single coolest, hardest squee-inducing feature I've seen in a car since the inclusion of USB ports: a pop-up, heads up display. No, seriously, this thing is great. You turn on the car and this little 6-inch square of acrylic extends out from the top of the instrument cluster. It displays a ton of useful information including your speed versus the posted speed limit, as well as lane departure, blind spot, and front collision warnings. It's basically a stripped-down version of the instrument cluster itself but positioned just below your natural line of sight when driving. This may sound like a minor thing, "just look down a little further, you lazy SOB" you might be thinking to yourself, but omg this thing is useful.

When the Kona EV isn't impressing with its cabin loadout, the crossover is eating up miles. Its 64 kWh battery can output at 170 kW, propelling the vehicle up to a class-leading 258 miles on a single charge or top it out at (an artificially-limited) 104 mph. The vehicle's lowish center of gravity (thanks, floor-mounted battery packs) also translates into a sportier and more responsive ride. Granted, you're obviously not going to be taking corners like you would in an NSX, but neither will you spend the duration of every curve death-gripping your door handle like you would in a Wrangler.

The Kona EV's only real downside involves its charging times and even those aren't particularly egregious compared yo the competition. With its 7.2W onboard charger and a Level 1 (110V) power supply, you can fill the battery from a single digit charge to 80 percent capacity in 9:35 hours, basically overnight. The Chevy Bolt is 10 minutes slower. Utilizing a 100-kw DC CCS Combo fast charger, that span drops to under an hour (54 minutes) for the Kona EV compared to an hour nineteen for the Bolt. Overall, 30 minutes on charge for the Kona EV will net you a 125-mile travel range.

The inherent drawbacks of attempting to charge a car on standard home outlet aside, I am rather smitten with the Kona EV. It's got oodles of head, leg and cargo space, its electric motor and direct-drive transmission provide enough torque to pin you to your seat when flooring the accelerator, the cabin's infotainment accessories are smarter than your average teenager and with a 258 mile range, it delivers Tesla-level drive longevity at a better price.

On occasion Engadget will accept travel and lodging from auto manufacturers to test drive vehicles not yet available for review from a local fleet. We do this to make sure our readers have the latest information about new vehicles. This is standard practice in the automotive journalism world. This in no way colors our editorial coverage of the vehicle or of the automaker themselves.

https://www.geezgo.com/sps/42932

---

Join Geezgo for free. Use Geezgo's end-to-end encrypted Chat with your Closenets (friends, relatives, colleague etc) in personalized ways.>>