Category Archives: mobility company

Hyundai Motor Group Buys Boston Dynamics from SoftBank

“By acquiring Boston Dynamics and securing a leading presence in the field of robotics, the Group takes another major step toward its strategic transformation into a Smart Mobility Solution Provider. To propel this transformation, the Group has invested substantially in the development of future technologies, including autonomous driving, artificial intelligence (AI), Urban Air Mobility (UAM), smart factories and robots,” said Hyundai Motor Group. Continue reading

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Toyota Research Inst. Claims Advances in Home Use Robotics

As TRI shows in a new video, this system allows robots to make generalizations in a range of scenarios, including in different homes. The somewhat humorous video (comments welcomed here by the non-androids of AutoInformed), released on National Selfie Day, shows these new capabilities on film, as the un-named robot is seen recording itself as it performs these new skills around a house. It is less cranky, humoours and personable than R2-D2, a tough act to follow for anyone competing in the Artoo-Detoo defined field. After all, it was developed by engineers, not Hollywood – Where is George Lucas when you need him? Continue reading

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Toyota’s Woven Capital Invests in Ridecell for Mobility Services

“Ridecell is accelerating the digital transformation of a key part of the mobility industry―creating a comprehensive platform that connects fleets and automates workflow at scale,” claimed Michiko Kato, Principal, Woven Capital. Continue reading

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Ford Follows GM: Q2 2021 Earnings to Exceed Its Expectations

This ”follow the leader” move is the result of unfortunate timing and lingering suspicions that the future of the automotive business with automated vehicles, fuel cells and other connected car technologies will consume enormous amounts of capital that will hurt shareholders, which in the case of Ford contains numerous family members. Yesterday GM said it will increase its EV and AV investments from 2020 through 2025 to $35 billion. This is a – gulp – 75% increase from its initial pledge announced prior to the ongoing pandemic.

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GM Ups Bet by $35B in Autonomous, Electric Vehicle Games

The seemingly bottomless pit of capital being consumed in the race to survive the connected, green and autonomous vehicle wars has grown deeper with General Motors saying today it will increase its EV and AV investments from 2020 through 2025 to $35 billion. This is a – gulp – 75% increase from its initial pledge announced prior to the ongoing pandemic. Continue reading

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Toyota Agile Space – Motorized Store or Mobility Company?

Toyota Motor North America R&D has selected digital brand Cuyana as its first tenant. About the only thing AutoInformed sees in common with its vehicle business is that leasing could be involved for customers. Continue reading

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Toyota NA Expands Parkopedia Use for Payment Services

The new service covers only 60,000 off-street parking locations with more than 6,000 reservable locations across the USA, using Parkopedia’s payment system to manage transactions. The platform enables drivers to register their payment details using a single secure digital account and then pay for their parking within activated locations. The parking reservation information and navigation can then be accessed via the vehicle head unit. Continue reading

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General Motors Expands Access to OnStar Guardian App

OnStar Guardian offers Mobile Crash Response, which uses smartphone sensors to detect crashes and alert an Emergency-Certified OnStar Advisor. Continue reading

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Toyota Via KINTO to Sell Cars That ‘Evolve in Tune With People’

In a vast advancement – in press release theory so far, that is – from evolving auto industry efforts to personalize vehicles, they started this endeavor by offering today, through KINTO*1, the new GR Yaris Morizo Selection, a car that can be updated with the latest software tailored to each customer. Continue reading

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Ford to Up Electrification Spend to $30B by 2025. Wants 40% All-Electric Global Volume By 2030

Well, one wild card is the great unknown about the future of internal combustion engines that Ford is heavily dependent on. Will the change to EVs mean big write offs or mark downs of the value of existing plants, tooling and the elimination of jobs? Another potentially negative is Ford’s dismal record of introducing and then incurring huge warranty costs of complex vehicles with electronics. It has cost stockholders billions of dollars. Fixing these huge warranty costs is potentially worth $1-$2 billion annually given recent history. Continue reading

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Stellantis, Foxconn JV for Digital Cockpits, Connected Services

Leaving the marketing babble aside, Mobile Drive will combine Stellantis’ global vehicle design and engineering with Foxconn’s development in the changing software and hardware realms of smartphones and consumer electronics. Continue reading

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Volkswagen, Argo AI to Start Autonomous Driving Tests

Current conventional automaker wisdom (wishdom?) has is that light commercial vehicles are the first, logical place for using autonomous transportation of people and goods. “Our aim with the self-driving version of the ID. BUZZ is to ease commercial deployment of transport and delivery services starting in 2025,” said divisional director Christian Senger during a digital press conference. VW Mobility service provider MOIA will first launch autonomous service in Hamburg, Germany. Continue reading

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Toyota FY2021- Net Profit Surges 10% on $20.6B in Revenue

In particular, sales of electrified vehicles of 2,155,000 units or 112.3% of the previous fiscal year presents a serious challenge to would be competitors who are late to a game that increasingly is the only game in town or will be given the trend of current regulations. Continue reading

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Suzuki, Subaru, Daihatsu, Toyota and Mazda form JV on Technical Specs for Next-Gen Vehicle Communications Devices

Within the field of CASE (connected, autonomous/automated, shared, and electric), which is bringing about major alterations in the auto industry, advances are being made in the connected domain. These include the communications and data aspects of technology and business such as cloud services, IoT, big data, and AI. These are the basic functions of the connected car. Regulators thus far appear to be oblivious to the anti-trust and monopoly or cartel implications of such consolidations and their possible negative effects on customer pricing. The industry views connected cars as a major new source of revenue. Therefore, more is better. Continue reading

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Gaming Technology for Autonomous Vehicles at Porsche?

This – in theory – shortens development times, saves costs and makes mobility safer, according to Porsche. Furthermore, in the nascent Porsche Car Configurator, Game Engines are intended to help the customer in the configuration of her vehicle in retail. In the future, customers in Porsche Centers will see an “almost photo-realistic, three-dimensional simulation of their configured vehicle” via a gaming PC with connected VR glasses. Continue reading

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