Taas Master
Thoughts On Transportation as a Service
Is Using Lidar for Autonomous Vehicles Stupid?
That’s the sentiment of Elon Musk who views the usage of lidar (light detection and ranging) for self-driving vehicles as an expensive and an unnecessary crutch. Many companies like Cruise Automation and Waymo believe the usage of lidar is necessary for redundancy and...
Is the Internal Combustion Engine Dead?
A recent NY Times article (subscription required) describing the most recent Frankfurt Show highlights the “angst” at this year’s show among industry insiders concerning the future of the automotive business. Trade issues, declining global sales, environmental...
Automotive Laggards According to IBM
AutoNews (subscription required) recently reported on an IBM Automotive survey of 1,500 senior auto executives from 11 countries. About half of the executives polled felt a need to reinvent their company and change how business is accomplished to compete with the...
The Elon Musk of Trucks
It's being reported this week that Rivian has raised $350 million from Cox Automotive. This $350 million is on top of a $700 million round led by Amazon early this year, and another $500 million from Ford. If you don't know Rivian, it's the company founded by R.J....
Porsche’s Stamp of Approval on Electrification
Much is being debated about the 2020 Porsche Taycan. Some believe the Taycan is an arrow in the heart of Elon Musk and Tesla's Model S. Others believe Taycan still falls short of Model S because of range and price. Mario Herger offers an interesting perspective HERE....
A Stopped Vehicle or a Stop Sign?
An interesting piece in The Detroit News this week describes the challenges that autonomous vehicles have in identifying stationary objects. In many cases the autonomous systems are better at tracking moving vehicles than in identifying stationary vehicles. The...
Do Electric Vehicles Change Automotive Manufacturing?
That's the topic tackled in a Detroit News article this week. What stands out in the article is that the development of EVs drove the United Autoworkers Union to issue a report this year outlining the implications of EVs on employment and how to address these...
Volvo, Geely and Li Shufu are Attacking the Future
In a recent Automotive News article (subscription required) Volvo's CEO, Hakan Samuelsson, discusses Volvo opportunities driven by the disruption occurring in the global automotive industry. He describes Volvo's product efforts with electric vehicles as well as...
Will Autonomous Vehicles Drive Down Vehicle Demand?
According to Teslarati, Ford's operations head for Autonomous Vehicles (John Rich), recently said that the demand for cars will rise with the deployment of autonomous technology. According to Rich, as self-driving vehicles experience consistent usage, the wear and...
German Auto Companies are Partnering on Autonomous
German automotive rivals are realizing that they must team up to attack the costs and challenges of developing the key technologies that will drive the future of automotive. Automotive News is reporting (subscription required) that Audi is joining the Daimler / BMW...