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'Robo-taxis' hold promise, and perils, for automakers
By Daniel ARONSSOHN
Paris (AFP) Nov 23, 2017


Volvo to supply Uber with self-driving cars
Stockholm (AFP) Nov 20, 2017 - Swedish carmaker Volvo Cars said Monday it has signed an agreement to supply "tens of thousands" of self-driving cars to Uber, as the ride-sharing company battles a number of different controversies.

Volvo -- which is owned by China's Geely and has yet to build a self-driving system -- said in a statement that it would supply Uber with "autonomous driving compatible base vehicles between 2019 and 2021."

Uber would then add its own software system to enable the cars to drive pilot-less.

When contacted by AFP, a Volvo spokesman did not specify the exact number of cars, but a source familiar with the matter said it could be around 24,000.

Neither Volvo nor Uber released financial details, but based on list prices for the cars the deal could be worth more than $1 billion (around 850 million euros).

"This opens a whole new segment for us. We are open to deliver to more taxi companies," Volvo Cars CEO Hakan Samuelsson told Swedish financial newspaper Dagens Industri.

The deal builds on a non-exclusive agreement signed back in 2016 by Uber and Volvo, which is expected to release its first self-driving car in 2021.

The statement said that "Volvo Cars' engineers have worked closely together with engineers from Uber to develop the XC90 premium SUVs that are to be supplied to Uber."

The base vehicles "incorporate all necessary safety, redundancy and core autonomous driving technologies that are required for Uber to add its own self-driving technology," the statement said.

Uber's head of auto alliances, Jeff Miller, said the deal "puts us on a path towards mass produced self-driving vehicles at scale."

Uber was thrown into disarray earlier this year when Transport for London (TfL) refused to renew its licence to operate in the British capital due to concerns about public safety for passengers and the process of driver registration.

The American ride-hailing app also halted its pilot programme for self-driving cars pending an investigation into a crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle in Arizona in March.

Advocates of self-driving cars say that they can cut down on deadly traffic accidents by eliminating human error.

It's November 22, 2028 and Sarah, a young mother, gives her two children a kiss goodbye before buckling them into the driverless car that will bring them to school.

Sarah doesn't have a car and has no plans to buy one. Living in a suburb, she has run the numbers and the result is clear: It's much cheaper to order a car only when she needs one.

The "robo-taxi" has also made her life easier, but only after such vehicles upended the business models which carmakers had relied on for decades.

The revolution is already underway, with every major brand racing to create autonomous electric cars and trucks that will always be just a few clicks of a smartphone away.

Fully electric cars are expected to make up 12 percent of the global market in 2025, before jumping to 34 percent in 2030 and 90 percent by 2050, analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast last month.

- Adapt or perish -

The motivations are clear: Smog is becoming a serious menace in cities around the world, with China in particular demanding cleaner vehicles for its rapidly growing market.

Traffic jams are also eating up hours of commuters' time, meaning car ownership is already no longer a given for many city dwellers.

And carmakers have nimble new rivals: Apple, Google and Tesla -- which last week unveiled an all-electric semi truck -- see a chance to dominate a market that will soon depend as much on software as on engineering.

Industry chiefs aren't waiting: France's PSA is betting on car-sharing and other "services" with its Free2Move division, which it hopes will let it get back into the huge US market.

In Germany, Daimler is working with Bosch to develop self-driving electric cars that could be on the road by the early 2020s, and has already launched its own car-sharing service, Car2Go, in some two dozen cities worldwide.

Its German rival Volkswagen has created Moia, a "social movement" unit exploring e-shuttles, ride pooling and car hailing.

"Even if in the future not everyone is going to own a car, with Moia we're trying to make sure everyone will be a client of ours one way or another," VW's chief Matthias Mueller said.

Robo-taxis could generate 40 percent of auto industry profits by 2030, according to German consulting firm Roland Berger, which expects demand for private vehicles to drop 30 percent in the period.

And industry experts warn that the automakers which fail to adapt to the shift risk might not survive.

- Lagging behind Asia -

But that means investing billions in batteries, charging infrastructure and autonomous driving technologies with little prospect of seeing a payoff anytime soon.

VW announced Friday a plan to spend 34 billion euros ($40 billion) over the next five years on hybrid and electric cars and services in a bid to "reinvent" the automobile.

But for now, so-called "zero emission" vehicles remain a tough sell: Renault's Zoe range of electric cars, which is has offered since 2012, made up just 1 percent of its sales last year.

Its chief, Carlos Ghosn, is hoping that figure will reach 5 percent by 2022.

The contest will be costly for all automakers, with PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimating that production costs for the next generation of electric cars will be 20 percent higher than traditional models, while warning of "serious problems" for returns on investment.

"The speed" of the shift toward an electric future "will have to be taken on by all automotive companies," PSA's chief executive Carlos Tavares said at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

Yet Western carmakers and government officials already fear they are lagging behind Asian rivals, with China in particular making headway on electric motors and batteries.

That led the EU Commission to urge the creation of an "Airbus for batteries", with European companies joining forces for large-scale battery production.

"This technology is too important to import it from overseas," the commission's vice president charge of energy, Maros Sefcovic, warned.

UK budget aims for driverless cars by 2021
London (AFP) Nov 19, 2017 - British finance minister Philip Hammond is to announce 75 million pounds ($99 million, 84 million euros) funding for Artificial Intelligence and plans to put driverless cars on UK roads by 2021, in his budget speech on Wednesday.

Hammond will announce regulation changes to allow Britain's driverless car industry, which the government estimates will be worth 28 billion pounds by 2035, to get cars on the road within as little as three years, according to extracts of the budget released by his office on Sunday.

"Some would say that is a bold move, but I believe we have to embrace these technologies if we want to see Britain leading the next industrial revolution," he told BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

The minister, who is under pressure to deliver an eye-catching budget following Brexit spats with cabinet colleagues, will also announce a 400 million pound fund for companies hoping to roll out electric-car charge points across the country.

People who want to buy a battery-electric vehicle will also be able to access funding as Britain attempts to move towards zero-emission transport.

With a focus on tech industries, the government is also planning to spend 75 million pounds supporting companies developing AI and 160 million pounds in developing 5G technology, which it believes will be necessary for the mass rollout of driverless cars.

However, the Conservative minister is likely to be judged more on his social spending policies, particularly on his housing policy in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster that killed 71 people.

He is expected to announce plans to build 300,000 homes every year, telling the Sunday Times that he will do "whatever it takes" to meet the target.

"That's a big step up from where we are now," he told Andrew Marr.

"There is no single magic bullet and it's certainly not just about pouring money in, because if you pour money in without fixing the other elements of supply, you will simply create more house price inflation, that makes the problem worse, not better."

Critics accuse the chancellor, nicknamed "spreadsheet Phil", of being obsessed by facts and figures and lacking a grand vision.

"I recognise that I can't use this budget just to trail a bunch of numbers, but must tell a story about where Britain is going," he told the newspaper.

He has also come under fire for not using Britain's low interest rates to borrow money and increase public spending, particularly on wage increases for public servants.

It was a key issue in June's general election campaign, and helped Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn pull off a stunning result that saw the Tories lose their parliamentary majority.

As a result, Hammond is set to announce a pay rise for NHS nurses, while an increase announced for police and prison officers was announced in September, signalling a shift away from the austerity policies that have dominated since the 2008 financial crash.

CAR TECH
Driverless, electric future just round the corner for urban cars
London (AFP) Nov 23, 2017
A driverless, electric car is only a swipe away in the cities of the future, where pollution clampdowns and rapid advances in technology will transform the way we travel, despite lagging infrastructure. As more and more countries announce a phasing-out of pure petrol and diesel cars, early versions of tomorrow's models are already on the streets: hybrid cars, fully electric motors and vehicl ... read more

Related Links
Car Technology at SpaceMart.com


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