Mercedes Has Growth Challenges
Mercedes-Benz is completing a decade-long rejuvenation with the new E-Class sedan this month, capping an unprecedented flurry of fresh models that have brought rapid expansion but will make future growth tougher to deliver. The overhaul of Mercedes’ bread-and-better business sedan marks the last major model to get a technology and design upgrade until the next-generation A-Class hatchback rolls out in 2018. By that time, Mercedes will...
Mercedes ‘Robots’ Can’t Keep Up
Mercedes-Benz offers the S-Class sedan with a growing array of options such as carbon-fiber trim, heated and cooled cupholders and four types of caps for the tire valves, and the carmaker’s robots can’t keep up. With customization key to wooing modern consumers, the flexibility and dexterity of human workers is reclaiming space on Mercedes’ assembly lines. That bucks a trend that has given machines the upper hand since legendary U.S....
Urban Planning for Self-Driving Cars
Detroit — With technologists racing to get autonomous-driven vehicles on the road in 10 years or less, America’s urban planners need to resolve a host of questions about how cities will respond to the future of transportation. A new report from the National League of Cities finds only 6 percent of U.S. cities have devoted planning resources to figuring out changes needed to accommodate self-driving vehicles. And only 3 percent have...
GM Expands Car Sharing Service Via Maven
Detroit — The final destination is a mystery, but General Motors is taking another step on its fast-moving journey into new ways of getting around. The company on Thursday announced that it’s formed a brand called Maven that will run its car-sharing ventures, including a new one that will begin competing with ZipCar next month in Ann Arbor, Mich., and spread to other metro areas later this year. GM executives said they expect their...
Virtual Reality, Driverless Cars To Grow in 2016
Virtual reality, connected cars, e-sports, the on-demand economy — all are becoming important elements in the economy, and all are poised for rapid growth in 2016 — along with some challenges. And then there’s Snapchat Inc., based in Venice, Calif., and one of the most highly valued companies currently competing in the latest venture-capital-juiced start-up cycle, which many believe is way overheated. Snapchat The popular disappearing...
