It is an interesting time in the automotive industry with lots of money sloshing around trying to find a profitable home to make lots of future money. A few weeks ago Motoring Weekly ran an article about SoftBank, a Japanese investment company buying a stake in General Motors Cruise Automation business. They committed to put in $2.2B in investment. GM spent a mere $1B on … [Read more...]
Why Did Zoox Fire Their CEO?
Ever heard of Zoox? Here at Motoring Weekly, we hadn’t, mainly because they have been flying under the autonomous vehicle radar for the last four years. Despite having Australian co-founders, like several other ex-pats, they relocated to San Francisco to follow their dream. Their web site is a typical technology one: it tells you very little about what they are up to! If you … [Read more...]
Tesla – What’s That Musky Smell?
It has been an odd month for Tesla and its founder, Elon Musk. In the midst of a turbulent period it does look like Musk has had a bit of a meltdown. Early in August Tesla had a new Chief Accounting Officer join the company and the next day Musk surprised everyone - including the new officer - with a tweet: “Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured”. The … [Read more...]
Waymo and Uber Resolve Trade Secret Complaint
You always know that during the early years of any market, there will always be shenanigans and dodgy behaviour which will result in the lawyers getting involved and making some good cash. This has been happening with the ride-share and autonomous vehicle market. Last year it was Waymo and Uber at loggerheads over their technologies. At the core of the dispute was Otto, the … [Read more...]
Waymo Buys More Vehicles
Motoring Weekly has written about robo-taxis before and this segment of the public transportation market is appears to be growing. Earlier this year, Waymo, a spin off from Google - but still owned by the parent company, Alphabet, committed to buying 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica mini-vans! However, all was not what it seemed. At the time it made headlines due to the size of the … [Read more...]