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The Daily Beast A lot of discussion and ethical thought about self-driving cars have focused on tragic dilemmas, like hypotheticals in which a car has to decide whether to run over a group of schoolchildren or plunge off a cliff, killing its own occupants. In a future where all cars are self-driving, small changes to driving behavior would make a big difference because decisions made by engineers today will determine not how one car drives, but how all cars drive. Algorithms become policy. “Self-driving cars shouldn’t drive like people. Humans aren’t actually very good drivers. And they drive in ethically troubling ways, deciding whether to yield at crosswalks, based on pedestrians’ age, race and income. Self-driving cars should drive more safely, and more fairly than people do.” Read the article at The Daily Beast. |
The New York Times Moody’s downgraded Tesla’s debt from stable to negative after a Tesla Model X crashed into a concrete highway divider while Autopilot was in use, killing the driver last month. Tesla says all its vehicles “have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver.” Investors seem to have reassessed the recent bad news as shares jumped more than 24 percent. “Tesla will rise or fall based on the performance, safety, design and value of its cars. If it gets those things right, all the other issues will sort themselves out. Tesla has already defied skeptics and attracted legions of die-hard fans by surmounting seemingly impossible odds to build all-electric cars that have drawn lavish praise from automotive critics.” Read the article at The New York Times. |
By Ed Pierce, Fleet Industry Marketer
Over the past two months, we reviewed better measures for determining marketing productivity with the goal of quantifying its effectiveness to management’s satisfaction intent upon quantifiable results. Here are two last steps we can take to develop better measures of marketing productivity. The first method for measuring and enhancing marketing productivity is to see existing and potential marketing offerings as value propositions for your target market. Especially primarily for business-to-business markets, this method suggests using a mix of different value assessments to determine the potential of key market offerings. READ MORE |
Fortune In an attempt to protect vehicles made by American autoworkers, the Trump Administration has directed various agencies to explore ways to use laws to require vehicles made overseas to undergo strict emissions testing and other reviews. “The issue is complicated because auto manufacturing has become a global enterprise and many foreign companies already have factories in the U.S. including BMW, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Toyota’s biggest assembly plant globally is in Georgetown, KY., where the Avalon, Camry, and Lexus ES 350 are produced.” Read the article at Fortune. |
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 The Detroit News As soon as 2022, Trump’s move to ease fuel economy standards may have Detroit and foreign automakers in an ironic disconnect – revenue and profits from selling trucks and SUVs are needed to finance future electrified, shared and autonomous future. California’s exemption under the 1970 Clean Air Act allows it to set its own emissions targets – the same places GM is trying to woo with its Bolt electric and New York-based Cadillac brand, and Ford is angling for with its higher profile in Silicon Valley. “We support increasing clean car standards through 2025 and are not asking for a rollback,” Bill Ford and Hackett wrote, echoing rival GM. “We want one set of standards nationally, along with additional flexibility to help us provide more affordable options for our customers. We believe that working together with EPA, (the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) and California, we can deliver on this standard.” Read the article at The Detroit News. |
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 Your Power of 2 will help you shape the right habits and rituals you need to develop and live by By Walter Bond, Hall of Fame Business Speaker & Former Big Ten & NBA Basketball Player In each of our personal and professional lives we have an established list of core beliefs in activities we believe will make us more successful. Have you ever found yourself working daily and not truly making any progress? I have found that often times we do lots of activities in the name of progress but when we look back on our lives, we see nothing but stagnation. Have you noticed that too? In my quest for success throughout my professional and personal life I have always tried to simplify. Simplification allows each of us to get the most done by being the most efficient. You see, in our current culture of busyness, efficiency has to become more dominant. Coming to this realization is when I began tracking and establishing the Power of 2. READ MORE |
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 J.D. Power The popularity of ride-hailing services has grown rapidly and had a huge effect on traditional transportation, but with substantial losses, can they be profitable? It is estimated that 65-75% of ride-hailing revenues go to pay the drivers, promoting the idea of eliminating drivers all together with automated vehicles. “Transitioning to automated vehicles would eliminate the need to pay drivers, but it could potentially create a slew of other logistical challenges and questions. Would ride-hailing companies be willing to buy, register and insure their own fleet of vehicles? Who would refuel, maintain and make sure the vehicles remain clean, especially if a passenger left trash in the vehicle?” Read the article at J.D. Power. |
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