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Interesting point about VW: To my knowledge VW has no car sharing/CaaS service in Germany. Others are better setup if self driving cars take over: Opel (GM) has one, BMW has one (DriveNow), Daimler has one (Car2Go).
VW has Greenwheels (not really that common or popular though) and Quicar (only in Hannover)
I'm glad we bailed them out so they could wildly speculate on tech startups.
So you're saying a stagnant company in a stagnant industry that almost died should remain stagnant and not try anything risky at all? It's not wild speculation for GM. They most likely have ways to work together. It's unlikely a completely passive investment.
I'm glad we bailed them out so they could wildly speculate on tech startups.
Well they've paid back the money already (as of 2010 or so?) so I'm not sure that's totally relevant to what they're doing now.
http://business.time.com/2013/12/17/gm-ceo-were-not-paying-a...
I'm glad we bailed them out so they could wildly speculate on tech startups.
GM should be developing their business, in part to ensure they don't end up in a situation where they are stagnant and need bailed out again. Investment in startups in the same industry is a sensible approach to this.
I'm glad we bailed them out so they could wildly speculate on tech startups.
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This might be a bit technical, but the company that received a bailout went through bankruptcy and re-structuring. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_Chapter_11_reor... So they didn't get a bailout that they are now using to "wildly speculate on tech startups" because all that capital has been restructured. Many companies did get bailed out in a market where raising capital was near impossible and as a resu…
> I'm guessing your particular objection here is that they're a non-financial company and it doesn't seem to be part of their core business? Although I'm pretty sure every major automaker is also a financial company, and has been for quite a while. All those special 0% down or cash back deals don't come from the dealer.
The US Treasury made a ~ $2.4 billion profit on a $17.2 billion investment: https://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/j...
“From a G.M. perspective, we view this as much more of an opportunity than a threat” - G.M President Something you don't hear big corps talk so about start-ups very often. It's promising.
GM is not in the taxi business and has never been in the taxi business. They see this as a way for manufacturers to get into the taxi business and perhaps one day dominate the taxi business. Cut out all the middle men.
“From a G.M. perspective, we view this as much more of an opportunity than a threat” - G.M President Something you don't hear big corps talk so about start-ups very often. It's promising.
Also if rental becomes the dominant model then customers aren't going to worry so much about those expensive extras where car manufacturers make their profits.
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Isn't that just a marketing and PR problem, first and foremost? "The new [insert brand here], safer than any other vehicle ever developed [insert statistic here]. It will bring you where you want to go, fast, safe and while you can tend to the things in life that really matter [insert family/reading/working montage]." I'm no adman, but I think it won't be too difficult to sell this. And if all fails, lower insurance…
One area I haven't seen mentioned is the loss of human interaction. For many just having someone to talk to/at during the trip is needed.
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One area I haven't seen mentioned is the loss of human interaction. For many just having someone to talk to/at during the trip is needed.
Here's where it will be a showstopper for me; many many times the uber map has fucked up directions and so I tell the driver the route I want to take, or to pass a particularly slow driver in front, in addition I sometimes change my destination/add a stop. How easily can I do any of this with a robot car?