Ford in talks with Google to build self-driving cars — Automotive News

Google is said to be in talks with automaker Ford Motor Co (F.N) to help build the Internet search company’s autonomous cars, Automotive News reported, citing a person with knowledge of the project.

The contract manufacturing deal, if finalised, is expected to come during the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas during the first week of January, Automotive News said.

A Google spokesman told Automotive News that the company would not comment on speculation, although Google officials confirmed that the company is talking to automakers.

Earlier this year, Google began discussions with most of the world’s top automakers and assembled a team of traditional and nontraditional suppliers to speed efforts to bring self-driving cars to the market by 2020.

In June, Google began testing tiny, bubble-shaped self-driving prototype vehicles of its own design on public roads around Mountain View. The company has also started testing self-driving prototypes in Austin.

Google is expected to make its self-driving cars unit, which will offer rides for hire, a stand-alone business under its parent company, Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), next year, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Ford, although lagging behind most competitors, ramped up its pace to develop self-driving cars earlier this year and said it would expand advanced safety technology, including automatic braking, enabling hands-free operation of cars under certain conditions by automating such basic functions as steering, braking and throttle.

This was to be included across its global lineup over the next five years.

Reuters could not independently reach Ford Motor and Google for comment outside regular U.S. business hours.

soure: interaksyon.com

Daimler CEO mulls joint ventures with Apple, Google — magazine

BERLIN — Daimler’s chief executive said “different types” of cooperation with Apple and Google are possible as carmakers realize next-generation autos cannot be built without greater input from telecoms and software experts.

“Many things are conceivable,” Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche said in an interview with quarterly magazine Deutsche Unternehmerboerse published on Friday.

The emergence of self-driving and connected cars has made software a key component in future cars, opening the market to new entrants like the U.S.-based technology giants.

“Google and Apple want to provide system software for cars and bring this entire ecosystem around Apple and Google into the vehicle,” Zetsche said. “That can be interesting for both sides.”

His comments echoed those of German rival Volkswagen, whose chief executive Martin Winterkorn has urged collaboration with technology firms to make future cars safer and more intelligent.

One option could be for Daimler to build cars as part of a joint venture by using the digital expertise of its U.S. partners, Zetsche said, but added that his comments were “purely theoretical”.

Zetsche said Daimler would not allow itself to be demoted to the role of dumb supplier, simply producing cars for the Silicon Valley giants.

“We don’t want to become contractors who have no direct content with customers any more and supply hardware to third parties,” he said.

source: interaksyon.com

Takata air bag recalls

Following are some key events leading to the recall of several million cars fitted with potentially defective air bags made by Japanese firm Takata Corp.

2008:

* Nov 4 – Honda Motor recalls 4,000 Accords and Civics (2001 models) globally as Takata air bag inflators may produce excessive internal pressure causing them to rupture and spray metal fragments in the car.

2009:

* May 27 – Oklahoma teen Ashley Parham dies when her 2001 Honda Accord air bag explodes, shooting metal fragments into her neck. Honda and Takata deny fault, settle for undisclosed sum.

* July 29 - Honda recalls 510,000 Civics, Accords and Acura 3.2 TL cars (2001-02 models) globally.

* Dec 24 – Gurjit Rathore is killed in Virginia when the air bag in a 2001 Honda Accord explodes, severing arteries in her neck, court documents show. Her family sues Honda and Takata for more than $75 million in April 2011, claiming they knew of the air bag problems as early as 2004. Honda and Takata settle in January 2013 for $3 million, according to court documents.

2010:

* Feb 9 – Honda recalls 437,000 Acura cars and other vehicles (2001-03 models) globally, expanding earlier recalls.

2011:

* April 27 – Honda recalls 896,000 Honda and Acura 2001-03 cars in order to find defective Takata air bag inflators installed as replacement parts.

* Dec 1 - Honda again expands recalls. Globally, it says 304,000 are recalled as a bad inflator may have been installed at the factory, and 613,000 are recalled to find defective inflators installed as replacement parts.

2013:

* April 11 - Toyota Motor, Honda, Nissan Motor and Mazda Motor recall 3.4 million vehicles globally due to possibly defective Takata air bags.

* May 7 – BMW recalls 220,000 vehicles globally, raising the overall recall for the latest Takata-related issue to over 3.6 million.

* May 10 – Takata posts record $212.5 million annual net loss; books $307 million charge for recall costs; names Swiss national Stefan Stocker as president.

* Sept 3 – Devin Xu dies in a 2002 Acura TL sedan near Los Angeles from "apparent facial trauma due to foreign object inside air bag," according to coroner's report.

2014:

* June 11 – Toyota expands recall to 2.27 million vehicles globally; adding 650,000 previously not recalled in Japan, and 1.62 million overseas for a second time.

* U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opens probe that goes beyond previously identified glitches. NHTSA is examining whether driving in high humidity regions contributes to the risk of Takata air bag explosions. Takata says inflators in the recall were supplied to Honda, Toyota, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, Mazda and Nissan.

* June 23 — Honda, Nissan and Mazda recall 2.95 million vehicles, expanding April 2013 recall, bringing the total recall to about 10.5 million vehicles over five years. Later, Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, BMW, Chrysler and Ford say they are recalling more vehicles in some U.S. high humidity regions.

* June 26 – Takata CEO apologizes to shareholders at AGM.

* June 30 – Takata says some potentially defective inflators also shipped to Subaru and Mitsubishi Motors.

* July 16 – BMW recalls about 1.6 million cars worldwide to replace Takata air bags, going beyond the regional U.S. recall.

* July 18 - Takata says to book special loss of about 45 billion yen ($440 million) in April-June for recalls.

* Oct 2 – Orlando woman Hien Thi Tran dies four days after her 2001 Honda Accord air bag explodes, shooting out shrapnel, according to police report.

* Oct 17 - Reuters, based on a review of internal Takata documents, reports Takata struggled to meet its own standards for safety in manufacturing air bag inflators at its plant in Monclova, Mexico.

* Oct 20 – Toyota recalls 247,000 vehicles in the U.S. for Takata air bag problems.

* Oct 21 - Takata shares drop 23 percent in Tokyo.

* Oct 22 - NHTSA expands the total number of U.S. vehicles recalled involving Takata air bags to 7.8 million over the past 18 months.

* Oct 27 – A first case seeking class-action status is filed in Florida, claiming Takata and automakers, including Honda and Toyota, concealed crucial information on defective air bags.

* Oct 30 - NHTSA orders Takata to provide documents and answer questions under oath in air bag probe. On Nov 5, NHTSA orders Honda to do the same.

* Nov 6 - Takata warns of a bigger full-year loss, and pays no interim dividend for first time since 2006.

* Nov 7 - New York Times reports Takata ordered technicians to destroy results of tests on some air bags after finding cracks in inflators. Takata later refutes this.

* Democratic lawmakers call for criminal probe into Takata.

* Nov 10 - Takata shares drop 17 percent to 5-1/2 year low.

* Nov 12 - Takata tells Reuters it has modified the composition of an air bag propellant, giving no details.

* Nov 13 - Honda discloses fifth fatality, and first outside the U.S. Law Suk Leh, nine months pregnant, died in Malaysia on July 27 after being hit by a piece of metal from a Takata air bag in her Honda City compact car.

* Honda recalls another 170,000 cars in Asia and Europe, taking its total Takata-related recalls to nearly 10 million.

* Takata says its U.S. unit subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to produce air bag-related documents.

* Nov 18 - NHTSA tells Takata, Honda, Ford, Mazda, BMW and Chrysler to expand nationwide a U.S. regional recall.

source: interaksyon.com

Tesla in talks with Samsung SDI for battery supply deal

DETROIT/SEOUL — Popular electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc may name South Korean battery producer Samsung SDI Co Ltd as an additional supplier as the California auto upstart tries to add more models and expand, although at least one source familiar with the discussions described the deal as being far from done.

Both Tesla and Samsung SDI, a unit of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, on Friday confirmed that the two companies are in talks about the South Korean company supplying battery technology to Tesla, the maker of the best-selling U.S. electric car, the premium Model S sedan with a price tag of $70,000.

The pending deal highlights Tesla’s confidence in the future of all-electric battery cars, even as some doubters predict all-electric cars are likely to remain a niche in the broader, global automotive market in search for clearer and more fuel-efficient technology. Some of those doubters see fuel-cell cars as a more promising alternative to gasoline-fueled cars.

Kim Sang-eun, a Seoul-based spokesman for Samsung SDI, declined to provide details because the talks are on-going. “Nothing has been decided,” Kim said.

Tesla’s Palo Alto based spokeswoman, Liz Jarvis-Shean, also confirmed the two firms were in discussions but noted that Tesla was in talks with other battery suppliers as well. “We continually evaluate best (battery) cells and technologies from all manufacturers,” Jarvis-Shean said. She did not elaborate.

Two individuals privy to details of the discussions between the two companies, however, described the talks as being in their final stage. They said the two companies are trying to work out certain remaining kinks in the pending contract for Samsung SDI to provide battery technology for the Model X, a more affordable electric car model Tesla is expected to add to its product offerings in 2014.

One of the sources, who is close to Samsung SDI, said the discussions are “90 percent complete.” He said Tesla and Samsung SDI have not been able to close the deal mainly because of Samsung SDI’s insistence that Tesla, as part of the deal, buy other components including touch-screens from Samsung Group.

No financial details of the deal are available, but one of the sources said “SDI management thinks it is good for improving the company’s image and ultimately helps them in doing more business globally.”

According to the other sources, Tesla and Samsung SDI have already finished testing Samsung SDI’s battery technology. He also described the supply deal to be “close” to being finalized.

Still, a third source familiar with the discussions disputed the assertion the two companies are close to sealing the deal, saying Samsung SDI’s technology is not “as yet” competitive with battery cells made by Panasonic Corp, Tesla’s primary battery cell supplier. The description of talks being in the final stage is “not accurate,” the third source said.

The news came as shares in Samsung SDI fell as much as 3.7 percent on Friday, after a video of a burning Tesla electric car sent the U.S. firm’s shares plunging overnight. U.S. emergency officials said the fire occurred in the electric vehicle’s lithium-ion battery, the latest in a string of problems for the batteries, which are widely used in electric vehicles sold by various automakers.

For Tesla, the deal is almost a must since it only has one primary supplier of battery technology, Japan’s Panasonic, for the Model S, which is its sole product offering until next year when it is expected to start selling an additional model called the Model X.

Tesla officials believe the company needs to diversify its supply chain to foster competition among makers of key components and to ensure Tesla has a stable supply of parts.

Samsung SDI already supplies battery technology for BMW’s i3 electric car, according to the Samsung SDI spokesman. Samsung Group, which sees slowing sales in smartphones, has been trying to position electric batteries as an area ripe for growth, according to group officials.

The sources said Samsung SDI, as part of the deal, is aiming to supply Tesla with small batteries similar to those used in laptop computers. Tesla uses several thousands of those batteries in beefy battery packs to power its all-electric cars.

The sources said Samsung SDI would start supplying Tesla beginning with the Model X. The South Korean company is also talking with Tesla about another future product due for a launch in 2017.

source: interaksyon.com