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

Daimler’s self-driving concept car turns into mobile living room

LAS VEGAS — Germany’s Daimler AG wants to reset consumers’ expectations about self-driving cars with its futuristic Mercedes-Benz F 015 concept, unveiled Monday evening at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“Anyone who focuses solely on the technology has not yet grasped how autonomous driving will change our society,” said Daimler Chief Executive Officer Dieter Zetsche, one of this year’s keynote speakers at CES. “The car is growing beyond its role as a mere means of transport and will ultimately become a mobile living space.”

Until now, automakers such as Daimler and Volkswagen AG’s Audi have largely focused on developing automated systems, including braking and steering, that make cars safer and easier to operate.

The F 015 luxury sedan concept, with its spacious cabin and lounge-like seating for four, explores new possibilities for self-driving cars that can double as virtual living rooms on wheels. And in keeping with Mercedes tradition and the concept’s “luxury in motion” theme, the post-modern passenger space is trimmed in walnut veneer, nappa leather, polished aluminium and glass, with soft blue LED lighting.

The F 015 can be operated autonomously or manually. When the vehicle is in fully driverless mode, the four motorized lounge chairs can be rotated to allow face-to-face conversations. When required for manual operation, the driver’s chair swivels back to face forward.

To facilitate connectivity with the outside world, the F 015 is equipped with six digital display screens throughout the cabin. The screens can be activated via gestures, eye-tracking or touch.

Mercedes wrapped all that fancy hardware and software in a lightweight, impact-resistant structure of carbon-fibre, aluminium and high-strength steel. The concept was also designed to accommodate an electric motor and hydrogen fuel cell.

The F 015 represents a huge leap forward conceptually and stylistically from the Mercedes-Benz S 500 Intelligent Drive research vehicle that piloted itself on a 100-kilometer journey from Mannheim to Pforzheim in August 2013.

The 2013 journey, made in a specially modified S-Class sedan equipped with various automated systems, traced the path driven 125 years earlier by Bertha Benz, wife of company co-founder Karl Benz, in one of the world’s first gasoline-powered automobiles.

Mercedes currently equips several of its production vehicles with a variety of semi-automated systems, including parking assist, traffic jam assist and steering assist.

The company’s forward vision, embodied in a project titled “City of the Future 2030+”, sees self-driving cars as a springboard for redesigning traffic-dense urban spaces with unique “safety” zones accessible only by autonomous vehicles.

source: interaksyon.com