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Runtime: 7:03
0:07 FCA Hires Aston’s Simon Sproule
0:39 Mercedes & Geely Launch smart Joint Venture
1:17 Waymo Logs 20 Million Miles
2:05 Nissan’s E-4ORCE All-Wheel-Drive System
2:45 Sony Reveals Concept Car at CES
4:33 Lamborghini Integrates Amazon Alexa Into Huracan EVO Range
5:18 A Look At Some Items From The New Daily Set
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This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.
FCA HIRES ASTON’S SIMON SPROULE
FCA announced that its hired Simon Sproule as its new Chief Communications Officer as well as the head of its North America Communications. Sproule joins FCA from Aston Martin Lagonda where he was Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. Prior to joining Aston, Sproule held communication positions at Tesla, Renault-Nissan and Ford. Sproule will join FCA in early February. Simon’s a pretty cool dude and we had him on Autoline After Hours a few years ago, if you’d like to check that out.
MERCEDES & GEELY LAUNCH SMART JOINT VENTURE
Last year, Mercedes-Benz and Geely announced plans to form a joint venture to develop electric smart cars. And now after receiving regulatory approval, the two companies have formally formed the joint venture called the “smart Automobile Company.” Mercedes and Geely are investing around $780 million to develop smart into a premium, electric brand on a global basis. The headquarters will be located in China. Mercedes will design the vehicles while Geely will develop them. The first smart vehicles from the joint venture are expected to hit the market in 2022.
WAYMO LOGS 20 MILLION MILES
Google’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary, Waymo, just hit a major milestone. The company announced its self-driving cars have logged more than 20 million miles on public roads since it was created in 2009. More impressively, half of those miles were completed in just over a year, while it took a decade to drive the first 10 million miles. Waymo is currently offering autonomous rides on a limited basis to the public in the Phoenix area without backup drivers.
NISSAN’S E-4ORCE ALL-WHEEL-DRIVE SYSTEM
Nissan is revealing more information about the all-wheel drive system it will offer on its electric cars, which will be called e-4ORCE. The system will do the things you expect, like better cornering performance and traction on slippery roads, but Nissan also claims it will improve ride comfort as well. This is done by using regenerative braking from both the front and rear motors, which will limit the vehicle from pitching back or diving forward. That means less jostling around for passengers. Nissan is displaying e-4ORCE on the Ariya Concept because the production version of that vehicle will be the first to feature the system.
SONY REVEALS CONCEPT CAR AT CES
Sony gave us a bit of a shock this week by pulling the covers off a pretty competent-looking concept at CES, called the VISION-S. It’s using the concept as a way to show off its technologies in the areas of safety, entertainment and adaptability. By adaptability, Sony means things like linking a person’s smartphone to the car, so if they’re looking at a map or listening to music it would automatically transfer over to the car as soon as you got in; or learning someone’s preferences as well as over-the-air updates. There is a total of 33 sensors both inside and out of the VISION-S, which allows for advanced cruise control, self-parking and auto-lane change or in other words, Level 2 autonomous driving. And, of course, what would any Sony be without a huge display screen and a seemingly unnecessary number of speakers. 33 to be exact. As we’ve been saying, the data generated by cars and the advanced technology going into them are markets that are or will be worth billions, so it’s no wonder Sony is jumping in. But I personally don’t expect Sony to produce its own vehicles. Although, one could argue it would because it doesn’t want to share all that data with anyone else. What do you think?
CES in Las Vegas is underway and if you’d like to see the latest technology and gadgets automakers and suppliers are showing off, check out our coverage of the show, which is being brought to you by our sponsors Magna, Gentex and Bose. Just look for those interviews on our website, Autoline.tv or our YouTube channel.
LAMBORGHINI INTEGRATES AMAZON ALEXA INTO HURACAN EVO RANGE
Earlier this week, Lamborghini revealed the rear-wheel-drive version of the Huracan EVO. And now the company announced it will be the first automaker to incorporate full in-car control by Amazon Alexa for the entire Huracan EVO range in 2020. Drivers will be able to adjust functions like climate, interior lighting and seat heating with voice command. The Alexa integration will also allow owners to connect with other devices that work with Alexa. For example, drivers can control things like entry gates, thermostats and lights, with voice commands directly from the vehicle. The Huracan EVO Coupe and Spyder are available now while the rear-drive version goes on sale this spring.
And as we promised when we launched the new set, we’d like to talk about some of the cool things behind me. As you can see over my left shoulder, we’ve got a lot of tools and parts and pieces of cars. While I haven’t talked about this for a while, I was actually an SAE certified mechanic for many years. I often see people talking about their favorite tools and I’m going to highlight some of mine that are actually part of the set. One of them is this 3/8ths impact that’s made by Ingersoll Rand. I’ve always thought it’s awesome, super powerful and could get me out of almost any situation. But almost equally important to me is this set of wrenches. I think any good tech is going to tell you that their wrench is one of their favorite tools because there’s so much they can do. And what I love about these ones, they’re super long and you can get a lot of torque on them. It’s got a boxed end at one end and a ratchet at the other. But these are two of my favorite tools and I highly recommend them to anybody.
But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.
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John McElroy is an influential thought leader in the automotive industry. He is a journalist, lecturer, commentator and entrepreneur. He created “Autoline Daily,” the first industry webcast of industry news and analysis.