Strangely, Uber’s exit from autonomous vehicles will hasten the self-driving car’s arrival. A manufacturer will gain several years of intensive research and vast amounts of data from the ATG.
That research and data will put a company several years ahead of the competition. A company with experience building autonomous vehicles; like Fiat Chrysler; can use that data to create a self-driving car.
Such valuations definitely justify Waymo’s business plan of providing the operating systems for other companies’ autonomous vehicles. That includes Peterbilt semi-tractors in Atlanta, Chrysler Pacific Minivans in Phoenix, and Jaguar IPaces in Arizona.
A huge advantage is to this plan is that the manufacturing is left to the companies that specialize in it. A great benefit is that Chrysler Fiat (NYSE: FCAU), Tata Motors (NYSE: TTM), and PACCAR (NASDAQ: PCAR) take many of the risks. Tata owns Jaguar and Peterbilt is a PACCAR subsidiary.
Waymo avoids the expense of building a factory and setting up dealerships, and all the trouble of dealing with the United Auto Workers (UAW). Companies with existing factories, supply chains, dealerships and union contracts take the risks.
Other features in the new and improved Google Pay include access to loyalty cards. The new Google Pay is supposed to be in sync with your Google Account. That should make it easier to add banking and credit card information.
Movie, concert, sports, theater, train, bus, and plane tickets will be accessible through the passes tab in Google Pay. That will enable people to use their Google Account as a digital ticket for travel or entertainment.
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Once again the gig economy sounds like a recipe for labor unrest rather than a high-tech utopia. Companies like Uber will have to recognize unions and start bargaining with them sooner or later – if they want to survive.
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Mobile payment apps are still a tough sell to America’s consumers and merchants, Kount’s data indicates. The company that can change that paradigm will make a fortune.
That means more two thirds of American retailers or 71% still refuse to accept mobile wallets. Once again it sounds as if Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) is losing the payment wars, and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not doing very well.
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The biggest current threat to Alphabet might be the trade war that U.S. President Donald J. Trump (R-New York) has declared against the European Union (EU).
The greatest long-term threat to Alphabet is all the competition it is receiving in advertising. Menaces there include social media such as Facebook’s (NASDAQ: FB) and its WhatsApp solution. WhatsApp had 1.5 billion users in December 2017, Statista calculated.
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It looks as if Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) is manufacturing history to give an Oprah presidential run a boost.
Trying to portray a TV huckster like Oprah as the heir or moral equivalent to Dr. King is insulting on every level.
The January 15, 2018, Google Doodle gives us a preview of what an Oprah campaign would look like. That is low on substance; utterly lacking in truth, based on white guilt, and motivated by nostalgia, simplistic patriotism, and emotions.
Currently, I’m leery of both UPS and FedEx because of the danger they are in, in a changing retail market. Threats to these companies abound from both new businesses and new technologies.
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Jeep is planning to bring out a plug-in hybrid version of its iconic Wrangler in 2020, The Free Press reported. The Wrangler is the basic four-wheel-drive Jeep modeled on the iconic off-road vehicle that served America’s military in three wars.
The Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) alliance is vital to Chrysler’s future, because it provides access to autonomous vehicle technology, data, and expertise, without a lot of risks. Another alliance that Fiat Chrysler should seriously consider is one with Tesla Motors (NASDAQ: TSLA) which has vast amounts of expertise in electric and autonomous vehicle technology.
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“We could hold Google and Facebook and all those big multinationals accountable; we could make sure that people; like those who are currently ‘voluntarily’ contributing their data to pump up companies’ profits are given something that is adequate to support their livelihoods in exchange,” Fuller said.
Fuller’s idea makes a lot of sense because most of those companies’ values come from the data they collect and disseminate. Figuring out how to charge a tax on that data will be difficult because much of its value is theoretical.
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