The Walmart driverless driver sounds so depressing

All this money for development, this technological progress, this risk, for what? More range for Walmart tablets? Is that what we have been building for? All this and more The morning shift for December 16, 2020.

1st team: cutting-edge transport technology will make Walmart tablets more available

The dreams of driverless car technology still don’t match the reality of autonomous vehicles right now. Nowhere is it simpler than at Walmart new press release about continuing to develop standalone technology with its partner Gatik. What is this pioneering technology used for? Walmart explains:

We are now extending our pilot with Gatik to a second location to test an even longer delivery route and a second use case: delivery of items from a Supercenter to a Walmart collection point, a designated location where customers can pick up their orders conveniently. Louisiana autonomous vans will initially operate with a safety driver.

The operation will begin early next year on a 20-mile route between New Orleans and Metairie, Louisiana. This opens up the opportunity for customers living further away from our New Orleans store to benefit from the convenience and ease of Walmart’s pickup service.

Walmart continues not to sleep, not to stop until there is a Walmart truck driving without a driver in your block all the time ready to throw cheap bicycles and paper towels out the front window:

With 90% of Americans living less than ten miles from a Walmart, a closer store isn’t always the answer. Maybe it’s just a pickup site, with a standalone vehicle that makes constant loop deliveries.

I am increasingly convinced that we will never get driverless consumer cars, just delivery boats that monopolize the roads.

2nd March: Oh, well, Buttigieg to Transpo secretary

Congratulations, everyone. Is it like that not the boy accused of trying to cover up a police murder. As for what Buttigieg has really done in his career, which the public is unaware of, it’s a question for a place where I can’t be sued for defamation.

My former office mate Aaron Gordon described the development as news that was not news and stated, “Mayor Pete’s nomination for transportation secretary probably doesn’t matter.” Vici:

But the main reason Mayor Pete would probably be a perfectly good transportation secretary is because a lot of people would be a perfectly good transportation secretary. I know this because the current one, Elaine Chao, is one of the least skilled people imaginable for the job. Unlike Chao, Mayor Pete knows how to talk about the problems affecting transportation in the U.S. without looking like a poorly programmed robot and has no several obvious conflicts of interest. And yet, almost every American would be unable to mention a good or bad transportation policy undertaken by Chao, let alone the secretary.

I myself would take this time to complain about Mayor Pete, but it will be enough anyway:

3rd gear: chords, CR-Vs and views among 1.4 million Honda Recall

This one is great and is tied to four different reminder campaigns. Some are for software problems, others for fire-retardant electrical window switches, and others for drive shaft oxidation. ThThese are the bad ones, via Reuters:

The Japanese automaker said a record includes 268,000 CR-V crossovers from 2002-06 to replace the master switches on the electric windows. Honda said there had been no injuries, but 16 fires related to the problem were reported.

[…]

Honda also issues two recalls covering 430,000 Acura and Honda vehicles in 22 U.S. states to potentially inspect and replace front drive axles. Both respond to possible breaks in the drive shafts due to corrosion. The company did not report any injuries in connection with the withdrawals.

Also participating are “about 735,000 2018-2020 Accord and 2019-20 Insight vehicles to upgrade the body control module software,” according to Reuters. The 2008 Honda Fit from my co-worker Erik, an automatic, will be missing some new drive axle.

4th Gear: BMW is still waiting for good news about Brexit for some reason

I don’t know how long I’ve been reporting on BMW and other car companies involved in both British production and production elsewhere in the world, but at every step there are complaints and little real progress arising from those complaints. Listen to this weak language, as indicated in Bloomberg:

BMW expects its automotive profit margin to be between 2% and 3%, the high range it had forecast for the year, chief financial officer Nicolas Peter said on Wednesday. Free cash flow will be clearly above the 1.5 billion euros ($ 1.8 billion) previously guided, he added.

While there is optimism in earnings, the executive said he is concerned about trade talks between the European Union and the UK. dit. BMW would try to offset the losses by raising the prices of cars imported into the UK and all Mini vehicles manufactured in Oxford, England, sold on the mainland.

[…]

“We expect the UK and the European Union to reach a sensible agreement,” Peter said, adding that the company has stored parts to safeguard production.

Good luck with hope!

5th gear: VW’s Tesla obsession continues

At this recent promise from VW CEO Herbert Diess, there is no hard currency figure, so it’s hard to see it as anything other than part of a continued obsession with Tesla by VW. Bloomberg reports that “VW CEO pits world’s largest car plant against Tesla’s new site” today:

Diess said during an internal video conference that VW’s home plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, will be upgraded with the latest electric vehicle technology and software operations, people said, asking that it not be identified as the meeting was not public.

The plant is the largest vehicle factory in the world, having built more than 800,000 cars annually.

[…]

Wolfsburg will become the “pioneer factory” for the highly automated manufacture of electric vehicles and will build an electric flagship of the VW brand, VW said in a statement Monday. VW did not give further details about the car, except that it said it will be installed similar to the Artemis technology project at Audi, which develops electric flagships for Audi, Porsche and Bentley under the framework of code name Landjet.

Is making more than 800,000 cars a year not enough for Diess? It has to be wow while he was doing it, too?

Reverse: Oh Cool, today will come the snowstorm