Important Innovations Collection

Daimler and Geely Source:  Daimler Smart Car Global Tie-Ups To Create New EVs German luxury automaker Daimler and China's electric automaker Geely are exploring ways to deepen their cooperation in the research and development of electric vehicles.  The two companies have formed a China based venture to build electric Smart cars.  They've also joined forces to build a premium ride hailing venture.  And, among their projects, each has invested in Volocopter, a state of the art, electric multirotor helicopter/flying taxi service, based in Germany. Geely Operations and Expansions China-based Geely is a global automotive force.  It owns Volvo, Lotus and Terrafugia, the US based flying car company.  It also owns Lynk & Co. based in Sweden. Geely Chairman Li Shufu says he plans to roll out Lynk & Co. cars in Europe sometime in late 2020.  Lynk & Co. says it offers a new kind of mobility: simple pricing, flexible ownership and car sh...

GM Investing in Ride Sharing Source:  GM GM's Cruise Origin Cars are expensive to buy, insure, park, fuel and maintain.  They pour tremendous amounts of pollution into the air, globally on a daily basis.  Personal vehicles have low utilization  rates.  For all of those reasons and more, GM is moving to capitalize on a significant, alternative driving trend for the near future: ride sharing. California Cruising GM's self driving subsidiary Cruise just unveiled its new vehicle Origin in San Francisco.  Origin is a new, ride sharing shuttle that can carry up to six passengers.  It's all-electric, totally autonomous and specifically designed for ride sharing.  For GM, this is a mass production vehicle as they believe the market potential for it is big.  The vehicle has no steering wheel and no pedals.  The vehicle is a new and additional business model for GM.  The company has petitioned US transportation  officials for...