Mercedes Benz

PALO ALTO, CA- Ford recently hosted automotive journalists from around the world at their new Silicon Valley research facility in Southern California. Under the banner of the “Ford Smart Mobility Plan”, the staff at the Research & Innovation Centre (RIC) instigated 25 global experiments designed to hone in on future technology transportation solutions. On June 23, six months after the opening, Mark Fields, president and CEO of Ford announced that the company would shift into the next phase of the plan, moving from research to implementation, with new pilot programs to improve connectivity, data collection, driver information and mobility technologies as the industry evolves inevitably towards a future with more semi-autonomous and, eventually, fully-autonomous vehicles. Some of the announced projects include dynamic shuttle systems, peer-to-peer car sharing and flexible ownership programs that are being explored in the U.S. and Europe. Among the many new plans and technologies, my ...

One of CleverShuttle's battery-powered Nissan Leafs is pictured in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. Photo credit: Bloomberg Stefan Nicola Elisabeth Behrmann Bloomberg August 17, 2018 12:40 CET BERLIN/MUNICH -- For years, Martin Bruesch was a typical car owner. He routinely used his Audi A4 station wagon for the 20-minute trip to the office in Berlin. Now on work days his car usually stays parked outside his apartment in the affluent neighborhood of Charlottenburg and the 32-year-old human resources executive hails a new car-pooling service instead. "If I'm truly honest with myself, then owning a car is too expensive with all these alternatives around," Bruesch said as he got into one of CleverShuttle's battery-powered Nissan Leafs one evening this month. As young people like Bruesch increasingly ditch driving, they're also accelerating the shift toward what's being dubbed “peak car” — a time in the not-too-distant future when sales of private veh...