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Volkswagen focuses more closely on multi-brand plants

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Volkswagen has approved new plant assignment plans, which reflect the challenges of the next five years and lay the necessary foundations.

The plants in Emden and Hanover will be converted to build electric vehicles: models from the ID. family will begin rolling off the assembly lines there from 2022.

In order to serve growth in Europe, the Group will  expand its production capacity post-2022 with an additional plant in Eastern Europe.

[Read more…] about Volkswagen focuses more closely on multi-brand plants

Heraeus and Volvo invest in Forciot’s stretchable electronics technology

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Heraeus Holding GmbH and Volvo Cars’ Technology fund AB have made investments in Forciot as part of the its Series A investment round.

Forciot’s product is a unique stretchable electronics and algorithm solution that measures and reports accurately force, weight, balance and pressure which can be utilised as HMI touch controller.

The investment enables Forciot to broaden its international business entry and supply chain operations.

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Mercedes-Benz details its ‘human first’ philosophy for future cars

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Experts at Daimler-Mercedes-Benz discuss the new automotive technologies at FutureInsight conference

What does a desirable future that is worth living look like? How can individuality and digital transformation be reconciled? How can trust be established between humans and machines?

A series of “FutureInsight” debates from Mercedes-Benz address questions like these. In these debates, Mercedes-Benz experts discuss such questions around the theme of mobility with academics, artists, media representatives and specialists from a wide range of fields.

The aim is to gain inspiration and food for thought, which then can be helpful for their own future mobility activities.

At the FutureInsight event in Berlin on 21 and 22 November, the focus was on empathy and trust as topics.  [Read more…] about Mercedes-Benz details its ‘human first’ philosophy for future cars

Airbus backs world’s first electric aeroplane race

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Airbus has announced a global partnership with Air Race E, the world’s first electric aeroplane race set to launch its inaugural series in 2020.

Airbus is the Official Founding Partner of Air Race E. The competition aims to drive the development and adoption of cleaner, faster, and more technologically advanced electric engines that can be applied to urban air mobility vehicles and, eventually, commercial aircraft.

Air Race E will follow a format similar to the popular Air Race 1 series of the sport known as formula one air racing.

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BP invests in Chinese electric vehicle charging platform

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BP Ventures has invested in PowerShare, a leading integrated hardware and software solutions provider for electric vehicle (EV) charging in China.

The investment is part of PowerShare’s Series A round, which was led by BP Ventures and draws support from DETONG Capital Partners, a leading private equity firm in China.

PowerShare provides an online platform that connects EV drivers, charge point operators and power suppliers, streamlining the charging experience from locating a charge point through to paying for the power supply.

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ZF acquires automotive division of Romanian engineering services provider BeeSpeed

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ZF Friedrichshafen AG has acquired the automotive division of Romanian engineering service provider BeeSpeed.

The new ZF subsidiary BeeSpeed Technical Engineering Center S.R.L. employs more than 100 developers at the polytechnic university in Timisoara in western Romania.

BeeSpeed has been working with the Braking System Business Unit of the Active Safety Division since 2008.

[Read more…] about ZF acquires automotive division of Romanian engineering services provider BeeSpeed

Father Christmas caught testing drone to replace Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

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Startup company AirBoard appears to be working with Father Christmas to test a drone to replace Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and their famous flying sleigh with which they deliver presents all round to world to billions of people every year on the night of December 24th. (See video below.)

But that’s just one of AirBoard’s markets, and a very small one, given that there’s only one Father Christmas, or “Santa Claus”, another one of the many names under which the kindly old man travels, often dressed in a red pajama suit.

The main commercial market the northern European startup is aiming for with its drone is the agricultural sector.  [Read more…] about Father Christmas caught testing drone to replace Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Electric limos transport WEF delegates to Davos

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Participants at this year’s World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland were the first to be able to travel by road between Zurich International Airport and Davos, in an environmentally sustainable way.

Fifty Audi e-tron sedans charged in a matter of minutes at a total of 31 fast-charging stations provided by global market leader ABB in Kemptthal, Heidiland, Küblis and Davos.

The charging infrastructure is operated by IONITY, a joint venture between leading automotive manufacturers. The three partners are using the project to underscore the crucial importance of e-mobility for the advancement of sustainable transport.

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European Space Agency now offers satellite-driven car parking services

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The European Space Agency is now offering satellite-driven car parking services as a result of a partnership with a startup company called Parkbob.

Parkbob teamed up with ESA Business Applications to develop an architecture for satellite-driven availability parking services in smart cities.

Their collaboration through an ESA Kickstart activity as part of the Integrated Applications program, will demonstrate the added value that satellite brings in the context of advanced digital last-mile solutions.  [Read more…] about European Space Agency now offers satellite-driven car parking services

Denso takes a stake in semiconductor processor startup quadric.io

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Denso Corporation, the world’s second largest mobility supplier via its subsidiary NSITEXE, Inc., has taken a stake in quadric.io, a startup company based in Burlingame, California.

NSITEXE designs and develops semiconductor IP cores  and the investment will help quadric.io’s development of edge processing units (EPUs), which are high-performance semiconductors that could be used as a foundation for enabling automated driving technology.

Denso established NSITEXE in 2017 to design and develop next-generation, high-performance semiconductor devices to advance automated driving solutions.

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