The Smart Cube has been working with procurement teams for over a decade, and offers unique insights into the problems they face. Now, with the launch of their Smart Fleet product, they have upped their game. The result is better supplier choices for fleet managers.
Management shake-up at Ford not likely to be the last big announcement from the Motor City this year.
The unexpected ouster of Ford Motor Co. CEO Mark Fields comes as one of the biggest shake-ups Detroit’s Big Three have experienced since they emerged from the Great Recession – and it highlights the challenges they face trying to adapt to a global transformation in what automakers build and how they market those products.
The appointment of Jim Hackett to replace Fields is, however, just the latest in a series of big announcements from Detroit that last week saw Ford announce plans to cut 1,400 salaried workers in North America and Europe, while General Motors said it would stop selling cars in the huge Indian market and sell off operations in South Africa.
Good news for Apple iPhone users: CarPlay, the system that reduces distraction using your smartphone in the car, now works wirelessly on some new cars and more are on the way.
BMW’s new 5-series, and most of the automaker’s other 2017 models, now offer CarPlay’s benefits via their Wi-Fi hot spot. Until now, all vehicles that had CarPlay required the phone to be hardwired into the vehicles’ USB port.
CarPlay allows the driver to do web searches for directions, phone numbers, find gas stations, play music, send and receive text messages and use some apps hands-free. It also displays some of the phone’s features on the vehicle's dashboard.
Fiat Chrysler said on Friday that it would modify around 100,000 diesel vehicles to try to reach a settlement with United States regulators, as separate academic studies provided mounting evidence that the carmaker had installed software meant to evade emissions standards.
The move came a day after the company said it was in talks to resolve a Justice Department investigation.
The case bears striking similarities to a Volkswagen scandal in which several executives have been investigated or charged, with the German carmaker paying tens of billions of dollars in fines, penalties and settlements.
Ford is making Android Auto and Apple CarPlay software support available to model-year 2016 vehicles equipped with SYNC 3.
Customers with model-year 2016 Ford vehicles can update to the new SYNC 3 version 2.2 by downloading to a USB drive, visiting a dealership or automatically through a Wi-Fi connection.
“Our SYNC 3 software platform was designed to be easy to update so we can get our customers the latest and greatest features, functionally and security enhancements,” said Don Butler, executive director, Ford Connected Vehicle and Services.