Autonomous Cars Might Kill Auto Insurance As We Know It
For all the concern over accidents involving driverless cars, including Tesla’s troubles with its limited self-driving “Autopilot” mode, it’s easy to forget one of the supposed virtues of autonomous vehicles: they will make the roads safer.
A sophisticated array of lidar, radar and cameras is expected to be more adept at detecting trouble than our mortal eyes and ears. And computers never get drunk, check Tinder or fall asleep at the wheel.
“When you think of all these sensors and calibration, a little fender-bender could be a much more costly proposition,” said David Ross Keith, an assistant professor of system dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As automation reaches fully autonomous capability, insurance is going to change dramatically.
Read the article at The Detroit News.
Chevrolet Adds Vehicle Locate Feature for Smartphone App
After years of missing out, Chevrolet owners can finally check their smartphones to see where their car is. The brand announced Wednesday it has added a Vehicle Locate feature to its myChevy smartphone app for iOS and Android.
While most owners will likely take advantage of the feature to, say, locate their car in a crowded parking lot, the feature adds automated text alerts and sets up safety nets for certain situations. Owners should also note this feature replaces the former Family Link, which was solely based on the internet without application support.
Read the article at GM Authority.
Autorama Implements Ebbon-Dacs’ Leaselink Platform for All New Vehicle Orders
UK-based Autorama Group has selected Ebbon-Dacs’ market-leading e-procurement platform, Leaselink, to handle all new vehicle orders across its three main brands and generate operating efficiencies across the business.
Autorama, which has experienced rapid growth in the last four to five years, is one of the UK’s largest credit brokers and operates a fully funded fleet of around 45,000 vehicles. It is the major sponsor of National League football in the UK.
Top Industry Leaders to Discuss Innovation and Disruption of the Commercial Industry
Work Truck Solutions along with Fleet Management Weekly, are co-hosting a panel discussion with some of the industry’s trailblazers at NTEA’s Work Truck Show.
The event, titled Commercial Opportunity in a Time of Innovation, will cover pressing topics in the work truck industry today, such as local fleet opportunities derived from new ownership models, final mile delivery, and other services; the impact of buyer behavior and new products in the commercial space; and how innovation in AI is changing sales and marketing strategies.
The panelists include Cliff Banks (The Banks Report), Todd Madeiros (recently from eBay Motors), Nate Klebacha (Haig Partners), John Pas (Spincar), and Adam Seifert (ARI). Kathryn Schifferle, founder and CEO of Work Truck Solutions will moderate.
NTEA Releases Vehicle Life Cycle Cost Tool
NTEA recently launched a new Vehicle Life Cycle Cost Tool. Designed to be flexible and user-friendly to accommodate a variety of truck life cycle analysis needs and different fleet structures, this cloud-based resource enables fleets, engineers and sales representatives to load differing depreciation methodologies (such as straight-line, accelerated and pool depreciation techniques), fuel types and regional fuel prices to fit the necessary truck or fleet analysis.
Users can also incorporate the impact of income taxes into business decisions, where appropriate, and perform what-if scenarios.
