By John F. Wysseier, President and Chief Executive Officer, The CEI Group, Inc.

Of all the technological advances mankind has achieved over the millennia that have changed the way we live and work, Machine Learning (ML) may well prove to be the one with the most powerful and disruptive effects.

And while one application – autonomous vehicles – is still in its infancy, ML applications in many other business applications are already here and more are on the way.

ML grew out of the computer science of artificial intelligence (AI). Broadly speaking, AI refers to computers programmed to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, like recognizing images and speech and making decisions. As remarkable as that is, ML goes one step further: it creates computers that can learn from experience and actually improve their performance.

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When the future fleet arrives, will it be an improvement?

By Bernie Kavanagh

Sure, your vehicles might be autonomous, dutifully following all your rules on fueling, idling and safety without a coffee break. But what if they get hacked?

You like the lower emissions from your EV vehicles … even if you can’t figure out how much you’re spending on a charge, or how to do any of your usual fuel management reporting.

And of course we’ll all love swipeless, cardless payments — until we find out fraudsters have caught up with the innovation.

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By Andrew Boada, Editor at Large

Sometimes, we get overcome with excitement when it appears that the high-tech future we have been dreaming of has finally arrived.

It looks like 2019 is going to be one of those times, for that is when, after years of breathless anticipation, one OEM – in this case, GM – says its fully autonomous, self-driving car, will finally, actually and, by many accounts, well ahead of schedule, will be here.

But I have one balloon-popping, rain-on- the- parade question to pose: Will you – Mr. or Ms. fleet manager – be ponying up to buy an autonomous vehicle (AV) next year? I think not. In fact, I think no fleet manager will be seriously considering making a self-driving vehicle their go-to acquisition for many years to come.

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The Verge

The earthquake hit on Friday morning at 8:29AM local time. By the next Wednesday at 4AM, all eight major transportation corridors that had been severely damaged by the quake had re-opened.

The rapid response to damage in Anchorage shows how investing time and money into preparations for these kinds of large, infrastructure-hobbling events can pay off in the long-run, even when there’s no way to tell when or where disaster may strike.

Read the article at The Verge.

Consumer Reports

Trump may be trying to punish General Motors with his threat to kill a federal subsidy for electric vehicles, but it might be consumers who would feel the most pain, auto experts say.

Eliminating the $7500 tax credit would slow the EV market by making vehicles more expensive, says David Reichmuth, a senior engineer in the Clean Vehicles Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. Automakers are still going to invest in dozens of new electric models to sell in markets such as Europe and China, Reichmuth says.

Read the article at Consumer Reports.

CNBC

At a time when the global automotive industry is facing not only traditional competitive challenges but the risks posed by massive technological transformation, Ford Motor and Volkswagen plan to announce an alliance shortly after the new year.

Among the key elements expected to be part of the deal will be a cooperative effort to bring to market electrified and autonomous vehicles, something each of the companies already has spent billions of dollars developing. Talks included the possibility of taking over one of the American company’s existing, underutilized assembly plants and that VW could wind up sharing more than one plant with Ford.

Read the article at CNBC.

The Detroit Bureau

The Trump administration has emphasized that rolling back the fuel economy and emissions standards would save money and help insure that new vehicles are affordable, which would increase sales of cleaner and safer vehicles. Environmentalist claim that the administration was mis-representing the work of outside analysts that it cited in support of the rollback.

“These independent researchers are demonstrating what we’ve long suspected: the Trump administration used every trick it could to try and justify its plan to halt progress on tailpipe pollution,” said Luke Tonachel, director for clean vehicles and clean fuels at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The fact is that the rollback makes no sense. We get more confirmation of that fact every day.”

Read the article at The Detroit Bureau.

Fortune

Volkswagen announced that it will have the capacity to build up to 15 million electric cars over several years and is investing more than $12.5 billion into electric and autonomous vehicles by 2023.

VW plans to have 27 electrical vehicle (EV) models in production by the end of 2022, with cars under the Volkswagen, Audi, and Skoda brands. VW has said that it is also building an alliance with Ford and might use that company’s plants to build vehicles in the United States. The company is currently converting multiple of its European factories to build EVs rather than combustion engine cars.

Read the article at Fortune.

By Ed Dubens, CEO & Founder, eDriving

Telematics technology is largely credited with changing fleet management.

In fact, a quick search of telematics online suggests that it is a vital part of fleet management, that monitoring drivers is increasingly accepted, and that telematics provides fleet managers with the information they need, when they want it and how they want to digest it.

Yet, as technology adoption becomes more and more commonplace for fleets and having personally witnessed some of the world’s largest fleets successfully reduce the number of collisions, injuries and license violations, as well as their total cost of ownership (TCO), I have an insight to share with fleet managers: telematics alone is not enough!

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Forbes

Results from a new consumer study conducted by CarGurus suggests the market for passenger cars may actually be growing.

“This survey showed that consumer interest in buying sedans is not waning as much as recent automotive industry changes have indicated,” said Madison Gross, Senior Manager of Customer Insights at CarGurus, in a statement. “The positive response from younger drivers expressing their intent to buy sedans is a sign of confidence that this traditional body style could remain relevant for years to come.”

Read the article at Forbes.