Autonomous Driving Technology May Suffer Under Trump’s Tariffs
Trump's tariffs would add several thousand dollars to the price of each car sold in the United States, cutting sales and leaving automakers and their major suppliers with less money for research and development, industry groups say. One casualty of such protectionism would be breakthrough technologies for self-driving vehicles.
Research into the technologies needed to make self-driving and electric vehicles a consumer staple is expected to be so costly that most companies will base their main development work in a single location, industry executives said. General Motors has warned that the tariffs “could delay breakthrough technologies and threaten U.S. leadership in the next generation of automotive technology.”
Read the article at The Washington Post.
Auto Industry Pushes to Dump Trump’s Import Tariffs
The Trump administration's proposal to impose tariffs as high as 25 percent on imported cars under the guise of boosting national security has been met with stiff opposition from the auto industry. Such levies, they warned, would result in higher car prices and industry-wide job losses.
"Simply put, auto tariffs are a massive tax on consumers," Jennifer Thomas, vice president of federal affairs at the Washington-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers said. "Industry analyses show that a 25 percent tariff would raise the price of an imported car nearly $6,000 and the price of a U.S.-built car $2,000. When vehicle prices rise, demand drops. Lower demand means less production. And when production declines, job losses follow."
Read the article at The Detroit News.
Japan and the European Union Make ‘Largest Bilateral Trade Deal Ever’
The European Union and Japan have signed a trade deal that promises to eliminate 99 percent of tariffs that cost businesses in the EU and Japan nearly $1.17 billion annually.The agreement covers 600 million people and almost a third of the global economy.
"The EU and Japan share a common vision for an open and rules-based world economy that guarantees the highest standards. We are sending a message to other countries about the importance of free and fair trade, and of shaping globalization," EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said after the agreement was finalized in 2017.
Read the article at USA Today.
The Brain Drain Convergence
Government fleets are in a unique position. Many of them have had in-house maintenance operations for years and have provided a high level of service to increasingly complex assets. But as Mark Boada writes in his Public Interest Q&A with Steve Saltzgiver, BSBM, MAOM, CAFS, a perfect storm is brewing.
We read this week that the Trump administration is sparking a legal battle with California over the state’s strict emissions standards. In his video clip, Gary Lentsch, CAFM, puts politics aside and talks of the endurance of sustainability initiatives that government and corporate fleets are pursuing to reduce emissions and control fuel costs.
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
BMW is the First to Integrate Ride-Sharing
By merging the ride-hailing features of popular apps such as Uber and Lyft with access to a fleet of BMW and Mini vehicles, users can choose to “Ride” or “Drive” depending on their needs.
The app uses the existing ReachNow fleet of vehicles, which serves some urban populations and dedicates fleets to participating residential buildings and businesses, to make cars available to customers or provide a ride with a ReachNow driver.
Read the article at The Car Connection.
