How a Top-Secret Deal Could Have Stopped VW’s Diesel Scandal
Volkswagen AG might have stayed clear of the diesel cheating that led to the worst crisis in its history had the company not pulled out of a promising deal with Daimler AG more than a decade ago.
Led by former Chief Executive Officer Bernd Pischetsrieder, Volkswagen examined strategic options for tie-ups and cooperation projects in 2005, a time when the company was undergoing painful restructuring.
The deliberations included senior-level talks on a possible deal with its German rival that would have given it access to Daimler’s diesel technology and could have even included cross-shareholdings of about 10 percent, according to people who were involved in the discussions.
The Next Transportation Secretary Seems Pretty Down With Self-Driving Cars
It is perhaps a stretch to call Elaine Chao, President-Elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of transportation, “hip with it.”
The Kentucky resident today sat for her fourth Senate confirmation hearing, following stints at the Transportation and Labor departments starting in the mid-80s. Chao, who happens to be married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is the ur-Washington bureaucrat, a woman described by those on both sides of the aisle as a longtime, competent doer.
Not the sort of hoodie-wearing early adopter to embrace world-shaking visions of the future.
Prescriptive Analytics — Moving Past Predictions
By Kevin Reilly, Editorial Communications Manager, The CEI Group, Inc.
Predictive Analytics is nothing new, but the application of predictive techniques has been seeping into every facet of business and government operations.
The market for predictive analytics technologies tripled, from 11 billion to 35 billion dollars, from 2000 to 2012. It is now estimated that the US alone will need 190,000 more analytics experts and 1.5 million more data-literate managers by 2018. These figures are derived from FICO analytics.
In the past few years, however, even predictive analytics is progressing. It has given way to prescriptive analytics. This change is more than wordplay, introducing a more proactive approach to data analysis. For fleet safety decision-makers, a prescriptive approach introduces a customized process for effectively identifying and remediating hidden high-risk drivers within a specific organizational culture.
The Most Interesting Cars of the 2017 Detroit Auto Show
The cars receiving their U.S. and world premieres during the press days at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, which wrapped up this week, offered a glimpse of the short and medium-term future of the automotive industry.
There was no one vehicle that dominated the show, although the 2018 Kia Stinger GT, Lexus LS 500, and 2018 Toyota Camry received a lot of attention along with a few couple of interesting concepts and Pixar's life-size model of star Lighting McQueen
The automakers that decided to skip Detroit were as much a story leading up to the show, as the companies that did have reveals.
Traffic Deaths Surged in First 9 Months of 2016
Traffic deaths surged about 8 percent in the first nine months of last year, continuing an alarming upward spiral that began in late 2014, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates released Friday.
The sharp increase comes at the same time Americans are putting more miles on the road than ever, the government said. But the rise in deaths is outpacing the increase in travel. Vehicle miles traveled in the first nine months of 2016 rose about 3 percent.
Experts believe the increased travel is mostly a result of an improved economy and low gas prices. But NHTSA’s data experts said increased travel and an improved economy alone can’t explain the rise in deaths.
