GM’s Driverless Car Bet Faces Long Road Ahead
General Motors Co and its Cruise self-driving car unit have received $5 billion in investment commitments to develop a robot taxi service that could safely navigate the city streets of San Francisco by the end of next year - putting it ahead Alphabet Inc’s Waymo self-driving car unit, Uber and Lyft.
Unexpected technical challenges - including the difficulty that Cruise cars have identifying whether objects are in motion - means putting GM’s driverless cars on the road in a large scale way in 2019 is looking highly unlikely.
“Nothing is on schedule,” said one GM source, referring to certain mileage targets and other milestones the company has already missed.
Read the article at Reuters.
Air Force Captain Struck by SoCalGas Truck Awarded $46 Million Negligent Entrustment Settlement
An Air Force captain, Jason Lo, nearly died after he was struck by a SoCalGas truck driven by Dominick Consolazio and dragged 430 feet last year has reached a $46 million settlement with the utility, his attorneys said Monday.
The lawsuit filed in March 2017 alleged Consolazio and SoCalGas should have known he was unfit to work as a driver because he suffered from epilepsy and continued to have seizures despite taking medication, including one six weeks before the collision. Supervisors also knew Consolazio went on disability leave for six months and had his driver’s license suspended following a severe seizure in 2012 not long after he worked 79 hours of overtime for the company in one week, according to the lawsuit.
Read the article at Daily Breeze.
Avis Budget Group and Ford Team Up to Connect Cars, Enhance Car Rental Experience
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Oct. 23, 2018 — To make renting vehicles even easier for customers and to improve efficiency, Avis Budget Group, Inc. today announces an agreement with Ford Commercial Solutions to connect more than 35,000 Ford Motor Company vehicles in Avis Budget Group’s U.S. fleet.
Connected vehicles allow Avis customers to manage their entire rental experience through the Avis mobile app, including choosing the type of vehicle they want to rent and extending the duration of their rental. Even returning a rental vehicle is automated with connected technology, allowing customers to drop off their vehicles through a simple tap in the Avis app.
Our Mobile Workers
Selecting the right vehicle program for today’s mobile worker is examined in Managing the Reimbursed Fleet. John Petrucelli, VP of R&D and Product Innovation at Motus says a one-size-fits-all vehicle program is no longer the soundest approach.
Our friends at eDriving remind us of the heightened crash risks in winter weather and offer safe driving tips to prepare for the hazards of winter driving.
Bloomberg has a terrific article about distracted driving, saying a crackdown is coming! It's about time.
Our hearts are heavy as our nation mourns the victims of hatred and intolerance.
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
WEX Inc. Signs Agreement to Acquire Noventis
offerings within WEX’s Corporate Payments business
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- WEX Inc., a leading provider of corporate payments solutions, today announced the signing of an agreement to acquire Noventis, an electronic payments network focused on optimizing payment delivery for bills and invoices to commercial entities.
WEX has a longstanding relationship with Noventis as a critical supplier of virtual cards that enable payment transactions through Noventis’ network. This acquisition will expand WEX’s reach as a corporate payments supplier and provide more channels to billing aggregators and financial institutions.
