AD #4198 - Rivian Rolls Out Impressive AV Tech Stack; Ford JV With SK On Is Off; Renault Kills Off Car Sharing Service

Speaker 1: This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry. Rivian showed off impressive tech yesterday,

including a microprocessor and AI platform for autonomous driving that was all developed in house. Rivian says the vertical integration

of its hardware, software and data will accelerate the rollout of advanced driver assistance in full autonomous driving. This is

actually the company's third generation autonomy compute platform, and it's powered by a chip called Rivian Autonomy Processor or WRAP one.

Rivian said it will also add LDAR to future R two models for redundant sensing. Like Tesla, Rivian will use

a self improving AI architecture to learn human driving behaviors so it's AV stack gets better over time. The company

will launch the hands free driving software updates to Gen two R I models and the R two in just a few months for fifty bucks a month or a twenty five hundred dollars lump sum, and yet Rivian stock drops sharply on the news. We think investors are worried

that the AI effort will be an enormous expense for the company and coming at a time when the financial markets are worried about a possible AI bubble, but we think the Volkswagon group is going to be very interested in using this tech and that puts Rivian in a much stronger position to compete with the likes of Tesla and the top Chinese automakers. Due to weaker than expected

EV demand, the loss of subsidies, and to help cut costs, South Korean battery maker Skon is ending its joint venture with Ford in twenty twenty two. The company's invested eleven

point four billion dollars to build battery plants in the US, two in Kentucky in one in Tennessee. A Ford subsidiary

will now take full ownership of the Kentucky plants, while Skon will take control of the place in Tennessee. As

Kon says it's turning its focus to energy storage systems to help offset the soft demand for eves, Renault is killing off its mobilized car sharing service in Europe. The

business was created in twenty twenty one and offered car sharing in Milan and Madrid, which will end shortly. The

brand also offered a quadricycle called the Duo for urban mobility and car sharing, and it was the successor to the Twizzy. Production of the duo will now be phased

out as well. Mobilized was also responsible for developing ev

charging solutions for Renault, but those operations are now being integrated into its commercial operations. The automaker says it's making

these changes because they offered limited profitability or they didn't fit into its future plans.

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Speaker 1: Daimler Truck has come up with an interesting solution to expand the charging network for electric trucks in Europe while generating extra revenue for fleet operators. It's introducing what it

calls a semi public charging network under the Truck Charge brand.

By partnering with the network, fleet operators can open their own charging spots to other operators when they're not in use.

Daimler started pilot projects in October and Germany, which it says have been successful. The official rollout of the network

starts in Germany and Austria early next year, with more markets to follow throughout twenty twenty six. Daimler Truck is

aiming to have more than three thousand charging points across Europe by twenty thirty. Mercedes says it started a new

program to decarbonize all the parts and materials that it uses, currently showing off forty examples that are in the works, and here's a couple that caught my eye. Instead of

gluing headlight assemblies together, Mercedes wants to use screws. Part

of the reason is to make recycling easier. But the

part that I like is that you can replace individual components of the headlight, so if you crack or break the lens, for instance, you don't have to replace the entire headlight, which can now be very expensive. Another example

as a new brake pad concept that uses around forty percent recycled friction material that comes from old brake pads.

That friction material is then applied to a steel backing that was produced with less CO two emissions. And the

last thing a highlight is mercedes effort to recycle old airbags, which it's turning into new engine mounts and a housing for its thermal management system. The company says some of

the forty solutions are in the early stages of development, while others are close to series production, but it didn't provide any other details. Ford wants everyone to know how

well it's doing in the global mid sized truck market with the Ranger, though strangely, Ford will not say how many Rangers it sells. Online sources suggest it's about three

hundred and eighty thousand units a year. The truck is

made in the US, Argentina, South Africa, and Thailand, and is sold in one hundred and eighty countries, but that still puts it well behind Toyota, which sells about seven hundred thousand high Lux and Tacoma mid size pickups globally.

Ford clearly wants to close the gap. As we reported

earlier this year, it's adding a pH version of the Ranger that will be sold in Europe and a super duty version that will be sold in markets outside of North America. The super Duty version doubles the cargo and

towing capacity of the regular Ranger and will appeal to a larger group of commercial customers. And here's a fun

factoid that you could use to win a bar bet.

What is the second largest pickup market in the world after the US? Are you ready for this? It's Thailand

and Gilie wants to make it easier to park and navigate narrow streets. Car News China has a video that

it says comes from GILI of a prototype that can turn all four wheels nearly ninety degrees. It features electric

motors at each corner and a special steering system, but unfortunately Gili blurs some of that out. We've seen other

automakers and suppliers show off similar tech, but Gili is developing this in house. However, no word if it will

ever make it into production. If you work at an

automotive supplier and are involved in writing RFQs or requests for quote, then we've got a webinar on YouTube at two pm Eastern time today that you'll want to watch.

We'll have Eggar Fowler from the Center for Automotive Research in ann Arbor and Ted Maby from the consulting firm UHY presenting their findings on the problems with the RFQ process and how to do it more efficiently. Do you

realize that suppliers are writing hundreds of more RFQs now than they did twenty years ago, and that it takes an average of one hundred and fifty seven labor hours to write just one RFQ. This is why it's critical

to learn how to do it more efficiently. And there's

no charge for the webinar and anyone can watch. But

that brings us to the end of this show. Thanks

for tuning in and I hope that you have a great weekend.

Speaker 3: Auto Line Daily is brought to you by Bridgestone Solutions for your journey CSP, the Composites Solution partner Intrepid Control Systems over the year engineering boost your game and thanks to the following YouTube and Patreon.

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That's why companies across the globe subscribe to our premium service.

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check your company's intranet for details and rely on wardsauto dot com to keep you informed.

Tesla Semi

Toyota Tacoma

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