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☆ Lyft, Motional to launch robotaxi service in Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Tough regulatory scrutiny and delayed commercial adoption of autonomous vehicle technology have delayed deployment of robotaxi services, worrying investors. Los Angeles will become the second city where the companies will offer the driverless taxi service after Las Vegas. Motional which uses Hyundai Motor Co's (005380.KS) IONIQ5 electric car for the robotaxi service is a joint venture between the South Korean manufacturer and automotive technology company Aptiv (APTV.N). The autonomous vehicle technology company also has a 10-year agreement with Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) for supplying driverless vehicles. Competitor Waymo started its autonomous ride-hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona last week.

☆ Activist Investor Calls on Google Parent Alphabet to Slash Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Miles Kruppa | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TCI Alphabet to aggressively cut costs and reduce losses in long-term bets such as the self-driving car unit Waymo. Activist hedge fund TCI Fund Management called on Google parent Alphabet Inc. to aggressively cut costs and reduce losses in long-term bets such as the self-driving car unit Waymo, claiming the company would be more efficient with fewer employees. TCI, which is based in London, said it owned shares worth more than $6 billion in Alphabet, made the requests in a letter to CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday morning, writing it had been a significant shareholder since 2017.

☆ Investor TCI urges Alphabet to cut excessive headcount, costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 15 (Reuters) - Activist investor TCI Fund Management has called on Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) to cut costs by lowering its headcount and reduce losses in its self-driving unit Waymo, saying the Google parent needs to adjust to an era of slower growth. The fund, an investor in Alphabet since 2017 with a $6 billion stake, said the company had "too many employees and cost per employee is too high". TCI said Alphabet pays some of the highest salaries in Silicon Valley, noting that the company has increased headcount by 20% annually since 2017 and more than doubled it since then. TCI also called on Alphabet to disclose operating profit margin targets and reduce losses in Other Bets, the unit that includes Waymo and other special projects. TCI demanded the unit reduce operating losses by at least 50%.

☆ Activist Investor TCI Calls on Google Parent Alphabet to Slash Costs
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Miles Kruppa | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TCI urged Alphabet to reduce losses in long-term bets such as the self-driving car unit Waymo. Activist hedge fund TCI Fund Management called on Google parent Alphabet Inc. to aggressively cut costs and reduce losses in long-term bets such as the self-driving car unit Waymo, claiming the company would be more efficient with fewer employees. London-based TCI, which said it owned Alphabet shares worth more than $6 billion, made the requests in a letter to Chief Executive Sundar Pichai on Tuesday, writing that it has been a significant shareholder since 2017.

☆ A top investor is now taking aim at Alphabet, saying it has too many employees, pays them too much, and it’s burning money on bad bets.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Major Alphabet investor TCI sent a letter to Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai on Tuesday. It also called for losses to be "reduced dramatically" in Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit. The letter noted that "the cost base of Alphabet is too high and management needs to take aggressive action." Over that time, Alphabet's employees have more than doubled from just above 80,000 to close to 190,000. TCI was not only vexed by Alphabet's headcount, but also by the company's above-market compensation rates.

☆ Alphabet must cut headcount and trim costs, activist investor TCI says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

TCI's stake represents 0.27% of outstanding Alphabet shares, according to Factset data, a position that the hedge fund has steadily accumulated since 2017. TCI noted that headcount has "increased at an annual rate of 20% since 2017," the year that TCI first disclosed their Alphabet position. TCI argued for an increase in share buybacks and the establishment of an EBIT margin target for Google Services. Significantly, TCI argued that Google's "Other Bets" category – their Moonshot division – demanded immediate attention, singling out self-driving vertical Waymo as a unit that failed to justify "its excessive investment." Alphabet shares are down more than 30% year-to-date.

In August, we spent a day driving around with Mr. Cook and his Tesla to assess the progress of this experimental technology. Tesla is driving But watch as the Tesla struggles to make sense of its environment, veering from the road into a motel parking lot. The experiences of beta testers like Mr. Cook are a window into the enormously ambitious and expensive bet that Tesla is making on self-driving technology. Guided by Tesla’s self-driving technology, the car drove along the river and over a bridge before reaching an intersection lined with trees. These companies are now preparing self-driving car services that will operate without backup drivers in places like San Francisco and Austin, Texas.

☆ Waymo starts full-fledged robotaxi services in Phoenix
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo said it was opening up its autonomous ride-hailing service for customers in Phoenix, Arizona on Thursday, pushing ahead with the deployment of robotaxi services in the United States. Investors have been worried about the timeline for autonomous vehicle deployment, as it has been stretched by tough regulatory scrutiny, and delayed commercial adoption of the technology. The autonomous vehicle technology company looks to deploy its Waymo One robotaxi services in Los Angeles and San Francisco in the near future. Customers with the Waymo app can hail a ride within Phoenix's downtown area, the company said on Thursday, after months of test runs. Prior to launching full-fledged services in Phoenix, Waymo operated trips round the clock in Phoenix's East Valley region and provided trips to and from the city's Sky Harbor airport.

☆ This tech stock is a 'screaming buy' right now: Ritholtz's Josh Brown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tech stocks got clobbered this week, with the Nasdaq Composite tumbling more than 3% Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes rates by another 0.75 percentage point . Tech stocks have been underperforming all year, with the Nasdaq down more than 30% year-to-date. But Josh Brown , co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, says one mega-cap tech stock is a "screaming buy." I don't think that's going to be the case," Brown told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia." "And so I think Alphabet right now is a screaming buy."

☆ Self-driving cars were supposed to take over the road. What happened?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Caitlin O'Hara/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesGeneral Motors bought a self-driving company in 2016. Big talk, smaller resultsUrmson, while leading Google’s self-driving car project before founding Aurora, talked of his preteen son never needing to get a driver’s license. A self-driving car, without a steering wheel or pedals, would have to be able to drive itself in literally every situation possible. “It’s really, really hard,” Waymo’s then-CEO John Krafcik said in 2018 of self-driving technology. Companies developing lidar, widely seen as a key component for self-driving vehicles, as well as self-driving companies, have seen their stocks plummet recently.

As is normal course of business with a significant change in a media platform, we have temporarily paused our paid advertising. The Detroit automaker, a rival to Musk's Tesla , said it is "pausing" advertising as it evaluates Twitter's new direction . It will continue to use the platform to interact with customers but not pay for advertising, GM added. DETROIT — General Motors is suspending its advertising on Twitter following Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform, the company told CNBC on Friday. Musk has long boasted that Tesla does not pay for traditional advertising, a cost that has added up for conventional automakers' brands through the years.

☆ Analysis: Ford, VW pop the automated-vehicle bubble with Argo AI exit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

DETROIT, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The road map to fully self-driving vehicles is being rewritten once again, this time by Ford Motor Co (F.N) and Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE). VW also bought Argo shares from Ford for $500 million. Ford previously injected $1 billion into Argo when it bought control of the company in 2017. Before it acquired the stake in Argo, VW flirted with at least two other U.S.-based self-driving startups: Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo and Aurora Innovation (AUR.O). VW reportedly considered a $13.7 billion investment in 2018 in Waymo for a 10% stake that would have valued Waymo at $137 billion.

☆ Intel's Mobileye unit valued at $22 bln as shares cruise higher
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The debut comes after a turbulent period when Mobileye settled for merely a third of the $50 billion valuation it was targeting earlier in its IPO. But there was a lot of value in gaining that public company platform now,” said Dan Galves, chief communications officer at Mobileye. Galves added it is important for Mobileye to generate product visibility now as that filters back to customers. Before being acquired by chipmaker Intel in a $15.3 billion deal in 2017, Mobileye had been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2014. Mobileye develops autonomous driving technologies and competes with Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Waymo, General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cruise and other automakers who have moved to design in-house driving assistance technology.

☆ Ford, VW pull plug on robotaxis in blow to self-driving car industry
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Ford said Wednesday that it had concluded that the large-scale profitable commercialization of self-driving cars was further out then expected. Some Argo AI employees will join Ford for that work, Farley said. The company was developing robotaxis, self-driving vehicles that can operate in a ridehail service that does not require human drivers. The team effort allowed Ford and VW to share the hefty costs of developing self-driving cars. Companies have found that developing self-driving cars is incredibly expensive.

☆ Intel's Mobileye unit valued at $21 bln as shares cruise higher in debut
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Shannon StapletonOct 26 (Reuters) - Shares of Mobileye Global Inc (MBLY.O) opened 27% higher on Wednesday, valuing the self-driving technology unit of Intel Corp (INTC.O) at $21.3 billion as investors lapped up what could be the last big IPO of 2022. It also underscores Mobileye's strong financials, analysts said, which attracted investors who have turned selective amid mounting economic challenges. "Investors now place greater focus on companies' free cash flows, revenues/profitability or path-to-profitability, over just growth projections," said Paul Go, global IPO leader at EY. Before being acquired by chipmaker Intel in a $15.3 billion deal in 2017, Mobileye had been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 2014. On Tuesday, Mobileye was valued at $16.7 billion after selling shares above the marketed range of $18 to $20, to raise $861 million.

☆ Mobileye goes public, raising millions for Intel
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington, DC CNN —Intel spun out its driver-assist subsidiary Mobileye Wednesday and raised $861 million in the initial public offering. Intel had purchased Mobileye in 2017 for $15.3 billion, but announced in Dec. 2021 that it would spin out Mobileye. Mobileye, founded in 1999 in Israel, was an early leader in emerging driver-assist technology that can perceive the road and steer accordingly. Mobileye says being a public company again may help it draw attention to its products. “It’s important for us to amplify attention and a public company platform really allows you to do that,” Mobileye spokesman Dan Galves told CNN Business Wednesday.

☆ Exclusive: Automakers to double spending on EVs, batteries to $1.2 trillion by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

To put the figure in context, Alphabet (GOOGL.O), the parent company of Google and Waymo, has a market cap of $1.3 trillion. Automakers have forecast plans to build 54 million battery electric vehicles in 2030, representing more than 50% of total vehicle production, according to the analysis. To support that unprecedented level of EVs, carmakers and their battery partners are planning to install 5.8 terawatt-hours of battery production capacity by 2030, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and the manufacturers. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) is investing $70 billion to electrify vehicles and produce more batteries, and expects to sell at least 3.5 million battery electric models (BEVs) in 2030. It plans at least 30 different BEVs and expects to transition the entire Lexus range to battery electric over that span.

☆ U.S. autonomous vehicle group picks ex-Senate aide as director
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association (AVIA) has tapped Jeff Farrah as its first executive director, the group told Reuters. U.S. lawmakers have been divided for years over how to amend current auto safety regulations to encompass self-driving cars, including the scope of consumer and legal protections. In August, U.S. House members launched a bipartisan effort to help revive stalled legislative efforts to boost self-driving vehicles. In July, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said GM's Cruise and Ford sought exemptions to deploy up to 2,500 self-driving vehicles annually without human controls. The Transportation Trades Department for the AFL-CIO, told U.S. lawmakers in 2021 that autonomous vehicles place "millions of jobs at risk" and any self-driving legislation should not apply to commercial trucks.

☆ Wait for the dust to settle after Alphabet's poor results before taking action on the stock
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But we think Club members should wait until the dust settles before taking any action. Even Google Search, the greatest advertising platform in the world, was not immune to some macroeconomic pressures. Revenue breakdown Google Advertising revenue increased 2.5% year-over-year, to $54.48 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $56.59 billion. Google Search & Other revenue rose 4%, to $39.54 billion, below the $40.93 billion forecasted by analysts, driven by a solid performance in travel and retail. Still, we see no reason to doubt the resilience of Google Search due to its strong measurability and high return on investment.

☆ Google’s core business is slowing down amid recession fears
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —Google may be the giant in the digital advertising world, but even it is not immune to the impact that the economic downturn and recession fears are having on the online ad market. It reported revenue of nearly $69.1 billion, up just 6% from the same period in the prior year. YouTube’s ad business, which competes with TikTok, was especially hard hit, with revenue declining nearly 2% from the year-ago quarter. High inflation, looming recession fears and the ongoing war in Ukraine have all continued to weigh on the industry. Growth in other areas of Google’s business also appear to be slowing.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Automakers to double spending on EVs, batteries to $1.2 trillion by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Paul Lienert | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterAutomakers have forecast plans to build 54 million battery electric vehicles in 2030, representing more than 50% of total vehicle production, according to the analysis. To support that unprecedented level of EVs, carmakers and their battery partners are planning to install 5.8 terawatt-hours of battery production capacity by 2030, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence and the manufacturers. Leading the charge is Tesla (TSLA.O), where Chief Executive Elon Musk has outlined an audacious plan to build 20 million EVs in 2030, requiring an estimated 3 terawatt-hours of batteries. Japan's Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) is investing $70 billion to electrify vehicles and produce more batteries, and expects to sell at least 3.5 million battery electric models (BEVs) in 2030. It plans at least 30 different BEVs and expects to transition the entire Lexus range to battery electric over that span.

☆ Waymo to expand robotaxi service to Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Matt Mcfarland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Washington, DC CNN —Waymo, the robotaxi provider of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said Wednesday that it will expand its ridehail service to Los Angeles. It is taking steps towards offering public robotaxi trips in San Francisco as well as downtown Phoenix, which is close to Chandler. Waymo began operating robotaxis in Arizona in 2017 and opened the service to the public in October 2020. Last year one Waymo robotaxi became stranded on a road while carrying a passenger and then unexpectedly drove away as the company’s roadside assistance arrived. Google gave the first robotaxi ride in October 2015 to a blind man in Austin, Texas.

☆ Waymo says it plans to launch its self-driving service in Los Angeles
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jennifer Elias | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Waymo said service will first begin with safety drivers behind the wheel and, later, with just Waymo employees as riders. “When we think about our next cities, Los Angeles jumps out,” said Waymo’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana in Wednesday's blog post. Alphabet -owned Waymo said Wednesday it plans to expand its self-driving ride-hailing service, Waymo One, to Los Angeles. The self-driving car industry has been slow to progress and live up to lofty promises, but that's especially true of Waymo. Waymo announced plans in March to remove safety drivers for fully-autonomous rides, but those are still only available to Waymo employees, the spokesperson confirmed.

☆ IKEA teams with self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics to test deliveries in Texas
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( John Rosevear | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Self-driving truck startup Kodiak Robotics said that it has begun a pilot program with IKEA in Texas. Kodiak's CEO, Don Burnette, said that he isn't looking to put truck drivers out of business – in fact, he's aiming to make their lives easier. Texas has become a hotbed for self-driving truck testing, in part because of favorable regulations -- and also because the long highway stretches between its cities are ideal for automation. Self-driving truck startup Aurora Innovation has also been testing trucks in Texas. Another startup, TuSimple , has been testing its self-driving semitrucks in Arizona and is planning to expand to Texas next year.

☆ Alphabet salaries revealed: See how much Google bets like Waymo, Wing, and Intrinsic pay engineers, managers, and thousands of other employees
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Hugh Langley | Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alphabet companies such as Wing, Waymo, and Verily are hiring. Insider analyzed H-1B visa applications to learn how much Alphabet pays employees. Like Google, other Alphabet companies, such as self-driving car unit Waymo and life sciences unit Verily, slowed down hiring earlier this year, but they're still recruiting in key areas. Through the hundreds of disclosed salaries that represent engineers, managers, and more, we found out how much Alphabet is paying employees at these companies. It also doesn't account for all roles inside these companies, only those for which Alphabet hired employees on visas.

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