A Nostalgic Quest to Buy a 1986 Toyota MR2 – The New York Times:
What’s hardest to find? It depends on where you live. “In hot countries, it is usually the plastics that are hard to find,” said Neil Jones, who has an extensive parts and salvage business in Wales. “In wet countries, it’s the metalwork.”
The Auto Industry Bets Its Future on Batteries – The New York Times:
Long considered one of the least interesting car components, batteries may now be one of the most exciting parts of the auto industry. Car manufacturing hasn’t fundamentally changed in 50 years and is barely profitable, but the battery industry is still ripe for innovation.
Several battery factories are in the planning or construction phase in the United States, including a factory G.M. is building in Ohio with LG, but analysts said federal incentives for electric car and battery production would be crucial to creating a thriving industry in the United States.
all of the money pouring into battery technology is good news. It puts capitalism to work on solving a global problem. But this reordering of the auto industry will also claim some victims, like the companies that build parts for internal combustion engine cars and trucks, or automakers and investors that bet on the wrong technology.
The first priority for the industry is to make batteries cheaper. Batteries for a midsize electric car cost about $15,000, or roughly double the price they need to be for electric cars to achieve mass acceptance, Mr. Srinivasan said.
Longer term, the industry holy grail is solid state batteries, which will replace the liquid lithium solution at the core of most batteries with solid layers of a lithium compound. Solid state batteries would be more stable and less prone to overheating, allowing faster charging. They would also weigh less.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, said on a recent conference call with analysts. “Prototypes are easy. Scaling production is very hard.”
*Interesting article.
Suckers List: How Allstate’s Secret Auto Insurance Algorithm Squeezes Big Spenders – The Markup:
“In this case, Allstate’s model seemed to determine how much a customer was willing to pay —or overpay—without defecting, based on how much he or she was already forking out for car insurance. “
“In the 1990s, insurers began using external data sources like credit scores to predict accident risk. Since then, rate filings have become increasingly filled with proprietary, opaque algorithms, according to regulators.”
“If a behavior in another sphere of life affects insurance premiums in a way that consumers can’t readily anticipate,” he said in an interview, “that could lead to a cascade of financial consequences arising from what seems to be an innocuous decision.”
“Patty Born, a professor studying insurance regulation at Florida State University’s College of Business, doubts insurers will ever share enough information about their pricing models to allow customers to know if they’re overpaying. She said the only defense is to regularly check competitors’ rates.”
*When there is a lot of money on the table there will be creative strategies employed to get more.
Illinois governor signs law capping insulin costs at $100 per month:
“The Illinois governor has signed a new law that will cap out of pocket insulin costs at $100 for a 30-day supply.”
*Will there be enough supply at or below the mandated price cap? Let’s see how this plays out.
“But the most reliably successful people I know are precisely the opposite. They are desperate to see and know what’s making other people tick. They actively engage, and they do it with empathy and generosity.”
*Surely this is a better path even if one never becomes hyper successful. It’s just a better way of operating.
Test programs around the world that use the technology for lifesaving pharmaceuticals as well as for food and even coffee are attempting to prove that delivery by drones is not only safe, but efficient and environmentally sound.
— Read on www.nytimes.com/2019/03/19/technology/drone-deliveries-faa-pilot-programs.html
*Drones are a future technology area to study. See lots of opportunity for people with multiple knowledge bases that relate to drones. A few areas are geography, human population density, legalities related to airspace, and the allocation of scarce resources.
Richard Montañez went from cleaning toilets to being one of the most creative executives in the food industry. But first, he had to call the CEO…
— Read on thehustle.co/hot-cheetos-inventor/
*Worth a read.
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This week Kroger — the nation’s largest grocery chain — announced a new partnership with Nuro, a Silicon Valley start-up that produces a self-driving, unmanned vehicle known as the R1 that operates on major roadways alongside cars. As of Tuesday, customers have been able to have their groceries delivered to their homes by the autonomous vehicle
— Read on www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/12/19/tired-going-grocery-store-arizona-robot-driven-car-will-deliver-groceries-your-home/
*Could see this becoming a competitor to UPS, FedEx and other delivery services too.
FOCUS-Ahold ups stakes in US grocery war with mini-“robot supermarkets” – Nasdaq.com:
“Grocery group Ahold Delhaize will roll out small, automated warehouses to speed order picking and cut delivery times, Reuters has learned, as it revamps its ecommerce business in response to rising competition in a fast-growing sector.”
*Change is coming to how food retail interacts with the consumer.
D.L. Damore 