Automobile

Bloomberg BMW AG and Daimler AG will offer cars capable of navigating on highways by themselves starting in 2024, as the luxury-car rivals cooperate to speed up the development of autonomous vehicles. They plan to sell cars equipped with so-called Level 4 self-driving technology, meaning the vehicles could manage motorway driving and parking without intervention from the driver, who will …

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co is preparing to make a bigger push in electric vehicles (EV), according to Morgan Stanley. The company doesn’t currently offer any electric cars although it has been heavily investing in such technology. The carmaker’s ongoing discussions with Volkswagen AG promise to take its electric-car ambitions “to the next level,” analysts led by Adam Jonas wrote in …

Bloomberg China’s policies to boost its fledgling hydrogen-powered auto industry are coming at just the right time for entrepreneur and former carmaker executive Wang Chaoyun. His startup, Anhui Mingtian Hydrogen Energy Technology Co, makes fuel-cell stacks for vehicles propelled by the element, which produces no emissions from the tailpipe. During Mingtian Hydrogen’s brief existence, the fuel-cell vehicle industry has received …

Bloomberg Walmart Inc came to dominate retailing through its mastery of logistics—the complicated choreography of getting goods from farm or factory to the consumer. But even the world’s biggest store doesn’t make money selling its wares online in the US, largely due to runaway shipping costs. So Walmart is turning to robots. Earlier this month, Walmart’s US chief Greg Foran …

Bloomberg Waymo LLC agreed to explore driverless services with Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp, pairing a leader in self-driving technology with the world’s largest automotive alliance. The three carmakers and Alphabet Inc’s autonomous-vehicle unit will study market opportunities and research legal and safety issues related to driverless transportation services in France and Japan, the companies said …

Bloomberg Apple Inc is preparing to buy startup Drive.ai in a small deal that will bring more engineers with experience in autonomous vehicle technology to the iPhone maker, according to people familiar with the matter. It’s unclear how much Apple is paying. Drive.ai has raised about $77 million in funding since it was founded in 2015, and was valued at …

Bloomberg Electric vehicles may be less prone to catch fire than gas guzzlers, but recent blazes involving Tesla Inc and NIO Inc cars in Greater China are prompting the industry to take steps to alleviate concerns from potential customers in the sector’s biggest market. Worries heightened after reports emerged of a fire involving a Tesla in a Hong Kong parking …

Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s CEO Mike Manley said he sees “very significant opportunities” to partner with other automakers on autonomy and electrification projects in the next two to three years. Fiat is seeking to fix a business that is losing money in Asia and Europe while sales in North America, which generates the lion’s share of the company’s profits, …

Bloomberg A $255 billion debate is raging among the world’s biggest automakers. Some think electric cars made by companies besides Tesla Inc stand the chance to be hits, while others think they’ll fail to really sell. Toyota Motor Corp may have kicked off the green-car movement with its Prius hybrid more than 20 years ago, but the company is not …

Bloomberg For four days in February, Ben Shukman showed up to his office at Phantom Auto in Mountain View, California, sat down in front of a bank of computer screens with a steering wheel in a darkened room, and began driving. As the 25-year-old turned the wheel in Silicon Valley, an empty truck 2,500 miles away in Atlanta picked up …