BMW and Daimler will spend more than $ 1 billion for the future of transportation



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BMW and Daimler, two giants in the automotive sector, are pooling their resources in a common mobility effort that includes autonomous cars, car rides, electric scooters, carpooling and electric car charging. The two companies announced Friday their intention to spend $ 1.13 billion in this business, an impressive amount designed to attract the attention of the rest of the industry.

This move comes against a backdrop of widespread uncertainty in the auto industry, with declining sales and an ongoing trade war threatening to slow down business. In this context, automakers are embracing new business models and alternatives to owning a personal car, as well as disruptive technologies such as autonomous cars.

BMW and Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, believe that by joining forces on these projects, they can dominate the market. But it's also about spreading the risk, so that no company will end up losing too much if these alternatives choke.

For decades, BMW and Daimler have been fierce competitors in the auto sector, and they will remain so, said Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler. "But the weather is changing," said Zetsche at a press conference in Berlin on Friday. "There are people who are not interested in owning a car, but in mobility. Individual mobility, on demand. And that's where the two companies came to the conclusion that this is an area in which we can be stronger together than separately. "

"Everyone was looking at the other side and seeing strengths," said Harald Krüger, president of BMW. "We can combine our strengths and become a champion. That's the vision. "

The companies first announced their intention to join forces in March 2018, but the plan required regulatory approval. World car manufacturers have joined forces, including Ford and Volkswagen, which recently announced plans to build trucks and vans together. And the offers are rarely exclusive. Volkswagen and Mobileye, the Intel-owned computer vision firm, have also announced a plan to launch a stand-alone commercial telephone service in Israel in 2019.


Reach now

Reach now
Photo of Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

The cooperation between BMW and Daimler will take the form of five separate companies: Reach Now for multimodal services; Charge now to load EV; Free now for the taxi ride; Park Now for parking; and share now for car-sharing. Each company has its own CEO, and the two builders will function as shareholders, overseeing a strategy at large without interfering with the company's operations.

For years, both companies have managed their own mobility projects separately. BMW had Reach Now and Drive Now, carpool services in the United States and Europe, respectively. Daimler owned Car2Go, the world's largest carpooling network, and MyTaxi, an application similar to Uber. These services will now be renamed under the terms of the joint venture.

At the press conference, Zetsche said companies could offer users assurances that their data would be stored securely, among recent questions about how technology companies handle individuals' personal information. Zetsche said he does not want to criticize tech companies, but said BMW and Daimler have a century-old history of "an incredible base of trust" because users relied on them for the safety of their vehicles. could be confident 'of the security of their data in our hands. "

All business mobility companies will not be subject to the joint venture. For example, Daimler plans to launch a robot taxi service with Bosch automotive technology provider in San Jose, California, in the second half of 2019. The pilot will use a Daimler Mobility-enabled on-demand service application. Services.

Similarly, BMW has promised to unveil its own autonomous electric car in 2021. The German manufacturer is part of a super group including Intel, Mobileye and Fiat Chrysler, which works to develop semi-autonomous and fully autonomous technologies. for production vehicles.

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