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https://www.theverge.com/23172839/mercedes-benz-ceo-ola-kallenius-electric-vehicles-self-driving-luxury-tech-g-class>
"Mercedes-BenzMercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius became CEO in 2019 but has been
working for Mercedes since 1993 in almost every part of the company. During
that period, Mercedes spent time getting a lot bigger; the company famously
merged with Chrysler for a time, forming a giant called DaimlerChrysler. But,
over the past few years, it’s actually been getting much smaller and more
focused. The Chrysler deal was undone and, just recently, Ola spun off the
truck division into its own public company called Daimler Truck, leaving
Mercedes-Benz to stand alone as a premium car brand.
Car companies are either consolidating into giant conglomerates like Stellantis
or shrinking and focusing like Mercedes. A lot of that is driven by the huge
shift to electric vehicles and then, on top of that, to cars essentially
becoming rolling computers. You’ll hear Ola refer to cars as “digital products”
a lot — and to Mercedes itself as a tech company. (Actually, he says it’s a
luxury and tech company.)
Mercedes now has two new EVs, the EQS and the EQE, both of which have massive
infotainment screens running Mercedes’ proprietary MBUX system, which even has
its own voice assistant called Hey Mercedes. I had to ask Ola about Apple’s
recent announcement that the next version of CarPlay would be able to take over
every display in the car, including the instrument cluster. Apple showed a
Mercedes logo on a slide during that presentation — so, is Ola ready to hand
over his UI to Cupertino?
Let’s find out. Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-Benz. Here we go."
Via Wayne Radinsky.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
