One of the more interesting announcements at the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show was that Nvidia and Mercedes are working on AI in the Mercedes-Benz automobiles.   While Mercedes is researching self-driving cars, in the meantime they offer AI enhancements to the overall automobile use experience. Mercedes announced that it will offer a Virtual Assistant which is supposed to offer a mix of proactive and empathetic interactions. It is supposed to model four emotions and adapt them to the needs, preferences and moods of the humans. While personally I don’t want my car chatting me up, it might come in handy when kids are riding in the back – let the AI handle “Are we there yet?” questions. Mercedes will, supposedly, train large language model (artificial intelligence) to know the history of Mercedes vehicles, but also the know the manual/handbook for a particular model, as well as status of the vehicle information.  Drivers will be able to have a conversa ... read more

Hertz car rental company is selling about 20,000 electric vehicles, including Teslas. Apparently the cost of collision damage for EVs is causing Hertz to rethink their commitment to convert 25% of their rental fleet to electric vehicles by the end of 2024 - clearly this will not happen. Sine a number of customers driving EVs were involved in collisions, Hertz decided to lessen the chance of future collisions involving EVs, by limiting the torque and speed of their EVs. It has not been widely reported, but collision shop owners are thrilled with the EVs, as their high acceleration results in increased probability of a collision, at least until drivers get used to driving EVs. So while there are headwinds facing the EV industry, as individuals we may benefit from Hertz's sale. You can check out their website, apparently in addition to Tesla's Model 3, they also have BMW's i3 and Chevrolet's Bolt for sale. Naturally when you consider used EV purchase, you should keep in ... read more