Amazon.com Inc has hired a top General Motors Co (GM) executive, a source familiar with the move said on Thursday, in a further sign of the technology giant’s likely expansion into autonomous vehicles.
The tech group’s new executive is Alicia Boler Davis, head of GM’s global manufacturing operations.
Amazon had no immediate comment on the hiring of Davis, which was reported earlier by CNBC.
GM earlier on Thursday said in a statement that Davis was leaving “to pursue other opportunities” after 25 years with the Detroit, Michigan-based auto giant.
Amazon, which has moved beyond its online retail roots into cloud computing, streaming media and artificial intelligence, last month said that it was leading a US$700 million investment round in Rivian Automotive LLC, a young self-driving auto technology firm.
The potential Tesla Inc rival late last year unveiled an electric pickup truck and an electric sport utility vehicle at the Los Angeles Auto Show.
Amazon has also invested in autonomous driving tech firm Aurora Innovation, founded by former Google, Tesla and Uber Technologies Inc executives, and it has deployed its own autonomous delivery robots.
Separately, French ride-sharing platform BlaBlaCar yesterday said that it would launch long-distance bus services in Germany, taking on the near-monopoly in the hands of competitor Flixbus.
The company plans to link up 60 cities in Germany and the Benelux Union with its BlaBlaBus lines, CEO Nicolas Brusson told business daily Handelsblatt.
Passengers could complete their journeys to destinations not served by the bus network using BlaBlaCar’s ride-sharing platform, he said.
The company’s first German lines could begin operation in a few months, depending on how smoothly talks go with local bus firms, he added.
BlaBlaCar would organize the timetables and sell tickets online or via mobile apps, while the buses themselves would be run by subcontractors.
“We will of course offer very attractive fares early on” to challenge Flixbus’ low-cost offerings, Brusson said.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
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