Tesla Leads Canadian Electric Automobile Market With Model S

Sales of Tesla Motors are greater than that of any other electric vehicle maker in Canada.

Tesla Motors is growing in Canada. The dominance of American electric vehicle maker in the plugin electric vehicle market seems to be assured, if the deliveries it made in the quarters ended in March, September and June were 242, 255 and 250. Those have proved to be the three highest sales on a monthly basis for every plugin electric automobile in the US neighborhood, and the company delivered 150% more automobiles across the globe in the 4^th quarter as in its past best quarter.

With registration of 104 Tesla vehicles in November – its ninth consecutive 3 digit sales month, the company only needs 214 deliveries in December to reach 2000 for the year. That will improve the past-best yearly sales of plug-in automobiles in Canada, totally by around 33.33%, Chevy sold 1521 Volts two years ago.

Even surpassed by its California based cousin, Chevy Volt succeeded with an exceptional December with 220 vehicles sold. That figure slightly increased from 172 in November, and only 2 less than its best month in Canada (April 2014), when oil was sold for $104 per barrel.

The performance is all very impressive provided that December has consistently proved to be the third most sluggish month of 2015 for automotive sales in the North American country, beating only February and January.

In 2015, Chevrolet succeeded in selling 1426 Volts in Canada. That is slightly down from 1521 deliveries in 2014, but it is an excellent result, assuming the efficiency of fuel does not bother consumers.

In the meantime, Nissan Leaf has continued at a steady pace, not affected by the sluggish sales in 2015 witnessed in the U.S. 122 deliveries in December were the eighth time in 9 months it made 3-digits sales and almost same as the monthly sales of 121 vehicles during that period of time. Sales increased for the fourth consecutive year, as it reached 1233 deliveries from 1085 deliveries made in 2014.

Bayerische Motoren Werke delivered 46 i-series automobiles in December. Whereas the split between the sales of i8 sport coupes and i3 hatchbacks would be unavailable until the registration of vehicles, the i3 seems to have delivered 360 to 380 automobiles in 2015 (up from 199 in 2014) with the addition of 200 i8 vehicles sold.

The Mitsubishi i-MiEV delivered 11 vehicles in December, well for 121 units in the year, arresting a 2-year decline in sales and six more automobiles than the 115 units delivered in the United States past year. While the improved kei car has loyal enthusiasts and fans, the subcompact has proved to be as undersized for roads in North America as the Ford F-150 has been over sized for streets in Japan. 

Reed Hastings Satisfied With Netflix Account Sharing

Users can easily share Netflix accounts with friends and family without feeling guilty, since the CEO of the company does not mind.

Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings, stated under the radar at the Consumer Electronics Shows in Las Vegas that customers sharing Netflix account is a ‘positive thing’. Generally, account sharing is close to breaking the laws in the world of online streaming but evidently, service providers do not seem to have much issue with it.

Initially, HBO’s CEO also did not objected to the users sharing their HBO Go accounts with family and friends. The President of HBO, Richard Plepler, stated that this is a great way of marketing the service with the next generation. He added that this entire network was in the business of creating and attracting addicts. The online streaming media company did just that by making its service available and reachable to people easily.

Mr. Hasting stated that ‘account sharers’ are potential long paying customers who use their friends’ accounts for a while and move on to become regular subscribers in the near future. At the CES, he said that the company loves it when customers share accounts whether there are two or ten people on the same couch and he emphasized on the fact that it is a positive aspect.

Through this option, more users can login to the same account at the same time without any discrepancies. Even though the streaming media giant has given the option of family accounts on which they can make their personal profile, users still prefer to use other peoples’ account. As long as the CEO is satisfied, it does not seem to be an issue. He added to the statement that it is not a problem for the company as mostly kids use someone else’s account but once they have an income, they go on to subscribe separately.

On the other hand, at the CES, the CEO also announced that the streaming service is now available in over 130 countries all across the world. Initially, it had mentioned that it will take at least 2 to 3 years to be in over 200 countries but it is quite evident that the media organization is only 70 countries away from its target. However, one of the biggest countries that still do not have the service is China. Due to this announcement, the stock price increased drastically.

At this point, a normal Netflix subscription costs $10 monthly in the United States for the service to be viewed on two separate screens while $12 for fur screens.

Arx Pax Would Help Fulfill Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Dream

The technology offered by Arx Pax would manufacture prototype engines for the Hyerloop transportation system proposed by Elon Musk

A Hoverboard company would let Tesla’s founder Elon Musk ease the difficulties of commuters. Technology offered by the organization that helped introduce Hendo Hoverboard would be employed for the development of prototype engines to fulfill South African born entrepreneur’s dream of establishing a Hyperloop high speed transportation system.

Arx Pax has been selected for the showcasing of its Hover Engines at the Hyperloop Competition Design Weekend held at the Texas A&M University, the organization made an announcement on Thursday. More than hundred engineering groups from all over the world will be participating in the competitive event on 29^th and 30^th January for the development of automobiles or pods for the one mile long Hyperloop testing track of Space X  in Hawthorne, California.

Testing of the track would be done in the later part of 2016. Hyperloop is aiming to transport cars and people across Calif at speeds reaching 800mph.

The Hover Engines utilize Magnetic Field Architecture technology of Arx Pax to offer magnetic levitation. CEO of Arx Pax spoke to FoxNews.com that an integrated system is offered by the engines for levitation propulsion, guidance and braking.  “Not only is there lift, you can redirect some of the force to use for braking, thrust, or for movement in any direction,” he stated. “People have been trying to do this for many years.”

The concept’s initial MFA proof was the hover board pioneered by the Hendo Hover subsidiary that was established in Oct, 2014. MFA is continuing for the generation of a lot of buzz- Arx Pax has even touted the technology as a mechanism to defend structures and people in natural calamities like earthquakes.

In 2015, the organization even signed a Space Act contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to focus on the usage of MFA for building micro- satellite capture products that could couple and manipulate satellites from a distance.

In other news, Reno Gazette- Journal has analyzed that Tesla’s Gigafactory has fallen short of its projected economic impact on capital investment and job generation used for persuading legislators for approving a record making tax incentive package for the venture.

According to public documentation’s review the venture has generated only a fraction of capital investment, job opportunities and payroll estimated for the factory’s first year in a study conducted by the Office of Economic Development o of Governor during the special session held 2 years ago.

Car scoops reported that the electric vehicle maker’s Supercharger station has been cleared in an investigation conducted into a fire that burned Model S of Tesla at a charging facility in Norway. The investigation has discovered that the fire took place in the automobile itself. However, it failed to find out the factor responsible for the incident as the vehicle was fully gutted.

Ford To Offer Insider Discounts To Buyers

Ford Motors Company would let its workers pass insider discounts to buyers who do not own any Ford car or truck

Ford Motors has started to offer a new promotion that will let the retirees and workers pass the insider discount to any consumers who don’t have a Ford truck or car, a rare move intending to boost store traffic during a time when the sales of new cars are going through a sluggish phase.

A notice distributed to the dealerships and confirmed by the spokeswoman of Ford has revealed that the Michigan based organization, whose American market share was flat in 2015, took the new measure on 8^th January and would be running it through 29^th February. Purchasers, availing the discount offered to employees- a rate usually reserved for employees and their primary family on which they can purchase a new Lincoln or Ford vehicle at a price many thousands of US dolls lesser than market price.

This has happened twice in less than 90 days. The company has stretched an insider deal for regular consumers, a move like the worker-discounts- for-all deals that got popular 10 years ago but led to a price battle that dented profits in the end.

In November, the automaker introduced a Friends & Neighbors pricing event that offered the customers same rate of discount as of suppliers and other partners. The program ended one month earlier after it failed to resonate with consumers, who were  much interested in straight up cash bonuses and zero percent financing.

Only purchasers who are provided a special PIN code from a retiree or worker could file an application for getting the discount to their procurement. The automaker has successfully posted record profits on a quarterly basis in the North American region but in 2015 its market share got reduced from 15% to 14.9% in the last year because of top seller F-150 truck’s tight supply.

Some of the analysts believe that the demand for trucks and cars in the United States would probably level off this year, after the automotive industry sold around 17.5 million record automobiles in 2015. As sales plateau, automobile manufacturers would need to rely heavily on selling incentives to ensure that buyers remain motivated.

The new pricing offer was initially reported by Automotive News. In other news, Dayton daily news has reported that Ford would invest $900 million on the transmission plant based in Sharonville. Work is already being done at the plant for tearing out older machinery and making space for the installation of new equipment as part of the millions of dollar worth investment which the automaker would make in the facility, stated official of United Auto Workers Tim Meadors.

The investment has followed a contract approved by workers of Ford and UAW’s members in November.

Google Chrome Upgraded To Reduce Loading Time Of Websites

Google's new algorithm, Brotli, would load pages faster than any other algorithm.

Google’s newly introduced data compression algorithm could load websites faster. Users of Chrome must be expecting to find a performance upgrade in the nearby future as the technology giant has launched new technology to speed up the loading process.

The new compression algorithm of Google, known as Brotli, would probably be launched in the upcoming stable release of Chrome, official of the company ‘ilya Grigorik’ mentioned on Google+ on January 19, 2016. The enterprise first introduced Brotli in September last year, but shared no details regarding when the upgrade will be offered at that moment.

The company told that the efficiency of Brotli would be 20% and 26% greater than the existing compression algorithm, Zopfil, adding that the smaller compression size would be resulting in speedier page loads. Those using Chrome on phones would probably see other advantages too, like lower fees of data transfer and reduced battery consumption.

Data compression is a procedure used to minimize data so that it becomes convenient for transferring while requiring less space. When data compression is done in denser manner, it is able to move along the web faster whereas using fewer resources. Brotli is open sourced by Google, which would let other tech companies incorporate the new algorithm into the browsers owned by them as well.

Patrick McManus of Mozilla earlier stated FireFox would be adding support for the new user-friendly algorithm too, but did not clearly mentioned when it would be launched for customers. The introduction of the algorithm has also indicated that the company intends to turn the procedure of waiting for websites to load into a convenient one for users.

In 2015, Google started a new venture known as Accelerated Mobile Pages, which is a new method for presenting news articles in mobile search results that provided them with the ability to load at a faster speed.

In other news, Fortune has reported that some users of Android have reported the capability to install an app from the search results of Google, instead of opening Play Store for the purpose.

It seems that the latest feature is presently being tested at a limited scale. Some of the users have reported that they access the feature since December. People can now find out whether their Google account offers the feature by clicking on the pre-installed search bar on the home screen of Android device or by using the Google Search app. 

IBM Builds Project Sapphire With University of Michigan

IBM and University of Michigan are collaborating to make a computer for advising undergraduate engineering and computer science students.

IBM and University of Michigan have announced to manufacture a computer capable of responding to conversation in the same manner as humans communicate with each other.

Project Sapphire is an undertaking worth £3.14 million ($4.5m) that would first see computers advising undergraduate engineering and computer science students on academic issues at the university. The research would find out how smart machineries interact with people and apply the same to more situations to conduct a successful conversation.

The venture would be initiated by collating human-to-human conversation between pupils and their advisors, which would then be used to teach problem solving and natural conversation to computers.

"Natural conversations bring in so many different aspects of human intelligence—knowledge, context, goals and emotion, for instance. In many ways, to build a versatile conversational system is a grand challenge for artificial intelligence," stated University of Michigan professor of engineering and computer science, Satinder Singh Baveja.

Computers would learn by using probability as a basis to reasoning rather than context. Learning, knowledge, emotional analysis and understanding of language could do much well in accuracy, IBM stated.

David Nahamoo at IBM told, "Human-to-machine interactions, similar to human-to-human conversations, are rarely confined to one question and one answer. They involve multiple turns of a conversation with responses that can be imprecise and unclear, making it difficult to simulate the human experience."

Mr. Nahamoo further elaborated that by collaborating with the American university, IBM has achieved the best opportunity to use artificial intelligence technologies beyond the educational sector to transform human to machinery communication.

In other news, the company is launching its cloud-based IBM Dynamic service for retailers to track their rival’s prices and latest market data to adjust their prices accordingly. This would be including factors, such as financial objectives, conversion rates, time of day, availability of inventory, social sentiment, market demand, and weather – all of these are known for affecting shopping habits of consumers.

Dynamic pricing would let organizations track and follow changes in the marketplace and adjust their strategy to make sure they are not left behind, as a large number of online shoppers now expect to get the best concessions by searching around many retailers.

The facility would automatically recommend prices in real-time when it ‘thinks’ that the action needs to be taken. Such predictions can be beneficial not only for retailers but for the entire e-commerce industry if the scope and capacity is enhanced.

Google Maps Uses Autopredict Feature To Facilitate People In Navigation and Direction

Google Maps would now predict the intended destination of user and guides accordingly.

Google has found out a way to find out people’s destination. Google Maps discreetly made an addition of a new feature in its recent update, which predicts about where one is heading and provides directions on the go.

A tech blog covering the Android ecosystem, Android Police, first noted the new feature, which is well hidden inside Google Maps app. Life Hacker explained how one could activate it. If one often uses Google Maps, “Driving Mode” would be useful, which would predict the destination of a user, preload the available route that is best for driving, and give travel updates to users.

Google Maps might pull work and home address, which most users save in the app, including places one has recently searched. It would also avail data on the driving routes used by users usually for trying and figuring out their way. Therefore, if a user typically drives home after working around 6pm, Google Maps would remember and pull up directions to one’s house automatically.

Prediction facilities make the applications of the search engine developer more useful and powerful for users, but the organization has something out of that as well: a valuable treasure trove of data. Google would recognize of where one wants to go, and when. As a large number of people use the feature, the better it becomes.

The data could also possibly be used to fuel the ambitions of Google in the market for driverless cars. Of course, the users of the feature would have to sacrifice their privacy. With Google Maps gathering information on where and when one is going, “Driving Mode” would seem ‘creepy’ to some. Still, in the absence of all the data, predictive facilities will be useless.

The company is working to develop driverless vehicles for years now, but efforts are elevated in the past few months. In September past year, the division appointed the former CEO of Hyundai United States. Bloomberg reported self-driving unit was moving out of Google X laboratories to turn into a fully-fledged entity under Alphabet.

Gathering data is quite significant to make driverless cars safer and accurate. With the search giant reportedly considering using its vehicles for a cab service, it is not difficult to imagine a Google car picking one up from work and dropping him/her at house. With huge players, such as Tesla, already delivering semi-autonomous vehicles, data provided by Google Maps could provide itself an advantage. 

Ford Lincoln Luxury Sedan Focuses On Pushing Into China

Ford Lincoln Luxury Sedan Focuses On Pushing Into China

Ford Motors Company made an announcement with fanfare that it will be reintroducing its famous Lincoln Continental luxurious sedan with its focus on selling in the growing Chinese automotive market.

Now, as the Michigan-based organization gets ready to launch Continental in market, it is facing a very different financial landscape. As the vehicle would probably bolster the efforts of Ford to strengthen Lincoln in America, its chances in China have been clouded by a general sluggish growth in the sales of automobiles and upheaval in the stock market.

At the launch of Continental’s production version on January 12, 2016 at the North American International Auto Show, Ford’s executive told that economic problems in the most populated country had undaunted them and they were continuing to act according to their  plans.

“We are in China for the long term,” said Kumar Galhotra, Ford’s official heading the Lincoln unit. “It’s a very vibrant economy that’s going to have short-term ups and downs.” He further said that sales of Lincoln in China had grown at a steady pace since the brand’s entrance in the market in November 2014. In 2015, 11,000 vehicles were sold, but Lincoln’s recognition amongst a large number of Chinese customers was limited.

Despite the fluctuations in the stock market of China in the past six months and the rippling impact on rich car buyers, Mr. Kumar stated he had not seen any impact on the growth of sales. “We are ahead both in our volume targets and our dealership targets,” he said. In America, where it would also be offered for sales in 2016, the new automobile has a huge history, as it had epitomized elegance in the 1960s before it faded in obscurity and stopped being produced in 2002.

The carmaker delivered 101,000 units of Lincoln in America in 2015, a growth of 7% from 2014. The model would be a well-known addition to the US lineup of the brand, but it is meant to become a linchpin in the broader ambitions of Ford for Lincoln in the Southeast Asian country.

Up till now, Ford is having 33 Lincoln automotive dealers in China, with an objective of increasing 60% later in 2016. After adding Continental, Lincoln would be offering five models in the country, which Ford CEO Mark Fields referred to as “meaningful progress” for a fledging brand.

Because Ford dropped Continental from Lincoln portfolio over 10 years ago, the designers of the company were unusually free for updating the image and styling of the automobile. 

Saudi Aramco Mega IPO Expected To Surpass Alibaba IPO Soon

Saudi Aramco's huge IPO would be able to get ahead of AliBaba's IPO by a huge margin.

Alibaba would no longer be known for having the largest IPO. An IPO of just a part of Saudi Aramco would compete with the offering of Alibaba as the largest in history, creating a windfall to underwrite banks but the state-controlled oil company is still facing a number of issues, analysts told.

The estimation of the Saudi organization’s total value is at $1 trillion to $10 trillion, as it is controlling the second biggest crude reserves of the world. By comparison, the leading state owned oil company ‘Exxon Mobil’ is having a market capitalization of around $310 billion.

Based on the lower level estimate of Aramco, an offer of even a 5% share will succeeded in raising $50bn – 100% greater than what the Hangzhou based company raised 2 years ago. Agricultural Bank of China’s second biggest IPO in 2010 received $19.2 billion.

Among leading American IPOs, Facebook received $16bn 4 years ago and Visa raised $17.8bn 8 years ago. Analyst at Renaissance Capital, Tiffany Ng, emailed to IBD, "The Aramco IPO would easily be the largest IPO ever and will more likely consist of certain subsidiaries rather than the whole company.”

Defense Minister and Deputy Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Muhammad Bin Salman, spoke to the Economist recently that 5% of the Arabian company can be initially offered in Saudi Capital Riyadh, with more in later times. A decision regarding the offer might be taken "the next few months."

Many have speculated that the IPO will focus on the company’s subsidiaries, refining operations or joint ventures, but the listing of the major enterprise, which earns most of the government revenues and plays an important role for setting the international oil markets tone, is also likely.

"We are considering a listing at the top," Chairman of Aramco ‘Khalid al-Falih’ spoke to the Wall Street Journal on January 11, 2016 indicating "a listing of the main company, and obviously the main company will include upstream," referring to production and exploration assets.

Global financial giants that have seen fees of investment banking cut down by 8% in 2015 are eager for reaping a hefty payback from Aramco. Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan Chase have all been working with Aramco previously and would probably become large contenders in every IPO.

JP Morgan’s stock closed up at 0.2% on the stock market on January 13, 2016. Citigroup went up by 0.1%, whereas HSBC climbed up by 0.5%. Alibaba rallied by almost 4% and Exxon Mobil edged up by around 2%.

The stock market of KSA will not be able to easily absorb the size of Aramco, which means that it might need to enter deeper markets like Hong Kong, New York or London, said Tiffany from Renaissance Capital.

Qualcomm Asks American Court For Documents In Korean investigation

Qualcomm wants to get documents from seven tech companies for winning a legal battle.

Qualcomm has taken a step to win a legal battle by asking an American federal court to force some of its largest rivals and customers, including Samsung Electronics and Apple, to give every documents they gave to the South Korean antitrust authorities, which are conducting an investigation against the chipmaker.

The move, which a number of legal experts have referred to as unusual method, risks setting off court disputes with organizations, including Qualcomm’s two prime buyers. The South Korean organization and Apple devices manufacturers contributed to over 10% of the sales revenue earned by Qualcomm in the financial year ending in September.

The semi-conductor manufacturer recently lodged applications in the American District Court in San Jose, California for subpoenas that will provide an opportunity to get documents or other evidence from 7 organizations. The rest of the named parties are Via Technologies, Broadcom, Texas Instruments, Intel Corporation and MediaTek’s US arm.

Those five organizations delivered chips used in smartphones that battle with the company’s wireless modem chips or processors. Apple and Samsung, besides being customers of Qualcomm, manufacture processors utilized in the smartphones manufactured by them.

Representatives of Samsung, Apple, Via and Intel didn’t commented, whereas their rivals at MediTek and Broadcom could not be reached. In its most recent court documents, the company said that it's seeking details, which could play a role in preparing for antitrust proceedings to be held in the South Korean region probably in the upcoming spring.

It stated that seven organizations supplied testimony and documents to officials of Korea Fair Trade Commission that have been kept secret under the procedures of South Korea. Though Qualcomm leads the market for mobile chips, it earns a major portion of its profits from the patent royalties it charges.

Its authorizing practices have led to antitrust inquiries on 3 continents, inclusive of a pending inquiry conducted by the United States Federal Trade Commission and an investigation in China which ended last year. A focus that has recurred is the practice of Qualcomm to charge royalty to smartphone manufacturers depending upon a portion of their products’ wholesale prices. The company does not license its technology to rest of the parties like chip manufacturers who deliver their products for lower prices.

If Qualcomm bases its royalties on products offered for lower prices, then it would earn lower royalty. Its settlement with authorities of China did not threaten that scheme, but it stated in November that such “per device” royalties were declared illegal by KFTC’s staff. 

Amazon Puts Pieces Together To Introduce Package Delivery Facility

Amazon wants to deliver packages itself instead of relying on other companies.

Amazon is about to dominate the package delivery industry. Within a short time, it would start to directly compete with longtime collaborators, DHL, FedEx, and United Parcel Service, but not in the US. It is probable that during the first quarter, the American e-commerce company would purchase 75% of the French package delivery service, Colis Privé.

Though the European organization is small when compared to multinationals that are moving Amazon parcels across the globe, the procurement would be the biggest measure up till now that the ecommerce organization has taken to make an entrance into the package delivery business for others and itself. It has stated little regarding its intentions. Last year, it purchased one-fourth stake in the French organization.

A spokesperson told the French publication ‘Le Figaro’ in 2014 that the agreement to purchase the other parts of the business would be closing early in 2015. The unidentified spokesperson said the package delivery company would continue to deliver packages for all clients, not only Amazon.

“This purchase doesn’t call into question our work with all the other logistics providers (UPS, La Poste, DHL, FedEx),” the spokesperson spoke to the French publication. “And it’s out of the question for Colis Privé to only deliver for Amazon. The company will continue developing its commercial portfolio.”

Amazon’s representative refused to comment on the plans to participate in the shipping business or Colis Privé. Many analysts are holding the belief that it is putting pieces together across the world to introduce a package delivery facility that would start competing with FedEx, UPS and others.

Apart from Colis Privé, Amazon purchased the right to buy 4.2% of British parcel delivery, Yodel, in 2015. In December, it further made an announcement to add a large number of trucks to its American fleet to manage the increasing burden of its shipments.

The Seattle Times also reported in December that Amazon negotiated to lease 20 Beijing 767 cargo jets, which will represent a vital growth of the company’s cargo trial that Air Transport Services Group operates on its behalf.

The online retailer is interested in building out its own American cargo operations to make sure that delays from package delivery companies, such as FedEx and UPS are avoided. These organizations have not been able to meet the needs of e-commerce sector at times.

In other news, Mirror has reported the Seattle-based company’s offer extensions to members of Amazon Prime free of charge and made repayments after streaming stopped for users with some television models. The problem was faced due to a compatibility issue with some models of Sony Bravia and Samsung televisions.