Uber announced on Monday that its autonomous driving unit known as ATG, will be acquired by Aurora Innovation Inc., a startup company that will gain extra capital from Uber as part of the deal. The appeal to Uber is that it takes driverless cars off the Uber balance sheet. Uber owned approximately 86% of ATG at the end of September with small stakes in Toyota and its supplier Denso. After this new deal, Uber will own about 26% of ATG.

The acquisition means that Uber will not need to consolidate the expense of developing driverless cars. The deal also helps to alleviate Uber of liability surrounding the Waymo scandal, where Waymo sued Uber for stealing trade secrets, followed by a pedestrian accident with an Uber test vehicle.

Having larger partners is important as driverless cars need to be integrated with technology. The deal will also give Aurora a $10 billion valuation, sitting shortly behind Waymo and General Motors. This and the postdeal shareholdings imply a valuation of $4 billion for ATG—markedly down from its previous valuation—and $6 billion for the original Aurora business, which was valued at just $2.5 billion early last year.

To live up to its $10 billion price tag, Aurora will come up with a credible plan a manufacturing a safe driverless vehicle to roll out in scale. A complex merger-integration process may not make the challenge easier. Aurora has roughly 600 staff, compared with ATG’s 1,200, but Aurora boss Chris Urmson will lead the combined company.

Aurora also secured a small investment from Amazon just last year and has discussed applying its technology to the freight business.

Although Amazon technology has reached millions of homes all over the world; the idea of an intelligent voice device designed for driving seems quite innovative, to say the least. While it started as a simple portable car charger; today, Alexa-Enabled car chargers are devices that count that give you complete voice control within your car. It seems like Alexa is waving Siri and Google Assistant goodbye, and it is positioning herself as copilot.  

Amazon’s gadget counts with over twenty-five thousand Alexa skills; you can ask for directions, hear the latest news, shop online, play music, call your loved ones, and so much more. While the tool counts with a dual USB port and an AUX entry to connect up to two phones; the system was initially designed and meant to function wireless, meaning via Bluetooth. The ‘Echo voice system’ used for the car device is the exact same one incorporated in all of the other Amazon personal assistants; therefore, customers already seem familiarized to it, in fact, they have responded with very positive feedback to the new driving experience and its surprising affordability.   

Without a doubt, the greatest and most valuable part of it all has to be the safety offered for those on the road. Each one of these functions is designed to be requested and completed without the need of taking the eyes of the road, not even a second. Which as you know, that is what makes Alexa-enabled car charges a game changer; safety will always come first and then everything else.  

While it is true that Amazon’s device may completely change your car rides, it certainly does not change your car. Headquartered in Cincinnati Ohio, Swapalease.com is an online marketplace that allows drivers to list their current lease and helps match them with buyers looking to take over the remainder of that lease. It is definitely a ‘win-win’, both parties get what they are looking for; plus, it lets you enjoy the convenience of online shopping from the coziness of your home.  

For the past few years, November new-automobile income has experienced discouraging numbers, especially because of the lower number of selling days in the month. While many reputable auto brands suffered a decline in volume-based sales, their average annual profit went up higher when adjusted for the daily selling rate. Although, the devastating effects of this year’s pandemic seem to continue; there is a slow yet consistent recovery process happening on the new-automobile industry. COVID-19 has evidently left a mark on the vehicle market and companies like Toyota, Subaru, and Hyundai do not seem very happy about it.  

Fortunately, as December arrives, a significant part of this year’s reports come in too; surprisingly and fortunately, they are optimistic. The reports suggest that November’s numbers were not an accurate representation of the year’s sales, they simply showed the obvious and expected consequences of what happens when there are fewer selling days than usual, implying that the annual statement looks much better and way more promising that it did last week. Nevertheless, the final and absolute declaration can only be given once the companies that report quarterly, release their statistics.  

While it is true that there was a decline in November deals, automobile manufacturers continued to increase their average in transaction prices for new cars.  According to the results shown by an evaluation done by Kelley Blue Book; Fiat, Chrysler, and General Motor vehicles were on the top of the list when it comes to price increases within the industry, 1.3 percent to be exact.  

It is no mystery that 2020 has been a tough year for most of the industries, the automobile market is no exception; however, it is going through a recovering process that has been more enthusiastic than it was expected to be. Customers have not forgotten about the importance of buying a vehicle and the guilty pleasure that comes with it, regardless of the economic challenges presented by a sudden global pandemic. As stated above, December brings hope to the global new-vehicle industry, as usual. Since the results demonstrate that November numbers did not meaningfully affect the annual profit, they leave the automobile industry with high expectations for next year and a continuing recovering process.