Mercedes has sold the most expensive car in the world and sharpened its strategy, Tesla relies on Twitter bots and we ponder the rest of the week's news in a closed session.
At this point we recently found that the German premium manufacturers are orienting themselves upwards when it comes to cars and customers and at the same time geographically further away (from home). Regardless of where the people who will drive such a vehicle live in the future, it would be nice if they could spend plenty of money. Mercedes for example, has now defined a new strategy that focuses on growth, especially in the most expensive segment. There is enough money with the rich, luxury is in general and as a German brand you have to play along.
Expensive fun
Not that we have anything against it. In the top segment in particular, dream cars are sometimes created that prove their sustainability by simply surviving. The Uhlenhaut coupé has just been auctioned off. When the hammer fell at 135 million euros, the world had a new most expensive car. The proceeds go to a fund for educational and research institutions in the field of decarbonization and thus not to the in-house research and development budget for the high-powered dream cars of tomorrow. After all, Mercedes will spend 75 percent of its budget on luxury cars in the future.
From a purely business point of view it is completely logical, after all, generating decent profits in the long term is also part of a good company. And in this sense it is probably of little use if you build sustainable small cars for the environment that nobody then buys. Fortunately, we only have to observe such things and not decide.
The Tesla fan named Bot
Our old friend Elon is probably being watched by the stock exchange regulator again. It was probably noticeable that the price of Tesla shares also likes to move when there is a lot of tweeting about the company on Twitter. And it was noticeable that not only Tesla fans make their contribution, but also a lot of bots who pretend to be fans.
A trick that conspiracy theorists and friends of very right-wing ideas as well as notorious Putin understanders use in this country to set topics. Musk now seems to feel connected to them. Meanwhile, he begins haggling over Twitter, and by doing so, is once again manipulating the course of the company he's about to buy in order to communicate even more directly with his fans. A rogue who thinks evil of it. Meanwhile, the Tesla share price fell from just over 1.000 euros at the end of April to 666 euros this week. I guess not everyone liked what the news brought.
Autonomous driving level 4 has chances in the future
Speaking of news. We recommend a self-driving car for the future to everyone who can't stop reading the news on their smartphone while driving. On Friday, the Federal Council cleared the way for the use of Level 4 vehicles, i.e. vehicles without a driver. In the end, it was probably still about topics such as securing accident sites with a warning triangle, which is usually the responsibility of the driver, but who is not present. In any case, as a user of an autonomous car, you no longer have to laboriously reflect the content of your smartphone onto the display, but can read your messages in the comfort of your own home.
Well, that's not entirely true. At home, as we learned this week, a majority of people not only in Germany, but also in other European countries and the USA read the smartphone messages during non-public meetings in the toilet. This is likely to be difficult in a self-driving car in the future. On the other hand, drivers 50 years ago probably could not imagine that such a vehicle had more to do with a communication center than with locomotion.
And if the market demands self-propelled toilets in the hopefully distant future, someone will build them, gladly and especially in the luxury segment. The German premium manufacturers are probably already working on a quiet place. Is there anything else? Next week again.