Tag: Volvo

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Cars

Financial Times Cars Summit 2018 // Volvo Cars

On the second day of the Financial Times Car Summit, the CEO of Volvo Cars, Håkan Samuelsson, announced that their next-generation infotainment system would be developed with Google. However, SEAT and JLR are taking another route: they plan to develop their infotainment systems in-house and thus maintain ownership of the user data. They may even develop their own app ecosystems and use the data for their advertisement platforms inside these ecosystems.

The critical issue is whether a car company can hire a computer engineer (specializing in AI and machine learning) from Apple, Facebook, Google or UBS. Usually these companies offer very generous six-figure pay cheques. Can a car company pay an AI machine-learning coder at the same level as Google?

I think it will be a serious challenge for the car industry to attract people from the tech industry. As Apple and Google are generating more revenue than the car companies, the budgets of the car companies may not be able to accommodate the necessary costs.

Therefore, it is a reasonable decision to work with Google, or alternatively Apple, on these infotainment and self-driving technologies.

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Cars

A Four-year-old Girl drives a Volvo Truck via a Remote Control

Volvo decided to create another viral video to promote the capabilities of their trucks. Instead of creating a boring video with boring content, they decided to pack the messages inside a viral video. A four-year-old girl drives a Volvo truck via a remote control, and as you would expect, she crashes and rolls the truck over during the experience.

During the funny experience, we can see that Volvo trucks are indestructible and offer leading innovations and technologies. If all this information was offered in a boring way and a someone from Volvo was making an endless speech on the technology and innovation of the truck, you wouldn’t be reading this blog post, and we wouldn’t be watching the video.

Once again, Volvo did a great job!

Volvo Truck Four Year Old

Volvo Truck Four Year Old

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Cars

Why You Should Buy a Volvo XC90 Instead of a Range Rover?

Volvo revealed the new XC90 after 12 years. It was very long product life-cycle but during this 12 years, Volvo was owned by Ford and then sold and Chinese bought it, they invested and etc. So, after the ups and downs, here is the latest Volvo XC90! And why you should buy a Volvo XC90 instead of a Range Rover?

Because, Volvo XC90 has a better build interior. Interior parts of the XC90 is better made than a Range Rover, this can be identified by the gaps between the panels. Also, the materials used inside the XC90 is high quality than the Range Rover and more importantly, XC90 has less plastic interior than the Range Rover. But Range Rover is not a bad car, just not as good as a XC90.

Also, XC90 can drive by itself at stop and go traffic but Range Rover cannot do this. Furthermore, XC90 can understand a potential accident and brake by itself but Range Rover cannot do this as well.

XC90 looks better than the Range Rover but some people may find the XC90 too conservative and head to Range Rover for its posh and posing exterior.

XC90 offer e-drive system. This means, XC90 houses a 2-lt four cylinder petrol engine with electric motor. This combination generates 400 HP with 60 g/km CO2 emission. This means in UK, no road tax and no congestion charge in London. Literally, you can go around London and pay nothing. Unfortunately, Range Rover loves to consume any type of fuel and hybrid version is nothing closer to 60 g/km emission level.

XC90 literally offers off-road capability to climb a pavement and that’s all. However, Range Rover offers an off-road technology to conqure another country. However, the Range Rover owners are be aware of this capability and Range Rover is limited with their ability.

Overall, except the off-road capabilities, Volvo XC90 offers better features with a conservative design that will not let you the VIP entrance at any Mayfair nightclub! However, you will be driving the most highly technological SUV on the market.

Photos Credits
Volvo
Categories
Cars

New Volvo XC90 Interior Photos

New Volvo XC90 interior photos are revealed few days ago. This time not a facelift, a proper new XC90! In case you are in early twenties, you may vaguely remember the days when the Volvo XC90 was brand new, like 2003!

Volvo experienced many problems, Ford sold to Chinese. They had other problems and etc. As a result of turmoils Volvo decided to shift the product life cycle of XC90 to aviation standards. Such as, never introduce a new one, just facelift it!

Hopefully, those days are gone and we have the new Volvo XC90 but don’t worry I assume it will be on production until 2025 and you will have many opportunities to see it.

Personally, I really like the interior of the new XC90 and it looks way better than the new Range Rover and well-built than Mercedes M-Class. And the iPad style, huge touch screen looks really nice but I hope it will be easy to operate the radio and climate control. I don’t think that Volvo XC90 will be offering any off road ability but you won’t need it at all. I assume, the new Volvo XC90 will be a strong competitor to Range Rover.

Pictures Copyrights
Volvo
Categories
Cars

How Volvo and Jean-Claude Van Damme Performed Split Stunt Video?

How Volvo and Jean-Claude Van Damme performed split stunt? I am sure you watched the video of Van Damme splits his legs between two Volvo trucks. It looks really scary. However, Volvo’s new steering wheel technology called Dynamic Steering system enables to control the vehicle extremely precise even on extreme conditions. And this is proofed by Van Damme, hopefully he didn’t fall off.

So how they did the split stunt video? There is a behind scenes footage and they explain the system and how safe it is for Van Damme. And Volvo emphasises that it will be performed by professional drivers without any automatic systems involved.

However, I am not that sure about that. Because, the split stunt is extremely risky performance and anything can go wrong. There should be a failsafe system to prevent any accident. For instance, the Volvo trucks may be equipped with a GPS system that controls steering wheel or guide drivers but we are talking about centimetres here. If the truck steers 5-cm more than it should, there will be a catastrophe. So there is another solution, the white lines!

If you noticed, the Volvo trucks are driving through white lines. My idea for the Volvo split stunt video is, the Volvo trucks were following the white lines. It is possible! I am sure you heard the lane assist system, they follow the lines on the road and warns you if you are leaving your lane. I assume, Volvo trucks were fitted with this system and steering wheels were controlled by the software. And pre-programmed to departure for a certain distance from the other truck.

Basically, cameras under the wing mirrors scan the white road lines and departure to second white line. Software can do this and it is very simple nowadays. As the Volvo Dynamic Steering system is computer controlled, so it is not impossible to perform.

 
Photos Credits
Volvo Trucks
Categories
Fashion

Mercedes Benz Nail Polish

Mercedes Benz; the automotive icon, one of the founder of internal combustion engine and now sells nail polish on their merchandise store. Let’s go rewind, Mercedes Benz sells nail polish for women. I heard this from a fashion blogger yesterday and I thought she confused with the brand name. But she was right, Mercedes Benz offers state-of-art nail polish set with three different colours (jupiter red, monolith grey metallic, south sea blue metallic).

Really, who is going to buy a nail polish set from Mercedes Benz merchandise store? I mean this is not Ferrari Store or Porsche Design and they both don’t offer nail polish. So, no one else should offer.

In terms of consumption perspective, the brand should create a tendency to conduct the consumption behaviour. And Mercedes Benz brand does not match well with nail polish market. This is the consequence of extreme brand extension strategy.

I am not a fan of Mercedes Benz but their cars are excellent in terms of engineering. I never criticise commitment to technology. And I am sure many people share the same thoughts.

But nail polish and Mercedes Benz merchandise, this will not work that well sorry. I think many people never heard of this merchandise store and people who heard about it, may not be interested to buy a three different colours nail polish.

So, after this post if you have the motivation to have a buy set of nail polish from Mercedes here is the link, Mercedes Benz Germany Merchandise Store :)

Volvo did the same couple of years ago, here is my post.

 
Pictures’ Copyrights
Mercedes
Categories
Cars

Rewind YouTube Style 2012 with Psy and Carly Rae Jepsen

Gangnam Style, I think Psy made the 2012 as the most YouTube involved year of the human history. Thanks to his music video Gangnam Style, which is watched nearly One Billion times changed everything. Basically, each one person out of six on this planet watched Gangnam Style at least once. (However, Microsoft Word still assumes that I made typo by writing Gangam and underlines it as red.)

And YouTube recently made a video called Rewind YouTube Style 2012. It is the mix of Psy Gangnam Style and Carly Rae Jepsen Call Me Maybe songs. And some of the other YouTube sensations were also featured on this video.

And Mercedes SLK! Come Kia and Hyundai, you missed the train on the Gangnam Style video but this time your cars should be have been there! I was expecting to Kia but end up with Mercedes. And this makes the Mercedes SLK as the year 2012’s YouTube sensations as well.

And there is one quite old Volvo S60 is hidden left of the Mercedes SLK.

Pictures’ Copyright
Mercedes
Categories
Fashion

Saab, Volvo, Nokia and IKEA: Management Issues

For many years, we adore the Scandinavian brands. They always had something different than the others! Volvo was the safest car, Saab’s technology was transferred from aerospace, and Nokia was the stylish. As you might noticed, I used past tense! Because, they all left in the past. Now Volvo is not the safest car manufacturer, fortunately every brand is safe. Saab has nothing to offer, except being Saab. Nokia is having last good days in mobile phones business and being beaten up by just one product.
Now what is next? Ikea! Just remember the last decades and how all those Scandinavian brands were glamour. But now, they lost all their fame. Okay, Volvo is getting better but there is a huge gap between the other brands and Volvo.
From all these brands, I noticed one thing in common. Scandinavian firms are really innovative and good at design, but ignore the whole world! Your brands may be the best, but we are not living in your region. So, we do not think like you. And Scandinavian firms are not that good at predicting the future and upcoming trends. I think in one decade Ikea can face the similar problems like Nokia and others. I hope they will realize what is going wrong and before things go wrong.

Pictures’ Copyrights
EuroNCAP, IKEA

Published at: http://uygarr.blogspot.com https://carsandlife.net

Categories
Fashion

Volvo S60’s lovely merchandises

I was planning to write something else for today but my blogger friend Sila sent me something which I could not avoid it :) Actually this is the most remarkable thing about a car :)
It was about Volvo and its lunatic level of brand extensions strategy. Sila is a fashion blogger and she has nothing to do with cars except driving them! As you can imagine the situation is so serious.
Volvo’s new “eye-catching” model S60 packed with attitude and driving pleasure (I don’t know how you pack a car with attitude and driving pleasure) is offering nail polishes. You didn’t read wrong, Volvo S60 has nail polishes as a brand extension strategy and it can be bought from Volvo’s merchandise store.
It offers three differently pleasuring colours! 612 R-Design Red, 481 Cosmic White, 704 Vibrant Copper, 487 Ember Black. And they are being offered by a very reasonable price of €18 (£15) but the red is cheaper €10 (£8)!
I don’t have any knowledge on nail polish colour codes but as far as I understood these codes are the Volvo S60’s colour codes. And from the press release I can understand that, when you buy a Volvo S60 with these colours you are supposed to buy the same colour nail polish!
“Volvo is probably the first car maker in the world to market nail polish. We wanted to do something a bit different, with a touch of humour and a little unexpected twist for the launch of the new car, while at the same time offering our female target group an unusual product,” says Yvonne Hall Tobiasson, Merchandise & Licensing manager at Volvo Cars’ Global Marketing department
From this point of view, I can clearly say one thing. Volvo S60 is the best female car of the century :)
By offering nail polish a part of brand extension strategy, Volvo ticked the female section in S60’s gender section and definitely avoided many male customers. I really wonder the male “potential” customers’ interpretation of these products :) When you check their website for S60, it is full of testosterone hormone :)
And from old days, Volvo S60 had a very impressive show to press and with these colours we can polish it better :)

White, Copper and Black

Red

Pictures’ and Video’s Copyrights
Volvo, Wired

Categories
Cars

Volvo vs. Mercedes

I didn’t hear from Volvo for long time, it wasn’t that popular on news. The last news from Volvo was it is owned by Chinese company and we all left Volvo on that topic. And now the Chinese officially owns the Volvo Cars. And they have a very big target! Mercedes S Class.
Volvo is planning to introduce a competitor to Mercedes S Class! No, this is not a joke. Volvo is planning on a car which can compete with Mercedes S Class, BMW 7 Series and Audi A8. As far as I see, Volvo’s new management is aware of automotive business or trying to do something impossible. In other words, what Volvo is planning to do is like dying your hair to blonde and applying to Victoria’s Secret to replace Heidi Klum with you. Because, you both have blonde hair! As usual, this is impossible. Everyone knows this. But Volvo doesn’t know it.
The basic of automotive; you cannot introduce a vehicle which is positioned above the brand’s segmentation. Basically, VW cannot sell Phaëton because VW is a car brand with reasonable price with good quality and Phaëton is a luxury car aiming for Mercedes S Class. The product and the brand are contradicting in this condition. This also happened with Peugeot 607 which was trying to compete with Mercedes E Class. Renault Safrane failed also! Also Mercedes failed with Maybach!
There are many cases like this, if an automotive brand introduces a vehicle which is beyond its environment, it fails! Volvo S90 or S (I want to compete with S Class) will fail! Okay, in Chinese market some people will buy it but just some people. Still in China, people respect German cars more than domestic ones!
Will Volvo fail in future with this pointless car? Definitely YES! And they will lose lots of money and we can imagine the rest. Instead of introducing something with high risk, just upgrade the quality of your current products. They are not bad but they are not that good either!
There is one rule in automotive, you cannot compete with Mercedes S Class! BMW 7 Series still struggling but it is much better, Audi A8 has long time eat S Class’s market share. Jaguar XJ and Maserati Quattroporte are offering something different and they are not aiming to be the leader of this segment. So, this game is over for your Volvo.
Pictures’ Copyright
Mercedes, Audi, BMW, Volvo, Heidi Klum Website