BMW and Daimler to team up in push toward self-driving cars - CNBC

Andrzej Wojcicki | Science Photo Library | Getty Images

BMW and Mercedes-manufacturer Daimler announced a new partnership on Thursday to develop autonomous driving.

Some 1,200 technicians from the two German auto giants will team up in a bid to develop self-driving technology. The engineers will work toward driver-assistance systems, automated driving on highways as well as parking. The firms say the technology will be specified to what industry insiders call SAE level 4.

"Further talks are planned to extend the cooperation to higher levels of automation in urban areas and city centers," BMW said in a joint statement.

SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) levels determine the automation capabilities of vehicles, ranking from zero to five.

Level 4 vehicles can intervene if things go wrong or if there is a system failure. The car can perform all functions itself, although a manual override is available to a driver.

Daimler and BMW said they are targeting 2024 as a key date for installing the technology in cars available to the general public.

The automakers said the cooperation is "non-exclusive" and partner manufacturers and technology firms will take part in the work.

They added that the results won't be kept secret and other firms can see the conclusions "under license."

Safer than a human?

On Tuesday, the two German companies joined with nine other firms to publish a white paper on driverless technology, entitled "Safety First for Automated Driving."

The report aims to draft worldwide industry standards for tackling the risks of self-driving cars and trucks.

Authors and experts from the firms involved say they aim to present the paper's principles and findings at auto industry and technology conferences over the next few months.

BMW said the main goal of the paper is to create a situation where an autonomously-driven vehicle is proven to be safer than one involving full human control.

Other participants in the document included Audi, Baidu, Continental, Fiat Chrysler, Here Technologies, Infineon, Intel, Volkswagen and Aptiv.

Now watch: Uber unveils its autonomous car

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/04/self-driving-car-push-by-bmw-and-daimler-joint-venture.html

2019-07-04 10:46:23Z
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Samsung charged with misleading Galaxy phone owners over water resistance - The Verge

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking Samsung to court over allegations it misled customers over the nature of various phones’ water resistance. Samsung has been depicting phones in or near to unsuitable environments such as swimming pools and oceans since 2016, the ACCC alleges, when it didn’t have a basis to make this representation.

“The ACCC alleges Samsung’s advertisements falsely and misleadingly represented Galaxy phones would be suitable for use in, or for exposure to, all types of water, including in ocean water and swimming pools, and would not be affected by such exposure to water for the life of the phone, when this was not the case,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said in a statement. The lawsuit is based on a review of more than 300 advertisements.

Various Galaxy phones are advertised as having IP68 water resistance, meaning that they can last in waters 1.5 meters deep for 30 minutes. But as the ACCC points out, that doesn’t cover all types of water, and Samsung itself says that the Galaxy S10 isn’t advised for beach use. “Samsung showed the Galaxy phones used in situations they shouldn’t be to attract customers,” Mr Sims says, arguing that consumers value water resistance as a feature and were denied an informed choice.

Samsung tells Reuters that it’s standing by its marketing and plans to fight the case.

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2019-07-04 07:28:24Z
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Canada's missed opportunity: Pot industry now being run out of the U.S. - The Globe and Mail

With Bruce Linton’s firing, it’s now all too clear that the biggest companies in Canadian cannabis are run out of New York and the state of Washington.

An industry that this country seemed destined to lead when the federal Liberals legalized recreational cannabis last October is increasingly dominated by foreigners. The opportunity to create global cannabis champions, based in Canada, appears to be vanishing. There should be a conversation around that issue, in political and business circles, before the biggest head offices all disappear.

The trailblazing Mr. Linton, who created what’s now an $18-billion company out of an abandoned Hershey chocolate factory, lost his job because his visionary approach for Canopy Growth Corp. didn’t fit with the predictable, quarter-by-quarter profits demanded by Constellation Brands Inc. chief executive Bill Newlands, a booze-industry veteran and Harvard Business School grad.

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Canopy Growth’s Bruce Linton out as co-CEO and board member

For Canopy’s Bruce Linton, his biggest deal was his undoing

Canopy Growth’s Bruce Linton amassed more than $200-million during his time as company’s co-CEO

Constellation dropped $5-billion last August to gain effective control of Canopy. What Mr. Newlands wants, he gets.

Moving down a list of Canada’s largest cannabis companies, you find Nanaimo, B.C.-based Tilray is run by Seattle-based CEO Brendan Kennedy. Toronto’s Cronos Group Inc. is headed by New York-based Mike Gorenstein. And the interim CEO at Leamington, Ont.’s Aphria Inc. is Irwin Simon, another New Yorker, although he was born in Glace Bay, N.S. Of the 10 largest North American cannabis companies, only Aurora Cannabis Inc. in Edmonton and Gatineau-based Hexo Corp. have homegrown CEOs.

Mr. Linton’s departure is similar to what has played out at many startups that get sold to multinational companies. Mr. Linton said Wednesday in an interview with The Globe and Mail that he expected taking Constellation’s cash would likely mean the end of his six-year run at Canopy and its predecessor company. “I detach my personal desire from my desires for the company,” Mr. Linton said. “Even when we brought that $5-billion in, I knew, from that change of structure, there would likely be implications for management, but it was the right thing to do for the company.”

The cultural issue that Canadian leaders need to recognize is our entrepreneurs tend to sell successful startups at a relatively early stage, compared to jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Asia. It already happened in the beer and spirits industries, where leading domestic players such as Molson, Labatt and Seagram have long been controlled by foreigners. The trend, now happening even more rapidly in the cannabis sector, cuts into the potential future prosperity of this country.

According to all sorts of academic research – including a study last year from the Washington-based Brookings Institution and the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business – scaling up successful domestic businesses is essential to creating wealth and producing the next generation of corporate leaders. Canadians need to do better at turning their own companies into global champions. Silicon Valley generates enormous wealth out of a vibrant tech community. Why can’t Leamington, Ont., or Nanaimo, B.C., aspire to do the same in cannabis?

Canadian cannabis companies were created by government policy. They sprang to life not only because pot was legalized, but because federal and provincial regulators granted the licences needed to grow and distribute their products – and local capital markets were receptive to financing them. There’s no obvious public good that would come from ensuring control of the sector remains in Canada, as there is with banks or telecom companies.

But CEOs, boards and domestic politicians should be asking if the country is best served by a laissez-faire approach to cannabis that created vibrant, valuable businesses following legalization in 2018, then quickly began handing over control of the sector.

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July 04, 2019 at 05:42AM

Guelph to get another chance at cannabis retailer as new round of lottery set to begin - GuelphToday

Guelph is getting another kick at the cannabis lottery this summer, when 50 additional retail licenses for selling weed become available province-wide.

On Wednesday, the provincial government announced that the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) has been given the authority to conduct a second round of cannabis store authorizations.In a news release, Attorney General Doug Downy said a supply issue continues.

"We cannot in good conscience issue an unlimited number of licences to businesses,” said Downy. “A phased-in approach remains necessary."

The federal government oversees cannabis production and the release said there has been a marginal improvement in the supply of cannabis.

The lottery will be held Aug. 20, 2019. An expression of interest must be submitted to the AGCO by 8 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2019.

Guelph is situated in the West Region, which will allow an additional 11 stores in the next round of the lottery.

The provincial government had previously said the second round of cannabis retail authorizations wouldn’t be held until December.

Smaller communities will be in the running this round, as the province has decided to remove a stipulation from the previous lottery to limit stores to municipalities with a population of more than 50,000.

The province says it has streamlined the pre-qualification for the lottery, with prospective retailers now having to prove they have secured appropriate retail space and that they have access to enough capital to open a store.

Guelph was passed over entirely in the previous lottery, as the seven licenses were distributed elsewhere in the region. London received three licenses and Hamilton got two.

Of the 50 new licenses being offered, eight will be made available to First Nations reserves.

The 50 new private retailers are expected to begin opening this October.

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July 04, 2019 at 12:25AM

Gas profits under wraps - Business News - Castanet.net

Photo: The Canadian Press

An impasse may be developing just days before hearings are set to begin at the British Columbia inquiry examining possible reasons for soaring gas prices in the province.

The B.C. Utilities Commission has been ordered to review the last four years of gas and diesel pricing in the province and wants suppliers to complete a questionnaire about various business aspects including profit margins.

Those suppliers range from Shell and Imperial to Suncor, Husky, Super Save and 7-11, but documents submitted to the commission show that only 7-11 has responded with details about how it sets the price per litre at the pumps.

It has requested the information not be released publicly and the utilities commission has complied, posting a redacted version of 7-11's questionnaire response to its website.

The other suppliers offered almost identical reasons for withholding profit margin data, with Husky's submission citing "commercially sensitive information" that is "not shared publicly or between refiners."

The inquiry timetable calls for the release of the second phase of the utilities commission consultant report by next Wednesday, followed by up to four days of what is termed an "oral workshop," where panel members can question industry representatives, including gas and diesel suppliers.

When it unveiled the process for the inquiry in May, the utilities commission said it would explore factors potentially affecting prices in B.C. since 2015, including competition and the amount of fuel in storage.

The inquiry is also expected to examine mechanisms that could be used to moderate price fluctuations and increases.

As the price of a litre of regular gasoline climbed above $1.70 in mid-May, Premier John Horgan ordered the probe, saying in a news release that gas and diesel price increases were "alarming, increasingly out of line with the rest of Canada, and people in B.C. deserve answers."

The three-person inquiry panel must submit its final report by Aug. 30.

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July 03, 2019 at 11:40PM

Greater Vancouver housing sales fall to 19-year low as benchmark price dips below $1-million - The Globe and Mail

Greater Vancouver housing sales fell in June to a 19-year low for the month while the benchmark price for a typical home dropped below $1-million for the first time in two years.

Sales of detached homes, condos and townhouses totalled 2,077 in June, down 14.4 per cent compared with the same month in 2018 and 34.7 per cent beneath the 10-year average for June, the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver said on Wednesday.

It marked the lowest number of transactions for June since 2000, when 1,985 properties sold.

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The residential benchmark price slipped to $998,700, down from a record high of $1.1-million in May, 2018, and the lowest since $992,500 in May, 2017, according to the board. The benchmark figure, an industry representation of the typical home sold in Greater Vancouver, has declined month over month for the 13th consecutive time.

Josh Gordon, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Public Policy, said the BC NDP government’s various tax measures are having their desired impact in cooling what had been Canada’s hottest housing market.

“What’s interesting and revealing is that sales are so weak in the midst of an economy that appears to be doing fairly well in terms of unemployment and so on,” Prof. Gordon said in an interview.

Since February, 2018, the provincial government has rolled out tax measures, including what it calls a speculation and vacancy tax targeted primarily at out-of-province residents who don’t rent out their homes. In addition, there are new taxes on properties valued at more than $3-million, such as an extra land-transfer tax and an annual surtax.

Last year, the province also raised the foreign-buyers tax to 20 per cent from 15 per cent in the Vancouver region while also expanding the tax to other urban B.C. markets.

“There are some international events that might change the dynamics in the Vancouver market, including the events in Hong Kong. But barring unforeseen events, it is likely that prices will continue to trend downwards," Prof. Gordon said.

The region’s benchmark Home Price Index (HPI), which strips out the most expensive properties sold on the Multiple Listing Service, has tumbled 9.6 per cent over the past year. The real estate board uses the benchmark HPI because it believes the index provides a better barometer of trends than average prices, which are skewed upward whenever there is a flurry of high-end sales.

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Board president Ashley Smith said in a statement that the “expectation gap" between buyers and sellers lingers, with sellers "often trying to get yesterday’s values for their homes while buyers are taking a cautious, wait-and-see approach.”

The price of detached homes sold in Greater Vancouver averaged $1,486,620 last month, a 15.3-per-cent drop compared with June, 2018.

On Vancouver’s expensive west side, the price of detached properties sold in the first six months of this year averaged $3,119,811, down 17.5 per cent from the first half of 2018, according to data compiled by Macdonald Realty.

Macdonald president Dan Scarrow said the region’s housing market has undergone a dramatic shift since mid-2018.

“It feels really slow, but it’s more of a normalization. The reality is that investors for the time being have stepped to the sidelines and the market is being driven by end users," Mr. Scarrow said in an interview. “During the hot market, everything was selling. But now, if it’s something that’s not livable, that product is going to take a lot longer to sell.”

The Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, whose territory includes the sprawling Vancouver suburb of Surrey, saw 1,306 sales last month, down 10.1 per cent compared with June, 2018. Last month’s sales were the lowest for June since 2000, when there were 1,046 transactions.

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Fraser Valley board president Darin Germyn said the federal stress test is another reason for slumping sales. On Jan. 1, 2018, Canada’s banking regulator implemented a stress test, making it more difficult for buyers to qualify for mortgages.

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July 04, 2019 at 12:34AM

Canopy Growth's Bruce Linton out as co-CEO and board member - The Globe and Mail