You can’t make this stuff up! Ford CEO Jim Farley last October made headlines prognosticating that “artificial intelligence is going to replace literally half of all white-collar workers in the U.S.” He opined that “AI will leave a lot of white-collar people behind.” Given that Farley’s mistaken embrace of electric…
GM CEO Mary Barra’s ability to reinvent herself rivals that of a career politician switching platforms on the campaign trail. First there was “No More Crappy Cars Mary,” a promise she made on CNBC when she oversaw the automaker’s new product development. Then there was “Mechanic Mary,” a moniker she…
Uber’s business model—which I feared from the get-go would morph into a platform engineered to exploit drivers and riders—has always been personal to me. As I’ve noted several times on this blog, I drove a Toronto taxi when I was in college, and it was a very lucrative gig. In…
I’ve warned for some time about America’s rigged economy fueling a dangerous level of wealth inequality that has mutated into a direct threat to our national security. Until the other day, I mistakenly thought I was a choir of one. Turns out, people far better credentialed than me agree. I’m…
It is disheartening that truly thoughtful journalism, the kind that takes considerable smarts and experience to produce, is rarely noticed or appreciated by the corporate media, even at the publications where it appears. A case in point is this column by Greg Ip, the Wall Street Journal’s economics columnist. Ip’s…
Michigan is a national tragedy. The state’s household income has plummeted to 40th in the nation from 16th and now sits 13% below the national average. Six out of every 10 jobs fail to pay what is generally considered a middle-class wage. Unless the trend is reversed, Michigan is on…
It’s hard to imagine a company with a more uninspiring name, disjointed branding, and muddled messaging than Amsterdam-based Stellantis, parent of more than a dozen auto brands ranging from moribund Chrysler to Maserati. Perhaps in Europe the name Stellantis evokes some passion, but it strikes me as some dreaded STD,…
Rod Beer, a longtime reader of this blog and sometimes its fiercest critic, had gone silent on me these past few months. I missed hearing from him and feared that perhaps I had written one Mary Barra missive too many. Beer didn’t have an issue with my critical view of…
JPMorgan’s $4.25 million defeat over a $642.50 deli platter is understandably generating plenty of yuks on social media. Here’s why the award is no laughing matter and another indictment of Jamie Dimon’s leadership.
GM’s $40 million hiring of Sterling Anderson was the latest twist in an autonomy saga that began with Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick recognizing more than a decade ago that self-driving technology posed an existential threat to Uber’s future.
What followed connected Uber, Waymo, Aurora Innovation, Cruise, Tesla, GM, Kyle Vogt, Mary Barra, Dara Khosrowshahi, and some of the most influential autonomy visionaries in Silicon Valley.
The strangest part: many of the leaders who saw the autonomous driving future are no longer running the companies chasing it.