Drivers in the West End of Glasgow, Scotland, were startled to find a Volkwagen resting atop a Fiat 500 on Sunday. The heavy car was quietly — and dangerously — suspended between between the Fiat's roof and a wall on Southpark avenue.
The Volkswagen appears to have rolled down a hill from a parked position before landing atop the Fiat.
Thankfully, no one was in the car and there were no reported injuries. Motorists were even able to ogle and take awesome, Instagram-ready photos of the incident before police shut the scene down.
This accident served as a strong reminder to drivers to remember to put on their parking brake — and to always carry your phone, when accidents like these occur.
It is unclear what destination, exactly, the Volkswagen had in mind.
Samsung wants to make cars. Or at least, make parts of cars, in a similar supply-side capacity to the position it currently occupies in the mobile device and television world. Anew Bloomberg report suggests Samsung is in talks with Fiat Chrysler to acquire some or all of parts-making subsidiary Magneti Marelli, which provides lighting, in-car entertainment and telematics to OEMs for use in their vehicles.
The deal, which could be worth north of $3 billion according to Bloomberg’s sources, would help accelerate Samsung’s existing efforts to become a more important part of the automotive supply chain. Samsung has a dominant position in the production of memory chips, TVs and smartphones, both as a first-party consumer brand and as a supplier, but its car business isn’t nearly as well-developed.
Samsung has an internal team working on in-car infotainment tech, vehicle components and autonomous driving systems, and it invested in China’s homegrown electric auto company BYD Co., as Bloomberg notes, but it’s far from synonymous with the auto industry as a key supplier in the way it is with smartphones and other computing devices. An acquisition at this level could be a big shortcut to broader presence in the industry.
While other tech giants including Samsung’s chief rival Apple have been pegged as making big bets on cars as an important center of future high-tech industry, Samsung’s efforts on that front have been relatively low-key. It’s a safe bet that even beyond this sizeable acquisition, however, the smartphone leader is deeply considering its automotive options.
Uber is reportedly in South Korea exploring a potential autonomous vehicle partnership with the country’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor which could lead to huge car orders in the future.
Maeil Business News Korea reports that autonomous car researchers from US ride-sharing service Uber are visiting Hyundai’s Namyang research and development facility in Hwaseong.
The visit will enable the two firms to explore potential collaboration on the development of self-driving ride sharing technology.
Uber previously revealed plans that it intends to launch a driverless taxi service by 2020. To achieve this ambitious date, it has been actively seeking partners with advanced autonomous vehicle technology.
And Hyundai has certainly not been asleep at the wheel, when it comes to self-driving car technology.
Automobile industry watchers say that Hyundai has incorporated advanced autonomous innovation into its new line of Genesis sedans. Specifically autonomous car technology such as highway driving assist and the autonomous emerging braking system were incorporated into the design of the last year’s EQ900 as well as the G80, which is slated for release this month.
Hyundai was the first Korean company to get the green light from government to trial its self-driving Genesis sedans on public roads this March.
Uber interested in a 2019 Hyundai model
Speculation has emerged that Uber is interested in a future G80 model that Hyundai has scheduled to launch in 2019, which will be equipped with fully autonomous driving capability.
Uber is currently operating in 300 cities in 58 global cities. Should Hyundai be picked for a partnership, it could translate into huge sales orders of self-driving cars to feed the appetite of the rapidly expanding ride-sharing company.
But Hyundai isn’t the only carmaker that Uber is cozying up to. ReadWrite previously reported that Uber is rumored to be planning to purchase – or may have already placed an order for – thousands of Mercedes-Benz self-driving vehicles. One report said that Uber placed a huge order to buy 100,000 of the carmaker’s S-Class, with a total price tag of nearly $12 billion.
This follows another report that Fiat was in talks to provide self-driving cars to both Uber and to Amazon.
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