Month: November 2021

RIVN Stock: Rivian’s the Latest ‘If You Build the EV, Will They Come?’ Story

By Michael J. Moody 2 months ago

Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN) stock has already had a wild ride, as it starts mass production of an electric pick-up truck.

The back of a silver Rivian (RIVN) pick-up truck.

Source: Miro Vrlik Photography / Shutterstock.com

Shares opened at $78 on Nov. 10. This brought Rivian $12 billion in cash, Their value then took off in the first week of trading, peaking at $178 each on Nov. 16.

The shares fell back to earth when the company announced it was no longer working with Ford Motor (NYSE:F), which still owns 12% of the stock. Rivian stock closed last week at about $112, a fall of more than 30%. But Rivian still has a market capitalization nearing $100 billion.

The loser was Ford, a century-old auto giant. It’s now worth just $78.9 billion as it ramps up its own electric vehicle efforts. The fall in Rivian’s price also cut $3.6 billion off the value of Ford’s Rivian

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Key highlights of Williams’ F1 history after Sir Frank Williams dies aged 79

By Michael J. Moody 2 months ago

Sir Frank Williams, who has died at the age of 79, will be remembered as a pioneer of Formula One.

Williams Grand Prix Engineering was founded in 1977, with a first F1 victory coming when Clay Regazzoni won the British Grand Prix two years later.

Here, the PA news agency takes a look back at some of the highlights of Williams’ F1 history, which saw them secure nine Constructors’ Championships between 1980 and 1997.

From humble beginnings to top of the world

Frank Williams (left), owner of the F1 World Championship-winning team shakes hands with Frank Andrew, of sponsors Leyland Vehicles

Frank Williams (left) saw Alan Jones (centre) lift the Formula One Drivers’ Championship title in 1980 (PA Archive)

Williams had already tried to establish F1 teams with Frank Williams Racing Cars and Wolf–Williams Racing before the 1977 venture with automotive engineer Sir Patrick Head.

The new team’s first race was at the Spanish Grand Prix, and after beginning to manufacture their own cars, it was Swiss driver Regazzoni

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‘The Big Book of Tiny Cars’ Celebrates the Smallest Automobiles

By Michael J. Moody 2 months ago
Photo credit: Motorbooks

Photo credit: Motorbooks

“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below.”

Small cars are currently out of vogue. In a market dominated by ever-growing SUVs, major automakers like Ford, Fiat, VW, and Mercedes (through its hapless Smart subsidiary) are giving up on the category—at least in the U.S. market. Even Minis no longer live up to their name, with the smallest one cresting 3000 pounds. But once a car category departs the commonplace, interest tends to pick up among enthusiasts and collectors. How else to explain the current fascination with personal luxury coupes of the ’70s and ’80s?

To slake our growing thirst for subcompacts, British automotive writer Russell Hayes has written a new book about them, The Big Book of Tiny Cars: A Century of Diminutive Automotive Oddities (Motorbooks, $40), that will be available electronically on Nov. 30. The hardcover

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Here’s what defines a self-driving car

By Michael J. Moody 2 months ago

Despite what some companies may say, there are no self-driving cars on sale. None. Zip. Not a single system currently bundled with a new car meets the SAE Scale of Autonomy’s standard for a true autonomous car. That includes Super Cruise from General Motors, BlueCruise from Ford and Tesla’s Full Self-Driving beta.

I largely agree with former Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt’s view that “it’s a bug that cars were invented before computers.” In terms of sheer technical elegance, we never should have been at the controls in the first place. 

Imagine we hadn’t yet invented automobiles. Suppose I Iaid out a vision for using 3,300 pound machines to typically transport just our 175-pound selves in a process requiring we pay rapt attention to the use of a steering wheel and pedals to navigate roads composed of asphalt, brightly colored suggestions and poorly guided machines like ours which, even after

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