Led

How the pandemic led to a rental car crisis just as Americans are ready to bust loose

By Michael J. Moody 1 year ago

“Usually car rental is an afterthought,” said Benjamin Tuttle, a computer-assisted design programmer from Minnesota, who was taken aback when Hertz quoted him a price of $240 per day to rent a sedan to tour Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.

The industry backfire illustrates that the post-pandemic recovery, while strong, may not be entirely smooth. As more retail businesses reopen, many report trouble hiring enough workers to cope with surging demand. Manufacturers complain that raw materials are scarce – a semiconductor shortage that hobbled auto production is making it hard for companies like Avis to restock.

“The covid shock was unlike anything we have experienced before. As we go into the recovery phase, we’re going to see friction and disruption in the normal flow of economic activity,” said Kathy Bostjancic, chief U.S. financial economist for Oxford Economics. “It’s going to be a bit erratic and disrupted, but the pace of

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BanaLogic’s affordable Vehicle Damage Detection Systems with LED lighting and license plate recognition

By Michael J. Moody 1 year ago

Designed for dealerships, repair centers, car rental locations, and parking garages to automatically document pre-existing vehicle damage.

BanaLogic, automotive inspection specialists, has released a new vehicle intake and damage detection system called BODYGUARD. Specifically designed for dealerships, repair centers, car rental locations, and parking garages, it captures hundreds of images including license plate data in mere seconds as a vehicle enters and/or exits the designated lane.

Our customers were asking for a solution to document and augment their vehicle intake and return process that did more than just capture images. After much research, we discovered that systems were either lacking in capability or so cost prohibitive that it would be less expensive to simply absorb and write off any claims. For BODYGUARD, we leveraged technology used in our FASTLIGN laser alignment drive through lanes to capture license plate data and trigger bright LED illumination, combined with high resolution cameras strategically

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A Year of Poor Planning Led to Carmakers’ Massive Chip Shortage

By Jaime E. Love 1 year ago

(Bloomberg) — Near-sighted planning, supply-chain complexities and a tradition of keeping inventories low caused the semiconductor shortage that is now forcing carmakers to idle production lines and straining their relationship with chip manufacturers.

Seeds of the imbroglio were sown almost a year ago as the virus outbreak led to plunging car demand, prompting auto-chip companies to slash orders. But when they wanted to increase supply toward the end of 2020, they struggled to secure capacity at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and other contract chipmakers that were busy servicing a boom in demand for gadgets that help housebound consumers stay connected, according to people familiar with the situation.

While publicly assuring the problem is solvable, in private the parties are pointing fingers. Chipmakers say car companies’ preference for low inventories hurt their planning, while auto and part manufacturers say the supply chain is thrown into disarray as semiconductor makers drag their

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