Daily Innovation Brief by Maryanne Kane, Journalist
DAILY INNOVATION BRIEF
By Journalists Edward Kane & Maryanne Kane
TESLA CEO ELON MUSK'S MASTER PLAN 3
Source: Tesla
- Elon Musk's Master Plan 3 is his vision for Tesla to help lead the global effort, through innovation & new technologies, to end the use of fossil fuels and transition to a world fueled by sustainable energy
- As part of that goal, Tesla will be increasing its production of electric vehicles in all of its global factories
- He's calling for a global switch to electric cars
- Musk is also calling for repowering the energy grid with renewables, including electricity generated by wind, solar and wave power
- Musk is advocating for more sustainably fueled planes & boats; the use of heat pumps in homes & buildings; and the use of hydrogen power for industries
- He estimates the cost of a future fueled by green energy at $10 trillion
- During his presentation at Tesla's annual meeting at its Austin, Texas headquarters, Musk also alluded to 2, new mystery cars in the Tesla pipeline: a small car, perhaps the breakthrough $25,000 small EV, and a small industrial van
- He confirmed plans for the next Gigafactory in Mexico
- He also unveiled the company's new, more efficient EV manufacturing process that he calls "the Unboxed Process"
- The process would enable people and robots to work on building cars simultaneously, which he said would greatly increase efficiency and cut the size of the factory footprint by 40%
- Initial reaction from Wall Street to Musk's Master Plan 3 is that it was very short on the kind of specifics they were looking for
- In trading on March 2, 2023, Tesla share price took a 6% hit.
SKODA'S UPCOMING, BIG SUV
- At the Geneva Auto show, VW-owned Skoda unveiled its Vision S concept, which is the harbinger for its upcoming very large SUV, the 2024 Skoda Kodiaq
- The new hybrid SUV has 7 seats and will go on sale in early 2024
- The vehicle is based on VW's MQB platform and will be very similar to VW's upcoming 7-seat Tiguan
- Kodiaq will be hybrid-electric with a 1.5 liter, 4-cylinder gas motor paired with a compact, 268 hp electric motor
- Powered by a 89 kWh battery with a range of more than 373 miles
- Innovative features include rotating 14.6" touchscreen to make it easier for passengers to watch movies & roof mounted camera to monitor a baby in a rear-facing seat
- The selling price is expected to start at $29,845
- The 2024 Kodiaq will be Skoda's new flagship vehicle.
ALGORITHM HELPS AMAZON WORKERS & ROBOTS WORK MORE EFFECTIVELY
- Amazon has developed a new algorithm that helps its employees & robots work together more efficiently & profitably
- The new algorithm is saving Amazon a $1/2 Billion a year
- It's called the robotic picking algorithm and it decides what specific units of inventory should be picked by the robot and carried over to the human employee's workstation to fulfill customer orders
- Amazon say the new algorithm is a big winner & cuts order fulfillment time by greater efficiency
- Rather than the worker going to product shelves looking for items, the robots brings products shelves that most likely contain the ordered item to the worker
- The algorithm has been so successful it has been implemented at all Amazon Fulfillment Centers
- Amazon is currently using more than 100,000 robots at its operations
- Amazon believes this is a great example of how humans and robots can work cooperatively together & drive greater efficiency and profitability.
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