No car company is making more headlines right now than Tesla. Can the electric vehicle company stay ahead in the battle for electric car dominance?
Mark Rechtin, Executive Editor at Motor Trend, says Tesla's competitors are quickly gaining ground. Motor Trend tested out the Tesla Model 3, Nissan Leaf, and Chevrolet Bolt. Rechtin says that the Leaf and Bolt offer the best options, especially if you don't have $60,000 to spend on a Tesla.
Rechtin also discusses the ongoing problems Tesla is having with its Model 3 production. The company continues to fall behind its original target numbers, while its CEO Elon Musk is tweeting about a possible Tesla pickup truck. Rechtin says Musk should focus more on the Model 3 and less on his dream projects.
Flying taxis are closer to liftoff than you might think. Dr. Tom Prevot, a former NASA aerospace engineer who now runs the engineering division at Elevate, Uber's airspace unit, told Cheddar's Hope King that the nascent industry is reaching a point at which "a lot of things come together."
Procter & Gamble is the world's biggest advertiser and the company is looking to the future to upgrade common products people use everyday. Cheddar's Hope King talked to Marc Pritchard, the Chief Brand Officer of Procter & Gamble, about how the company is integrating tech into everything from razors to toothbrushes.
Influencer marketing company IZEA Worldwide is expanding into Latin America with the acquisition of FLUVIP. FLUVIP is a Latin American-focused influencer marketing company with more than 100,000 influencers. Companies are projected to spend between $5 billion and $10 billion in influencer marketing by 2022.
Apple is planning to slash production for its newer iPhone models by 10 percent this quarter, according to a report in the Nikkei. However, CEO Tim Cook continues to say that the iPhone XR is the best-selling phone in company history. Trade talks between China and the U.S. wrapped up Wednesday after an unscheduled third day of negotiations. Both sides expressed optimism over the progress made during these talks. Plus, Hope King sits down with Bridget Karlin, chief technology officer for IBM Global Technology Services, to talk about the future of blockchain and much more.
Computing behemoth IBM is using blockchain technology to ensure the food we eat is safe and properly sourced. "We're basically leveraging the blockchain technology to track each item of food as it travels through its trajectory and its transportation from the field all the way to the retailer," Bridget Karlin, chief technology officer for IBM Global Technology Services, told Cheddar's Hope King at CES.
Affirm is making good on its commitment to become a full-service bank. The lending startup led by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin is introducing fee-free savings accounts through a bank partner, initially with a 2 percent annual percentage yield and no minimum balance, Cheddar has learned.
Nothing says CES like a robot dog powered by powerful sensors ー and that's exactly what Sony brought this year. Sony's robot dog Aibo came back from the dead last year, and now, the robo-pup is getting some cool new upgrades, Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo told Cheddar's Hope King on Tuesday.
What do Alinea, Eleven Madison Park, and The French Laundry have in common? Aside from their Michelin stars, the restaurants all offer reservations through the booking platform Tock. Acclaimed restaurateur and [Tock](http://exploretock.com} founder and CEO Nick Kokonas hopes his software platform can wrestle the reservations monopoly from the almost 20-year grip of OpenTable and launch bookings into the 21st century.
Cloudera and Hortonworks, longtime cloud and data rivals, have decided it's better to take on Amazon Web Services together than apart. Cloudera CMO Mick Hollison told Cheddar how the merged company, with 2,000 customers, fits in the cloud wars.
Car-sharing and ride-hailing companies have changed the way we get around ー and now they're about to change the way we buy car insurance. In an interview with Cheddar at CES 2019 in Las Vegas, Nev., Allstate CEO Tom Wilson said that simply insuring your car will become a thing of the past, since many consumers are increasingly ditching the buy-and-drive model.
