Some of the world's leading automakers are all turning to the same company to help bring past the self-driving finish line. Aurora CEO and Co-Founder Chris Urmson joins Cheddar at CES to discuss his firm's newly-announced partnership with Volkswagen Group. He describes his company's goal as providing the "drivers," by way of software, for autonomous vehicles.
The partnership is focused on developing "mobility as a service" initiative in major cities. Urmson describes how Aurora will help Volkswagen Group's fleet of self-driving cars, known as Sedric, connect people in urban communities. He explains how the service initiative will help people with mobility issues of their own, as well as making transportation easier for commuters.
Urmson reveals how his company spent the past year working with Volkswagen Group to integrate its system into the automaker's fleet. He breaks down Aurora's high-pedigree founding team, including himself, a veteran of Google's self-driving initiative, and Sterling Anderson, one of the minds behind the launch of Tesla's Model X.
The world's most valuable publicly traded company may actually be worth closer to $1.5 trillion, says Eric Jackson, founder and president of the investment firm EMJ. "This is a company that should be valued as a services business," he says, and that it should trade at a higher multiple to sales.
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Junta Nakai, global head of business development at fintech company Selerity, says automation in the financial industry has so far been primarily used by the consumer. But his technology will fundamentally change the way traders and financial analysts work.
The speaker maker acknowledged in its IPO filings that one risk to its business could be that partners like Amazon and Google could end their deals at any time. But on the day of the company's market debut, Sonos VP of Finance and Investor Relations Mike Groeninger says his company provides a "winning formula" and he's not worried. Sonos stock opened at $16 a share, above the IPO price, but below its expected range.
Mark Spiegel, managing member of Stanphyl Capital, says Tesla's second quarter was "just horrible," citing the electric carmaker's greater-than-expected loss, its cash-flow deficit and low demand for its Model 3 vehicle. Still, Spiegel says Tesla's current quarter could be the company's best ever, it just won't be as good as CEO Elon Musk says it will be.
Speaker maker Sonos went public Thursday, putting up almost 14 million shares for sale. Rob Marvin, associate features editor at PC Mag, breaks down what sort of competition and challenges the company will face moving forward.
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Tesla posted a bigger than expected loss, but CEO Elon Musk promises that by next quarter, the electric carmaker will turn a profit. Musk also apologized for his rude behavior during the first quarter earnings call, and investors seemed to accept his apology, as shared jumped after his comments.
Citibank is exploring various crypto products that it could offer retail customers, Cheddar has learned. Juliana Berger, a senior vice president of product in Citi’s mobile bank division, is overseeing the secretive initiative.
Mike Sievert, President and COO of T-Mobile U.S., joins Cheddar after the company's earnings report. He says that if the proposed merger with Sprint goes through, the combined companies will have seven times the wireless capacity they do individually and could actually increase competition in the field.
