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Verizon buys Telogis in connected vehicle market push

(Note/disclaimer: We are owned by Verizon, by way of AOL. This gives us no inside track whatsoever when it comes to news.) With a lot of tech companies and automakers staking their claims in the connected car space, now there are signs that others are looking to move in, too. Today, telecoms giant Verizon announced that it is acquiring Telogis, a California-based company that develops cloud-based solutions for mobile workforces, and specifically telematics, compliance and navigation software used by Ford, Volvo, GM and other car companies, as well as Apple and AT&T. Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, although we'll try to find out. Considering that Verizon in 2015 reported full-year revenues of $131.6 billion, the price would have to be very high to be considered "material" and may not be made public for some time, if ever. Telogis in its time as a startup raised a substantial amount of money, just over $126 million in all, including $93 million in 2013, supposedly ahead of an IPO, all from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Back in 2013 when KPCB made its investment (which was the first from a VC firm in the company), Telogis told TechCrunch it was profitable and forecasting revenues of $100 million annually for the year. It's not clear what size those revenues are now, but if it was on the same growth trajectory as before the funding, sales would be around $150 million annually, with profitability, at the moment. Other investors include some very notable strategics: the investment arm of General Motors, and Fontinalis Partners, which also invests in Lyft and was co-founded by Bill Ford, the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company. Before the acquisition, Verizon actually had a business in fleet management and telematics; in fact, the two companies competed against each other for business from the trucking and other industries. Verizon Telematics, as the business is called, is active in 40 countries. But in a way, Verizon buying Telogis is a sign that the latter may have proved to be the more superior, and the one with the key customer deals.

Volvo uncovers widespread cheating by its Chinese dealers

According to a report in Reuters, the findings of an internal investigation conducted by Geely-owned Volvo is that its Chinese dealers vastly overreported their sales numbers in 2011, then even more vastly underreported their 2012 sales figures. About "half the dealers" out of the 151 total outlets gamed the system in order to get incentives for reaching volume objectives, falsely recording about 7,000 more units sold than was actually the case. Instead of 47,140 cars sold in China in 2011, the real number should have been 39,871.
Volvo corporate books a sale once it ships a car to a dealer, so that meant there were 7,000 more cars in inventory than there should have been. To restore the balance, the dealers underreported their 2012 sales while they unloaded those extra cars since, naturally, they couldn't claim the sale again. That made it look like sales declined by 11 percent in 2012, even though they actually increased year-on-year. The adjusted sales number for 2012 totalled 45,896.
Volvo has met with its dealers and told them to stop the deceitful practice. The discrepancies weren't so great that the company plans to restate its historic numbers, but from now on, it apparently plans to occasionally check inventory to make sure the numbers match and that it has a true picture of how individual models are selling.

Volvo details new drive assist features for next XC90 and future models [w/video]

Volvo wants us to know what kinds of new technology will be under the sheetmetal of the offerings that will sit on its Scalable Platform Architecture, the first of which will be included on the 2015 Volvo XC90 arriving at the end of next year. The silicon-chip onslaught starts with detection and auto braking for vehicles, pedestrians, cyclists and large animals. The company's animal detection tech now works at night thanks to better cameras and exposure controls.
Also due for the high-riding wagon are road edge and barrier detection with steer assist, a setup that identifies the edge of the road - even ones without markings. The system can steer the car back into its lane if it detects the driver is about to leave the road or collide with a barrier. Adaptive cruise control with steer assist allows the car to not only follow the flow of traffic on a straight road, but steer itself automatically.
Beyond that, the company is planning on other safety advances, but these will rely on automaker cooperation and infrastructure upgrades. Volvo has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Car 2 Car Communication Consortium on the subject of standards for communication between cars and wants to have it implemented by 2016. Sensors in traffic lights will enable Green Light Optimum Speed Advisory, which tells a driver how fast to go on a give stretch of road so as not to hit a red light. Weather, road condition, road works and emergency vehicle warnings will also inform drivers of new developments on the road. And autonomous parking, which Volvo has already demonstrated, stands to put a lot of valets out of work since it allows the car to find its own parking space without a driver inside.