Mercedes Aims For Uber

This week, Daimler AG DDAIF Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche told Reuters that the luxury car-maker was aiming to take on Uber with a fleet of autonomous vehicles. Zetsche said the firm will target customers who are not interested in buying their own car, but still value premium transport options like limousines. Mercedes Car Share The company has already created its own car-sharing service in an effort change alongside consumer preferences. More and more people, especially in big cities, are not interested in owning a car and instead participate in car sharing programs to cut down on costs and reduce the stress of finding parking. Daimler's car2go system allows customers to rent and use the company's vehicles for short time periods using a smartphone app. The program is aimed at giving younger drivers a chance to experience the luxury of driving a Mercedes in hopes that they will purchase one later in life when they have the means. Convenient Cars Zetsche said the popularity of car sharing would be enhanced by an autonomous car service that was able to deliver cars based on customers' schedules through an integrated calendar. Daimler appears to already be working on such a service; the company bought MyTaxi, a taxi-hailing app last year and recently acquired mapping service HERE. Liability Concerns Mercedes, like many other firms, has already created an autonomous prototype. However, questions regarding safety and regulations are still a question mark among policy makers. Most don't expect to see autonomous cars becoming available for another decade, but that hasn't stopped automakers from putting their plans in place.