General Electric affirms commitment to Baker Hughes, shares jump

Shares of General Electric Co's Baker Hughes rose sharply on Wednesday after the parent company said it no longer planned to shed its holdings in the oilfield services business before the expiration of a two-year lockup period, reversing an earlier stance that had cast uncertainty around the stock. General Electric last November said it was considering shedding its Baker Hughes holdings to refocus its business and boost cash flows. The announcement came just months after the conglomerate had purchased a 63 percent stake in the firm under a deal that combined its oil and gas services and equipment business with Baker Hughes to create the second largest oilfield services firm by revenue.

Covenant Transport Taps Former Amazon Exec to Lead Transformation

Ryan Rogers officially took over the role of chief transformation officer for Covenant Transport in January. Photo courtesy of Covenant

A former Amazon executive has been appointed to the position of chief transformation officer for Covenant Transport Services, the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based shipping firm announced.

Officially taking over the role in January, Ryan Rogers is heading up the mergers and acquisitions program, technology and strategic planning, and innovation. A Chattanooga native and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga graduate, Rogers is a 19-year veteran of the transportation logistics industry, according to the Times Free Press.

Previously a transportation executive at Amazon, Rogers led the procurement and carrier development department for the e-commerce giant. Before joining Amazon, Rogers worked for national truckload provider U.S. Xpress Enterprises in several capacities, including corporate treasurer and chief operating officer of the company's logistics division.

“Ryan's track record speaks for itself,” said Covenant President Joey Hogan in a statement. “He knows transportation and logistics, and he understands, as we do, that technology and data have the power to positively transform the way we do business, allowing us to work smarter and better, while leading the way for our industry.”

Currently, Rogers serves as a mentor for local transportation and logistics incubator Dynamo; he is also a member of the Chattanooga Technology Council.

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Real-World Truck Platooning Test with Real Truck Drivers

A customer of MAN Truck & Bus will be testing platooned trucks in revenue runs this year on the A9 highway that runs between Munich and Nuremberg in Germany. Photo: MAN Truck & Bus

Aiming to see if trucks digitally connected on the highway as platoons are ready to roll in the real world, German OEM MAN Truck & Bus AG, a unit of Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH, has placed a number of units with a customer for months of evaluation in revenue service.

The trucks were turned over to Hamburg-based global logistics giant DB Schenker on Feb. 13. Munich's renowned Hochschule Fresenius University of Applied Science will provide scientific support for the pilot program. Drivers will first receive specialized training, included with simulators, before hitting the roasd beginning in April.

The truck convoys will be evaluated over a period of several months as part of DB Schenker's scheduled operations in actual traffic on the A9 freeway that runs between Munich and Nuremberg.

Man noted that the testing will mark “the first time that professional truck drivers from DB Schenker will replace test drivers at the wheel.”

The drivers' experiences, assessments and evaluations of platooning will feed a study that Hochschule Fresenius is conducting. "We want to find out what impact the new technology has on the drivers,” said Prof. Dr. Christian T. Haas, Head of the Institute for Complex Health Research at Hochschule Fresenius. “The study focuses on the neurophysiological and psychosocial levels. He added that results regarding the human-machine interface will be “fed back directly into developing the technology."

Before hitting the roads within a platoon, which is slated to begin in April, DB Schenker drivers will receive specialized training, included with simulators. Once the training phase has been completed, there will be weekly and then daily test runs. ...Read the rest of this story

Snapchat promises update after users balk at redesign

In its response, Snapchat did not agree to the petitioners' demand but promised to roll out a new update in the coming weeks that will bring some changes to the 'Friends and Discover' section in the app. Last week, Chief Executive Evan Spiegel told an investor conference in San Francisco that he was pleased with the redesign and thought it was a more logical setup for users. The petition titled 'Remove the new Snapchat Update', which has been signed by over 1.2 million people so far, said the new update made many features difficult to use.

Ashton Kutcher says he went into the mountains and fasted for a week after splitting with Demi Moore — and it's an odd but potentially effective way to get over a breakup

Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore divorced in 2013. After the divorce, Kutcher went alone into the mountains and fasted for a week. Right after his divorce from Demi Moore in 2013, Ashton Kutcher took off for the mountains.

Daimler Fleet-Testing Heavy-Duty Electric Actros Truck

Daimler has begun fleet-testing its Mercedes-Benz eActros fully electric heavy-duty truck as it nears full production, planned to begin in 2021. Photo: Daimler AG

An all-electric heavy-duty hauler fitted with the Mercedes-Benz tri star may be on the market in just three years.

Taking the next step toward rolling out a fully electric heavy-duty hauler, Germany's Daimler Ag will soon be placing its Mercedes-Benz eActros emissions-free trucks with some customers so that they can test “their everyday feasibility and economic efficiency under real-life conditions.”

According to Daimler, the electric truck “could go into” full production starting in 2021.

Operating solely on battery power, the eActros offers a range of up to 200 km (124 miles) yet offers the “customary level of performance and payload,” the OEM stated in a Feb. 21 news release.

The customer test fleet consists of 10 trucks in 2-axle and 3-axle variants, with GVWs of 18 or 25 metric tons. The field-testing will start in the next few weeks and will run until at least mid-2020. Its aim is to establish energy requirements for some specific applications as well as the economic efficiency of the electric trucks and to compare their environmental performance vs. diesel trucks.

“Initially the [fleet testing] focus will be on inner-city goods transport and delivery services – the ranges required here are well within the scope of our Mercedes-Benz eActros,” said Stefan Buchner, Head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks.

"We have developed a vehicle that has been configured from the outset for electric mobility,” he added. “Compared with our prototype, quite a few technical changes have been made: the power supply is now ensured by eleven [lithium-ion] battery packs in all – and wherever possible we have used already proven components that are ready, or very close to ready, for use in [full] series production.”

The road testing will help drive “ongoing optimization ...Read the rest of this story

I drove a $40,000 Buick Regal TourX station wagon for a week — and it was just as good as most family SUVs (GM)

Buick has expanded its lineup with a wagon. The Regal TourX is a capable family hauler that has way more style than an SUV. It was the large-and-in-charge suburban family hauler before SUV sent wagons into near-extinction, leaving surviving examples to be gently nurtured by car writers with a thing for sedan handling and decent cargo capacity.