I don’t know if that’s over the top or just a really horrible ad.

Where do they insure their drivers? My dad drives for Uber a few days a week and the NYC TLC insurance is his single biggest expense.

The only thing I can think of would be to actually have independent contractors purchase and operate the autonomous cars in the same way that drivers do now. This way Uber still gets to divest itself of the expense and responsibility, but also have autonomous cars in its fleet. The business model remains intact.

Yeah, I’ve got to think that this is at least partially driven by political concerns that at some point regulators are going to crack down on their business model, i.e., drivers as contractors, so they figure that this is a viable alternative to develop, while at the same time building buzz as an innovator.

I still don’t see how this works for them financially. Paying for the acquisition and maintenance on a massive fleet of autonomous cars plus assuming total liability for their operation cannot be more affordable than simply giving contracted drivers a cut of the fare and relinquishing themselves of any responsibility…

They do, but these swimmers made Brazil look bad and therefore now must be punished. Like how they sued the producers of the Simpsons.

“Worse and Petty” is printed on their currency I think.

Bingo.

Cool story bro.

I can see them taking the AMG GT platform, stretching it a few inches (nowhere near the concept) to make a bespoke ultra-luxury performance coupe out of it and calling it the Maybach Gran Tour or something like that.

That nose is a dead ringer though. And there’s a chrome package available for the AMG that would outline the side window and lower door sill trim as well, but I couldn’t find a picture of it. But I bet it would look even closer like that.

I feel like Mercedes just stretched out the AMG-GT to make the Maybach.

So, an AMG-GT basically?

Except the cost of living has skyrocketed. Oops.

These are never interesting when they come out. In thirty years they'll be interesting.

The point is that we’re fast approaching a point where we’re spending exponentially more money to chase increasingly small reductions in pollution. And those small reductions are totally insignificant when factored into the global equation.

Yeah but the ball joints haven’t gone bad. It’s usually bushings or something that start squeaking and you end up replacing the control arm because its easier. Bad ball joints have very different symptoms than a squeaky control arm.

It’s kind of a chicken-and-egg thing. Which changed first, customer attitude or Mercedes engineering?

Yeah, I daily drive a 22 year old Mercedes through NYC with 140k on it. No need to replace ball joints or bearings.

Touché

Hahaha oh man yes. I actually saw one of these for sale in Brooklyn a few months ago. I spent about an hour just staring at it. There’s just SO MUCH to take in. It’s wrong in every way but it’s still bizarrely attractive.