BIG RETAIL SHOWING OFF THEIR TECH SAVVY WAYS AT SXSW
South by Southwest is becoming more than about music, film and other types of media entertainment. It is where the world’s biggest retailers are coming to show off their tech savvy ways and this year in Austin, Texas will be no different. Walmart’s chief technology officer, Jeremy King, is taking the stage at the annual SXSW conference to walk audience members through their latest technology like virtual reality headsets and machine-learn- ing-powered robots and they are using this technology in stores to get online grocery orders to cus- tomers as quickly as possible as Walmart tries to change their image as a “modern” retailer in its war with Amazon and e-Bay. Walmart which is well known for its everyday low prices and warehouse-like store formats want to get the message out that they are a tech company and not just adding technology to stores “for tech’s sake” but rather using it to make the customer’s experience with Walmart more enjoyable both in store and online.
AUTOMAKERS TEAM UP ON TECHNOLOGY FOR AUTOMATED DRIVING BMW and Daimler recently announced they will work together on developing the automated driving technology as automakers try to fend off competition from tech companies in the quest for automated driving. Both companies said it would be a “long-term strategic co-operation” between the two compa- nies allowing them to advance driver assistance systems for automated driving on closed spaces such as highways and automated parking. The partnership comes as automakers face new rivals in the business of getting people from one place to another such as Uber and Waymo, which are both working on autonomous driving. Autonomous driving is part of a wave of tech- nological being developed which is expected to shift the auto industry toward offering the use of a vehicle as a service most likely through online or smartphone apps as an alternative to traditional vehicle ownership and everyone wants to be first to market.
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MARCH 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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