Ford to create e-bikes

Ford is looking to downsize from four-wheels to two with its own version of the electric bicycle.

Ford's Hands on Mobility project is experimenting with the production of electronic bicycles, studying how the products will interact with cars, buses and other forms of transportation.

These tests are an effort to increase transportation efficiency for the busy commuter. It's being done under the company's Smart Mobility plan, which uses "innovation to take the company to the next level in connectivity, mobility, autonomous vehicles, the customer experience and big data."

Ford’s e-bike will come with a 200-watt motor, powered by a 9-amp-hour battery. Riders will be able to bike at speeds up to 25 miles per hour with the electric pedal assist.

The bike will mirror Ford's automotive technology, incorporating a rear-facing ultrasonic sensor to alert the biker when a car is too close for comfort.

All three MoDe e-bikes were designed with urban commuting in mind, and as such they will integrate to your smartphone via the MoDe:Link app to deliver real-time weather information, congestion warnings, turn-by-turn navigation, and public transportation schedules. It will also provide multiple route options. Unique features will also include a “no sweat” mode that will increase the motor’s output based on heart rate to ensure riders get to their destination without perspiring, as well as pothole detection systems and approaching car warnings.

The e-bikes will feature unique front and rear suspension assemblies which can be configured for road, mountain or city biking.

For now, all three e-bikes are prototypes with indeterminate futures, though if the Ford e-bikes come to production-ready fruition, they will likely have plenty of takers ready to give them a spin.

edited from USA Today

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Millennials: Love Them or Let Them Go

Dan Fogarty, 29, left, and Teddy Tehrani, 26, play soccer table at Kapost. 

Photo: CHRIS SCHNEIDER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Many managers like to complain that 20-something workers won’t stay put in a job for long. But for employers, is that a problem or an opportunity?

Millennials—those roughly 18-to-34 years old—make up the largest share of the U.S. workforce, about 34%, outnumbering Generation Xers and baby boomers, who account for about 32% and 31%, respectively, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The rising number of young workers has some companies worried about keeping them on board. Other businesses are embracing flux in the talent market, and say they are focused on getting the most from young hires while they have them.

Last year, the median job tenure for workers aged 20 to 24 was shorter than 16 months. For those aged 25 to 34, it was three years, according to the BLS, still far short of the 5.5-year median tenure for all workers aged 25 and older.

After working as a front-end engineer at Facebook Inc. in Menlo Park, Calif., for a little over a year, Colby Rabideau left the social-media company last year to be closer to his girlfriend and family in Boston. The 24-year-old said he never intended to stay on the West Coast permanently. Mr. Rabideau now is a software engineer at Hubspot Inc., where he plans to spend “at least a couple more years.” But, he said, he doesn’t expect to stay “at a company for 30 years.” He added that he might start his own business down the road.

 “There is a very pronounced level of unease” about young workers and their loyalty to employers, said Caroline Ghosn, founder and chief executive of Levo League, an online career-development network geared to young women.

The 28-year-old Ms. Ghosn has advised those firms to strengthen networking opportunities for junior employees, such as by hosting mentorship “mixers” to allow relationships to develop between senior and junior colleagues. She said a lack of close ties at work, via networks or a social group, frequently causes young people to leave.

Companies like IBM Corp., Coca Cola Co. and Visa Inc. have recently relaxed office dress codes and convened councils of millennial employees to weigh in on everything from marketing campaigns to workplace policies. Auditing firm Ernst & Young Global Ltd. and Dutch health-care and consumer-products company Philips  NV have begun programs designed to send employees overseas for stints of a few months, giving them global exposure and developing leadership skills.

Online deals site RetailMeNot Inc. said it is inviting junior employees to take part in hiring decisions. “Millennials are only interested in staying here if we’re attracting other ‘A’ players,” said Annette Alexander, RetailMeNot’s vice president of human resources. To make young workers feel heard, executives must “involve them in key hiring decisions for the company,” she said.

Some managers think companies should stop trying so hard. They cite “The Alliance,” a book co-written by LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman that proposes a different model for the employer-employee relationship—one based on mutual expectations and the possibility of the employee leaving.

At LinkedIn, managers often segment an employee’s career into “tours of duty” that last a couple of years. The employee and manager agree on specific goals to be met during that period. At the end of a given tour, both parties understand that the employee might leave.

“By talking openly about the fact that an employee might leave, you actually increase the likelihood” that he or she will stay on, said Ben Casnocha, a co-author of the book and Mr. Hoffman’s former chief of staff. Employers should make clear that “if it makes more sense for you to leave [than stay], that’s OK,” he added.

Toby Murdock, CEO of Kapost, a Boulder, Colo. marketing-software firm, said he has adopted that mind-set. “It is a very fluid marketplace for young people,” said Mr. Murdock, 41. “Let’s be honest about that instead of trying to deny it.”

He wants young workers to consider his company a career accelerator, rather than a parking lot. That attitude has given Kapost a reputation as a career launchpad, Mr. Murdock said, and helps the company attract a stream of ambitious young candidates.

Investor-research firm Cognolink also touts its ability to boost young people’s careers. “My goal is to train them so well that people are going to come and want to head-hunt them away,” said Bryan Lewis, chief operating officer of the 285-person firm, which has offices in London, New York, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Mumbai. “I expect that, and it makes me proud,” he said. If an employee hesitates to pursue an attractive opportunity elsewhere, “I’ll fire them so that they have to go take it,” Mr. Lewis said.

Kapost’s CEO Toby Murdock, left, and executive Christine Viera with Bean the dog during a lunch break. Photo: CHRIS SCHNEIDER FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

edited from The Wall Street Journal

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Investing in airports - Flying high

 

IMAGINE owning a shopping centre that your customers are forced to stay in for several hours. Better yet, everyone who visits is relatively rich, and many are in a holiday mood. Now imagine that the number of these special shopping centres is strictly regulated, giving you a near-monopoly. On top of this you get paid a fee per visitor. No wonder buying airports has become something of an investment fad.

Though potentially lucrative, airports tie up a lot of capital, which is why governments around the world are selling them. Some are being listed on stockmarkets, others sold to private investors. The Japanese government is selling 30-40-year concessions to run some of its airports. France sold a 49.9% stake in Toulouse airport to a Chinese-led consortium in December. Investors include pension funds, sovereign-wealth funds, infrastructure specialists and private-equity houses.

What sets airports apart from most investments in infrastructure is their dual income stream: they bring in money both on the aeronautical side (landing fees, contracts with carriers) and from passengers (parking, shopping, hotels). If you own a toll road and traffic dwindles, there’s not much you can do. But with an airport there are lots of levers to pull, such as cutting capital costs, firing staff and upping the price of parking. 

“We love them because they pay a steady income for our retirees, protect against inflation and are a diversifier,” says Andrew Claerhout of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP), which is an investor in four European airports including Birmingham and Copenhagen. Best of all is the bonus that comes from being a monopoly. Returns from well-run airports tend to be in the double digits, markedly higher than more boring assets like bridges.

One way to boost profits is to increase the number of passengers who can be herded through the buildings.

Ardian, an investment firm that owns a stake in Luton airport, near London, helped to convince the local train company to increase London-bound services during rush-hour. It also removed a bottleneck at security by opening more lanes and hiring “smiling people” in yellow T-shirts to point passengers to the shortest queue. An upgrade of the terminal, aimed at increasing the number of passengers from 12m to 18m a year, is next.

When an airport has been in public hands, the non-aeronautical parts of the business have often been especially neglected. Buyers often invest in good parking (ie, under a roof and close by), which can become one of the biggest single sources of income. But not all airports are created equal. 

Those serving capital cities tend to be safer bets, with a steady supply of visitors, come rain or shine (unlike holiday destinations). Ensuring the airport is not dominated by a single carrier is another golden rule, as this makes it vulnerable to strikes or bankruptcy. 

Buying a stake in an airport of which the government owns a controlling share is risky, as public and private interests are not always aligned.

Europe is currently the hub for airport investing, accounting for more than half of all deals since 2011, according to Preqin, a data firm. That compares to 15% in Asia, 14% in Australasia and 9% in America. But European valuations are reaching dizzying altitudes: Ljubljana airport was sold last year to Fraport, a German airport specialist, reportedly for a lofty 20 times annual earnings. 

Michael Burns of PwC, a consultancy, points out that the number of passengers is growing twice as fast at many Asian and African airports. By 2020 Indonesian airports will have more traffic than British ones, predicts PwC. More adventurous investors may end up flying long-haul.

from The Economist

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Smartphones - smart drivers?

A driver is shown using his cell phone in Dallas.

Credit LM Otero/Associated Press

 Phones are getting smarter, drivers seemingly less so. 

A recent survey shows that many motorists have expanded their behind-the-wheel activities beyond texting to include using Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, taking selfies and even shooting videos. 

The survey was commissioned by AT&T, itself a phone company, but one that has invested heavily in discouraging distracted driving through its “It Can Wait” public service campaign. The telephone survey was conducted by Braun Research, which polled 2,067 people who own a smartphone and drive at least once a day. 

The survey found that 27 percent of drivers age 16 to 65 report using Facebook, and 14 percent report using Twitter. Of those, a startling 30 percent who said they post to Twitter while driving do it “all the time.”

“One in 10 say they do video chat while driving. I don’t even have words for that,” said Lori Lee, AT&T’s senior executive vice president for global marketing.

The survey found, 17 percent take selfies, perhaps a fitting metaphor for ignoring everyone else on the road. The survey also found that texting remains the most prevalent activity, reported by 61 percent of drivers, followed by 33 percent who email and 28 percent who surf the Internet. More than 10 percent use Instagram and Snapchat. 

The survey is obviously just one data point. But there is other evidence suggesting that driver behavior is getting more foolish, even in the face of public service efforts and legislation. Oklahoma this month enacted a bill banning texting and driving, joining 45 other states and the District of Columbia with such laws.

Yet the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, which conducts an annual survey about driver behavior, found in its 2014 survey that 36.1 percent of drivers read a text or email in the 30 days before the survey, and 27.1 percent typed one. 

Those figures are an increase over two years earlier, when the 2012 index found that 34.7 percent read a text or email and 26.2 typed one. 

Also, the National Safety Council, a nonprofit organization, estimated Monday that crashes from texting drivers rose to 6 percent of all crashes, up from an estimated 5 percent last year. (The figures are mere estimates; policing agencies haven’t been collecting actual data long, and drivers may not admit that their texting caused a crash, according to safety advocates).

Even if these are modest increases in crashes and behavior, presumably within the margin of error, they still show the challenges facing safety advocates and policy makers. Curiously, more drivers are aware of the risks. In the 2014 AAA survey, 84.4 percent of those surveyed said it was “completely unacceptable” to text and drive.

What might explain the disconnect? 

Over the years covering this issue, I’ve heard a handful of explanations from scientists and policy experts that get at potential reasons.

First, policy and safety efforts to discourage distracted driving are flying in the face of strong social pressure to stay connected. It’s also flying in the face of market forces and new technology that encourage constant connectedness. 

And our devices can feel irresistible. In the new AT&T survey, 22 percent of the respondents who access social media while driving said that they did so because they felt addicted. A growing body of evidence suggests that heavy use of phones is, if not actually addictive, at least extremely habit-forming. 

Drivers also overestimate their abilities to multitask while driving even as they criticize others for doing it. In the AT&T survey, 27 percent of people who shoot a video while driving said they thought they could do it safely. “You’re an accident waiting to happen,” Ms. Lee said of multitasking motorists. The company, which started the It Can Wait campaign in 2010, plans to expand its message to discourage not only texting but other smartphone activities. 

What’s to be done to narrow the gap between attitudes and behaviors? Some lessons for curbing the behavior can be drawn from the success in cutting sharply into drunk driving and the effort to increase seat belt use. Both relied on the combination of public education and enforcement of tough laws.

But given the strong social and market forces present with technology that weren’t present on those other issues, it is unclear if that pattern will repeat itself.

from The New York Times