Displaying items by tag: google

(Detroit)

General Motors is ramping up its efforts in the self-driving car space. In what has become somewhat of a new age automotive space race, the company is doing well in its testing of autonomous vehicles. That said, it is still well behind the performance of Waymo, Google’s self-driving car unit. GM’s vehicles are getting very autonomous, with a human driver only needing to intervene 0.797 times for every 1,000 miles driven in 2017, down from 18.51 in 2016. Google’s number is 0.179 per 1,000 miles. Some criticize this “disengagement” metric because it is not well controlled or defined.

FINSUM: There is probably a little bit of “play” in how these stats are recorded, but if they are anything near the truth, the technology sounds like it is performing very well. GM says it wants to debut self-driving cars in 2019.

(San Francisco)

While most publications have been running stories arguing that it may be time to get out of the FAANGs, Barron’s has a run a piece to the contrary, saying that they have more room to run. While the piece admits that the group of stocks is under a lot of pressure and is highly priced, it contends that it is not time to pull out yet. The argument is that despite accusations of misbehavior and threats from Trump, the sector will remain the centerpiece for growth investors. If the economy continues to chug (meaning stay under 3% growth), then tech’s steady growth will remain attractive.

FINSUM: We tend to like this view. Despite how richly these companies are valued, we think there is still room for medium-term value growth as regulation is still a way off and their fundamental businesses are solid.