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Daimler relocating North American headquarters to Michigan

While Mercedes-Benz is moving its American headquarters from New Jersey to Georgia, its parent company Daimler is also relocating from the Garden State. But rather than join its automotive unit down south, Daimler North America is moving to Michigan. The relocation was announced by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder while visiting the Frankfurt Motor Show in Germany this week, and has been confirmed by Daimler in correspondence with Autoblog. Daimler's North American headquarters are currently located in Park Ridge, NJ, a mere five-minute drive from Montvale where Mercedes-Benz USA has been based prior to its move to Georgia. The relocation will see Daimler's North American head office move into the facility that currently houses the company's financial services division in Farmington Hills, MI. The move will bring 30 jobs to Michigan, and is slated to commence in 2016 and conclude "sometime in 2017," according to the company. Now if you're wondering why Daimler is going to Michigan while Mercedes is going to Georgia, bear in mind that a number of Daimler's facilities are already located in the Great Lakes State. In addition to the financial services office, Daimler also operates an R&D facility in Ann Arbor. It also owns Redford-based Detroit Diesel, where the photo above was taken during President Obama's visit in December 2012. Along with the Daimler facility, the governor's office also announced the opening of a new Michigan Europe Center that will seek "to promote trade and export development between the state and European markets." The center will also operate satellites in London and Berlin in order to further its mission on behalf of small- and medium-sized businesses based in Michigan, of which we can expect many will come from the automotive sector. Gov. Snyder in Germany: Daimler North America moving headquarters to Michigan State opens Michigan Europe Center to promote trade and investment Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015 FRANKFURT – Daimler North America Corporation, the holding company for all of the company's business units in the United States, will move its headquarters to Michigan from New Jersey, Gov. Rick Snyder announced as he completed an investment mission trip to Japan and Germany. "Michigan is the world's automotive leader, and Daimler's decision to increase its presence in state is another indication that we intend to hold that position for generations to come," Snyder said.

Mercedes-Benz EQC vs. Jaguar I-Pace vs. Tesla Model X: How they compare on paper

The Mercedes-Benz EQ line is officially alive and kicking, with the reveal of the EQC electric crossover. It joins a segment that, while still in its infancy, seems ready to take off. Mercedes lists as the EQC's competitors the Jaguar I-Pace, The Audi E-Tron Quattro and the BMW iX3. While we've seen all of these, at least in concept or pre-production form, only one — the Jag — has actually been launched in production form. We've seen a concept and subsequent spy shots of the iX3, and the Audi EV will get its official specs publicized later this month. One electric SUV Mercedes didn't specifically call out was the Tesla Model X. As such, we've decided to compare on paper the Mercedes-Benz EQC 400, the Jaguar I-Pace S and the Tesla Model X 75D: All three are dual-motor EVs, though the Tesla is the longest and tallest. The EQC has the most power, but it and the Model X's 4.9-second 0-60 times fall short of the I-Pace. It also has the lowest top speed and electric driving range. (Mercedes sent us an updated range figure, but it's using the generous and largely outdated NEDC cycle; we're still waiting on an EPA rating.) We'll be interested to see how much the Mercedes weighs. Mercedes hasn't divulged the price of the EQC yet, but we imagine it'll fall pretty near to the $70,000 mark. As for Audi, we'll revisit this comparison after those details are made available on September 17. If you're interested in some other EV comparisons, we have a couple others that we published to compare the I-Pace to premium Teslas, as well as against other less-expensive EVs. If you want to learn more about these EVs, and compare them with other cars, be sure to check out our Car Finder and comparison tools. Related Video: Featured Gallery Mercedes-Benz EQC 400 EV Crossover View 28 Photos Green Jaguar Mercedes-Benz Tesla Crossover SUV Electric Luxury Comparison jaguar i-pace mercedes-benz eqc

When Android Automotive goes in the dash, Google wins — and automakers lose data

You've gotta hand it to Google for the way the Silicon Valley tech giant has made indelible inroads into the car on multiple fronts. The most obvious is with its pioneering self-driving car technology that's caused car companies to get their act together on autonomous vehicles — and also collaborate with Google. Google has more directly extended its influence and data-mining capabilities into the car with its Android Auto smartphone-projection platform that most major automakers have adopted along with Apple's CarPlay. And now it's preparing to dig even deeper into dashboards by deploying its open-source operating system, Android Automotive, beginning with Audi and Volvo. Volvo recently announced that its next-generation Sensus infotainment system will run Android Automotive as an OS and include Google's Play Store for cloud-based content, Maps for navigation and Google Assistant for voice recognition, which can even command a car's climate control. By embedding Google in the dash, Volvo says owners will get an improved connected experience. "Bringing Google services into Volvo cars will accelerate innovation in connectivity and boost our development in applications and connected services," Volvo senior vice president of R&D Henrik Green said in a statement. "Soon, Volvo drivers will have direct access to thousands of in-car apps that make daily life easier and the connected in-car experience more enjoyable." Having Android Automotive onboard could benefit drivers — and provide a big win for Google, since it opens a deep and lucrative new data-mining vein for the company. But it's a wave of a white flag for car companies when it comes to delivering their own cloud-based content and services. It also represents a massive data giveaway and, for Audi, a reversal of earlier reservations about letting Google get too much access to car data. Not long after Android Auto and Apple CarPlay were introduced in 2014 and most automakers eagerly embraced the technologies, several German automakers second-guessed their decision when they realized what was at stake: data. At a conference in Berlin in 2015, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said car owners "want to be in control of their data, and not subject to monitoring." A few months earlier, Stadler stated that "the data that we collect is our data and not Google's.