2013 Fiat 500 Pop on 2040-cars

Auto blog

P. Diddy hosting Fiat 500L desert party

Fiat didn't run an advertisement during this year's Super Bowl. We've no idea why, though, because based on this recently released 60-second spot, the Italian brand probably could have done quite well during the big game.
The spot, called Mirage, stars Sean "Diddy" Combs (who happens to be the ex of former Fiat spokesperson Jennifer Lopez) and a pair of very unfortunate pedestrians. Wandering through the desert, the two are confronted by what they think are mirages before stumbling into a giant party hosted by the Grammy Award-winning rapper. It's a humorous spot, highlighting a product that Fiat really needs to succeed, the new 500L.
The Super Bowl-worthy ad is part of a larger campaign that will hopefully help distinguish the four-door L model from its smaller, two-door counterpart. "Too many people discover the 500L through the 500. That's what we have to solve for here," Jason Stoicevich, head of Fiat's brand in North America, told Automotive News. "It's awareness. We know it, we understand it and we had to find a creative way to deal with it."

Aurora lands Fiat Chrysler as a client of its self-driving technology

SAN FRANCISCO — Self-driving car software startup Aurora said on Sunday it would partner with Fiat Chrysler to build autonomous platforms for commercial vehicles, the latest collaboration with an automaker for the fast-growing Silicon Valley company. The deal with one of the Detroit Three will expand Aurora's scope, "allowing us to offer a variety of solutions to strategic customers in logistics, transit and other use cases," the Palo Alto, California-based company said in a brief statement. Besides for ride-hailing fleets, automakers and others are interested in self-driving technology for commercial applications, such as delivery vans. Financial terms were not disclosed. Aurora already has partnerships with Volkswagen AG, Hyundai and China's Byton to develop and test self-driving systems for a range of applications for automakers, fleet owners and others. The company is among dozens of startups, automakers and large technology companies working on self-driving car systems, eager to capitalize on a sea change in the transportation industry brought by developments in machine learning. Fiat Chrysler has an existing partnership with Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving unit, in which it supplies Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans for Waymo's driverless fleet, which is currently in operation in Arizona. In February, Aurora said it had raised $530 million in new funding.

Weekly Recap: Chrysler forges ahead with new name, same mission

Chrysler is history. Sort of. The 89-year-old automaker was absorbed into the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles conglomerate that officially launched this fall, and now the local operations will no longer use the Chrysler Group name. Instead, it's FCA US LLC. Catchy, eh? Here's what it means: The sign outside Chrysler's Auburn Hills, MI, headquarters says FCA (which it already did) and obviously, all official documents use the new name, rather than Chrysler. That's about it. The executives, brands and location of the headquarters aren't changing. You'll still be able to buy a Chrysler 200. It's just made by FCA US LLC. This reinforces that FCA is one company going forward – the seventh largest automaker in the world – not a Fiat-Chrysler dual kingdom. While the move is symbolic, it is a conflicting moment for Detroiters, though nothing is really changing. Chrysler has been owned by someone else (Daimler, Cerberus) for the better part of two decades, but it still seemed like it was Chrysler in the traditional sense: A Big 3 automaker in Detroit. Now, it's clearly the US division of a multinational industrial empire; that's good thing for its future stability, but bittersweet nonetheless. Undoubtedly, it's an emotion that's also being felt at Fiat's Turin, Italy, headquarters as the company will no longer officially be called Fiat there. Digest that for a moment. What began in 1899 as the Societa Anonima Fabbrica Italiana di Automobili Torino – or FIAT – is now FCA Italy SpA. In a statement, FCA said the move "is intended to emphasize the fact that all group companies worldwide are part of a single organization." The new names are the latest changes orchestrated by CEO Sergio Marchionne, who continues to makeover FCA as an international automaker that has ties to its heritage – but isn't tied down by it. Everything from the planned spinoff of Ferrari, a new FCA headquarters in London and the pending demise of the Dodge Grand Caravan in 2016 has shown that the company is willing to move quickly, even if it's controversial. While renaming the United States and Italian divisions were the moves most likely to spur controversy, FCA said other regions across the globe will undergo similar name changes this year. Despite the mixed emotions, it's worth noting: The name of the merged company that oversees all of these far-flung units is Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Obviously the Chrysler corporate name isn't completely history.