Toronto, Ontario — In this week’s Tuesday Ticker, Volkswagen’s head honcho says the automaker will make its own chips for self-driving vehicles; gig-related stocks suffer following a Biden administration representative interview and Boyd Group Services marks a date for its Q1 financial results reveal.
Homemade chips
Volkswagen won’t be relying on an outside company for chips in its self-driving cars; CEO Herbert Diess told a German news source last week that the OEM will be designing its own high-performance chips for autonomous vehicles.
While the automaker won’t technically build the chips itself, its software division, CARIAD, would expand to develop a relevant enterprise. Diess said the move would give VW a “higher competence” in defining its processors.
The fruits of VW’s labour won’t be available for a while, however. The automaker doesn’t expect to introduce self-driving cars until 2025 or later.
A question of independence
Uber, Lyft and other gig-related stocks suffered significant drops last week after a U.S. President Biden representative told Reuters that drivers are considered employees under U.S. labour law.
“We are looking at it but, in a lot of cases, gig workers should be classified as employees,” said U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh in a Thursday interview. “These companies are making profits and revenue and I’m not [going to] begrudge anyone for that because that’s what we are about in America…but we also want to make sure that success trickles down to the worker.”
Following the interview’s release, Uber stocks plummeted nearly eight percent, as did shares of Lyft. Shares of DoorDash dropped nearly 11 percent the day following the interview release.
Companies like Uber, Lyft and DoorDash treat their drivers and deliver workers as independent contractors who do not receive the same pay, rights and benefits as employees. The companies have fought to preserve their business model despite controversy worldwide.
In Canada, Uber’s contracted workers are currently grappling with the ridesharing giant’s Flexible Work+ proposal, which aimed to introduce some benefits and safety protections to contracted workers. The program was met with mixed reactions from Uber drivers and delivery workers.
Boyd, live on the air
Winnipeg, Manitoba-based Boyd Group Services will release its fiscal 2021 first-quarter results on May 12, 2021, before markets open.
Following the release, Management of the Company will hold a conference call at 10:00 a.m. ET to review the financial results. The call will be hosted by Timothy O’Day, President and Chief Executive Officer, Pat Pathipati, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Brock Bulbuck, Executive Chair.
All interested parties are invited to participate. The call will also be webcast live and archived for 90 days on the Boyd Group’s website at boydgroup.com.
