Cheap robots may shift car making from China to U.S.: Magna CEO

The falling cost of intelligent robots may help repatriate some car manufacturing work away from low-cost locations like China back to factories in Germany and North America, Donald Walker, Chief Executive of auto supplier Magna told Reuters. Rising wages in China and the cost of importing heavy components like electric car batteries into Europe may lead established car makers to introduce more highly efficient automated manufacturing closer to home, Walker told Reuters in an interview at the Frankfurt auto show. “If you have a high labor, easy-to-ship part, it has already gone, for the most part, to a low-cost jurisdiction,” Walker said about the evolution of assembly work in the car manufacturing business

Read more

Deutsche Bank to launch three tech startup labs in 2015: source

By Thomas Atkins and Andreas Kröner FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Deutsche Bank aims to launch three technology innovation labs in Berlin, London and Silicon Valley this year designed to accelerate development of so-called “fintech” companies which could aid the banking sector and its clients. Germany’s largest lender, grappling with an overhaul of its own technology infrastructure, aims to get the three operations up and running by the end of the year, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Read more