We live near one of the major manufacturing sites of Daimler Chrysler, manufacturer of Mercedes Benz. Every so often we get to see a test car, like the one pictured above. Notice how it’s matte black? That’s special black tape, covering the finish and some specific details they don’t want to show the public yet.
It’s a new model, not yet for sale, and is generally being test-driven by a Mercedes executive. The Mercedes employees get to check out cars like this occasionally. Nice deal, but not as nice as the car purchase plan they have. They and retirees of Mercedes get to buy a new car at a discount, mind you, and turn it around and sell it after a certain short period, like maybe a year. Nice profit. They call them Jahreswagens, for “annual cars.”
But there are other collateral benefits to just living in the area. I really enjoy seeing a tractor-trailer carrying a million dollars worth of cars off the factory lot for delivery. Once in a while, when we drive by the plant, I estimate how much inventory I can see. $50M is not an unusual number of cars for Mercedes to have in inventory, right before a big shipment. A large portion of the inventory parking lot is covered by carports, but I can’t imagine what they do when a hailstorm comes through.
It also doesn’t hurt to have the benefit of having so many well-paid people living in the area, because that means nice shopping, counterbalanced by expensive housing. Oh well, can’t have anything.
But I discovered a new benefit! I was contacted by an employee of a supplier to Mercedes, who is desiging a voice recognition system. They are testing or training their latest system, and they need recorded voices for their new product. Of course, they need many different languages, and at the moment they’ve asked for new recordings of American English voices. I assume it’s some kind of usability test they are running, and I love usability, so I hope to learn more. Both my daughter and I get to record for them today! It’s going to be so much fun! I’ll let you know what happens.
