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Mercedes-Benz, conducting the biggest test using drones to ship everyday items such as ground coffee and cellphones, said the mini-aircraft completed 100 drop-offs to strategically placed vans in Zurich with a perfect safety record, and more deliveries are planned for next year.

Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to buy 24,000 sport utility vehicles from Sweden’s Volvo Cars to form a fleet of driverless autos.

Daimler AG is jumping the gun on Tesla Inc. by showing off a battery-powered heavy-duty truck weeks before the California electric-car maker’s own planned unveiling, in a sign of the growing rivalry between the companies.

Daimler AG is firming up plans for its biggest corporate overhaul in a decade, granting its cars and trucks operations more independence in a bid to become more nimble and better confront the disruptive shift to self-driving electric vehicles.

Mercedes-Benz is taking the next step in an ambitious project to use drones for same-day delivery, with a three-week pilot in Zurich that will see mini copters shuttle bags of ground coffee to fixed points in the city.

In a musical fantasy for Daimler AG’s Smart brand, performers at the Frankfurt motor show this week literally sang out the virtues of an autonomous two-seater, with the spectacle suggesting there’s more fiction than fact in robo-cars.

Daimler AG, battered by allegations it colluded with other German carmakers for decades, is studying a legal separation of its businesses, including cars, trucks, vans and financial services, in a move that could pave the way for future spinoffs

Three decades ago, an experimental Mercedes-Benz van managed to steer, brake and accelerate on its own. But after the technology was refined enough to put an S-Class sedan through its paces on a highway around Paris in 1994, it was largely set aside as commercially unviable.

German auto-parts maker ZF Friedrichshafen AG’s 5.29 billion krona ($610 million) bid to buy Swedish component supplier Haldex AB is poised to fail, clearing the way for a rival’s higher bid.

Mercedes-Benz is looking at mounting automated flying drones onto a new line of electric vans as part of a $562 million investment aimed at speeding delivery times for online orders.