Industry

For many people, an automated vehicle means a car that’s fully self-driving in all locations and all conditions, where the occupants could safely nap in the back seat if they wanted. But there are lower levels of automation to navigate first. Today’s hands-free driving systems, such as General Motors’ Super Cruise or Tesla’s Autopilot, are

What can’t be seen can hurt you. That’s the thinking behind a range of fluidic, compressed-air, ultrasonic and aerodynamic cleaning gear and hydrophobic coatings for the sensors. They are a vital part of automated driving systems. A clean windshield and healthy wipers help with driver vision and sensor capability. But only if the sensors, like

General Motors plans to reestablish its presence in Europe with a mobility startup business, and it has tapped Mahmoud Samara, Cadillac’s North America chief who has led much of the transition to electric vehicles this year, to run it. Samara, 44, becomes president and managing director of GM Europe on Dec. 1. He will report

Elon Musk’s influence is spreading to Oak Ranch, a sprawling development of manufactured homes about five miles south of the Tesla Gigafactory going up outside Austin. New lots line freshly paved roads, each with a patch of gravel ready for a new house. It’s part of a boom in lower-cost housing alternatives such as trailer

Electric vehicle owners in New York City, many of whom don’t have a driveway or garage where they can plug in, in June got a new place to charge their cars. Revel, the startup best known for its moped-sharing service, opened a charging depot in a former Pfizer building in Brooklyn. The Superhub, as Revel

Schaeffler is mapping out a future in which steering wheels are no longer needed. It is doing so by enhancing a product called Space Drive, which was originally developed to help people with disabilities regain their mobility. Through its joint venture, Schaeffler Paravan Technologie, the German supplier is turning Space Drive into a key part

MIMASAKA, Japan — Toyota was the darling of environmental consumers not so long ago, barely able to produce enough lean-burning, pioneering Prius hybrids to accommodate the growing legions of ecologically motivated buyers. Suddenly, the Japanese giant has become a scourge in some corners, with critics from the Sierra Club to Greenpeace deriding the automaker for

A partnership between ZF Friedrichshafen and Microsoft will allow the German parts supplier to create new capabilities for its autonomous shuttle systems, the company said. ZF said this week that it expanded its partnership with Microsoft to move all of its business, production and industrial processes onto the tech company’s Azure cloud platform. It’s a

ZF Friedrichshafen said it is moving its business, production and industrial processes onto the cloud as it expands its partnership with Microsoft. The German auto supplier on Tuesday said it will digitalize all of its processes on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform — a move that ZF expects will generate far-reaching benefits across its business.

Getty Images The Omicron variant could add pressure to a chronic shortage of microchips used in car manufacturing, the boss of car giant Nissan has warned. Makoto Uchida said it was too early to say when normal deliveries, and therefore finished cars, would resume. “I can’t give you a date. This new variant could add

Getty Images UK car production dropped by more than 40% last month to the lowest level recorded for October since 1956. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the fall was due to “a global shortage of semiconductors which led to production stoppages”. It added that the decline, compared to last year, was

Getty Images Tesla shares have fallen by about 4.6% after Twitter users voted in favour of boss Elon Musk selling 10% of his stake in the carmaker in order to pay tax. Mr Musk polled his Twitter followers on whether he should sell the shares, and 58% of the 3.5 million accounts that voted said

EPA/Fredrik Sandberg Swedish car company Volvo is now valued at more than $22bn (£16bn) after its shares jumped in the first hours of trading of its market debut. Volvo, majority-owned by Chinese firm Geely, offered up shares in a slice of the company on the Stockholm stock exchange on Friday. Shares jumped from an initial

Ford Europe Ford is to invest £230m in its Halewood plant on Merseyside to make electric car parts, helping safeguard 500 jobs. The investment will mean the plant will run for many years longer, said Stuart Rowley, president, Ford of Europe. There had been speculation about the future of the Halewood factory complex as Ford

Getty Images More electric vehicles were registered than diesel cars for the second month in a row in July, according to car industry figures. It is the third time battery electric vehicles have overtaken diesel in the past two years. However, new car registrations fell by almost a third, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and

Getty Images UK car production fell sharply last month, marking the worst July performance for the industry since 1956, a trade group has said. The global microchip shortage, staff being affected by the so-called pingdemic, and shutdowns meant just 53,438 cars were built in the month. That was a drop of 37.6% compared to July

Toyota Toyota is resuming operations of its autonomous vehicles at the Paralympic Games village in Tokyo following an accident. Services of the e-Palette pods were halted after a vehicle hit a visually impaired athlete last week. The athlete was not seriously injured, but he had to pull out of an event due to cuts and

Getty Images The global shortage of computer chips has had a significant impact on the car industry and is unlikely to improve before the end of the year, according to Vauxhall Motors. Vauxhall’s managing director, Paul Willcox, told the BBC that the industry was facing a “problem” for the next two or three months. However,

Reuters Tesla has announced it will move its company headquarters to Texas from California. Chief executive Elon Musk announced the move at the electric carmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Austin. Mr Musk had fallen out with local politicians in Alameda county, California, the location of a key Tesla factory, over its Covid response. He gave

Getty Images New car registrations fell to their lowest levels in September for more than two decades, according to figures from the industry’s trade body. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said new registrations dropped 35% compared with the same month a year earlier. Falling car production has been blamed on an ongoing

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co., which will phase out internal combustion products by 2040, has now unveiled plans to reinvent the company in business areas that are truly out of this world. Under a road map unveiled Thursday, the automaker said it will branch into electric air mobility vehicles, avatar robots and even reusable rockets

DETROIT — BrightDrop, General Motors’ electric delivery van brand, will launch its second vehicle in 2023, with Verizon as the first customer. The EV410, a midsize delivery van designed for small, frequent trips, will join the larger EV600 van at GM’s CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario. Like the EV600, it will have a GM-estimated

Ford Motor Co. will receive twice the amount of Michigan tax incentives for its Dearborn Truck Plant after announcing last month that it plans to double production of the F-150 Lightning pickup at the plant. The automaker will receive just more than $6 million in State Essential Services Assessment, or SESA, exemption tax incentives for

Canadian supplier Magna International Inc. and the University of Waterloo in Ontario announced Monday a $1.3 million ($1.6 million CAD) joint project designed to enhance the safety and cybersecurity of self-driving vehicles. Jim Quesenberry, director of research and development at Magna, said the five-year collaboration will aim to tackle some of the big issues in

Plug in America, a nonprofit, Los Angeles- based advocacy group, calls itself the consumer voice of the electric vehicle industry. Among its missions is to educate consumers about driving EVs, and, through its PlugStar program, to educate dealerships on selling the vehicles. Shift Deputy Editor Pete Bigelow spoke with Program Director Kathryn Urquhart and Executive

Hundreds of miles away from a major city brimming with urbanites and potential early adopters, Stefan Johnson devotes his time to generating interest in electric vehicles on Colorado’s rugged Western Slope. This is oil-and-gas country. Not all that long ago, Johnson’s attempts may have only stirred derision. But today, a rise in EV-curious consumers, a

In an Aug. 18 virtual event titled “The Thriving Dealership: Now and for the Future,” sponsored by Cox Automotive, Shift convened a panel of retailing experts to share insights. Here are excerpts. Digital retailing “Something that actually even surprised me was that, even as the pandemic wound down, we thought our digital retailing engagement would

Sould a part the size of a rice grain and worth less than a penny slow down and even stop a 5,000-pound, $50,000, full-size truck from being sold? When that tiny part is a microchip that triggers an airbag, fires a fuel injector or commands a navigation system, the answer is yes. “This isn’t going

LOS ANGELES — Honda is late to the EV push, without an electric vehicle on sale now in the U.S. and not much success with its cute-but-pricey “e” model in Europe. But that’s not stopping the brand from predicting ambitious sales of future EV products. Honda said last week that its initial target is 70,000

Like many legacy luxury automakers, Lucid Motors offers several levels of customization for its future vehicle portfolio, starting with the Air sedan that will soon go into production. As a direct seller of its electric vehicles, Lucid provides an online configurator, but it takes that to the next level inside its Studio retail locations with