Self-driving tech company Robotic Research Inc. said Thursday it has raised $228 million in its first round of outside funding in the company’s nearly two-decade history. The money comes from not just the regular crowd of venture capitalists. Luminar Technologies, the lidar company working with many of the world’s largest automakers, is among the investors.
BERLIN — Audi’s sales and marketing boss, Hildegard Wortmann, is being promoted to head sales at parent Volkswagen Group, a German press report said. Wortmann, 55, will also be responsible for mobility services for the group, Spiegel magazine reported. Wortmann moved from BMW to Audi in July 2019. She previously worked at Unilever and Calvin
6:52 AM ET Mercedes have agreed to end a sponsorship deal with insulation firm Kingspan, it was announced on Wednesday, amid a backlash about the Irish company’s link to Britain’s 2017 Grenfell Tower fire. Survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire last week called for Lewis Hamilton’s team to reconsider a sponsorship deal due to Kingspan’s
In this article F Ford Motor Company world headquarters, Dearborn, Michigan on January 19, 2021. Aaron J. Thornton | Getty Images DETROIT – Ford Motor is once again delaying a return-to-work hybrid plan for salaried employees until March amid concerns about rising Covid-19 cases in its home state of Michigan and uncertainty surrounding the omicron
Mercedes-Benz is currently out testing prototypes for a redesigned E-Class expected to go on sale in 2023 as a 2024 model. The prototypes are for the regular E-Class, but the variant we’re most interested in is the E 63 sledgehammer from AMG. Autocar reported last week that a new E 63 is definitely coming, albeit
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DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday stopped taking reservations for the upcoming F-150 Lightning electric pickup as it prepares to open its order bank for the truck next month. Ford CEO Jim Farley told Automotive News last month that reservations for the pickup were “approaching 200,000 units.” A spokeswoman on Wednesday echoed that same
A truck driver shortage is contributing to ongoing supply chain issues in the U.S. — and making the thought of driverless trucks even more appealing to companies. According to an October estimate by the American Trucking Associations, the U.S. is short an all-time high 80,000 drivers, a factor in backups at ports and warehouses desperate
Volkswagen brand CEO Ralf Brandstaetter will take charge of the VW Group’s China operations and Skoda boss Thomas Schaefer will move to Brandstaetter’s role at VW, according to German press reports. Brandstaetter, 53, will move to Beijing for the new role, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Wednesday. He will be promoted to VW’s management board,
California-headquartered SunPower (Nasdaq:SPWR) announced today that it’s launched SunPower Financial, which means that customers working with SunPower to buy rooftop solar and storage no longer need a third-party lender to obtain and manage financing. SunPower’s new solar financing SunPower claims that it’s now the first and only solar provider to give US homeowners a one-stop
7:00 AM ET At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this Sunday, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen will look to emerge victorious from one of the most dramatic championship contests Formula One has ever seen. It’s been incredible, it’s been unpredictable and it’s been controversial. It might sound clichéd, but if you were to make a
What kind of car is the 2022 Nissan Versa? What does it compare to? The Versa four-door introduces drivers to Nissan’s sedan family. It’s a subcompact with good space for two people, occasional space for two more, and good gas mileage to go with its low, low price. Rivals include the Hyundai Accent and Kia
Just a few weeks after it emerged more than 165 people have claims pending against Hertz, the rental car giant has found itself in hot water yet again, this time because of how it treated a customer in New York. Kate Klonick, an assistant professor at St John’s University School of Law and a New
Yichuan Cao | NurPhoto | Getty Images Toyota Motor will build a new $1.29 billion battery plant for electrified vehicles in North Carolina, public officials and the company are set to announce Monday afternoon. The plant in central North Carolina is expected to create 1,750 jobs in the state, Toyota has said. The investment in
BrightDrop, General Motors’ electric delivery van brand, will open its first dealership Tuesday, run by Chevrolet-Buick-GMC dealer Mike Caposio in Southern California. The dealership, called BrightDrop Greater Los Angeles, is located in Fontana, Calif., near Caposio’s stores: Rotolo Chevrolet in Fontana and Caposio Buick-GMC in Victorville. Rotolo Chevy is the largest Chevrolet dealership in California
Michigan State University will deploy an electric autonomous bus on its campus in January pending additional testing and NHTSA validation, the school’s mobility research faculty announced in early November. The bus was produced by Turkish vehicle manufacturer Karsan and equipped with autonomous technology from Adastec Corp., a San Francisco-based company that offers autonomous transportation platforms
Intel will keep most of the money it raises next year when it sells a stake in its Mobileye self-driving-vehicle components unit in a planned initial public offering, targeting some of those funds to build more Intel chip plants, CEO Pat Gelsinger said. The IPO will allow Mobileye to grow more easily as global automakers
This test is for all those who really do care about their bananas and would like to see whether the Mercedes-Benz EQS is ready for the job of hauling the boxes from point to point in true luxury. All the rest who would simply want to see the result of Bjørn Nyland’s humorous banana box
From terrible sneakers to cheap pens, Ferrari has put its name to plenty of dodgy ‘lifestyle’ products over the years, many of them undermining the luxury credibility of the brand. But this gorgeous Testa Rossa J we’ve just driven isn’t one. It’s also not cheap. At €93,000 (about $105,000), this 70 percent scale ‘toy’ costs
An allegedly new Lotus Exige Sport 410 has been badly damaged after a rather bizarre crash in Australia. A single image of the crash was shared to Reddit. It shows the black Evora now resting underneath a Ford Transit van parked next to a racetrack. When looking at the photo for the first time, you
In this article STLA-IT 2022 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit 4xe DETROIT – Automaker Stellantis plans to generate about $22.5 billion (20 billion euros) in incremental annual revenue from software services and subscriptions by 2030, the company announced Tuesday. Driving the growth will be an increase in the automaker’s so-called connected vehicles — stocked with GPS,
Like it or not, software will become much more of a defining feature in cars going forward. It means competency in software development is a must for major automakers, though at the same time there are also significant opportunities for revenue growth. Stellantis highlighted this on Tuesday with an announcement that it is targeting approximately
Sonic Automotive Inc. has completed what CEO David Smith has called the group’s largest acquisition ever with its $700 million purchase of RFJ Auto Partners Holdings Inc. The acquisition, which was revealed in September and closed on Monday, includes 22 franchised dealerships across Texas, Idaho, Washington, New Mexico, Missouri and Indiana. The deal also included
Fueled with hydrogen instead of diesel, electrically powered Class 8 trucks could offer a much cleaner way to move freight. But first, America’s national labs must light a development path toward more efficient and durable “heavy-duty” fuel cells. Many experts believe using these to energize massive electric motors could easily and affordably move tons of
HAMBURG — Volkswagen Group is still exploring a possible initial public offering of its luxury brand Porsche as a way to fund its costly shift towards software and electric vehicles, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Speculation about a Porsche listing, which could be a record-breaking IPO, has surfaced over the year, but
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co., in partnership with Salesforce, is launching a field service tool for businesses that it hopes will help differentiate its new Ford Pro commercial unit and help generate recurring revenue. The new tool, called Viizr, is meant to provide business owners with software to do everything from digitize work quotes and
By Joey Klender Posted on December 7, 2021 Lucid Group (NASDAQ: LCID) has announced that it has selected Bank of America as its preferred lending partner, giving customers the opportunity to apply for financing services for a seamless and stress-free experience. Lucid has accumulated more than 17,000 reservations for its Air sedan, which it started
9:39 AM ET ABU DHABI — It’s almost beyond belief. After 21 races, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton head to the final round of the Formula One championship level on points. It’s a remarkable situation that has only happened once before in F1’s history and it promises to provide a spectacular showdown as the two
What kind of car is the 2022 Subaru Crosstrek? What does it compare to? The Crosstrek compact SUV seats up to five people. Slotted below the bigger Forester, the hatch-on-stilts rivals vehicles like the Kia Seltos and Jeep Renegade. Is the 2022 Subaru Crosstrek a good car? Review continues below It puts standard all-wheel drive
Hit and run accidents are, unfortunately, quite common, especially in parked vehicles. Imagine walking to your car and realizing that someone damaged it, leaving it to you to clean up the mess. Searching for clues in order to locate the perpetrators can be challenging; however, sometimes it’s not that hard. As proven by the pictures