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Speaker 1 [00:00:00] The All Ears podcast is sponsored by Eli. It's time to take your dealership from zero to 100 from dedicated underwriter, an account, executive teams to comprehensive training courses. Ally has the resources needed to take your business to the next level. Contact your local account executive today. 

Speaker 2 [00:00:30] Hi, everyone, this is Steve Schmidt without a mode of news. Welcome to the All Ears podcast sponsored by Ali and produced by the Automotive News Content Studio. In each episode, we delve into topics important to executives working in automotive retailing and gain insight and perspective from some of the allies best thought leaders who also share their recommendations on how dealers and others can navigate transformational change underway. Our objective is to provide actionable insights that you can use immediately in running your business and offer perspectives to help inform your business decisions. In this episode, we're talk…

Mercedes-Benz USA, the U.S. unit of German carmaker Daimler AG, told employees in an October e-mail seen by Reuters that proof of vaccination against COVID-19 would become a condition of employment beginning Jan. 4.

The automaker said it implemented the move in anticipation of a separate U.S. government vaccine mandate that would apply to businesses with at least 100 employees, affecting some 80 million workers nationwide.

Less than half of the company's workers at U.S. import processing centers are vaccinated and many refuse to get a shot, according to a source familiar with the matter.

REUTERS REPORT: From Boeing to Mercedes, a U.S. worker rebellion swells over vaccine mandates

Mercedes USA in a statement said it had given employees 90-day notice to fulfill the requirement, adding that two thirds of its U.S. employees -- not including factory workers in Alabama -- have provided proof of vaccination to date.

"We expect that the vast majori…

Tesla Inc. is poised to give back some of its more than $300 billion gain since Hertz Global Holdings Inc. announced a massive order for its EVs, after Elon Musk cast doubt on the deal and downplayed its potential.

The Model 3 maker hasn’t signed a contract yet with Hertz, the CEO wrote in a tweet responding to a fan club account that thanked the world’s richest person for Monday’s gain in Tesla shares. Musk also said that because Tesla has demand for more vehicles than it can produce, the deal with Hertz “has zero effect on our economics.”

Tesla shares slumped as much as 6.9 percent before the start of regular trading Tuesday. The stock has soared 56 percent during the past month.

Also Tuesday, the automaker said it is recalling nearly 12,000 vehicles for a software glitch -- news that could also impact the stock price.

Hertz’s initial announcement that it had ordered 100,000 Teslas costing roughly $4.2 billion sent the EV maker’s shares surgin…

WASHINGTON -- Tesla Inc. is recalling nearly 12,000 U.S. vehicles sold since 2017 because a communication error may cause a false forward-collision warning or unexpected activation of the automatic emergency braking system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday.

The California automaker said the recall of 11,704 Model S, X, 3 and Y vehicles was prompted after a software update on Oct. 23 to vehicles in its limited early access full self-driving (FSD) beta population.

The next morning, Tesla began receiving reports of false forward collision warnings and automatic emergency braking events from customers, which prompted an investigation by the company and a new software release to address the issue.

FSD is an advanced driver assistance system that handles some driving tasks but Tesla says does not make vehicles autonomous.

NHTSA said Tesla "uninstalled FSD 10.3 after receiving reports of inadvertent activation of the autom…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, challenged a United Nations official’s claim that just a small percentage of his wealth could help solve world hunger.

Musk was responding to comments by David Beasley, director of the UN’s World Food Programme, who repeated a call last week following an earlier tweet this month asking billionaires like Musk to “step up now, on a one-time basis.”

Beasley specifically called for action from Musk and Amazon.com Inc. co-founder Jeff Bezos, the two men atop the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Just $6 billion could keep 42 million people from dying, Beasley said.

If the World Food Programme, using transparent and open accounting, “can describe on this Twitter thread exactly how $6B will solve world hunger, I will sell Tesla stock right now and do it,” Musk wrote in a Twitter post.

Tesla last week joined the handful of companies valued at more than $1 trillion.

The $6 billion amount would be ju…

STOCKHOLM -- Volvo Cars gained 200,000 new shareholders even before trading of the automaker's shares started on Friday in Sweden.

When asked how he felt about having that many new bosses, CEO Hakan Samuelsson said: "The more the merrier."

He said the the 94-year-old's company's entry onto the Nasdaq Stockholm marks the start of Volvo's next phase, which will include transforming into an electric-only brand by 2030 and providing the "best customer relations in the business" through an emphasis on direct-to-consumer online sales.

"And now we have the money for it," Samuelsson joked minutes before ringing the opening bell for the opening of trading. At that moment, Volvo rejoined the exchange for the first time since 1999. That was the year it left Volvo Group and became part of Ford Motor. The U.S. automaker sold Volvo to its current owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding, in 2010.

During an interview after the ceremony Samuelsson said that the next phase …

Shaquille O'Neal has shown up late a few times recently on TNT's "NBA Tip-Off" show, creating off-the-cuff moments of goofiness that have spread online.

CarMax, a presenting partner of the pregame program, has found itself in the middle of it.

This month, fellow host Charles Barkley joked that TNT had fired O'Neal as he gestured toward the empty seat, and the ribbing continued when O'Neal finally made it to the set.

And that wasn't the first time. The Hall of Fame center slipped in late during a May broadcast and was immediately roasted by the other hosts, with Barkley saying O'Neal was too big to try to sneak in.

Each time, the CarMax logo was front and center on the studio desk. The segments have lived on through clips posted on social networks and embedded in articles across the Web, giving CarMax a branding boost that goes beyond the TV exposure.

That's one of the perks of being connected to a program known for its shenanigans, and yet…

A Kentucky dealership's method of tracking its inventory might have inadvertently sparked fears about sex trafficking in the surrounding community.

After single women in Bowling Green, Ky., began posting warnings on social media claiming that the windows or taillights of their vehicles had been "marked" as a sign that they were traveling alone, TV station WNKY last week found a more benign explanation from Mark Cowan, the sales manager at Campbell Chevrolet. Cowan told the station that his store and others in the area use such marks to show when vehicles have been cleaned or inspected.

"It's actually a paint pen," Cowan said. "So, it's not going to wash off when you go through the car wash. The rain's not going to wash it off."

Some of the women who posted photos of marked vehicles insisted that the lines and dots weren't there when they left the dealership. Cowan said the marks are probably too small to notice.

"I don't …

Even good leaders need good leaders — and that also holds for Leading Women.

I had the opportunity to interview two top female auto executives for our online 2021 Leading Women event, which airs this week, Nov. 1-3: Chris Feuell, CEO of the Chrysler brand, and Olabisi Boyle, vice president of product planning and mobility strategy at Hyundai Motor North America.

Both switched companies during the pandemic and both returned to the auto industry — where they had started their careers before venturing out.

But another thing that struck me was the approaches of the CEOs who brought them back into autos.

White men in leadership positions — or striving to reach them — are often intimidated or put off by diversity efforts, perhaps fearing a loss of opportunity or being treated as "the enemy." But dudes looking for role models on the issue can take a page or two from Jose Muñoz and Carlos Tavares.

Yes, they have names that sound to American ears…