Trade News

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…

Olaf Sakkers, general partner at mobility-minded venture-capital firm Red Blue Capital, considers progress toward pollution-reduction targets in terms of electric miles rather than electric-vehicle sales. He further advocates for a bolder U.S. infrastructure proposal.

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Hertz interim CEO Mark Fields jolted the auto industry last week with a series of ambitious announcements. The most significant: an initial order of 100,000 Teslas, starting with Model 3 sedans available this month.

Less surprised was Bay Area entrepreneur Ryan Levenson, 28, who has been renting out Teslas for three years. Given rising interest in Tesla in particular and EVs in general, it was about time a player such as Hertz made the move, said Levenson, who worked in recruiting at Tesla before focusing full-time on his business.

"I'm not at all shocked by this," Levenson told Automotive News last week. "At the end of the day, EVs are the future for everyone and that includes rental-car companies."

Levenson, who manages half a dozen EVs on the car-sharing application Turo, said Hertz is making a bigger bet on the electric market than many of the more timid players in the industry. Levenson's rentals are a mix of Tesla Model 3s a…

TOKYO — After making his final plea of innocence, former Nissan director Greg Kelly now begins the long wait for a verdict in a trial widely seen as a proxy case for ousted boss Carlos Ghosn.

If the three-judge panel accepts Kelly's defense argument, the human resources executive could finally be heading home to Tennessee, more than three years after his surprise arrest upon landing in Japan for a business trip. If not, Kelly could be spending another two years here locked in prison.

Despite the Japanese justice system's vaunted 99 percent conviction rate, Kelly kept his chin up.

"To be honest, I'm not nervous," Kelly said outside the Tokyo District Court on Oct. 27 after his defense team made its closing argument. "I know what happened. Others know what happened. We've got documents that show what happened. And there was no crime."

Lead defense attorney Yoichi Kitamura closed by telling the court that no crime was committed and that Kelly is an…