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Dave Bates, chief customer ambassador at Reynolds and Reynolds, says the dealer management system giant is aiming to improve its relationships with auto retailers as it looks to aggressively expand its business and win back customers.

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BERLIN -- Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk called for cuts to German red tape on Monday as he said it was unclear when exactly the first electric car would roll off the production line of its planned plant outside Berlin.

Last month Tesla delayed the opening of its first European gigafactory to late 2021 from an initial July 1 date after adding plans to also establish a battery cell plant on site as well as a lengthy approval processes..

"It's hard to predict with precision cause you can only make the cars when all of the pieces are here," Musk said during a visit to the Gruenheide site in the German state of Brandenburg.

"It looks like we're able to start production end of this year," Musk added.

Home to traditional rivals Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, Germany is also known for its complex regulation and bureaucracy.

"I think there could be less bureaucracy, that would be better," Musk told reporters at the Gruenheide site, adding that rules were "…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Let's go all the way

The auto industry is dividing into two camps at this moment. And you're seeing it happen live on our pages.

One camp is populated by manufacturers who are excited and zealous about a new era of vehicle power, the transformation from joyously booming internal combustion engines to miraculously silent and green electric motors.

This camp is trumpeting to the world their remarkable product plans for new EVs and new initiatives. In this week's issue you'll read about Hyundai Motor Group earmarking $7.4 billion to electrify and mobilize its U.S. business, about Ford's zeal to produce an electric F-150, and about Marelli, the established supplier of lighting and air conditioners, boldly pushing into those components we now call "e-axles."

This movement is big. And it's all over Automotive News, every week.

But then …

Then there's this other emerging camp.

A small handful of automake…

Christophe Marnat, executive vice president of electronics and advanced safety systems at global supplier ZF, discusses the evolution of driver monitoring into occupant monitoring, clarity in naming assist systems and new advances on the sensor front.

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Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

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BERKELEY, Calif. -- A Tesla car driver killed in a recent accident in California praised the automaker's "full self-driving" features, and posted videos on his apparent Tiktok account, in which he appeared to drive with his hands off the wheel.

On May 5, a Tesla Model 3 crashed into an overturned truck on a highway in Fontana, killing the Tesla driver and injuring the truck driver and a motorist who had stopped to help him.

The Associated Press cited police saying a preliminary investigation had determined the Tesla's driver assistant system Autopilot was engaged prior to the crash.

But in a correction issued late on Friday, police said, "There has not been a final determination made as to what driving mode the Tesla was in."

Two videos of a man driving with his hands off the wheel were posted on the alleged Tiktok account of the victim, 35-year-old Steven Hendrickson of Running Springs, Calif.

"What would do I do without my full self-drivi…

DETROIT — When Ford Motor Co. hosted a presidential visit a year ago this week, Donald Trump flouted company safety protocol by refusing to wear a mask for much of his trip and berated Executive Chairman Bill Ford behind the scenes for joining with California to support stricter emissions standards.

This week's visit from President Joe Biden stands to be much different.

Biden plans to tour Ford's new $700 million Rouge Electric Vehicle Center and get a glimpse of its battery- electric F-150 Lightning ahead of the Wednesday, May 19, unveiling. He'll likely tout the Lightning as an example of what could be possible under his administration's proposed $2 trillion jobs and infrastructure investment plan, which includes new funding for bringing more EVs to market.

"The fact that he's coming shows the commitment and interest our government has in the electrification of the auto industry," Bill Ford said last week at the automaker's an…

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — On a recent Friday afternoon, a delivery robot made its way along a crowded sidewalk on State Street. It made an abrupt stop in front of Amer's Deli, spun itself 90 degrees and backed into a parking space with the precise movements of a Revolutionary War soldier.

Some passersby were taken aback by the sight. Others walked right past. One oblivious deli customer used the parked robot as her personal table, then left her empty water bottle on its lid.

"Somebody sat on one the other day," said Pavel Vorobev, head of products for the self-driving division of Russian tech company Yandex, which deployed four of its Rover delivery bots in Ann Arbor last month.

How pedestrians and diners treat the robots is one thing he cannot control. How the robots treat them? That's very much in his purview, and part of what Yandex is hoping to learn from its operations in the heart of this college town.

Yandex has partnered wi…

The industrywide shortage of microchips is adding an extra layer of tension to an automotive ritual that is tense in normal times: factory launches of critical new products.

The chip shortage and its resulting drag on production flow is striking as Nissan Motor Co. orchestrates a product overhaul that is central to reviving consumer interest and profitability in the U.S.

The Japanese automaker's U.S. plants are preparing to introduce three key redesigns: the midsize Pathfinder, Infiniti QX60 crossover and Frontier midsize pickup.

New products are "the focal point" of Nissan's efforts to revitalize its business in its second-largest market, Michael Colleran, the brand's U.S. sales and marketing boss, told Automotive News last week.

"We prioritized our new models — that's the bedrock of Nissan Next," Colleran said, referring to a strategic turnaround plan introduced last year.

The situation is precarious for several brands —…

Amid a fresh push to commercialize its self-driving technology, Waymo has found its senior executive team in flux.

CFO Ger Dwyer and Chief Automotive Officer Adam Frost said last week they intended to leave the company by the end of May. They're the latest of a half-dozen longtime executives who have left or announced their departures over the past three months.

Frost joined Waymo's predecessor, Google's self-driving car project, in 2006 after 13 years at Ford Motor Co. and held a variety of roles, the latest of which included overseeing Waymo's projects with automakers, among them Stellantis, Volvo Car Group and Jaguar Land Rover.

Dwyer was a key figure in helping the company close a $3.25 billion funding round last year, the first external investments in Waymo's history. Both cited personal reasons for departing, according to a company spokesperson. The website TechCrunch first reported their departures.

"We're grateful to Ger and Adam for all…

For brothers Kurt and Craig Campbell, third-generation dealers in the Seattle area, nostalgia and identifying a gap in the market created a profitable component of their group's business.

The pair co-owns Campbell Auto Group, made up of Campbell Volkswagen of Edmonds, Campbell Nissan of Edmonds and Campbell Nissan of Everett.

In 2015, the group launched Caravan Outfitter. As the name implies, the retailer takes passenger and cargo vans and outfits them with creature comforts for customers looking to experience the outdoors via an all-in-one camper van.

In the 1950s, Volkswagen popularized such a setup with its Westfalia models, which were notable for their pop-up roofs.

"My brother and I grew up as Volkswagen dealers," Kurt Campbell said. "At one time, we were one of the larger Westfalia dealers in the country for Volkswagen. That product went away and we saw that that niche needed to be filled."

The brothers hired engineers and spent tw…

Fiat Chrysler is no more, but Fiat and Chrysler have been given at least another decade to show they're worth keeping around.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says he's affording each of the 14 brands melded together from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group a 10-year window to execute a business plan.

For Chrysler, a brand in need of direction and more products, looking to 2031 is a tall task. With a lineup of only two minivan nameplates and the aging 300 sedan, making it that far without a major infusion of metal will be difficult.

Interim Chrysler chief Tim Kuniskis, if he remains in the role, will have his work cut out for him in forging a game plan for the brand that will hit the century mark in 2025. But whoever has the reins in the coming years, it appears they'll be given the opportunity to put Chrysler on a different path.

Some say the brand is vulnerable and needs to find a purpose. Others, including dealer co…

Stellantis said it’s cutting more than 1,600 jobs at its Illinois Jeep plant, a sign the deepening chip shortage that has idled auto plants is now doing more lasting damage.

The automaker formed from the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and French rival PSA Group said it will cut the second shift at its Belvidere plant by July 26, affecting as many as 1,671 people. The move is intended to “balance sales with production” of the Jeep Cherokee, which is made there, the company said Friday in an emailed statement.

Production declines for the Jeep Cherokee SUV have been “further exacerbated by the unprecedented global microchip shortage,” Stellantis said.

While demand for vehicles has been outstripping supply as the U.S. emerges from pandemic lockdowns and people opt for private transportation, the Cherokee hasn’t been a major beneficiary. Sales tumbled 29 percent last year to 191,397 units, while deliveries at the Jeep brand fell 14 percent amid pandemic …