Trade News

Hurricane Laura left behind major destruction this week in Louisiana, and auto dealers on Friday were still trying to assess the damage.

The Associated Press said a full assessment could take days. Laura was responsible for at least six deaths as the hurricane uprooted trees, causing them to fall on homes.

Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association President Will Green told Automotive News in an email Friday that he is continuing to check in with dealers throughout the state as they survey the damage at their stores.

"There are still many without power and water in the areas most affected," he wrote. "I have been encouraged by the support I have seen from surrounding dealers whether that be offering of generators or volunteering help and support."

He said it is too early to tell how long dealerships will remain closed.

Lake Charles, La., dealer Phillip Tarver said Thursday there is no electricity or water available in the area, about 50 mile…

WASHINGTON -- Uber Technologies Inc. vowed to make public more safety information regarding its self-driving cars after the National Transportation Safety Board placed partial blame for a fatal 2018 crash on the company’s policies.

The company made the pledge in an update to its voluntary safety assessment, filed Friday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It marked the first major attempt by Uber to allay criticism of its autonomous driving program since the NTSB board reached its conclusions regarding a Tempe, Ariz., crash in 2018 believed to be the first fatal pedestrian accident involving a self-driving vehicle.

“We support the idea of transparency and making the public understand what we do,” Nat Beuse, head of safety at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, said in an interview. The new filing is a “complete update” from Uber’s initial offering to regulators in 2018, he said.

In the document, Uber touts “enhancements,” including t…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

TriEye Chief Business Officer Ziv Livne discusses how the Israeli road-visibility startup is using short-wave infrared sensing technology to help improve safety functions of advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous vehicles during low-visibility and bad weather conditions.

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German supplier Hella is planning a sale of its driver-assistance software unit, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Hella is working with advisers to gauge interest in the business, the people said. It could fetch several hundred million euros, they said, asking not to be identified because the information is private.

The unit may attract interest from suppliers, automakers investing in autonomous driving and technology companies, the people said. No final decisions have been made, and there is no certainty the deliberations will lead to a transaction, they said.

A representative for Hella did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technology investments

The company's Hella Aglaia Mobile Vision unit makes embedded software systems used for assisted driving functions -- which aid a human behind the wheel -- as well as self-driving cars. Its image-processing programs can detect oncoming vehicles, recognize traffic sign…

BEIJING -- China's top pickup truck maker Great Wall Motor Co. said Friday it posted a 24.5 percent drop in first-half profit as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world's biggest auto market.

The Baoding-based company, which has a joint venture with German luxury automaker BMW, said in a stock exchange filing it recorded a 1.15 billion yuan ($168 million) net profit in the first half, down from a 1.52 billion yuan profit a year earlier.

Revenue for the first half fell 13 percent to 35.93 billion yuan ($5.2 billion).

China's overall auto sales are slowly recovering from a virus-blighted start to the year. Sales in July rose for a fourth consecutive month yet are still down 12.7 percent year to date.

Great Wall sold almost 400,000 vehicles in the first six months this year, down 13 percent from a year earlier.

Its sales of pickup trucks surged 38 percent due to new P-series models while utility vehicle sales tumbled 20 percent.

Great Wall …

BOSTON -- A federal judge on Friday expressed doubt about arguments by two Massachusetts men seeking to avoid extradition to Japan to face charges they helped former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee the country.

U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, were arrested in May at Japan's request, after being accused of smuggling Ghosn out of Japan in a box on a private jet so he could escape to Lebanon.

Ghosn fled in December while awaiting trial on charges of financial misconduct, including by understating his compensation in Nissan's financial statements. Ghosn denies wrongdoing.

The Taylors' lawyer, Abbe Lowell, during a virtual hearing told U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Cabell in Boston that Japanese prosecutors put forth a biased interpretation of their laws to justify bringing flawed charges against the two men.

Lowell said Japan's penal code does not make it a crime to help someone "bail jump," and th…

Hyundai enlists hybrid fleet in COVID-19 fight

Los Angeles may be known as the City of Angels, but sometimes it's the front-line heroes themselves who need assistance. Hyundai Motor Group has launched an initiative to provide it.

MoceanLab, the group's mobility service venture, has made a fleet of six Hyundai and Kia hybrids available to local organizations through its LA Heroes Fleet program. It's one of several initiatives Hyundai Motor has launched to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

One beneficiary of the program is the Street Medicine Team at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.

According to the team's website, street medicine is a form of health and social services for unsheltered homeless populations that includes providing on-site health care and other forms of assistance, such as shoveling snow off a person's tent. The vehicles will allow the team to provide "a full spectrum of services, including COVID-19 t…

Hyundai Motor Co.’s U.S. plant is running flat out to meet demand for crossovers, and the company’s top North American executive says it will need to consider expanding production capacity if that continues.

The South Korean automaker was slow to transform its lineup to meet Americans’ penchant for utility vehicles but now is capitalizing on a rebound in showroom traffic following pandemic-related U.S. shutdowns. Crossovers were 67 percent of U.S. retail sales in July, thanks to the Tucson and Palisade models, according to Jose Munoz, Hyundai’s CEO of North America. That surpasses the company’s 2023 goal of 63 percent, he said in a phone interview.

“I’m very confident that we will be able to maintain at least 60 percent,” Munoz said, “and perhaps even more.” Even when competitors have a good supply of products, “we’re having a very solid performance.”

Hyundai’s assembly plant in Montgomery, Ala., which makes the Sonata and Elantra sedans and the Tucson m…

DETROIT -- Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged ex-UAW President Dennis Williams, who led one of the nation's most powerful labor unions from 2014 to 2018, with conspiring to embezzle funds from rank-and-file workers for nearly a decade.

Court documents say Williams and others spent hundreds of thousands of member dollars on trips to Palm Springs, Calif., golf outings, fancy dinners and other luxuries.

Williams, 67, becomes the 15th person charged in the ongoing corruption scandal. He's also the second former union president to be charged; his successor, Gary Jones, pleaded guilty to embezzlement and racketeering charges in June and awaits sentencing.

Williams was charged in a criminal information, which means he's likely to plead guilty. He faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

"The charges today are further steps forward in our relentless effort to ensure that the over 400,000 men and women of …

Electric-truck startup Rivian Automotive Inc. has hired a former Tesla Inc. executive to lead its engineering as the Amazon.com Inc.-backed company’s debut electric vehicles near production, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Nick Kalayjian, who spent more than a decade at Tesla, will join Rivian as executive vice president of engineering and product, said the person, who declined to be named. Most recently he was a senior vice president at San Francisco-based Plenty Inc., according to his Linkedin profile.

Kalayjian replaces Mark Vinnels, who until this week had been Rivian’s executive director of engineering, the person said. Vinnels joined Rivian in late 2017 and was previously an executive at McLaren Automotive Ltd.

A Rivian spokesperson confirmed Vinnels has left the company, but did not specify how recently. Neither Kalayjian nor Vinnels could be reached for comment.

While Kalayjian is not a direct hire from Tesla, the move co…

NHTSA has launched a mobile app that automatically checks for safety recalls and alerts users when a recall has been issued, the Department of Transportation announced Thursday.

The agency's SaferCar app allows users to type in or scan their VIN and receive recall notifications on their iOS or Android devices. Users can save information for their vehicles, car seats, tires and other equipment in a "virtual garage" on their devices to get critical safety information and access other NHTSA online tools. If a recall is issued, the app directs the user to a local dealership handling repairs.

To inform the public of the app, there will be a paid digital campaign, organic social media push and outreach to safety partners, a NHTSA spokesperson told Automotive News.

"In today's world, smartphones are the tool of choice for many tasks and the updated SaferCar app is a new safety tool at the public's disposal," NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owens said in a stat…

Veoneer will partner with Qualcomm Technologies on developing software for its driver assistance systems, the auto technology supplier said Thursday.

The Swedish supplier of vision systems, radar and software for advanced driver-assistance systems said it had signed a non-binding letter of intent with the U.S. technology company and expected to finalize a definitive agreement in the second half of this year.

Veoneer's software development strategy, increasingly important with the auto industry in the midst of a rapid transformational shift, has been under scrutiny since it ended its Zenuity software joint venture with Volvo Cars in April.

"This is a significant event for Veoneer which we are very happy to announce," CEO Jan Carlson told Reuters, adding that he expected the integrated software and system-on-a-chip platform would generate major interest from customers.

Veoneer, which competes with companies such as Aptiv , Bosch and Continental, has…