Trade News

Self-driving vehicles that encounter tricky scenarios may soon have more options for determining how to proceed.

Visteon, a supplier of cockpit electronics, is working with startup Designated Driver to add remote-control capabilities to its autonomous-driving platform.

Via remote connections, remote human monitors could either send vehicles instructions on how to navigate, or in some cases, control cars themselves and steer them through complex scenarios the cars cannot handle on their own.

The companies said Monday that they have been working together in recent months to integrate remote-driving technology on Visteon's Drive Core platform, which is designed to enable advanced driver-assist functions today and be a scalable building block for higher levels of autonomy in the future.

Along with valet parking and autonomous highway pilots, remote driver, also called teleoperation, is one of several advanced features Visteon is building on top of th…

China’s new-vehicle market, a reliable source of growth and profits for automakers worldwide, contracted for the second consecutive year as a weakening economy and prolonged trade war with the United States continued to sap demand. 

New-vehicle deliveries slipped 8.2 percent to just below 25.8 million, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Monday. 

The protracted downturn largely reflected weaker demand for new cars and light trucks, which fell 9.6 percent to below 21.5 million, the group said.

Sales of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks dipped 1.1 percent to roughly 4.3 million for the year.

"We have moved away from the high-speed development stage. We have to accept the reality of low-speed development," Shi Jianhua, a senior official at CAAM, said at a news briefing.

"We had high-speed growth for a consecutive 28 years, which was really not bad, so I hope everyone can calmly look at the market."

Google's self-driving affiliate Waymo took a big step forward last fall when it began ferrying riders around the Phoenix area in robotaxis without human safety drivers. Humans have been behind the wheel for almost all of the 20 million miles of testing the company says it’s completed on public roads.

But the driverless rides in Arizona don’t mean the end for Waymo’s human operators. Last summer, the company quietly finalized a multiyear contract with Transdev North America, which provides bus drivers, streetcar conductors and other transportation workers to airports and cities. The partnership is an acknowledgement that Waymo will be relying on test drivers for many years to come.

“For the foreseeable future, as we expand and are driving in some of these new areas, it’s critical that we have vehicle operators,” said Rocky Garff, Waymo’s head of operations. “They’re part of the equation that gets us to fully self-driving.”

Rather than supply Waymo with co…

PARIS -- The Peugeot family aims to increase its holding as soon as possible in the new automaker resulting from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

The Peugeot family will own a 6.2 percent stake in the merged company.

PSA and Fiat Chrysler reached a binding agreement last month on a $50 billion tie-up that will create the world's No. 4 automaker after the deal is completed in 12 to 15 months.

Under the terms of the deal, the Peugeot family can increase its shareholding by up to 2.5 percent only by acquiring shares from French state investment bank Bpifrance Participations and China's Dongfeng Motors, which are both also PSA shareholders.

Asked by regional French newspaper L’Est Republicain if raising the stake was a major objective, Jean-Philippe Peugeot, who heads the family’s Etablissements Peugeot Freres holding company, replied that it was.

"There was a complex negotiation in order to obtain this possibility. It was…

LAS VEGAS — Long known for its sizzle, CES contained plenty of substance this year.

From the tech-friendly city envisioned by Toyota to specific near-term products that support better driver-assist systems, there was no shortage of ambition at the annual gadget showcase-turned-auto show.

The wares included items that have flown below the radar of the headlines emerging from Las Vegas. Here's a look at some of the cool things and notable developments from CES that you may have missed but nonetheless may sway developments in the transportation realm in the decade ahead.

In October, a report from AAA detailed the dismal performance of modern-day automated emergency braking systems. In a nutshell, they do a lousy job of preventing collisions with pedestrians, particularly at night.

What might improve safety? At least potentially, adding thermal imaging cameras to the sensor suites. They have a knack for complementing the weaknesses of traditional c…

Toyota Motor North America's electrification strategy in the U.S. isn't sexy or even that complicated — but it does appear to be working.

The Japanese automaker's massive bet on hybrids — it plans to offer electrified versions of all the vehicles in its U.S. lineup by 2025, while other automakers have concentrated on battery-electric vehicles — has translated into a big boost in hybrid sales across much of its lineup, top Toyota Motor North America executives said. The boost comes even as Toyota marked its fourth consecutive year of declining sales in 2019, when Toyota brand sales were down 2 percent and Lexus sales slipped 0.1 percent.

Hybrid sales, including the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, across the Toyota brand rose 26 percent in 2019 to 230,889, while Lexus' hybrid sales jumped 43 percent to 43,661 last year.

Toyota believes more consumers will be willing to choose more-expensive optional hybrid powertrains in coming years, …

BEIRUT — As he seethed over his arrest, his ouster from power and his portrayal as a greedy dictator, Carlos Ghosn admitted last week being seized by other emotions.

One of the most successful auto CEOs of the past generation is haunted by regret, blown opportunities and the road not taken. Indeed, more than one road not taken.

At a world media press conference last week in the Lebanese capital, the former chairman of Nissan, Renault and Mitsubishi ticked off a short list of alternative endings that he let pass, he says, in his drive to advance the global auto alliance he created.

Ghosn bemoaned his decision in 2018 to extend his contract as head of Renault, explaining that he did so under a requirement to further integrate the French automaker with Nissan. Ghosn also now regrets rejecting what he says was an offer in 2009 to head General Motors and spearhead its reorganization during the Great Recession.

Had he take…

BEIJING -- China will not make significant cuts to subsidies for new energy vehicles this year, signaling that government policy will remain relatively stable, state media quoted the country's industry ministry as saying on Saturday.

Earlier, Miao Wei, China's minister for industry and information technology, told a forum that the country would not cut subsidies for new energy vehicles again in July, an approach which was cheered by automakers.

The government-backed Beijing News said an MIIT representative, in response to Miao's statement, said that "this year's NEV subsidy policy will remain relatively stable and there will not be significant cuts."

Beijing has been slowly rolling back a generous 5-year incentive program for NEVs, which began in 2016, saying it plans to phase out subsidies after 2020, amid criticism that some companies have become overly reliant on the funds.

Sales of electric vehicles, hybrids and other green vehicles dropped fo…

General Motors is shifting "significant" dollars to advertising on connected TV, said Chief Marketing Officer Deborah Wahl.

"We think there is enormous potential," Wahl said during an interview last week at CES. "Just this year, our [connected TV] budgets have increased by 66 percent. It represents a significant portion of our overall media investments."

Connected TV — which refers to platforms such as Hulu and Roku — is expected to lure more than $10 billion in advertising by 2021, according to an eMarketer forecast. Of course, that is still just a fraction of the $70 billion TV ad marketplace.

But an uptick in investments from a giant spender such as GM could move the connected TV needle significantly, especially if other big automakers follow suit.

The automaker ranks as the nation's fifth-largest ad spender at $3.14 billion in 2018, according to the latest figures from the Ad Age Datacenter. Of that total ad spe…

As the Carlos Ghosn scandal unfolds with Hollywood-level kinds of drama and intrigue, it's refreshing to see the Japanese government launch its resources to rein in this fugitive from justice with all the righteous indignation of a nation that truly values international business ethics.

It's quite an about-face for a business culture that allowed the Takata exploding-airbag scandal that has claimed at least 24 lives, injured some 300 people and generated the largest safety recall in the history of the global auto industry. Another 10 million airbags were recalled in the U.S. last week, in fact.

But even more enlightening is how the prosecution and post-escape pursuit of Ghosn runs contrary to the Japanese practice of protecting its own business fugitives from justice, particularly when they stand accused by other countries of crimes that might not be considered serious in Japan.

In the Takata scandal, the company in January 2017…

DETROIT — In his first two months as president of the UAW, Rory Gamble swiftly enacted common-sense reforms aimed at ending the corruption and malfeasance that has plagued the union for years.

It still might not be enough for the union to avoid its worst-case scenario: government oversight.

The years-long federal investigation that as of last week had produced charges against 13 individuals and netted 11 guilty pleas is far from over, intensifying as new tips emerged after prosecutors asked the public for leads. One of those tips alleges that Gamble and former UAW-Ford Vice President Jimmy Settles accepted kickbacks from a vendor, The Detroit News reported, although all parties have vehemently denied the allegations.

Still, the uptick in tips indicates that investigators have more to look into — and they could be getting additional information from former Region 5 Director Vance Pearson, who appears ready to plead guilty Feb. 4.

Pearson, who resi…