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An advanced driving simulator is helping Ford Motor Co. push out new vehicles more efficiently.

The simulator in Dearborn, Mich., which helped bring the Maverick and F-150 Lightning to market, uses rFpro, a driving simulation software, and lidar by scanning roads to the millimeter to create an immersive experience for the driver, a Ford official said.

"We use the simulator to refine everything before we even build a prototype. Everything from the suspension, architecture, layout, basic tuning, even starting to develop all the ride handling characteristics, we did that in the simulator," said Louis Jamail, Ford's core methods and simulator supervisor.

"Once we go to the prototype stage, we were able to transfer all that knowledge into the physical prototype and do much less tuning and changes. That saves both time and money. And it also helps us to deliver a more focused product from the beginning."

Ford simulation technical expert Robert Rieveley …

Hyundai Motor America enjoyed its strongest sales month of the year thanks to solid performances by Hyundai and Genesis crossovers and fuel-sipping "green" offerings, but despite improvement, supply continues to be a drag on volume.

Combined U.S. sales at Hyundai and Genesis slid 12 percent to 67,597 in June. Still, Hyundai brand sales hit a 2022 high of 63,091 during the month, though retail volume fell 5.5 percent. Combined second-quarter volume dropped 21 percent to 198,136. In the first half, both brands logged combined sales of 396,535, a 13 percent decrease. Genesis sales have now increased 19 straight months year over year, while Hyundai volume has declined four straight months year over year.

Hyundai sales boss Randy Parker attributed the declines to the ongoing microchip shortage, saying that it's creating a "distorted" year-over-year comparison because of healthier stockpiles during the first half of 2021.

"This time last year was when the in…

Volkswagen's U.S. sales fell 34 percent in the second quarter to 78,281, and Audi sales declined 28 percent to 48,049 as the German brands continued to struggle with production and supply issues. It was the fourth consecutive quarterly decline for both brands.

Brands: Volkswagen, down 34%; Audi, down 28%.

Notable nameplates: VW Tiguan, down 46%; Atlas, down 29%; Jetta, down 36%; Audi Q5, down 17%; A4, down 52%; Q7, down 48%

Incentives: $1,169 per vehicle, down 69% from a year earlier, TrueCar says.

Average transaction price: $47,441, up 10% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar.

Did you know? Nearly 8 in 10 of VW's second-quarter sales came from its lineup of crossovers. But the first year-over-year sales comparison for the ID4 compact crossover is off to a rocky start: Second-quarter deliveries of the EV skidded 71 percent to 1,660 from a year ago on supply constraints.

A group of Cruise autonomous vehicles blocked traffic Tuesday night in San Francisco. The traffic jam, which a witness estimated involved more than a dozen of the robotaxis, was not resolved until human operators removed the vehicles.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for Cruise, acknowledged the event in a written statement to Automotive News.

"We had an issue earlier this week that caused some of our vehicles to cluster together," he said. "While it was resolved and no passengers were impacted, we apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced."

Pusateri would not elaborate on the cause aside from it being a "technical issue."

The incident occurred at the intersection of Gough and Fulton Streets and was first publicized in a Reddit post on r/sanfrancisco.

Cruise, an autonomous-vehicle company majority-owned by General Motors, commercially launched its self-driving taxi service in limited areas of San Francisco between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. just last…

Toyota Motor North America sales dropped 18 percent in June to 170,155, and were off 23 percent for the quarter to 531,105 as the Japanese automaker continued to struggle with production issues amid steady consumer demand.

The results left Toyota Motor trailing General Motors U.S. sales by 47,402 in the second quarter, and down 41,918 through the first half of the year in the effort to defend the U.S. sales crown that Toyota won from GM in 2021, the first time in 90 years.

Brands: Toyota (June) down 18%, (Q2) down 23%; Lexus (June) down 15%, (Q2) down 20%

Notable nameplates (June): Toyota RAV4 down 7.8%, Tacoma down 14%, Highlander down 34%, Camry down 27%; Lexus ES down 15%, RX down 7.6%, NX down 35%

Incentives: $803 per vehicle, down 64% from a year earlier, TrueCar says

Average transaction price: $39,775, up 8.6% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar

Fleet mix: 10%

Inventory: Toy…

DETROIT — General Motors' U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 15 percent during the second quarter while parts shortages continued to hamper production. The effect of the shortage will continue, as GM holds about 95,000 vehicles awaiting parts.

GM expects to deliver the vehicles to dealers before the end of the year. Affected vehicles include various models across several plants.

"We appreciate the patience and loyalty of our dealers and customers as we strive to meet significant pent-up demand for our products, and we will work with our suppliers and manufacturing and logistics teams to deliver all the units held at our plants as quickly as possible," Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, said in a statement Friday.

GM said the hold is unlikely to affect its adjusted earnings guidance of $13 billion to $15 billion for 2022.

In the second quarter, GM dealerships delivered 582,401 vehicles, compared with 688,236 a year earlier.

GM's secon…

General Motors has enacted a new sales reporting policy that prohibits dealerships from selling a vehicle to a customer before it arrives at the store.

Low inventory levels driven by various parts shortages and logistics challenges created issues related to preselling a vehicle after a dealer was invoiced but before the customer received it.

GM's Q2 U.S. sales slipped 15 percent. For full coverage, click here.

As of Friday, July 1, GM no longer allows dealers to report a vehicle as sold before a customer takes possession of it, according to a memo from the automaker to dealers obtained by Automotive News. That's because reporting a vehicle as sold triggers the start of financing payments, warranties and trials of OnStar, Sirius XM and other services — potentially months before the vehicle actually reaches the customer.

State laws vary on when a dealer can sell a vehicle to a customer, and GM's policy affects dealers in states that allow a sale to…

INGOLSTADT, Germany — Audi dealers' current inventory woes may not abate until well into next year as the premium brand continues to struggle to secure enough microchips to keep its factories running, though the shortage in wire harnesses resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine has eased, a top brand executive said.

Oliver Hoffmann, head of technical development at Audi AG, discussed the production challenges during a press briefing on upcoming battery-electric and combustion-powered models.

Audi's U.S. dealers have been scraping by with few new vehicles to sell for much of the last year as supply shortages have hampered production at its factories in Germany and Mexico. Sales were down 35 percent in the first quarter to 35,505, and the inventory tracker on its audiusa.com website showed just less than 16,000 new vehicles in stock at its dealerships in the continental U.S. midweek.

Hoffmann did say, however, that wire harness s…

NEW DELHI/SHANGHAI - General Motors said on Friday it had called off the sale of a shuttered Indian plant to China's Great Wall Motor after it failed to obtain regulatory approvals, amid a tougher stance by New Delhi towards investments from Beijing.

GM struck a deal in January, 2020 to sell the plant to Great Wall, with the Chinese SUV-maker expected to pay up to $300 million as part of a broader plan to invest $1 billion to establish a presence in India's growing car market.

The agreement, extended twice, expired June 30.

"We have been unable to obtain the required approvals within the time frame of the deal," George Svigos, executive director of communications at GM International, told Reuters.

"Our strategy in India remains unchanged and we will now explore further options for the sale of the site," he said, adding the company "hopes to achieve a price that reflects the value of the asset".

"Great Wall M…

U.S. light-vehicle sales slid 15 percent to 578,507 in the second quarter at General Motors, enough for the automaker to reclaim the U.S. sales crown from Toyota Motor Corp., as global parts shortages and shipping woes continue to hobble output at automakers, leaving showrooms largely empty of new cars and light trucks for a year now.

Deliveries dropped 11 percent at Chevrolet, 14 percent GMC, 56 percent at Buick and 6.7 percent at Cadillac in the April-June period. GM's U.S. sales have now dropped four consecutive quarters, though sales have increased sequentially three straight quarters and it expects to gain market share for the third consecutive quarter.

The automaker, citing "strong" second-quarter production, said it ended June with 247,839 vehicles in U.S. dealer inventory, including cars and light trucks in transit to showrooms. GM's second-quarter vehicle wholesale shipments were negatively impacted by ongoing semiconductor shortages and other supply …

Hyundai Motor Co. is trimming its car lineup to focus on crossovers and its budding battery-electric Ioniq subbrand.

For the 2023 model year, the Korean automaker will cut the Accent subcompact sedan, the Veloster N hatchback and both the hybrid and plug-in hybrid variants of the Ioniq compact car.

The last sedans standing for the brand will be the Ioniq 6 all-electric midsize sedan that will go on sale in early 2023, and the midsize Sonata and compact Elantra, which Hyundai says are both still in demand in a market now dominated by crossovers.

"Like some of our competitors, we have decided to stay in the passenger car business, and some of our best-performing vehicles, like Elantra or like Sonata, are still doing quite well," Hyundai Motor Co. COO Jose Munoz said during a media briefing this week at the company's R&D center in Michigan.

Through June, sales of the Sonata slid 64 percent and sales of the Elantra slid 34 percent,…

WASHINGTON — The new chief of the nation's top auto safety regulator said the agency hasn't been holding back as it works through a backlog of regulatory to-dos, sorts through first-of-its-kind crash data and steps up an investigation into Tesla Inc.'s Autopilot.

"I think we've probably increased the scrutiny on all automakers since last year," said Steven Cliff, who was confirmed by the Senate in May as NHTSA's 16th administrator. The agency had been without a permanent leader since 2017, when Mark Rosekind resigned as the Trump administration took over.

"We're making sure that the regulations we have on the books are implemented," he said. "If we don't have regulations but there's still a safety defect, we're addressing those issues and getting new regulations on the books as quickly as we can — and all in an effort to enhance safety."

Cliff, 52, spoke Wednesday from his office at the U.S. Department of Transportation in his first interview with Automo…