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<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Luminar integrates lidar into roofline with Blade concept

When some people think of lidar sensors, they might think of large, bulky, rotating hardware mounted to the roof of a vehicle.

But Luminar Technologies Inc. has a different design vision.

Luminar introduced Blade, a concept for a next-generation lidar system that can be built into the structure of a vehicle, during the company's inaugural Studio Day in New York City on Tuesday.

It's less obvious, less obtrusive and plays into Luminar's idea for a more aesthetically pleasing and practical integration of autonomous technology "across robotaxis, trucking and passenger cars," the company said.

Luminar formulated the concept with design studio NewDealDesign.

"To create the best overall car design and the best user experience, autonomous technology must be engineered and designed hand-in-hand from the ground up," Jason Wojack, senior vice president of prod…

The recent drop in vehicle production accelerated in the first ten days of June amid the semiconductor crunch, according to a tally the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Thursday.

Output at 11 key automakers in China, which generate more than 90 percent of vehicle production industrywide, slipped 37 percent to some 434,000 vehicles during the period, the group said.

Production of light vehicles such as sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses slumped 38 percent, while production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks fell 30 percent, according to CAAM

CAAM’s members include all foreign automakers that produce locally and all major domestic Chinese auto manufacturers. 

In May, increasingly tight chip supplies caused light-vehicle sales and output in China to slip after 13 consecutive monthly gains.

Vehicle output industrywide last month dropped 6.8 percent from a year earlier to around …

BYD Co. will assist major smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp. to develop intelligent full electric vehicles.

The major electrified vehicle manufacturer will support Xiaomi in developing its vehicle business, BYD founder and Chairman Wang Chuanfu said at an auto industry forum in the southwest China municipality of Chongqing this week. 

“BYD and Xiaomi are negotiating some projects for cooperation in the automotive field,” he added, without providing additional details about the partnership.

In March, Xiaomi, a Hong Kong-listed company, announced plans to develop and produce smart EVs over the next three years with an initial investment of 10 billion yuan ($1.6 billion).

BYD, partly owned by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett, is the largest domestic Chinese electrified-vehicle maker. 

In the first five months of 2021, the company delivered 113,213 full electric and plug-in hybrids, an increase of 143 percent over the same period last year.…

SAIC Volkswagen, Volkswagen Group’s joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp., received approval this week by a Chinese ministry overseeing the auto industry to build the VW-badged ID3.

The electric hatchback, the VW brand’s third ID model produced in China, is 168 inches long, 46 inches wide and 62 inches tall, with a wheelbase of 109 inches, according to information the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology posted on its website.

It will be assembled at SAIC-VW’s Anting plant in Shanghai. 

The ministry didn’t disclose information on the batteries used in the ID3.

The vehicle will join the ID4 crossover and ID6 SUV among the EVs VW is building in China. 

In late 2020, ID4 output began at both the Anting plant operated by SAIC VW and the Foshan plant overseen by FAW VW – VW Group’s partnership with China FAW Group Corp.

The ID4 went on sale in China earlier this year. 

The ID6 is also being built at the Anti…

DETROIT -- U.S. electric vehicle startup Canoo said on Thursday it would build an assembly plant in Oklahoma that was scheduled to open in 2023 and until then would use VDL Nedcar in the Netherlands as its contract manufacturer.

The Canoo plant will be located on about 400 acres of land in Pryor, Okla., in the northeast of the state, CEO Tony Aquila said at the company's investor relations meeting in Dallas. The plant will include a paint shop, body shop and general assembly and employ over 2,000 people, the company said.

"We have picked the awesome state of Oklahoma to manufacture," said Aquila, who previously opened offices in Dallas.

A Canoo spokeswomen declined to give a value for investment in the plant and did not give details on its capacity.

Until the Oklahoma plant opens, VDL would build Canoo's pod-like, seven-seat lifestyle vehicle for the U.S. and European markets, he said, allowing Canoo to meet its commitment to start production in t…

Crash rates have jumped in some states that have legalized recreational use and retail sales of marijuana, but drivers who used marijuana alone were no more likely to be involved in crashes than drivers who hadn't used the drug, studies show.

Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the affiliated Highway Loss Data Institute showed increases in crash rates with the legalization of recreational marijuana and retail sales in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, the organizations said in a release.

A separate IIHS study of injured drivers who visited three emergency rooms in California, Colorado and Oregon showed no increased crash risk associated with marijuana, except when combined with alcohol. This conclusion is consistent with a 2015 study by NHTSA.

The combined-use numbers could help explain why crash rates have increased as legalization may be encouraging more people to drink and use marijuana tog…

DETROIT -- General Motors is looking at signing longer-term supply contracts or partnering with chip and wafer suppliers in the future to mitigate the impact it has seen from the global semiconductor shortage, the automaker's CFO said Wednesday.

"Whether we work with foundries to give longer-term commitments or we look to partnering with folks, we're looking at all aspects of the supply chain to really ensure that something of this magnitude as it relates to chips doesn't happen again," Paul Jacobson said at a Deutsche Bank conference.

The global chip shortage has forced GM and other automakers to idle plants, but the Detroit company has been able to largely protect output of its highest-profit models. GM has said the shortage could shave $1.5 billion to $2 billion from this year's profit, but recently restarted production at some plants that had been idled.

The shortage will cost global automakers $110 billion in lost revenues this year, and cut produ…

Pizza lovers in certain areas of Austin, Texas, can now have their pies delivered via robot.

The REV-1 robot is the product of Refraction AI, an Ann Arbor, Mich., autonomous vehicle startup. The company is expanding its reach, with its three-wheeled self-driving robots set to launch in Austin's South Congress, Downtown and Travis Heights neighborhoods.

Refraction AI says it will first partner with Southside Flying Pizza, which has multiple locations in Austin. The REV-1 first launched in Ann Arbor, where its creators, Matthew Johnson-Roberson and Ram Vasudevan, are University of Michigan professors.

"Our expansion into Austin marks another step in our vision to transform last-mile delivery into a ubiquitous, accessible, sustainable service that anyone can take part in," Refraction AI CEO Luke Schneider said in a release, adding that he believes current solutions for on-demand delivery "are broken," with businesses and households hav…

Thanks to strong government stimulus, the automotive industry emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic in better shape than expected, but it's now facing profitability problems stemming from raw material price increases and shortages, according to consultancy AlixPartners.

Low U.S. inventories will limit sales in the next several months, the firm said in its Global Automotive Outlook released Wednesday. Inventories are down 70 percent since the start of the year but should begin to recover by the fourth quarter, assuming no other disruptions crop up.

U.S. sales will rise to 16.4 million vehicles this year, up from 14.6 million in pandemic-scarred 2020, the group said, adding the figure will climb to 17.2 million in 2022 and remain above 17 million through 2025.

The ongoing semiconductor chip shortage will cost the industry 3.9 million vehicles of lost production globally this year — worth $110 billion, the group said, maintaining a forecast made last month. Read more

KKR & Co. is considering a sale of Marelli Corp.’s suspension systems business as the private equity firm shifts the focus of the auto supplier toward more profitable products, according to people familiar with the matter.

The buyout firm is working with an adviser on the potential disposal, which has drawn preliminary interest from private equity and strategic suitors, the people said. Marelli’s suspension arm generates annual revenue of about 900 million euros ($1.1 billion), the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information.

Marelli manufactures everything from advanced driver-assistance systems to cabin temperature components. While the financial performance of its suspension business has recovered this year, KKR is seeking to streamline Marelli’s portfolio and concentrate on higher-end technology products, such as electrification and lighting, the people said.

Deliberations are in the early stages, and KKR could …

We've spent the past couple of months planning our fourth annual Fixed Ops Journal Forum, scheduled for the five Tuesdays from July 13 to August 10.

And as we've made these plans, in the back of my head I'd have this small worry whether we were putting together a program interesting enough that people would want to attend. Luckily, Mike Weldon quickly eased my concerns.

Weldon, fixed ops director at Hansel Auto Group in the Sonoma Valley region of Northern California, was the first registrant for the FOJ Forum.

"I'm more proactive than I thought," Weldon, 66, quips when I tell him he was the first one in the door.

Weldon has spent most of his life involved in the auto industry, starting as a young boy sweeping the showroom floors at his father's car business. His father would add after-market items such as a radio or air conditioning for new cars sold by local dealerships. For the past 10 years he's been at Hansel, which has eight rooftops across …

Another day, another industry survey of U.S. dealerships that indicates offering finance-and-insurance products online has proved profitable amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic period.

Dealerships believe a more diverse lineup of F&I products with different coverage tiers helps sell those products to digital retailing customers, according to a new study from F&I provider Protective Asset Protection. The survey comes in the wake of numerous auto lender, F&I product provider and automotive finance software company studies that claim the exact same thing: offering educational and transactional tools for the F&I office online increases sales and profitability of those products.

In a survey of 500 F&I and dealership executives across the U.S. in March, dealership respondents indicated customers are looking for more customization with F&I product coverage. Forty-four percent of respondents said the ability to adjust products…