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Auto retail technology company SpinCar has acquired Pulsar AI, a conversational platform provider that helps dealerships respond to customer leads.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, though SpinCar said the acquisition closed Tuesday. The New York-based company said in a news release that Pulsar's technology and 30 employees will become part of SpinCar.

SpinCar is a digital merchandising software company whose technology includes virtual, 360-degree vehicle walk-arounds that appear on dealerships' vehicle detail pages. Pulsar's virtual-assistant tool uses machine learning and natural language processing to communicate with online vehicle shoppers, including outside of traditional business hours.

"This acquisition will enable us to accelerate our platform expansion efforts to meet growing demand for digital capabilities that deliver more engaging and personalized experiences to vehicle shoppers at every touch point," SpinCar CEO Devin Daly said in a st…

Toyota Manufacturing Canada Inc. has resumed production at all its factories in Ontario now that employees at a major supplier have returned to work after a COVID-19 outbreak subsided.

Toyotetsu, in Simcoe, Ont., about 76 miles northwest of Toronto, ceased production the week of April 26 after eight employees tested positive for the virus.

That led Toyota to cease production of the RAV4, RAV4 Hybrid, Lexus RX 350 and the RX 450h Hybrid, due to a parts shortage.

Toyotetsu employees started trickling back to work May 5 and Toyota resumed production Tuesday.

Toyotetsu said in a statement that it had reduced the number of positive cases to three from eight among its 1,200 employees. 

“We’ve been working closely with the Haldimand-Norfolk Public Health Unit on a return-to-work plan focused on the health and safety of our employees and communities,” the company said in the statement. “Following the guidance of public health of…

New York dealer Steven Gomes has acquired a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership on Long Island.

Gomes on April 30 bought Riverhead Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram from the Strollo family, according to the RiverheadLOCAL website.

Tony Strollo Jr. along with his two children, T.J. Strollo and Jane Millman, operated the dealership, according to the store's website. The family had owned the dealership since 1976. It added the Chrysler and Jeep brands in 2017, according to the dealership's website.

Millman is chairman of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association.

RiverheadLOCAL reported that the dealership within a year will move to a nearby location that features a new showroom and service department.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Gomes owns three other dealerships on Long Island: Stevens 112 Ford in Patchogue, N.Y., and Ford of Smithtown and Lincoln of Smithtown, both in Saint James, N.Y. He also owns Stevens Jersey City Ford in New Jers…

DETROIT — Ultium Cells, General Motors and LG Energy Solution's joint venture, has partnered with Li-Cycle to recycle up to 100 percent of material scrap from battery cell manufacturing, the company said Tuesday.

The agreement with Li-Cycle will enable Ultium Cells to recycle cobalt, nickel, lithium, graphite, copper, manganese and aluminum, and 95 percent of the materials can be used to produce batteries for adjacent industries, Ultium Cells said in a statement. The companies will begin the recycling process this year.

"GM's zero-waste initiative aims to divert more than 90 percent of its manufacturing waste from landfills and incineration globally by 2025," Ken Morris, GM vice president of electric and autonomous vehicles, said in a statement. "Now, we're going to work closely with Ultium Cells and Li-Cycle to help the industry get even better use out of the materials."

Ultium batteries, the next-generation batteries that will power GM's electric vehic…

Two men are facing criminal charges over the sale of firearms off a car dealership lot in Hutto, Texas, about 30 miles northeast of Austin.

Craig Tondre, 42, formerly a sales manager at Covert Ford Hutto, part of the Texas-based Covert Auto Group, was arrested in April on suspicion of illegally selling weapons and ammunition. Tondre worked with another dealership employee, 44-year-old Joshua Ellard, to sell them, according to criminal complaints filed April 6 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Ellard was also arrested that month.

Tondre is charged with dealing firearms without a license, while Ellard — who was previously convicted in Florida of second-degree murder — is charged as a felon in possession of a firearm and a machine gun.

Tondre and Ellard were fired "immediately after management was informed of their arrests on allegations of selling illegal firearms," Covert Auto Group said in a statement last week to KXAN-TV. Th…

Footage from a home security camera shows the owner of a Tesla Model S entered the driver's seat of his vehicle shortly before a fatal crash that occurred last month in Spring, Texas.

The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report Monday on the deadly incident.

Crash investigators said the 59-year-old car owner entered the driver's seat and his 69-year-old passenger entered the front passenger seat at the owner's house. The car then left the driveway and crashed 550 feet down the street, according to the preliminary report. It did not indicate how fast the car was going but said the speed limit along Hammock Dunes Place was 30 mph.

The report does not address where the occupants were found in the cabin following the crash.

Initial reports had indicated the driver was not behind the wheel at the time of impact, leading to questions about the potential role of the Autopilot driver-assist system in the crash. "There was n…

The largest U.S. labor union is leading a complaint over working conditions at an auto parts factory in Mexico, the first case to test whether enforcement provisions in a new trade agreement can help to improve working conditions.

The AFL-CIO, together with other organizations filed a complaint against Tridonex, a factory in Matamoros in the northern state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, they said in a statement Monday. It’s the first complaint filed under the rapid-response mechanism of the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement, which went into force in July and replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The AFL-CIO and Democrats made strong labor rules and enforcement mechanisms for Mexico a key demand to win their support for the USMCA in 2019, concerned that the pact it was replacing lacked both. U.S. labor unions have long complained that Mexican factories under NAFTA denied workers’ rights to keep down salaries and unfairly undercut the U.S. on cost.

In …

China is shaping up to be the first real test of Big Tech’s ambitions in the world of carmaking, with giants from Huawei Technologies Co. to Baidu Inc. plowing almost $19 billion into electric and self-driving vehicle ventures widely seen as the future of transport.

While Apple Inc. has long had plans for its own car and Alphabet Inc. has Waymo, its autonomous driving unit, the size -- and speed -- of the move by China’s tech titans puts them at the vanguard of that broader push. The lure is an industry that’s becoming increasingly high tech as it pivots away from the combustion engine, with sensors and operating systems making cars more like computers, and the prospect of autonomy re-envisioning how people use will them.

As the world’s biggest market for new-energy cars, China is a key battlefield. Established automakers like Volkswagen Group and General Motors Co. are already slogging it out with local upstarts such as market darling Nio Inc. and Xpeng Inc. …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Monday confirmed its upcoming battery-electric pickup will be called the F-150 Lightning, and it will be unveiled at its world headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., on May 19.

The automaker said the reveal will be broadcast live across Ford's social media channels and will be shown in New York's Times Square and on the Las Vegas Boulevard. In all, the company says there will be more than 30 ways to watch either physically or digitally.

"Every so often, a new vehicle comes along that disrupts the status quo and changes the game ... Model T, Mustang, Prius, Model 3. Now comes the F-150 Lightning," Ford CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. "America's favorite vehicle for nearly half a century is going digital and fully electric. F-150 Lightning can power your home during an outage; it's even quicker than the original F-150 Lightning performance truck; and it will constantly improve through over-the-air updates."

Ford previously used th…