News

BEIJING -- Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta said Friday it has received $500 million from SAIC Motor, Toyota Motor and auto parts supplier Bosch, as the global auto industry pursues the autonomous future.

Other investors in the funding round include Daimler, Temasek, Yunfeng Capital and Tencent, Momenta said in a statement. It did not disclose the valuation.

The four-year-old firm, led by Cao Xudong, a former Microsoft executive, is testing autonomous cars in Beijing and China's eastern city of Suzhou, and has a research center in Stuttgart.

Momenta is working with automakers to develop mass-production vehicles with automated driving functions to gather real-time data for the fully autonomous driving technologies for future products. Data is a key part of the self-driving industry which enables companies to improve their technologies in different environments.

Momenta will expand its workforce and gather more data to improve future techn…

Toyota Motor Corp. reported possible anti-bribery violations involving a subsidiary in Thailand to U.S. authorities last year, which could result in civil or criminal penalties.

The Japanese automaker is cooperating with investigations that may also lead to fines or other sanctions by the U.S. Department of Justice or Securities and Exchange Commission, according to an SEC filing Thursday. The agencies are responsible for enforcing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits companies from paying bribes to foreign public officials.

“Toyota works tirelessly to uphold the highest professional and ethical standards in each country where we operate,” Toyota spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto said in an emailed statement. “We take any allegations of wrongdoing seriously and are committed to ensuring that our business practices comply with all appropriate government regulations.”

The scope, duration and outcome of the investigations are unknown at this time, …

Nissan North America Inc. is recalling 126,809 vehicles because of a potential for tire failure.

The recall includes certain 2019-20 Altima and 2018-21 Titan models equipped with Continental tires. One or more tires on the vehicles in question may have been cured too long during production.

Sidewalls in the overcured tires could break, leading to rapid air loss. Belt edge separation may also occur, which could lead to tread and belt loss. Either condition can cause a loss of vehicle control, increasing the risk of a crash, according to the recall notice.

About 1 percent of recalled vehicles are believed to have the defect, the company said in a document filed with NHTSA.

A Nissan spokeswoman said the automaker is not aware of any injuries, crashes or fatalities associated with the recalled vehicles.

Nissan says it will notify all owners of potentially affected vehicles on April 28. Dealers were set to be not…

The U.S. government is working to help American miners and battery makers expand into Canada, part of a strategy to boost regional production of minerals used to make electric vehicles and counter Chinese dominance.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Commerce is hosting a closed-door virtual meeting with miners and battery manufacturers to discuss ways to boost Canadian production of EV materials, according to documents seen by Reuters.

The move comes as demand for electrified transportation is set to surge over the next decade.

Conservationists have strongly opposed several large U.S. mining projects, leading officials to look north of the border to Canada and its supply of 13 of the 35 minerals deemed critical for national defense by Washington.

Tesla Inc., Albemarle Corp., Talon Metals Corp. and Livent Corp. are among the more-than 30 attendees at Thursday's meeting who will discuss ways Washington can assist U.S. companies expand in Canada an…

General Motors plans to shift all of the employees at its Customer Care and Aftersales World Headquarters in Grand Blanc, Mich. — about 900 — to work at its technical center in Warren, Mich.

A number of employees at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, the automaker's global headquarters, will also shift to the 710-acre Warren campus. GM spokesman David Caldwell said the exact count of Renaissance Center employees making the shift will be determined later this year.

Not all employees may physically move to Warren. Though the company plans to bring back its remote work force in the summer, some degree of remote work is likely to continue, Caldwell said.

"We're working on those details currently. The future will be more flexible," Caldwell said in an email. "We are seeking to maintain the benefits of remote work, while also ensuring our teams get the benefit of in-person collaboration."

The automaker also plans to hire tech …

Volkswagen Group this week hatched an ambitious road map to hike global battery output at the same time its China unit declared a goal to sell 1.5 million electrified vehicles annually by 2025. 

The target represents a giant leap from where VW Group stands now on China’s electrified battlefield: The largest carmaker in China remains a small player. 

How can the German auto giant achieve the lofty goal? Details of the plan VW Group China CEO Stephan Wollenstein and his management team disclosed Tuesday via social media: 

VW Group will expand annual production capacity of vehicles based on the MEB EV platform to 600,000 annually at its joint ventures with China FAW Group Corp. and SAIC Motor Corp.  15 MEB-based models will be produced under various VW Group brands locally as of 2025, which are expected to generate 35 percent of total annual vehicle sales that year.  VW Group is setting up two additional joint ventures majority owned b…

Faraday Future, the Los Angeles electric-vehicle startup founded by Chinese entrepreneur Jia Yueting, has recruited Chen Xuefeng, a former senior executive at Jaguar Land Rover’s China joint venture, as CEO of China operations. 

Chen is “a critical hire” who will help the company realize its “U.S.-China dual home strategy” and will “accelerate the implementation” of business operations in China, Faraday’s global CEO Carsten Breitfeld, said in a statement Wednesday. 

Chen, 45, was previously executive vice president at Chery Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Co., JLR’s partnership with state-owned Chinese automaker Chery Automobile Co.

Faraday this week said it completed the second season of winter testing and validation for the pre-production version of its first product, the FF 91 electric crossover, in Baudette, Minn., and Flat Rock, Mich. 

Faraday plans to produce the FF91 at a plant in Hanford, Calif. It expects to launch sales in th…

Baidu, the Chinese internet giant and a leading autonomous driving technology developer, is poised to become the first company in China to demonstrate paid robotaxi services. 

The program, approved by local traffic authorities, will dispatch 35 self-driving vehicles to pilot rides in the north China city of Cangzhou, Baidu said. 

The company obtained clearance after completing a key requirement: 50,000 kilometers of robotaxi testing accompanied by safety drivers on open local roads with zero accidents, Baidu added. 

Government approval will allow it to “explore various mechanisms for charging customers, such as discounts, trial tickets, and voluntary payments from riders,” the company noted. 

Baidu has launched demonstration robotaxi programs in several Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. It expects to expand the program to include 30 cities in China over the next three years. 

In January, it …

<!--*/ <!--*/ */ /*-->*/ /*-->*/ Ford opens 'Disneyland for robots'

Digit and Fluffy have a new place to play.

Ford Motor Co., which has previously experimented with robots such as a biped package carrier named Digit and four-legged plant assistant called Fluffy, this week announced the opening of a four-story, $75 million robotics building in partnership with the University of Michigan. The 134,000-square-foot complex on the university's north campus in Ann Arbor features a three-story Fly Zone for drones, high-speed treadmills with obstacles, an outdoor robotics "playground" and an area called the Mars Yard, which mimics the red planet's surface so researchers can test rover and lander concepts.

"It's a Disneyland for robots," Mario Santillo, Ford's robotics research lead, told reporters. "All of this is because we're increasingly seeing robots do useful work for society. Our presence here, along with the University of Michigan, allows u…

Colorado Automobile Dealers Association President Tim Jackson says the Denver Auto Show is slated to return in September as an outdoor event with a number of safety measures in place for attendees.

How do I subscribe?Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Hyundai Motor America is recalling more than 100,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada from its Genesis luxury division because of problems with the antilock brake system, which could result in an electrical short and vehicle fire.

The affected vehicles include certain 2015-16 Hyundai Genesis sedans and 2017-20 Genesis G80 midsize sedans. That covers 94,646 vehicles in the U.S. and 4,756 in Canada. In a separate filing to NHTSA, the South Korean automaker said it is also recalling Genesis G70 compact sedans from the 2019-21 model years. That recall covers 552 vehicles in the U.S. and 123 in Canada.

In a document to U.S. vehicle safety regulators, Hyundai said the affected vehicles in both recalls were equipped with antilock brake system modules that "could malfunction and cause an electrical short over time, potentially resulting in an engine compartment fire" while the vehicle is driven or parked.

Mando, a South Korean auto parts supplier, makes the ABS a…

ACV Auctions Inc., a fast-growing digital wholesaling firm, expects to raise some $314 million in an initial public offering, set for March 24.

The IPO would give it a market value of $3.1 billion, according to a release.

Documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show the company is offering 16,550,000 shares of Class A common stock. It plans to list its shares on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the "ACVA" ticker symbol. In the filing, ACV estimates the IPO price will be between $18 and $20 per share.

The company has been growing fast while reporting losses, the SEC filing shows.

In 2015, the online auction platform sold about 1,000 units. Last year, it sold more than 391,000 units. Even before the coronavirus pandemic caused a mass shift to digital operations in the automotive world, the Buffalo, N.Y.-based company was growing quickly: It sold 241,000 units in 2019, up from 90,000 the year before.

<…