For digital tools, a point of no return

A well-reported byproduct of the coronavirus pandemic has been the abrupt and often necessary shift to digital tools by many dealerships.

Cox Automotive President Sandy Schwartz last week put some numbers to how substantial the influx of interest has been, at least for his company.

"When all of this started, we had about a thousand Autotrader dealers who had true digital tools that could do test drives, that could do walkarounds, and really get into the car and be able to see it," Schwartz said in Automotive News' Congress Conversations video series. "We quickly had requests and were able to outfit 10,000 dealers, our Autotrader customers, with more digital tools. And they're using them."

For dealerships, the use of digital tools has been integral amid the spread of COVID-19 as many showrooms were closed by state and local government orders. Customers still in the market have had to increasingly rely on digital information to weigh vehicle purchases.

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Ford expands Edge lineup with ST-Line variant

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is adding a new trim to the Edge lineup for customers who want the looks of the high-end ST performance model but may not want to pay the nearly $45,000 sticker price.

The 2020 Edge ST-Line, available later this year, comes with the base model's 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder that generates 250 horsepower. But it looks like the higher-trim ST with a special grille, body-color bumpers, black ST beltline molding, black roof rack side rails and 20-inch black aluminum wheels, among other features.

The ST-Line will slot between the ST and Titanium models. It has a starting price of $39,345, including shipping, which is about $5,000 less than the ST's base price.

The Edge was last redesigned in 2015 and underwent a freshening in 2019 when the ST model was added. Ford is facing competition in the midsize crossover segment from the Honda Passport, Chevrolet Blazer and Toyota Venza, and plans to retool the Edge f…

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VW loses landmark German case as diesel owners stand to receive damages

KARLSRUHE, Germany -- A German federal court judge ruled that Volkswagen has to pay compensation to motorists who purchased vehicles with manipulated diesel engines, a major blow for the automaker in its home market as it continues to reel from the emissions scandal.

Germany's highest court for civil disputes ruled on Monday that those who purchased the vehicles in question are entitled in principle to receive damages.

The ruling, which will allow owners to return their vehicles for partial reimbursement of the purchase price, serves as a template for about 60,000 lawsuits that are still pending with lower German courts.

The scandal over engine control devices that mask excessive nitrogen oxides emissions has so far cost VW more than 30 billion euros ($32.7 billion) in damages and regulatory fines, mainly imposed in the United States.

In the U.S., authorities had banned the affected cars from roads after the so-called defeat devices were discovere…

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Beep

It usually takes Beep about a month to launch its self-driving shuttles on a new route. Following a late-night phone call at the onset of the pandemic, the mobility operator implemented a new route in roughly a week to assist in the fight against COVID-19.

Planning, mapping, testing and training were fast-tracked so Beep could carry medical tests from a drive-through coronavirus testing site to a Mayo Clinic laboratory about a half mile away in Jacksonville, Fla.

"It was one of those Hail Mary things," Beep CEO Joe Moye said during an appearance on the Shift mobility podcast last month. "We had a week to pull this one off."

Unlike the company's regular operations, no human safety drivers have been aboard the Navya-built shuttles. Beep's involvement allowed front-line medical workers to reduce their contact with the medical tests.

"Using artificial intelligence enables us to protect staff from exposure to this contagio…

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Byton

Byton, one of many would-be Tesla rivals that have sprung up in China, finally seemed poised at the beginning of the year to make big headway toward launching its first product.

Last September, Chinese rival Faraday Future dealt Byton a blow by poaching its CEO, Carsten Breitfeld, the BMW veteran who co-founded the electric vehicle startup in 2017.

But in November, Byton rebounded with word that it received licenses to sell its M-Byte electric crossover in California as part of a plan to begin North American sales in 2021. And in January, Byton showed the final production version of the M-Byte to its U.S. target audience at CES.

Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid the economic slowdown and California lockdown, Byton furloughed about half the 450 workers at its North American headquarters in Santa Clara in April. And the company said it would reevaluate the launch timing of the M-Byte, a sleekly styled crossover with a massive 48…

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Rivian

It looked for a while as if Rivian might power through the pandemic crisis unfazed, with interest in the startup's electric pickups and SUVs gaining momentum following the completion of a $1.3 billion investment round in December.

After Ford Motor Co. said it was investing $500 million in Rivian last year, Ford kicked off 2020 with the news that Rivian would co-develop an all-electric vehicle with Lincoln, based on the EV "skateboard platform" Rivian has developed and intends to produce in Normal, Ill.

But late last month, as COVID-19-related cancellations and concerns mounted around the industry, Ford said it was dropping the Lincoln program, although the automaker said it will continue to collaborate with Rivian.

In a statement to Automotive News last month, Lincoln said it is still committed to its partnership with Rivian and will continue to work with the EV startup "on an alternative vehicle based on Rivian's skateboard plat…

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Face-to-face: Even better than great Wi-Fi

A lot of us in the media, like many in the automotive industry, have learned a lot about working remotely these last couple of months.

Some conference calls and other routines stay the same. Other practices are modified or dropped based on priorities and what is possible. This is an important time for us to be working; we have the tools to do it from anywhere and we can just carry on.

But it isn't the same.

It isn't the same as a newsroom humming with theories and gossip and the latest actual news. It isn't the same as sharing coffee with a colleague, shaking the hand of a dealer or looking in the eye of a CEO.

We do the best we can. And compared with how our parents or grandparents worked, it's amazing what so many of us can do from our homes with this fabulous 21st-century technology.

But it isn't the same.

John Krafcik knows. The Waymo CEO was on a "Daily Drive" podcast last week with Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein (Shamele…

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Nvidia’s Danny Shapiro on pivoting to ADAS technology (Episode 44)

Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at Nvidia, discusses the company’s pivot to support ADAS technologies, consumer trends to watch and how AI is helping in the fight against COVID-19.

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Sienna gets a makeover

When it arrives in dealerships late this year, Toyota's redesigned 2021 Sienna will finally match its competitors when it comes to creature comforts and technology. And it will best them when it comes to fuel economy with a standard hybrid powertrain that increases the minivan's estimated combined rating to 33 mpg, a 57 percent improvement over the outgoing non-hybridized model.

The newest Sienna, redesigned onto Toyota's flexible TNGA-K platform — which underpins vehicles as diverse as the Camry, RAV4 and Highlander — receives much-needed styling and interior updates, as well as extra safety equipment and capabilities made possible by its first new platform in a decade.

The Sienna borrows attributes that drew families to large crossovers while keeping the sliding side doors and roomier interior that once made minivans the king of people movers. Among its new available features are an on-board refrigerator, a vacuum cleaner and footrests for second-row seats.<…

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Subaru sees profit double despite pandemic

TOKYO — Subaru Corp. dodged a COVID-19 financial crash in the latest quarter, but the Japanese all-wheel-drive specialist is bracing for a big impact as the pandemic grips its biggest market, the U.S.

Even as other automakers saw profits tumble or flip into losses in the January-March period, Subaru's operating profit more than doubled in the quarter. Subaru's shield was its scant exposure to the Chinese market.

As China's market rapidly expanded in recent years, Subaru's paltry business there has been viewed as a weakness.

But when China shut down as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic this year, Subaru was spared a lot of the pain.

But Subaru now expects a big hit as the pandemic shifts to the U.S., which accounts for 70 percent of its global sales. Just how bad of a blow remains to be seen.

In announcing financial results last week, CEO Tomomi Nakamura noted the brand's U.S. strongholds are in the N…

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Workers relearn familiar jobs as plants reopen with new protocols

Everything about David Sokol's work routine has changed. Even his lunch hour.

The third-generation Ford Motor Co. employee puts fasteners on Super Duty pickups, Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators. Since walking into the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville last week for the first time since the coronavirus halted auto production nationwide in March, Sokol has had to adjust nearly all the habits he'd become used to since being hired eight years ago.

He now sits in the parking lot a few extra minutes before each 10-hour shift to fill out a health survey on his phone. He slips a mask over his mouth and nose and tries to stay 6 feet from other employees without falling behind on the steady stream of trucks coming down the assembly line. And he eats in relative solitude at picnic tables where black plastic partitions wall him off from his co-workers.

"It feels like you're in elementary school trying to take a test and they don't want y…

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Yandex

In an alternate 2020, Russian tech company Yandex might have been the standout at the North American International Auto Show.

The company had begun mapping the streets of Detroit this year in anticipation of an ambitious showcase of self-driving technology during the auto show, which had been scheduled for June. That display would have consisted of Yandex using its Hyundai Sonatas to do something none of the other companies in attendance would have done — ferry members of the show-going public without using predetermined routes.

The company's plans, along with the rest of the show, were scrapped amid the COVID- 19 fallout. It has not yet been decided whether Yandex will continue to use Detroit as its North American hub or whether it will return for next year's show.

But COVID has allowed Yandex to accelerate efforts on the delivery front. In late April, the company deployed its Yandex.Rover sidewalk delivery bot in Skolkovo, Russi…

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