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Sustainability and boosting transportation efficiency are top priorities for Daniel Ramot.

Ramot is CEO of Via, a company that operates on-demand, app-based passenger shuttles in some cities and also provides a digital infrastructure for optimizing various types of transit services.

He says that despite the challenges the coronavirus pandemic presents for the auto industry and transportation in general, it brings opportunities for Via to further aid public transit providers.

"Longer term, public transport is facing, on the one side, the challenge that people may not want to take public transportation. They may be much more weary of boarding a vehicle that has other passengers on it; they may want to drive themselves," Ramot said Tuesday in a fireside chat during the virtual EcoMotion event. "There's definitely some headwinds around getting people back onto public transport."

COVID-19 highlights areas in which public …

The signs of a recovery are small, but they're there.

Hakan Samuelsson, CEO of Volvo Cars, has watched information on sales trickle into his office on a daily basis and sees signals of a rebound.

So far, he says, the automaker's sales in China have risen 20 percent this month, compared with the same period last year. In the Southern U.S., he says, Volvo has sold more cars over the past 10 days than it did last year at that time.

"It's a very small period but still a sign of recovery," he said. "Hopefully, this will be history some months from now, and we will be back into business."

Samuelsson's remarks came Tuesday during a remote appearance at the EcoMotion mobility conference.

He said those were encouraging signs because the company's challenges are not related to supply-chain disruptions. "Our problem is our customers have to come back and buy cars," he said.

Whatever the economic and log…

WASHINGTON -- Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc. said on Tuesday it had agreed to make changes to its underwriting practices as part of a $550 million settlement with 33 states and the District of Columbia over subprime auto loans.

The states said Santander violated consumer protection laws by placing borrowers with subprime credit into auto loans it knew carried a high probability of default. Santander has agreed to pay $65 million for restitution for some customers and to waive deficiency balances on loans worth $478 million. It will also pay $7 million to the states to manage restitution claims.

Santander, the nation's largest subprime auto financing company and an arm of Spanish bank Banco Santander SA that went public in 2014, said it was pleased to resolve the investigation and "no additional charges will be taken in connection with the settlement."

"Santander profited by approving high-cost loans to disadvantaged auto buyers who were doomed from…

DETROIT -- When Ford Motor Co. hosts President Donald Trump on Thursday for a tour of its Rawsonville components operation near Detroit, the automaker will be doing so in technical violation of an executive order from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer prohibiting "nonessential" plant tours. But her office signaled it would not stand in the way of the visit.

Whitmer's new coronavirus pandemic workplace regulations for businesses laid out in Executive Order No. 2020-91 states that "manufacturing facilities must ... suspend all non-essential in-person visits, including tours."

A spokesman for Whitmer confirmed Tuesday that this provision applies to Ford, which is hosting the presidential visit Thursday to show Trump its auto parts plant that was quickly converted to assembling ventilators in partnership with GE Healthcare.

But there's no indication Michigan's governor -- and potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden -- is going to prevent the …

Nash-Kelvinator files trademarks for the Rambler and Statesman on May 22, 1950. Later that year, the Rambler, a nameplate first used in the early 1900s, became one of America's first successful compacts, and part of the beginning of the end of Detroit's one-size-fits-all approach to building and selling cars.

Nash-Kelvinator President George Mason recognized there was a glut of large and similar cars produced by larger Detroit rivals, and the company, based in Wisconsin, had to come up with alternatives.

The Rambler weighed less than competitors and sat on a 100-inch wheelbase that, even by current standards, is short. Power was delivered by a modest 173-cubic-inch, flathead six-cylinder engine that generated 82 hp.

The name Rambler was first used on a horseless carriage produced by the Thomas B. Jeffery Co. in 1902 through 1914. Charles Nash bought the Jeffery Co. in 1916, renamed the car Nash and created Nash Motors. Nash merged…

Consumer demands for health and safety will drive automaker priorities post-COVID-19, Nikolai Ardey, executive director of Volkswagen Group Innovation said Tuesday.

In a fireside chat with Automotive News publisher Jason Stein for the virtual EcoMotion conference, Ardey discussed unique demands coming from customers as a result of the pandemic. He called one of these demands "cocooning," a growing interest in individually owned vehicles that provide a safer mode of transportation given health and hygiene concerns.

"We have observed, at first, a renaissance of individual mobility," Ardey said. "All the safety and security features we have in mind or in preparation are accelerated now in development. The whole topic of health care will get a more intensive meaning now."

These customer demands might influence in-vehicle technology development, Ardey said, such as health-monitoring and biometric technologies.

Ardey also talked about the culture of sta…

Mexican auto assembly plants and parts suppliers scrambled Monday to meet government requirements for reopening their factories and synchronize with U.S. counterparts now coming back to life -- including the Detroit 3.

Mexico's reopening is seen as critical to restocking vehicle inventory in the U.S. and feeding parts into the supply chain.

After a confusing series of steps last week that suggested Mexico's auto industry could have to wait until June 1, the government published a set of rules on Sunday that allows plants to get certified for reopening within 72 hours. Each facility must submit a coronavirus safety plan starting Monday. Once approved via email, the plant can open.

The regulations allow for a quick turnaround, in some cases.

If a factory submits its plan and is approved on the same day, the facility can restart production immediately, officials said. Inspections are not needed, and will be done randomly in the future to ensure compl…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Uber Technologies Inc. eliminated an additional 3,000 jobs on Monday, is closing dozens of offices around the world and is shutting down many of its side projects in an effort to weather the coronavirus pandemic that has devastated the ride-hailing business.

Combined with the 3,700 employees in customer support and human resources Uber dismissed earlier this month, the cuts now total about 25 percent of the total workforce. A company spokesman said more job cuts could come.

Uber also plans to shutter non-core projects including its Incubator and AI Labs and a job-matching service called Uber Works, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an email to staff Monday. Uber also will close or consolidate 45 of the several hundred offices it operates globally, including its Singapore office, which had served as a regional hub.

As a result of the changes, Uber will incur $175 million to $220 million of charges, mostly in the second quarter, according to a…

DETROIT -- The Detroit 3 automakers and their suppliers began restarting assembly lines on Monday after a two-month coronavirus lockdown in a slow revival of a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in the United States.

On a chilly and damp Monday morning, hundreds of workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' truck plant in Warren, Mich., began lining up before 4 a.m. to start the 5 a.m. shift. Signs overhead read: "Let's restart."

"I'm a little nervous," said Larry Smith, 53, of New Baltimore, who works on wheel alignment away from the assembly line. "They made all the precautions (and) they've done everything they can to prepare us ... I'm trusting in God."

Detroit automakers on Monday said there were no issues with absenteeism as the plants opened. A UAW spokesman said staffing levels were "at or above expectations."

FCA reopened four U.S. assembly plants on Monday, including Warren Truck, on a single shift, as well as four parts plants.

…

Toyota National Dealer Advisory Council chairman on all-new Venza, all-new Sienna, digital retailing acceleration

In this video Q&A, Robby Findlay, director of operations at Findlay Automotive Group in the Southwest, discusses with Automotive News publisher Jason Stein where Venza and Sienna fit into the lineup, Toyota's leadership in hybrid powertrain innovation and how his dealership uses SmartPath as a tool to sustain sales activity amid the pandemic.