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Some of the smartest engineers and academics around the world have spent years pioneering artificial intelligence and seeking breakthrough advances.

Maybe they should leave the work to toddlers.

That's the premise of Cartica AI, an Israeli company taking a childlike approach to rethinking artificial intelligence. Rather than conventionally train machine-learning systems with reams of information, the company's technology trains systems by mimicking the way the human brain develops.

"If you are a newborn and you look into this world, you have no idea what you see," Karl Thomas Neumann, former Opel CEO who is a board member and investor in the company, tells Automotive News. "But you start structuring things — lines, curves, relationships."

Cartica calls those simple structures "signatures," and with remarkably few of them strung together, the company believes AI systems can make intelligent inferences about what's in …

USMCA — the trade deal replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement — will enter into force July 1, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Friday.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer notified Congress that Canada and Mexico "have taken measures necessary to comply with their commitments under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement."

"The crisis and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrates that now, more than ever, the United States should strive to increase manufacturing capacity and investment in North America," Lighthizer said in a statement. "The USMCA's entry into force is a landmark achievement in that effort."

The announcement comes after reports last month that the Trump administration was considering a June 1 start date, stirring concern among automakers, parts suppliers and trade groups that said the deadline could disrupt a smooth transition from NAFTA to the new trade deal, especially a…

AutoNation Inc., the nation's largest dealership group, returned $77 million in loans it received through the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program for 83 stores across the country, while Penske Automotive Group Inc. also returned loans it received, the companies told Automotive News on Friday.

The Washington Post was first to report Friday that AutoNation would return the loans. The Post said AutoNation had received nearly $95 million in loans, citing internal documents and company employees.

AutoNation Chief Marketing Officer Marc Cannon told Automotive News that the figure cited by The Post was incorrect and that the correct loan amount was $77 million. He said AutoNation held a board meeting at 11 a.m. EDT Thursday, shortly after new guidelines from the Small Business Administration were issued, and decided to cancel all of the retailer's loan applications and return all funds by May 7.

Penske Automotive Group, the nation's secon…

Carlos Ghosn, the Nissan executive-turned-fugitive who escaped Japan to avoid trial for financial crimes, promised new revelations into collusion between the automaker, prosecutors and the government in a forthcoming book.

“Wait until I publish my book,” Ghosn said Friday in a live video conference link from Beirut, where he has been living since the end of last year. “You will understand much more about the facts. We have a lot of people talking behind the scenes.”

Arrested in November 2018 in Tokyo on charges of financial misdeeds and then freed on bail, Ghosn made a dramatic escape to Lebanon in December with the help of a former Green Beret. He has denied the charges, saying they were part of a conspiracy to prevent further integration between Nissan Motor Co. and Renault.

A former high-flying CEO with homes around the world, he has been holed up in Lebanon, which doesn’t have an extradition treaty with Japan. A spokeswoman confirmed Ghosn is working…

DETROIT -- Before the coronavirus outbreak shut them down, U.S. auto factories were hectic workplaces where men and women worked side by side along fast-moving assembly lines, ate in crowded break areas, and jostled in and out of gates as they changed shifts.

That is not what auto factories are like in the era of COVID-19. A General Motors operation set up in a shuttered transmission factory near Detroit in Warren, Mich., to assemble face masks provides a glimpse of what manufacturing will look like for the foreseeable future.

People entering the plant rub their hands in sanitizer made by a Detroit brewery. A surgical face mask and safety glasses are required equipment. They stand while a security guard points a temperature scanner at them.

GM's face mask factory sits in a sprawling maze of abandoned transmission gear machining stations. Automakers have compared their crash programs to manufacture medical equipment for the COVID-19 outbreak to the 'Arsen…

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. brought in restructuring advisers to rework the rental-car company’s debt amid a bleak outlook for business trips and vacations.

Management is seeking advice from restructuring bankers at Moelis & Co. on ways to boost liquidity and avoid filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the situation.

One of the options that has been under discussion with bankers is raising cash by issuing new debt, Bloomberg previously reported. The maneuver would need an amendment to a secured debt facility, the people said, asking not to be identified while discussing a private matter. The situation remains fluid and plans could change, depending on market conditions and federal support.

A representative for Hertz, based in Estero, Fla., declined to comment. Andrea Hurst, a spokeswoman for Moelis, declined to comment. Hertz has $1 billion in liquidity and no significant corporate debt maturities until June 2021, accordi…

Tesla Inc. is adding a 10th director to its board and emphasizing several of his Elon Musk-friendly qualities.

Hiromichi Mizuno, whose term as chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund ended last month, becomes Tesla’s newest independent director and will sit on the board’s audit committee. The electric-car maker said Mizuno’s career has included work in Silicon Valley and on environmentalism and sustainability. Tesla also noted that he’s challenged the practice of short selling, which Musk has derided for years.

Mizuno became the first investment head of Japan’s $1.5 trillion pension fund in 2015 and oversaw sweeping changes that shifted its portfolio to stocks from domestic debt. Under his guidance, the GPIF’s investments in green, social and sustainability bonds exceeded $3 billion last year.

Mizuno made international headlines by blasting short sellers for “short-termism” in an interview with the Financial Times last year…

TOKYO – Mitsubishi Motors Corp. executives are having pay cut almost in half after the company slashed its full-year earnings outlook on tumbling sales triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Japanese carmaker said Friday it will cut base compensation to representative executive officers, executive officers and corporate officers by 20 to 30 percent in the fiscal year started April 1 and eliminate performance-based pay for the 12 months.

Several other automakers have announced similar cuts in executive compensation in recent weeks. 

“Recognizing the severity of the situation, in which even a year-end dividend has to be canceled, we will reduce the compensation of our officers and directors,” CEO Takao Kato said. “As a result of this, the officers will see their compensation cut by up to 45 percent.” 

Nonexecutive directors, including outside directors, will return 10 to 25 percent of their compensation. The carmaker also said it will eli…

Unifor President Jerry Dias on Thursday said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Canadian plants will be able to re-open in the early May timetable sought by several automakers.

“We will give the green light at the end of the day if our local union leadership feels comfortable with that,” Dias told Automotive News Canada. “I’m going to have another call tomorrow with the heads of all of our locals at the auto plants to make sure things are still moving properly. But as of now, we haven’t heard this big outcry saying, ‘Don’t do it, it’s too early.’ We haven’t heard any of that.”

His comments come after UAW President Rory Gamble said it would be “too risky” for U.S. workers and their families if auto plants restarted in early May. Auto factories in Canada and the U.S. have been shut down since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and companies and unions in North America have been grappling in recent weeks with finding ways to safely restart production whi…

The House overwhelmingly passed and sent to President Donald Trump a $484 billion coronavirus aid package, even as members are already at odds over the next phase of rescue legislation.

Thursday’s bipartisan 388-5 vote was delivered by lawmakers wearing masks and entering the House chamber under strict health precautions. Several members lamented people who’ve died from or are critically ill with the virus, including one lawmaker’s sister. Yet the day was also marked by partisan sniping.

Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bill, the fourth coronavirus-related spending measure since early March. This bill would replenish funding to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and provide other spending for hospitals and virus testing.

Several trade groups, including the National Automobile Dealers Association and the American International Automobile Dealers Association, advocated more funding for the program and sent a letter to Congress last w…

DETROIT — The UAW on Thursday said restarting U.S. auto production in early May, a target much of the industry has been aiming for, would be "too risky" for workers and their families.

The union's opposition threatens to upend plans by the Detroit 3 to end a near-total shutdown that already has lasted more than a month. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had said it was aiming to restart several U.S. factories May 4, and information given to employees and suppliers indicated that Ford Motor Co. and General Motors were considering a similar time frame.

"At this point in time, the UAW does not believe the scientific data is conclusive that it is safe to have our members back in the workplace," UAW President Rory Gamble said in a statement. "We have not done enough testing to really understand the threat our members face. We want to make sure the scientific data is supportive and every possible health protocols and enhanced protections are in place before UAW members …