Trade News

Connected Car is a broad category, encompassing a huge range of hardware & software technologies, systems, and components – both inside and outside of the vehicle. Consequently, Connected Car promises to be tremendously disruptive to Automotive – chiefly due to the number of gaps & opportunities created for new business models to transform and disrupt. 

Connected Car is also driving business dynamics – efficiency, opportunity, differentiation, and disruption – to create a rich tapestry of creation, competition, and innovation. OEM's, Tier 1's, Dealer Groups, and Fleets are now in a position to reconsider and re-engineer their businesses from top to bottom. Existing industry leaders are also faced with new competitors, who are disrupting the industry to take business away from them.

Primary examples are Tesla, Rivian, Canoo and others on the OEM side; new Mobility entrants like Wunder, RIdecell, Lyft, and Uber on the Fleet side; new startups provid…

Burt Watson Auto Group has added a third store to its portfolio and its first Ford dealership.

Owner Richard Watson IV purchased Dean Arbour Ford in Pinconning, Mich., from Matt Arbour and sister Colleen Arbour Chapleski on May 3.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The store has been renamed Burt Watson Ford.

The third-generation group has a Chevrolet store in Freeland, Mich., its flagship dealership dating to the 1960s, and a Chevrolet-Buick dealership in Reese, Mich., that it acquired in 2018.

Watson said he learned in the fall that the Ford dealership was available. He said he thought it would be a great opportunity to buy a Ford store, and he is hoping to grow its sales.

"We're looking at expanding and just kind of growing our power as a group," Watson told Automotive News. "Nowadays, you're either kind of growing, or you're dying. We want to continue to grow."

Dean Arbour Auto Group dates to 1970, when John Dean Arbour ac…

Dave Bates, chief customer ambassador at Reynolds and Reynolds, says the dealer management system giant is aiming to improve its relationships with auto retailers as it looks to aggressively expand its business and win back customers.

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BERLIN -- Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk called for cuts to German red tape on Monday as he said it was unclear when exactly the first electric car would roll off the production line of its planned plant outside Berlin.

Last month Tesla delayed the opening of its first European gigafactory to late 2021 from an initial July 1 date after adding plans to also establish a battery cell plant on site as well as a lengthy approval processes..

"It's hard to predict with precision cause you can only make the cars when all of the pieces are here," Musk said during a visit to the Gruenheide site in the German state of Brandenburg.

"It looks like we're able to start production end of this year," Musk added.

Home to traditional rivals Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW, Germany is also known for its complex regulation and bureaucracy.

"I think there could be less bureaucracy, that would be better," Musk told reporters at the Gruenheide site, adding that rules were "…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will temporarily reduce output of the nation's bestselling vehicle — the F-150 pickup — at its Dearborn Truck Plant just days after President Joe Biden is expected to visit a new electric vehicle center nearby as the semiconductor shortage continues to impact production.

The Dearborn, Mich., plant will fall to one shift from three the week of May 24 as a result of the worsening chip shortage. Ford's other F-150 plant, Kansas City Assembly, will be completely idled that week.

Additionally, Ford will idle its Louisville Assembly Plant, which builds the Escape and Lincoln Corsair crossovers, the week of May 24.

The Detroit Free Press first reported the downtime late last week.

The automaker expects the next few months to be the most difficult since the chip shortage began. It expects to lose $2.5 billion and 1.1 million units of production in 2021 amid what CEO Jim Farley has called the "greatest supply shock" he's exper…

NHTSA on Monday launched a series of videos demonstrating to the public how to properly use advanced driver-assistance systems and the benefits of those safety technologies currently available on today's vehicles.

The five videos — hosted by Jason Fenske, a mechanical engineer who runs the Engineering Explained YouTube channel — provide an overview of driver-assist systems including blind-spot warning and forward-collision warning, as well as newer features such as rear automatic braking, blind-spot intervention, lane-keeping assistance and automatic high beams.

"Understanding what advanced driver-assistance technologies can and cannot do for the driver is critical to everyone's safety," Steven Cliff, NHTSA's acting administrator, said in a statement. "We're providing the driving public with knowledge about the safety benefits of these technologies."

NHTSA said the campaign builds on its New Car Assessment Program, a five-star rating system that provide…

HOLLY, Mich. — Subaru has built an enviable reputation among competitors and a near cultlike following among its loyalists for the prowess of its all-wheel-drive systems and their ability to get out into the wild.

But there have always been some unbeaten paths which Subaru has traditionally left to others. With the new 2022 Outback Wilderness, the Japanese brand looks to close that gap and claim at least a little bigger share of the rugged outdoors for itself and its customers.

With an added inch of ground clearance, underbody protection, a modified suspension, robust all-terrain tires, and improved approach, departure and break-over angles, the Outback Wilderness is properly outfitted to traverse all but the most extreme terrain.

It is intended as a "halo vehicle for all of our SUVs," explained Nikkie Riedel, carline planning manager for Outback with Subaru of America.

Subaru engineers sought a balance in the vehicle's design that extended …

Christophe Marnat, executive vice president of electronics and advanced safety systems at global supplier ZF, discusses the evolution of driver monitoring into occupant monitoring, clarity in naming assist systems and new advances on the sensor front.

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BERKELEY, Calif. -- A Tesla car driver killed in a recent accident in California praised the automaker's "full self-driving" features, and posted videos on his apparent Tiktok account, in which he appeared to drive with his hands off the wheel.

On May 5, a Tesla Model 3 crashed into an overturned truck on a highway in Fontana, killing the Tesla driver and injuring the truck driver and a motorist who had stopped to help him.

The Associated Press cited police saying a preliminary investigation had determined the Tesla's driver assistant system Autopilot was engaged prior to the crash.

But in a correction issued late on Friday, police said, "There has not been a final determination made as to what driving mode the Tesla was in."

Two videos of a man driving with his hands off the wheel were posted on the alleged Tiktok account of the victim, 35-year-old Steven Hendrickson of Running Springs, Calif.

"What would do I do without my full self-drivi…