Industry

Volkswagen has successfully hired former Apple executive Alexander Hitzinger to help lead self-driving technology development. His larger role is direct responsibility for technical development for commercial vehicles, and he will also lead the company's Mobility as a Service initiative, which...

Jaguar-Land Rover plans to reduce its workforce around the world by 4,500 employees, citing a sales downturn in the United Kingdom over Brexit and in China. Bloomberg reported on the job cuts Thursday. JRL said they come as demand for diesel-powered vehicles continues to fall. The 4,500 cuts come...

It sounds odd, but Ford has a test for sweaty derrieres. It's all in the name of long-term quality. The automaker showed off its robotic sweaty butt simulator, appropriately named "Robutt," in a Wednesday announcement that explained how the Blue Oval ensures seat quality. Ford first used Robutt to...

Evidence is mounting that Ford and the Volkswagen Group could form deeper ties than once imagined. Both automaker's announced a memorandum of understanding last June to research partnerships and joint-production of vehicles, with commercial vehicles specifically mentioned, but that might have just...

Mercedes-Benz managed to retain its top spot in the sales charts for luxury cars in the United States in 2018, a year that saw most brands report lower sales than the previous period. Mercedes was included in the list of brands that reported lower sales, with its 2018 tally minus commercial...

Embattled auto industry icon and former Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance boss Carlos Ghosn appeared in court on Tuesday for the first time since his Nov. 19 arrest. The appearance gave him his first opportunity to tell his story as Japanese prosecutors charged the executive with financial...

Numerous automakers have begun preparing for a connected-car future, but Ford is the latest to step into the arena. The automaker announced on Monday that it will use 5G networks to integrate vehicle-to-everything technology in all of its vehicles by 2022. Ford calls the technology C-V2X, or...

Gordon Murray presents one heck of a resume, but now he can add "Commander of the British Empire" to it. Queen Elizabeth II awarded Murray the accolade in December for his "services to motoring." Hemmings reported on the honor on last Friday. The CBE designation is one of five classes of the...

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told Reuters on Monday that the automaker has prepared for a "no deal" Brexit future by stockpiling some finished cars in Germany and planning to fly parts in on private jets. "We have to prepare for the worst case scenario," he told Reuters. Palmer said the automaker...

We may have lived through the peak year of car sales with internal-combustion engines (ICE) in 2018. Experts and analysts from several firms believe sales of ICE-powered cars will only shrink from here on out. The analysis comes from a Financial Times (subscription required) report on Sunday, Dec...

Executives at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Ford have reason to celebrate over their muscle cars, while Chevrolet is likely taking a hard look at its Camaro. The 2018 sales figures are in from all three American automakers, and the results put Ford on top in the muscle car wars. Despite a decrease...

Faraday Future has managed to stave off what seemed like imminent death by ending a dispute with key investor Evergrande Health Industry Group, the same company Faraday Future accused last October of trying to gain its intellectual property. The two firms said Monday that they have agreed to...

Self-driving car development is well underway at numerous automakers and technology companies. At Volkswagen Group, Audi leads the charge. The brand spun-off a start-up company called Autonomous Intelligent Driving, or AID, about a year and a half ago. The company has been tasked with working on...

Volkswagen may have teased its idea for a reborn beach buggy with an image on its corporate Christmas card. Autocar reported on the image Thursday, which shows Santa Clause behind the wheel of an open-top, lifted buggy. We can even see knobby tires in the sketch on the front passenger tire. Even...

Uber on Thursday rolled out its self-driving car prototypes on public roads for the first time since the March accident where one of the prototypes hit and killed a woman, Elaine Herzberg, pushing a bicycle across a stretch of road in Tempe, Arizona. The prototypes are currently testing near Uber's...

Apple has once again sparked rumors it may be developing more than just self-driving car software. The California-based technology giant has hired Andrew Kim, a former senior designer at Tesla. The Verge reported on Kim's hiring on Monday and said Kim's first day at Apple was last week. Kim's...

Long-time Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche will step down at the end of this year and hand the top leadership role to current sales chief Ola Källenius in 2019, but he's already on the hunt for a new job. Well, not really. But Zetsche gave his departure a characteristically comedic twist in a...

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles could say so-long to the V-6 engine and usher in a new inline-6 engine instead. On Tuesday, Allpar, a Fiat Chrysler Automobiles enthusiast website, reported on the possible straight-6 engine in development at FCA, noting that it would eventually find its way under the...

Daimler and BMW Group are preparing for a future where car ownership, especially in major cities, could become a thing of the past. The two German auto giants in March announced plans to merge their various mobility services into a 50:50 joint-venture company headquartered in Berlin, and on...

What started as a joke has turned into a real-life prototype. Elon Musk japed that he'd dig tunnels under Los Angeles to avoid traffic, and on Tuesday his Boring Company opened its first prototype tunnel in LA. The entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX also provided more details on how the system...