News
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FCA’s Pentastar Warranty Settlement Isn’t About a Bad Valve Train. It’s About Who Gets to Define ‘High-Priced.’
There’s a provision buried in California’s emissions rules that almost nobody outside a courtroom reads closely, and a class action settlement against FCA US filed this month shows exactly why it deserves more attention. Automakers don’t get to pick a single warranty period and call it finished. Parts tied to emissions control carry a baseline…
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Hyundai’s Point-and-Speak Car Controls: Inside the Patent Trail
Every car voice assistant has the same blind spot: it can hear you but it can’t see you. Say “open that window” and the system has no idea which of four windows you mean, so you end up saying “open the rear passenger-side window,” a phrase no human has ever said to another human. Hyundai’s…
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Four LLCs, One Factory: Inside an Auto Supplier’s $620,000 Discrimination Settlement
A federal jury in Nashville never got to hear this case, and that absence is most of the story. After nineteen months of motions, a failed mediation, and a legal fight over what “one employer” even means on paper, an automotive stamping supplier has agreed to pay $620,000 to end a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity…
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Ford Edge 2.0L EcoBoost Petition: What Ford’s Own Bulletins Reveal
Most federal defect reviews begin with regulators trying to figure out what’s wrong. This one starts with the automaker’s own repair manual. For years, Ford dealers have had a step-by-step procedure for finding coolant in the cylinders of 2.0-liter EcoBoost Edges and fixing it by replacing the long block. The question for the government isn’t…
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Volkswagen’s Cars Can Now Pull Over and Call for Help by Themselves. You’re Still Legally the One Driving.
Picture the moment: cruising at 70 mph, hands on the wheel one second, unresponsive the next. Twenty-five seconds later, your Volkswagen notices. It honks the horn, jerks the brakes three times, tightens the seatbelt, and if none of that works, steers itself onto the shoulder, shifts into Park, flips on the hazards, unlocks the doors,…
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Spain Just Issued Its First Robotaxi Permit — But There’s Still a Human Driving It
Spain’s traffic authority just handed WeRide, Uber, and a fleet-operations company called AVOMO the country’s first national permit for Level 4 autonomous passenger vehicles. Read the announcement and it sounds like robotaxis have arrived in Madrid. They haven’t. What actually got approved is more interesting than that, and more useful to understand. On September 10,…
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Rain Sensors Used to Be a Comfort Feature. Now They’re Rewriting What a Windshield Costs to Replace
A new market analysis says the global rain sensor business will nearly double by 2035, growing from $5.6 billion to $10.8 billion. On its own, that is not an interesting sentence. Rain sensors have quietly automated wipers for decades, long before anyone described a car as “software-defined.” The part of that forecast worth a second…
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Why Americans Keep Cars Longer: Prices, Loans and Repair Math
There used to be a moment every car owner recognized. The odometer rolled past six digits, a check-engine light came on, and the dealer’s trade-in appraisal started to look like a rescue offer. That moment keeps getting pushed back. For a growing share of Americans, it isn’t coming at all, because the alternative costs about…
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19-Year-Old Charged With Stunt Driving After Chaotic St. Louis Street Takeover
A 19-year-old woman is now facing a criminal charge after St. Louis police say she took part in a street takeover that turned a busy south-city intersection into a scene of chaos over the weekend. The St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office announced this week that it has charged Jade Martinez with stunt driving in connection…
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Stellantis Says the World Splits in Two. Its Own Paperwork Shows Exactly Where the Line Falls.
Antonio Filosa didn’t say anything unusual when he told stock analysts on September 10 that Stellantis sees “the world divided into two things.” CEOs drop lines like that at investor conferences constantly. It’s built for a highlight reel, not scrutiny. Scrutinize it anyway, using nothing but the company’s own disclosures, and something more interesting turns…
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Why a Stored 1966 Corvette Lost Its Brakes and Hit a House
Every classic-car owner has a spring wake-up routine: battery tender off, fuel topped up, a hopeful twist of the key. The step people skip is confirming the car can stop before asking it to go. A Georgia Corvette owner found that out in the most expensive classroom there is, which was his own driveway. The…
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Ford’s Record China Exports Aren’t Growth. They’re a Hedge Against China Itself
Jim Farley flew to China this week to shake hands with the partner Ford has spent two decades trying not to talk about too loudly. The handshake isn’t the story. What’s revealing is what Ford’s own paperwork says about who actually controls the factory now central to the company’s export ambitions. Ford’s most recent annual…
