News
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Mercedes Recalled 310,000 Cars Over a Rollaway Risk, and the Parking Brake Was Never the Problem
Somewhere in a driveway right now, a Mercedes-Benz is trusting the wrong thing. Not its brakes. Not its transmission. A door switch. Because that switch has quietly corroded inside the driver’s door lock, the car may never get the memo that it’s supposed to hold itself in place. That’s the real story buried inside Mercedes-Benz…
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This State’s New AI Truck Cameras Aren’t Really About Safety. They’re About Lawsuits.
New Hampshire announced this week that its Department of Transportation is wiring artificial intelligence cameras into its state vehicles. Local coverage played it like a gadget story: smart cameras that spot crashes, log near-misses, and watch snowplows work through a storm. That’s the press release version. The real story sits one layer down, in a…
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Inside the Senate Connected Vehicle Bill: Airbags, Batteries and the 15% Rule
Everyone is chasing the same number this week: 15 percent. That’s the Chinese-ownership ceiling in the Senate’s connected-vehicle bill, and it’s the reason Mercedes-Benz spent last week in headlines it did not want. Fine. But the number I’d actually be reading is 450 megahertz, and the sentence I’d be reading twice is the one that…
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2026 Audi A6 IIHS Ratings: The Cheapest Trim Has the Best Headlights
The ninth-generation A6 landed a Top Safety Pick+ from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on July 9, one of four 2026 models to clear the bar in a nine-vehicle batch. That’s the headline Audi’s PR department wants, and it’s earned. But the trophy is a pass/fail summary of a rating sheet with a lot…
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Stellantis Is Profitable Again. It Also Just Told You Which Of Its 14 Brands Don’t Matter.
Stellantis reported a profit on Thursday. Wire copy treated it as a comeback story: red ink to black ink, two quarters running, crisis apparently over. That’s the headline. It is not the story. Buried in the same set of filings, and in the strategic plan the company unveiled two months earlier, Stellantis told its own…
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Audi H1 2026 Results: Profit Held, Guidance Cut, and a CFO Asking VW for Help
There is a specific kind of corporate statement that tells you more than the spreadsheet attached to it. Audi filed one on July 27. The Ingolstadt brand’s half-year figures show operating profit of €1.122 billion, up marginally from €1.087 billion a year ago. Operating margin climbed from 3.3 to 3.8 percent. Net cash flow more…
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Californians Are Turning Against Newsom’s EV Mandate. Someone Should Tell Them It’s Already Dead.
A new poll making the rounds this week claims nearly two-thirds of Californians oppose Governor Gavin Newsom’s rule requiring every new car sold in the state to be zero-emission by 2035. Cue the outrage columns. Cue the triumphant “the market has spoken” commentary. Here’s the part almost nobody writing about that poll bothered to check:…
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Rivian Blamed Its Mechanics for a Falling-Apart Rear Suspension. Two New Crashes Say That Wasn’t the Whole Story
Rivian already recalled its rear toe link once. NHTSA’s new investigation shows that recall covered barely a sixth of the vehicles now in question, and two fresh crashes just proved bad wrenching wasn’t the whole story.
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A Cop Allegedly Ran a Stolen-Car Ring on the Side. Her Badge Wasn’t the Scary Part — Her Database Login Was
Every stolen car eventually needs new paperwork. That’s the part of auto theft nobody thinks about until they’re the one holding a “clean” title on a car that was never legally theirs to buy. Arlington County, Virginia police say a Maryland police officer spent more than a year helping supply exactly that kind of paperwork.…
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Toyota Takes A Third Of cellcentric: What The Fuel Cell Truck Deal Really Buys
On July 27, Volvo Group, Daimler Truck AG, cellcentric and Toyota signed a binding agreement making Toyota an equal one-third owner of cellcentric alongside the two European truck groups that founded it. Closing is expected around the end of 2026 or the start of 2027, pending regulatory approvals. cellcentric stays an independent Tier 1; the…
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Toyota And Nissan’s Kyushu Plants Just Got Hit By A Killer Earthquake — Again
Toyota builds its most profitable SUVs in a corner of Japan that keeps shaking itself apart. That’s not the headline anyone else is running this week. The headline is simpler: a 7.1-magnitude earthquake tore through southwestern Japan, killing at least 13 people, toppling buildings, buckling roads, and cutting power across the region. Toyota extended a…
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BMW’s New Mexican-Built EVs Arrive In 2027 — Their Batteries Are Still Just Visiting
BMW says its new Mexican EV plant proves it’s serious about the country. But the batteries inside those cars are still shipped in from Europe, some with Chinese cells, and that gap could keep the whole plan from clearing USMCA’s tariff math.
