Motoring Podcast - News Show Motoring Podcast

FOLLOW UP: NHTSA INVESTIGATES MORE WAYMO INCIDENTSThe National Highways and Transport Safety Administration (NHTSA) are investigating further incidents involving Waymo vehicles. The nine extra are focused on stationary or semi-stationary items such as gates, chains and utility poles. If you wish to learn more, click on this TechCrunch link here.
FOLLOW UP: CAR THING TO BE BRICKED BY SPOTIFYAfter the huge fuss made on its launch, by Spotify, the Car Thing will be bricked by the company as it moves on from it. This was a device you bought and had to subscribe to Spotify Premium, fitted to your car interior, to allow you to play some tunes and if you could see it enable Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In 2022 they confirmed they were stopping production, just a couple of months after it going on general sale. Click this Ars Technica article link here, to read more.
UK APPROVES NEW SELF-DRIVING LEGISLATIONThe UK Government has gained the royal signature for the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act. This brings into law, for the first time, that car makers will be held responsible for their vehicles if it is being used in autonomous mode and not the driver. You can learn more on this, by clicking this AMOnline link here.
BMW, MINI, VW AND JLR FITTED PARTS BANNED IN USAA US congressional investigation has discovered that BMW, Mini, Volkswagen Group and JLR sourced parts from Chinese suppliers that contravened the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, even after they were made aware. VW replaced the parts on the US dockside, before they were allowed to be handed to customers and dealers. To read more, click this article link to The Guardian.
JLR TO ASSEMBLE CARS IN INDIAIn order to help with the increasing demand for their vehicles in Asia, JLR will be assembling Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports at the Tata Pune plant. Other models have been handled in this way since 2011. Click this article link from Autocar for more.
ITALY IMPOUNDS FIAT TOPOLINOSFiat Topolinos, their version of the Citroën Ami, have been impounded in Italy after they were found to have the Italian flag on their wings and it was seen as suggesting that the car was made in Italy, rather than Morocco where it is actually made. Click this Top Gear link to read more on this silliness.
BYD ELECTRIC BUSES EXPECTED TO REPLACE LONDON DIESELSBYD unveiled their BD11 double-decker, which it is expected will be seen on the streets of London soon. They will come with a usable battery capacity of 457kWh and a range of up to 400 miles. This is much more than the expected daily mileage of buses. If you want to read more, a...

FOLLOW UP: EU TO IMPOSE TARIFFSEU politicians have indicated that they will impose tariffs between 25-30% on Chinese EVs imported to the European Union. This comes after the US raised their tariff level to 105% for Chinese EVs. The move has been expected but the amount was not known. This has brought out divisions within the EU as France and Germany have very different home industries. If you wish to learn more, click this electrive article link here.
FOLLOW UP: CRUISE AGREE PAYOUT TO PEDESTRIAN VICTIM Cruise, the self-driving development company, has agreed to pay the victim of the road incident that involved her being dragged and severely injured by the car, between $8 and $12 million as compensation. Exact details have not been confirmed. Click this Market Watch article link for more.
FOLLOW UP: TESLA BEING SUED OVER SELF-DRIVING CLAIMSA US judge has stated that the class-action against Tesla, with regards to pursuing over negligence and fraud based claims. The original claim is, apparently, due to the 2016 video which the actions states falsely advertised what Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD) can do. To learn more about this matter, click here for the link to the Jalopnik article.
DEATH BY DANGEROUS CYCLING TO BECOME LAWThe UK Government has announced that “causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless cycling is set to become an offence”, as reported by the BBC News site. This change in the law will also come with a potential punishment of up to 14 years in prison. Click this link to read more.
FTC WARNS CAR MAKERS OVER DATA COLLECTIONIn the US the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned car manufacturers on their practices over collecting data on their vehicles and occupants. They explain how serious they are by citing several recent cases where they have fined companies for “the illegal collection, use, and disclosure of their personal data." Good. To read more, click this announcement link from the FTC.
MINI CEO STEPS DOWNStefanie Wurst, the CEO of Mini, is stepping down and will be replaced by Stefan Richmann, head of BMW Group corporate strategy, on 1 August 2024. There have been no reasons given for this change. Click this Autocar article link for more.
NHTSA INVESTIGATES WAYMOOnce more in the US, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) is finally investigating Waymo about its vehicles not obeying traffic laws. The countless videos on social media showing examples of this, must have made them wake up. Waymo have tried to suggest the incidents are statistically insignificant. Zoox is also under investigation. Cruise has announced it will resume testing in Arizona with a safety driver in attendance. To read about Waymo, click this article link from The Register.
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FOLLOW UP: CAZOO TO ENTER ADMINISTRATIONThe online car retailer has taken the step to announce that it will appoint administrators for its subsidiaries to help protect them from creditor’s debt enforcement. Cazoo also stated, to investors, unless it found urgent investment it would fold. You can read more, by clicking this AMOnline article link here.
FOLLOW UP: TESLA AUTOPILOT UPDATE INVESTIGATEDThe National Highways Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has written to Tesla seeking answers as to why their cars still keep crashing after the update to their driver monitoring system. Tesla has until 1 July 2024 to respond or face potential fines up to $135 million. If you wish to learn more about that, click this article link from The Register.
That is not all the news for Tesla though, US prosecutors are investigating the company over potential securities and wire fraud, over the capabilities of its driver assistance technology. This is purely an investigation and does not show any guilt, to be clear. On top of which, any prosecution would have to show a company deliberately inflating the capabilities rather than being optimistic about the future and failing to achieve that. Click this Reuters article for more.
FOLLOW UP: JLR OFFERS CONTRIBUTION FOR OWN INSURANCEAs part of the continuing battle to counter the issue of high costs of or even refusal for insurance coverage JLR has now added a £150 per month contribution, if they take out their bespoke version. This will last for three years. To learn more about this story, click this AMOnline article link here.
FOLLOW UP: DAIHATSU RESTARTS PRODUCTIONDaihatsu has finally restarted production in all four of its Japanese plants, following the safety test fraud scandal. Changes have been made to production, development the numbers of safety testing staff. If you want to learn more, click this article link from The Japan Times.
APRIL 2024 NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURESNew car registration figures for April 2024 has shown a 1% year on year. Fleet is doing all the lifting as Private registrations drop 17.7% year on year. BEV is up again, but only 15.7%, as petrol declines slightly and diesel drops further. Plug-in hybrid and hybrid share increases. SMMT are calling, once again, for help from the Government in a variety of ways that would encourage private buyers to purchase an electric car. Click here to read more, from the SMMT article.
Manufacturers are becoming increasingly vocal on the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate and how unworkable it is currently. With some suggesting they will pull out of the market, throttle combustion engine sales and more. Fleet customers are also being threatened, told they must purchase a certain percentage of EV in their order. To read more on this, click here for an article from The Guardian. If you wish to learn more about

FOLLOW UP: EU WARNS OVER LACK OF COOPERATION WITH PROBEThe EU has accused BYD, Geely and SAIC of not providing enough detail for their investigation. Due to this, apparent, lack of cooperation the tariffs that will be imposed are going to be higher than they might have been. The timing of this is important as the Chinese President is visiting Europe imminently. Click this article link from Politico for more.
FOLLOW UP: MORE TESLA CUTSTesla is reported to be cancelling the ‘ground-breaking’ “gigacasting” plans, which were to start with an underbody made in a single metal sheet. There were many in the industry who were questioning if this could be made possible and if there were consequences to doing so, outside of manufacturing. The news is on the back of a tumultuous time for the company following the announcement of cuts to the workforce. If you wish to read more, click this link to an InsideEVs article.
FOLLOW UP: FIRST BY CABINET CONVERTED TO EV CHARGEREast Lothian is the location for the first BT cabinet to be converted to enable EV charging. The pilot will allow local residents to use it for free until the end of May. You can learn more by clicking this EV Powered article link here.
AUTOCAR GREAT WOMEN AWARDS 2024 WINNERSAutocar have held the celebratory event for their Great Women Awards 2024, with Lisa Brankin, the Chair and managing director, Ford of Britain and Ireland winning the overall accolade. Congratulations to all those nominated and who won their categories. You can read through the article telling all about the event by clicking this link here.
FRENCH CAR INDUSTRY GIVEN NEW TARGET BY GOVERNMENTThe French car industry has reached an agreement with their Government to increase EV sales fourfold by 2027. They have also been instructed to produce two million electric and hybrid vehicles annually, by the end of the decade. If you wish to read more, click this link from Reuters.
PARTS BEING STOLEN FROM VEHICLESVolkswagen owners are the latest to be hit by selective thefts of car parts, rather than the entire car, as technology, the cost of living crisis and safety regulations all drive up costs. In this instance, the radar sensors which are incorporated into the front grille badge, have been taken. This is an ongoing issue and has hit many car companies. Click this article from The Guardian, to read more.
ELECTRIC CAR MISINFORMATION CONSEQUENCESAn electric car owner, who was visiting the Liverpool hospital Alder Hey, was asked to park in one of the outside spaces as the multi-storey car park was having improvements made to the sprinkler system and during that time EVs were not allowed to use that specific area. This is all fine, but the reasoning was due to EVs ‘spontaneously combusting’ which is untrue but a consequence of all the misinformation posted by the media and individuals. All those who talk about cars need to do better, need to combat untruthful info, no...

FOLLOW UP: CONTINENTAL FINED $107M FOR DIESELGATEContinental, the automotive parts supplier, has been fined €100 million for its part in the dieselgate scandal. The fine was such due to the full cooperation of the company and changes they have subsequently made to their compliance structures. There are six weeks for Continental to pay the fine. Click this Reuters article for more information.
STELLANTIS LASHES OUT AT EV MANDATESCarlos Tavares criticises the current UK EV mandates as “terrible”. He has met with the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, to discuss the situation and suggest alterations that will make it more workable for the industry. We are finding out that you cannot just manufacture demand, when reviewing the monthly SMMT registration figures. You can read more, via a Peter Campbell thread here. For another article, click here to view an Autocar article.
LOTUS CHIEF COMMERCIAL OFFICER IS LEAVINGMike Johnson, who is the chief commercial officer of Lotus and the public facing executive for the brand, will be leaving the company after only 18 months in role. He is said to be staying in automotive, but we will have to wait to find out where and when. If you wish to read more on this, click the Autocar article link here.
RANSWOMWARE ATTACK IMPACTS STREET LIGHTSA ransomware attack on Leicester City Council has led street lights to “misbehave”. This should cause great concern as more and more systems are linked and accessible remotely. Hopefully, more important and safety critical systems are being looked at across the country so there is not a serious impact from such incidents. Click this BitDefender story link here, to read more.
MERCEDES EACTROS 600 CHARGES AT 1MWMercedes-Benz are preparing for the Megawatt Charging System (MCS), that is due to be finalised in 2025, and have successfully charged an eActros 600 prototype at 1MW for the first time. Not details were given on how long the vehicle charged or even how long at 1MW. You can read more, by clicking this electrive article link here.
SAMSUNG TEASES FASTER CHARGING LONG LIFE BATTERYAt the 37th Electric Vehicle Symposium & Exposition, in Seoul, Samsung revealed that they will start production of a new electric vehicle batteries that will charge to 80% in nine minutes and some will last 20 years. The plan is for production to start in 2026, but it being fitted to cars in 2029. That’s all a little way off, hopefully this isn’t like solid state batteries and just far enough ahead for us to forget the last date that was declared. Click this article link from The Register for more.
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FOLLOW UP: WALES TO CHANGE SOME ROADS BACK TO 30MPHKen Skates, the Welsh Government Transport Secretary, has announced that some of the road limits recently changed from 30mph to 20mph, will now revert back to the original limit. This is an acknowledgement that the implementation of the reduced road speeds has not been as carefully executed as should have occured. If you wish to learn more about this story, click this BBC News article link here.
UK GOVERNMENT RULES OUT GRANTS FOR EVSThe UK Government has reiterated that it will not be providing incentives for private buyers seeking an EV. This follows calls from the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee’s Electric Vehicles report, which recommended several actions. Click this Autocar article link, to read more.
BIT OF A WEEK FOR TESLATesla have decided to step up to the plate of not having the best week imaginable. Firstly, they announced the sacking of over 10% of the global workforce, as one step to deal with their declining sales. You can learn more about that, by clicking this Reuters article link here.
Secondly, the company has quickly recalled all Cybertrucks following the news that the accelerator pedal cover can become loose and potentially cause the pedal to be jammed down. We applaud Tesla for quickly reacting to this news, though. To read more, click this article link from The Verge.
Finally, the company announced a new raft of price cuts to it’s models. Reminding all fleet operators why they will not be buying Teslas in the future, where dependency on value is a must. Click this article link from The Guardian for more.
JLR 2023 SALES UPNow that JLR can get its hands on parts, once again, it has increased its sales in 2023 by 22%. Much of that was from the Defender, Range Rover and Range Rover Sport. However, there is also good news for Jaguar as its sales are up too. If you wish to find out more, click this Autocar article link here.
JLR UNVEILS ENERGY STORAGE SOLUTIONJLR, in partnership with Alley Energy, has revealed their portable Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) which incorporates used PHEV batteries from Range Rovers and Range Rover Sports. Click this press release from JLR to learn more, including how they propose to use it.
VW WORKERS IN US VOTE TO UNIONISEFor the first time, the US car workers union, UAW, has been voted for by workers in Tennessee at a Volkswagen plant. The south of America has attracted manufacturing plants due to previous anti union sentiments, but this seems to be changing. You can find out more, by clicking this article link from The Autopian.
VW IN COURT OVER ID NAMEA former supplier to Volkswagen,...