Google, Ford, Uber launch coalition to further self-driving cars

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Alphabet Inc's Google unit (GOOGL.O), Ford Motor Co (F.N), the ride-sharing service Uber [UBER.UL] and two other companies said on Tuesday they are forming a coalition to push for federal action to help speed self-driving cars to market.

Sweden-based Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co GEELY.UL, and Uber rival Lyft also are part of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets. The group said in a statement it will "work with lawmakers, regulators and the public to realize the safety and societal benefits of self-driving vehicles."

The coalition said David Strickland, the former top official of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the top U.S. auto safety agency that is writing new guidance on self-driving cars, will be the coalition’s counsel and spokesman.

"What people are looking for is clear rules of the road of what needs to be done for (fully autonomous) vehicles to be on the road," Strickland said in an interview Tuesday, emphasizing the companies want to deploy them safely. "Nobody wants to take a shortcut on this."

Strickland, who has advised Google on self-driving car issues, said the group is "a full policy and messaging campaign and movement" and not just about lobbying lawmakers or regulators.

In 2014 there were 32,675 fatalities and 2.3 million injured in 6.1 million crashes on U.S. roads. NHTSA says about 94 percent of all traffic crashes are caused by human error.

On Wednesday, NHTSA is holding the second of two public forums on its self-driving car guidelines that will feature comments from tech companies and automakers at Stanford University.

NHTSA did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the coalition.

Ford said in a statement the group will "work together to advocate for policy solutions that will support the deployment of fully autonomous vehicles."

NHTSA hopes to release its guidance to states, policymakers and companies on self-driving vehicles in July.

California has proposed barring self-driving cars that do not have steering wheels, pedals and a licensed driver ready to take over in an emergency, which Google has opposed. Under current regulations, fully autonomous vehicles without human controls are not legal.

NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind has said policymakers should avoid a "patchwork" of state regulations on self-driving cars but has not taken a position on California's proposal.

In February, NHTSA said the artificial intelligence system piloting a self-driving Google car could be considered the driver under federal law, a major step toward winning approval for autonomous vehicles.

The five companies, which all are working on self-driving cars, say one of the group's first tasks is to "work with civic organizations, municipalities and businesses to bring the vision of self-driving vehicles to America’s roads and highways."

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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Volkswagen says not in talks with Apple or Google

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Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) Chief Executive Matthias Mueller said the carmaker is in talks with external partners to start new digital mobility businesses but added these talks do not involve Apple (AAPL.O) or Google (GOOGL.O).

Speaking at a press conference to discuss full-year results in Wolfsburg on Thursday, Mueller said the company was looking for ways to expand its offering in the area of digital mobility services.

"Please understand if I cannot name these companies, but we are not in talks with Apple or Google," Mueller said.

Mueller also said he could not estimate how long it would take to resolve regulatory issues with authorities in the United States, who would first have to receive results of the internal investigation it has commissioned from law firm Jones Day, which is expected to finish its work by the end of the year.

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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Nissan to recall 3.53 million vehicles: air bags may not deploy

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Nissan Motor Co Ltd said on Friday it will recall 3.53 million vehicles, most in the United States, citing passenger-side air bags that may not work properly because vehicle sensors may malfunction.

The Japanese automaker said this is the fourth recall since 2013 to address problems with occupant classification systems that may fail to properly identify adult front seat passengers.

The system may improperly classify an adult front seat passenger as a child or as an empty seat, a failure that could lead to an air bag failing to deploy in the event of a crash. Nissan has reports of three injuries linked to the issue but no fatalities.

The new recall includes vehicles from the 2013-2017 model years, including some Nissan Altima, Leaf, Maxima, Murano, Pathfinder, Sentra, Rogue, NV200, NV Taxi, Infiniti JX35/QX60, and Q50. It also includes the 2015-2016 Chevrolet City Express, built for General Motors Co by Nissan.

Nearly 3.2 million of the recalled vehicles are in the United States.

"The planned remedy varies by vehicle and will include software reprogramming in some models and hardware replacement in other models," Nissan spokesman David Reuter said. Nissan said it is currently developing its remedy plan and will begin notifying dealers in late May.

Only about 20 percent of the U.S. models will need a hardware fix, Nissan said.

Nissan said that 622,110 Sentra cars, part of the recall announced on Friday, are also the subject of a second recall, because the front passenger seat belt bracket may become deformed if it is used to secure a child restraint system. Nissan dealers will reinforce the seat belt bracket.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration upgraded an investigation in August 2015 into the air bag deployment issue after reviewing 1,271 complaints and warranty claims to determine whether a prior Nissan recall adequately addressed the problem.

Most complaints from owners with repaired vehicles said the air bag deactivation light remained on even with an adult in the front seat.

Nissan has issued several earlier recalls for occupant classification system issues in the United States in recent years. In 2014, the automaker recalled 990,000 U.S. vehicles to address the issue, expanding on a 2013 callback. It also recalled 920 U.S. vehicles in October 2015.

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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Germany to launch 1 billion-euro discount scheme for electric car buyers

An electric Volkswagen Passat car is pictured at charging station at a VW dealer in Berlin, Germany, February 2, 2016.
REUTERS/FABRIZIO BENSCH

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Germany is set to launch a new incentive scheme worth about 1 billion euros ($1 billion) to get more consumers buying electric cars as it struggles to meet a target of bringing 1 million of them onto its roads by the end of the decade.

The costs of the incentives, similar to those already established in some other European countries, are to be shared equally between the government and automakers with a view to selling an additional 400,000 electric cars, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Wednesday.

Critics say higher electricity generation to charge battery cars will increase carbon dioxide emissions.

Currently Germany, the biggest car market in Europe, has only about 50,000 purely battery-powered vehicles and plug-in hybrids among the 45 million cars using its roads.

Under the plans, agreed early on Wednesday between government ministers and representatives of Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), Daimler and BMW, electric car buyers will get a 4,000-euro discount while buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles will get a discount of 3,000 euros.

"With this, I believe we will be able to give a boost to quickly move the number of vehicles (sales) to a considerable level," Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

The program includes 300 million euros of spending on charging stations and could start as early as May, Schaeuble said, adding that the government was considering further steps like tax incentives to make electric cars even more attractive.

"It's true that the government may have left carmakers with too much wiggle room on emissions and industry certainly pushed things to a limit there," Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper said. "But the decision to kick-start demand for EVs is right, other countries are doing this too for good reasons."

IG Metall, Germany's biggest trade union, said the decision should help secure jobs. "This step was urgently needed," said the head of the union, Joerg Hofmann.

The car industry has repeatedly urged Germany to help boost demand for electric cars.

But lawmakers within Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have criticized the idea of subsidizing private car sales, as have environmental and taxpayers' lobbies.

They say the government should instead use the money to fund the electrification of taxi and car-sharing fleets and invest in public transport.

"The incentive for electric cars is a big mistake," Clemens Fuest, head of the Munich-based Ifo economic institute which surveys business morale, told Reuters, noting that funds would be better spent on promoting new technologies as higher electricity generation to charge battery cars will increase carbon dioxide emissions.

While the Volkswagen emissions scandal has highlighted Europe's heavy reliance on diesel cars, other countries in Europe already have incentive schemes in place to get more consumers to buy electric vehicles, including Norway, the Netherlands, France and the UK.

"In countries where the government is providing an impetus, electric mobility is growing more quickly," Matthias Wissmann, head of Germany's VDA auto industry lobby said.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz and VW's Audi - the world's largest producers of luxury cars - rank only 12th, 14th and 22nd in terms of annual sales of electric and hybrid vehicles, trailing leaders Toyota, Honda, Lexus and Nissan, according to figures compiled by LMC Automotive.

But the premium car makers will not benefit from the new sales incentives because cars with a net price tag of more than 60,000 euros are not eligible, Schaeuble said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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High warranty costs reflect Tesla’s struggle with quality

People visit a Tesla Model S car during the Auto China 2016 in Beijing, China, April 25, 2016.
REUTERS/JASON LEE

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Tesla Motors Inc (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk has told investors his electric car company will stop burning cash and turn a profit this year, and corralling costs associated with quality problems will be critical to making good on that pledge.

While Tesla has trimmed its average warranty repair cost per premium electric vehicle since 2014, it still spends more than twice as much as General Motors Co (GM.N) and Ford Motor Co (F.N), according to a Reuters analysis of company data.

Tesla's warranty costs are also higher than those of Germany's Daimler AG (DAIGn.DE), maker of Mercedes-Benz luxury cars.

Tesla and other auto makers don't reveal specific figures for warranty costs per vehicle, but they do disclose vehicle deliveries, and total spending for warranty repairs and accruals, representing money set aside for future warranty repair work.

Last year, according to a Reuters analysis of data provided in the company's annual report, Tesla spent $1,043 per vehicle on actual repairs and set aside $2,036 in warranty accruals to cover future repairs on the vehicles it sold in 2015. It trimmed warranty expenses by 17 percent from 2014 and cut warranty accruals by 34 percent.

Meanwhile, GM spent just $400 last year for every vehicle it sold on warranty repairs and set aside $332 for future work. Ford spent $429 per vehicle and set aside $308. Daimler spent $970 per vehicle and set aside $1,294.

While Tesla builds only two models and last year sold just 50,000 vehicles, GM, Ford and Daimler all have widely disparate product lines and sell millions of vehicles a year. And where Tesla's 2015 revenue was just over $4 billion, the three larger automakers reported revenues of $150 billion and more.

RESULTS DUE

When Tesla reports first-quarter results on May 4, analysts will be watching to see whether it is on track to deliver positive cash flow for the year, as Musk forecast in February.

Quality control and warranty costs are among the challenges as Musk prepares to ramp up production next year for the Model 3 sedan. Tesla plans to boost annual vehicle production over the next several years to roughly ten times the 2015 level.

In 2015, Tesla lost a net $888.7 million, and lost $716 million from operations. It ended the year with $1.2 billion in cash, $708 million less than a year earlier. Tesla bolstered its cash balance with $730 million from the sale of new common stock. Total warranty costs were $52.8 million, and it set aside $103 million for future warranty repairs.

Chief Financial Officer Jason Wheeler told analysts in February that as Tesla cars become more reliable, "that reduces our warranty. That actually has a cash impact when the cars show up less at the service centers."

In a statement to Reuters, Tesla said it has reduced the cost of first-year repair claims as well as the amount of money it reserves for future warranty repairs.

Among other steps, Tesla said it "aggressively" issues bulletins to its service centers to "correct identified issues prior to a failure" and to "offer ways to enhance the vehicle after delivery, even (on) non-warranty related items."

COMPLAINTS

Tesla has been contending with complaints from owners about problems with Model S sedans and the recently launched Model X sport utility vehicle. Some customers have complained on internet forums that doors on their Model X SUVs wouldn't latch properly. Complaints about the Model X were amplified in April when Consumer Reports highlighted problems with the SUV.

Fort Lauderdale Model X owner Colin Campbell told Reuters he loved his car, although he had to drive 30 miles home one day with one hand on the door, trying to keep it shut.

"If you want to be one of the first to use the most advanced cars you have to expect you'll have some issues at the beginning," he said. Campbell added he "recognized I'm a beta tester," a technology industry term for someone who gets to try a new product in its last stages of development.

Tesla, in a statement to Reuters, said the number of issues the company has dealt with on the Model X has fallen by 400 percent over the past six months. The company has responded to customer complaints by offering to replace faulty sensors that sometimes saw obstacles that weren't there.

The company said it issued a bulletin to service technicians to replace components in the mechanism that opened the falcon wing doors to remedy a creaking or groaning sound, and recently changed the design of the door latches. Tesla also fixes issues using over-the-air software upgrades.

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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Younger U.S. buyers more open to self-driving cars: J.D. Power

The rear of a Lexus SUV equipped with Google self-driving sensors is seen during a media preview of Google's prototype autonomous vehicles in Mountain View, California, U.S., September 29, 2015.

U.S. consumers who are under 40 are more open than older people to self-driving cars and their underlying systems, according to a survey released on Thursday by J.D. Power.

The 2016 U.S. Tech Choice Study found that 56 percent of Gen Y buyers - born 1977-1994 - said they trust self-driving technology, compared with 41 percent for Gen X - born 1965-1976 and 23 percent of Baby Boomers -born 1946-1964.

Significantly, over one-third of Gen Y buyers would pay $3,000 or more for an automated system, the study found, without giving comparative figures for other generations.

"'Will they pay?' is always the key question," said Kristin Kolodge, J.D. Power's executive director of driver interaction and human machine interface (HMI) research.

The survey by the marketing information firm should encourage automakers such as General Motors Co, suppliers such as Delphi Automotive Plc and tech companies such as Alphabet Inc's Google, all of which are accelerating development of self-driving cars and systems.

All respondents, however, share a concern for vehicle security and safety, including the potential for advanced technology systems to be hacked or hijacked, the survey found.

Consumers also balked at the projected prices on some of the underlying equipment, J.D. Power said. Lane change assist was among the top 10 tech choices, but dropped off the list when consumers saw the $1,500 price tag. Among the most popular items, based on their estimated price, were a camera-based rear-view mirror ($300), smart parking ($100) and predictive traffic ($150).

With developments in driver assistance systems rapidly advancing, "the industry is at the cusp of a mobility revolution," said Kolodge, "but consumers will decide which technology choices win."

Conducted earlier this year, the online survey of nearly 8,000 vehicle owners found a higher level of trust and confidence among younger consumers in such advanced driver assistance systems as lane change assist and traffic jam assist.

Those systems, which several automakers are phasing into production, are considered a foundation for fully automated vehicles that could begin appearing on U.S. roads in 2020.

The level of trust in such systems "is directly linked to the level of interest in a new technology among automobile buyers," said Kolodge.

Reaction was also mixed to on-demand mobility services such as those offered by ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, with younger consumers more open to the concept.

There were some light moments in the survey feedback, said Kolodge, with some respondents admitting "they are poor sharers."

Source: http://www.reuters.com

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Google gives federal plan for self-driving car

LOS ANGELES — Google wants Congress to create new federal powers that would let the tech giant receive special, expedited permission to bring to market a self-driving car that has no steering wheel or pedals.

The proposal, laid out in a letter to top federal transportation officials, reveals Google's solution to a major regulatory roadblock: U.S. law does not permit the mainstream deployment of cars with the design Google has been advancing, which would not allow a person to drive.

The cars may sound futuristic, but Google has dropped increasingly strong hints that its self-driving technology — tested for several years on public roads in California and elsewhere — could be ready for early adopters sooner than the public expects. The tech giant's push to clear roadblocks in federal law reinforces that confidence.

In a letter sent Friday to U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, the head of Google's self-driving car project, Chris Urmson, sketched out the idea of new federal authority for self-driving cars that he floated without details at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday.

Under Google's proposed framework, a company that could show its vehicles passed federal safety standards could receive special permission from transportation regulators to sell them. The government could set conditions that limit use based on safety concerns, and would be obligated to review the application in a "tight but realistic" time frame.

The typical process for making new rules takes years.

Granting the new authority would bring "enormous potential safety benefits ... quite promptly with appropriate safety conditions and full public input," according to a summary of the proposal obtained by The Associated Press.

Google's proposal came in a response to a U.S. Department of Transportation invitation for industry input on ways to speed the technology to public roads, provided it is proven to be safe.

"The department will take input from lots of stakeholders as we develop that plan," said Gordon Trowbridge, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is overseeing the regulation of the technology within the broader Department of Transportation.

A Google spokesman had no immediate comment.

Company representatives met with lawmakers this week, including Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D.

The committee has been discussing with the Transportation Department the challenges and the authorities needed for a self-driving car, but isn't currently working on legislation, said Frederick Hill, a Republican spokesman for the committee.

The committee's top Democrat, Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida, is open to legislation giving transportation regulators greater authority, as long as the new powers do not compromise safety, Nelson spokesman Bryan Gulley said. Urmson met with the committee's Democratic staff and indicated legislation was in the works but offered no draft proposal, Gulley said.

Soure:www.msn.com

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