On today’s show…General Motors moves a bunch of jobs out of Mexico and into Texas…Jaguar is about to go on a massive hiring binge…and flying cars could be here sooner than we think. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.
 
This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

JLR TEAMS WITH GORILLAZ TO FIND NEW TALENT
Automakers are having a hard time attracting young people to the industry but Jaguar Land Rover just came up with a unique idea to find new talent. It just teamed up with the band Gorillaz and created an app to recruit new electronic and software engineers. The Gorillaz App, has two challenges. The first involves assembling Jaguar’s all-electric I-PACE concept, which allows users to learn about its performance, battery technology, charging and range. The second challenge is a series of code breaking puzzles that will test curiosity, persistence, lateral thinking and problem solving. Alex Heslop, the head of electrical engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, says “As the automotive industry transforms over the next decade, fuelled by software innovation, we have to attract the best talent and that requires a radical rethink of how we recruit. Here we’ve found an engaging way to recruit a diverse talent pool in software systems, cyber systems, app development and graphics performance.” Jaguar Land Rover is looking to hire 1,000 electronic and software engineers and a total of 5,000 technical staff. If you want to be one of those recruits, you can download the app now through iTunes or Google Play.

GM EXPANDS IN TEXAS
Earlier this year GM announced it was investing a billion dollars in its U.S. operations and that it would add or retain 7,000 jobs. And now the automaker is taking it a step further. It announced plans to open a new supplier park to support future vehicle production at its Arlington Assembly plant in Texas, which makes Suburbans, Yukons and Escalades. The new site will house two industrial manufacturing and warehouse buildings with 1.2 million square feet and will add more than 850 new jobs. A big part of this news is that 600 of those new jobs will replace work previously done outside of the U.S., mainly in Mexico. The new supplier park is scheduled to open its doors sometime next year.

The 24 Hours of Le Mans was a nail biter right down to the last lap, and that is coming up next.

LE MANS HIGHLIGHTS
It was a story of thrilling comebacks and heartbreaking setbacks. The 24 Hours of Le Mans was a nail biter down to the last lap. Toyota entered the race as the overall favorites in the LMP1 class, with its three powerful hybrids clearly the class of the field. But poor reliability and an accident with a back marker handed the victory to Porsche. But Porsche was lucky. One of its two cars broke down and the other had to race back from deep in the field after an early stop to replace part of its hybrid system. In the GTE Pro category, Corvette Racing managed to put one of its cars in the lead late in the race. But on the last lap, driver error and a punctured tire handed the victory to Aston Martin. The LMP2 class was won by an Oreca powered by a Gibson engine and sponsored by the actor Jackie Chan. And GTE Am was won by a Ferrari 488.  

VIPER PRODUCTION ENDS IN AUGUST
Well, we all knew this was coming but it’s sad to see it end. Autoforecast Solutions reports that the last Dodge Viper will be made on August 16. The iconic sports car went into production in 1992 and earned its stripes on both the road and the track. Known for its brutal simplicity and muscular styling the car had a lot of fans, but not enough buyers. This year only about 500 will be sold. And so, after 25 years of production the last one will roll off the line in a little less than two months.

FLYING CARS ON THE HORIZON
Elon Musk has cited fear of falling hubcaps as one reason why flying cars will never take off, but the head engineer for Uber’s flying taxi program said he’s ready to debate Musk one-on-one about the benefits of airborne vs. subterranean mobility. And there’s at least one company that would have Uber’s back. Consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan says there will be at least 10 companies launching flying cars by 2022. There are currently 8 companies that have completed at least one test flight, including one called PAL-V that plans to make deliveries of its Liberty Pioneer flying car by the end of next year. A number of experts predict autonomous car-sharing will kill new car sales, but maybe flying vehicles will fill that void.

Volkswagen’s big SUV the Atlas has a lot more in common with a compact VW Golf than you might realize. And that is coming up next.

BENEFITS OF PLATFORM SHARING
If you parked the Volkswagen Atlas and the Golf next to each other, the only thing you might think they have in common is the VW badge. But both vehicles are actually built on the same architecture, VW’s modular platform called MQB. On last week’s Autoline After Hours we were joined by Michael Lovati from Volkswagen and he explained the benefits of sharing platforms between two completely separate vehicles.

(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

To learn more about the development of the VW Atlas, you can watch that entire show right now on Autoline.tv or just look for it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.