AD #2615 – Volvo & Uber Reveal Production AV, Tesla Delays Semi-Truck, FCA Sued Over Wrangler “Death Wobble”

This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.

CHINA SALES CONTINUE TO TUMBLE
New car sales in China are falling so fast that last month they fell to a level that’s about the same as in the U.S. market. Chinese consumers bought 1.58 million new passenger vehicles in May, compared to 1.57 million in the U.S. Moreover, Merrill Lynch reports that Chinese domestic brands lost 5 percentage points of market share to foreign brands, and it says the growth of New Energy Vehicles slowed considerably. Sales of electric and plug-in hybrids were only up 2%. This will put enormous pressure on automakers who are required to meet a 10% market share goal for New Energy Vehicles.

DAVID WOODHOUSE JOINS NISSAN
We were surprised when David Woodhouse abruptly resigned as head of design for Lincoln, but we predicted he would pop up again at another automaker. Well he did that a whole lot sooner than we thought he would. Yesterday Nissan announced that Woodhouse will be the head of Nissan Design America for both the Nissan and Infiniti brands.

TESLA DELAYS SEMI-TRUCK
Tesla’s latest shareholder meeting included some interesting comments from Elon Musk. The pickup truck, which Elon claims “looks like it came out of a sci-fi movie” will “hopefully” be unveiled this summer. The all-electric semi-truck is being pushed back a year to 2020 because Tesla may not be able to get all the batteries it needs. In fact, Musk said Tesla may even have to get into mining to get all the materials that it needs. And the Model 3 and Y will have the option to go “totally vegan.” Synthetic replacements will be available to replace the leather on the seats and steering wheel. We think it’d be cool if Tesla offered cloth seats.

From the company that revealed the secrets of the Tesla Model 3, Munro & Associates will host an Electric Vehicle Conference on Friday, June 21st at its headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Munro will provide a deep dive into the Motors, Batteries, and Electronics of the Tesla Model 3, BMW i3, Chevy Bolt and Jaguar I-PACE. Purchase tickets on Eventbrite or at leandesign.com.  Hurry, only 100 spots are available.

VOLVO & UBER SHOW OFF PRODUCTION READY AV
Automakers keep making impressive progress with self-driving technology. Volvo and Uber are showing off a fully autonomous production XC90 equipped with safety features including back-up systems for the steering and braking as well as the battery. If any of them fail, the backups automatically kick in and bring the vehicle to a stop. The cameras are also fitted with individual washer nozzles to clean the cameras. Volvo plans to introduce AVs in the early 2020s.

HYUNDAI PARTNERS WITH AURORA
The Hyundai Group is expanding its partnership with Aurora, the self-driving startup, to help the group design a dedicated autonomous vehicle platform. Aurora also just signed an agreement with FCA for self-driving commercial vehicles. But Volkswagen just dumped Aurora to sign a deal with Argo, which its reported to be investing $1.7 billion in. Remember, Ford invested $1 billion in Argo in 2017, so the two automakers seem closer to collaborating on autonomous vehicles.

FORD TESTING AVs IN DETROIT
And Ford is now testing self-driving cars in the Motor City. The third-generation Ford Fusion Hybrids have new radar and cameras with higher resolution and higher dynamic range. They have upgraded software and a new computing system. And the vehicles are now equipped with redundant braking and steering systems in case of a failure. In addition to Detroit, Ford and Argo are operating AVs in Pittsburgh, Miami, Palo Alto and Washington DC.

FCA SUED OVER JEEP WRANGLER “DEATH WOBBLE”
Last year, NHTSA began investigating complaints over what they call the “death wobble” in Jeep Wranglers. Owners say the vehicle starts to shake, sometimes violently, after hitting a small bump at highway speeds, and it won’t stop until the vehicle is slowed to about 50 MPH. Now the company is being sued over the issue. The lawsuit alleges the company knew about the problem and hasn’t done enough to fix it. FCA claims the wobble can happen to any vehicle with a solid front axle. Owners want FCA to pay them for the defective vehicles and to compensate them for the loss of value to the Wrangler’s.

The structure of cars and trucks used to be made mostly from steel. Now we’re seeing a mix of all kinds of materials and that’s making it a lot more challenging to repair them. That’s why we invited, Stacey Wesselink from I-CAR, the collision repair association, to join us on Autoline After Hours this afternoon. She’ll be talking about how I-CAR can help you make sure your car gets repaired the right way if you ever get in an accident. Also joining us this afternoon are Joe McCabe from Autoforecast Solutions, Steve Finlay from Wards, and Eric Trytko from IM@CS.

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