AD #2612 – New Technology for Towing, FCA Finds Another AV Partner, Trump Drops Mexican Tariffs

This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.

TRUMP DROPS MEXICAN TARIFFS
When we last left you on Friday, President Trump was threatening to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico. The auto industry was vehemently opposed to this, and so were a lot of Republicans. And so the president backed down and claimed victory. And automakers and suppliers and dealers all heaved a big sigh of relief.

RENAULT AND NISSAN FALL FURTHER APART
It sure looks like the alliance between Renault and Nissan is going from bad to worse. Bloomberg reports that the French government told Nissan that it was willing to reduce its ownership in Renault if that would strengthen the Alliance. But Nissan rejected the deal outright. It doesn’t want the French government to reduce its stake in Renault. It wants the government out of the picture completely. It also wants Renault to reduce its 43% ownership of Nissan. And it doesn’t want Renault to tie up with Fiat-Chrysler. Got all that? With an Alliance like this, who needs enemies?

FCA FINDS ANOTHER AV PARTNER
Meanwhile FCA is not sitting on its hands. It’s partnering with yet another company to work on self-driving vehicles. It’s teaming up with Aurora to integrate Level 4 self-driving technology into FCA’s commercial trucks and vans. Remember, FCA is also working with Waymo on self-driving cars and with BMW on Level 2 and 3 technology. That sure gives FCA a unique opportunity to evaluate three different approaches to autonomy.

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. 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.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CAR IS?
Chuck Jones sent us a photo of this car and asked us if we knew what the heck this car is? And Chuck, as a matter of fact we do. It’s a Facel Vega. Specifically, this is the HK 500 model, which features a tube frame, double wishbone suspension and a Chrysler V8. Note the pillarless hardtop design. They were made from roughly 1954 to 1962. Facel was a French company headquartered in Paris that went out of business in 1964.

MOTOR RACING RESULTS
So can you guess who won the Canadian Grand Prix yesterday? Yeah, that’s right, it was Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes. He’s now won 5 of the 7 Formula One Grand Prix this year, and Mercedes has won all of them. In Indy car, Josef Newgarden powered his Penske-Chevrolet to first place at the Texas Motor Speedway in a spectacular fight with Alexander Rossi in his Andretti-Honda. And the NASCAR race in Michigan was rained out. It should be run today–if it stops raining.

NEW TECHNOLOGY FOR TOWING
Anyone who tows will love this new feature from Bosch and Dexter Axle. They created a new ABS and sway mitigation system for trailers. It’s able to detect wheel slippage, mitigate tire lock-up and prevent jack-knifing in a sudden stop. The system can also detect trailer sway, and keep the trailer in line with the tow vehicle, without any driver input. As you can see in this video, the system works really well and is perfect for both novice or experienced drivers.

STUDENTS WHO LOVE AUTOS
One of the biggest complaints we hear from the auto industry, is the shortage of engineers to develop new technology. So the SAE and GM started the SAE AutoDrive Challenge. It’s a competition to develop autonomous cars and in the process to create a new generation of autonomous engineers. Gary and I got to check out that event for Autoline After Hours and we asked a couple of the students if a job in the auto industry is really all that appealing to them. Here’s what they had to say.

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

You can watch that entire discussion, right now on our website, or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

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