AD #2747 – Carlos Ghosn Rips Japan & Nissan; VW May Never Hit Level 5 Autonomy; New AV Guidelines Released

This is Autoline Daily reporting on all aspects of the global automotive industry.

GHOSN RIPS INTO JAPAN AND NISSAN
Carlos Ghosn, the former CEO of Nissan, made his first public comments since his daring escape from Japan to Lebanon less than two weeks ago. He ripped into the Japanese criminal justice system and he accused Japanese prosecutors, government officials and executives at Nissan of conspiring to oust him from the company in an effort to prevent him from integrating Nissan more closely with Renault. He denied all the allegations against him and says he’s willing to stand trial in any place he could get a fair hearing. This is a fascinating story and there’s sure to be more to come.

CHINA’S SALES SLIDE SLOWING
Car sales in China dropped once again in December but there’s signs that the market could be close to bottoming out. Automakers sold over 2 million passenger vehicles last month which is a drop of 3.6% compared to the prior year. It was also the second annual drop in sales and the 18th time in the last 19 months sales have decreased. And sales of new energy vehicles fell 15% last month as well. But the decreases have slowed the last four months and the car market this year won’t be hurt by regulatory changes that impacted sales in 2019, according to the China Passenger Car Association. It’s even predicting a 1% increase in car sales this year, excluding minivans. And hopefully for automakers that’s true.

EVEN MORE TAKATA AIRBAGS RECALLED
The largest auto safety recall ever in the United States isn’t over yet. Takata is recalling 10 million replacement airbag inflators, which were a temporary fix. Additionally, Reuters reports, NHTSA is considering whether to expand the recall of tens of millions more Takata airbag inflators that have a drying agent. It’s also reviewing a petition from General Motors to avoid recalling 6 million vehicles with Takata airbags, which the company says would cost it $1.2 billion. Before this recent recall, more than 41 million vehicles with Takata airbags have been recalled in the U.S. and globally the company has recalled 100 million inflators.

AUTO LOBBYING GROUPS JOIN FORCES
Two of the country’s largest lobbying groups are joining forces. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the Association of Global Automakers are forming a new group called the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, that will represent automakers and suppliers that produce nearly 99% of all passenger vehicles in the U.S. As the name suggests, the group will focus on promoting new automotive technology, instead of trade issues or fuel economy rules.

VOLKSWAGEN CREATES AUTONOMY SUBSIDIARY
In an effort to make autonomous vehicles a reality, Volkswagen created a subsidiary, called Volkswagen Autonomy and it just announced it’s opening a new center in California. It currently has a location in Germany and plans to add another in China to give it a global footprint. The California office’s focus will be on autonomous vehicle research and development, naturally and it will hire 50 to 100 experts in Systems Engineering and Architecture this year. Many of those people are likely to come from Argo AI, the self-driving startup that Ford and VW have invested billions in. Argo will be the company that develops the core software for VW’s autonomous vehicles, while VW will handle pretty much everything else. The first vehicle to get Level 4 autonomy will be the I.D. BUZZ, a 3-row, electric van, which should happen sometime around 2025. Volkswagen picked the I.D. BUZZ because it can be converted into a commercial vehicle and the company thinks it can get greater economies of scale in the commercial sector. And Level 4 autonomy may be as good as it gets for Volkswagen. The CEO of Volkswagen Autonomy says that Level 5 is like going to Mars and it may never happen.

U.S. GOVERNMENT RELEASES NEW AV GUIDELINES
And speaking of self-driving vehicles, The Trump administration released its new guidance for AVs. It says the government will adopt “flexible, technology-neutral policies that will allow the public, not the federal government or foreign governments, to choose the most economically efficient and effective transportation and mobility solutions.” In other words, it’s taking a more hands-off approach. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao says she wants the federal government to support innovation, but not at the risk of safety. Not everyone is happy with guidelines, though. Highway safety advocates say they’re completely unenforceable, won’t result in adequate standards and don’t do enough to protect the public.

MAGNA IMPROVES DRIVER MONITORING SYSTEMS
My experience with hands-free cruise control on the highway has been a good one. But one of the big complaints I hear is that people wish they could keep their hands off the wheel for longer periods of time. In the case of GM and its Super Cruise feature, it uses cameras and sensors to ensure the driver is paying attention to what’s going on in the road. At CES we literally sat down with the supplier Magna to see how it’s making improvements to driver monitor systems.

Boris Shulkin, VP of R&D, Magna International
“The uniqueness of this system, compared to other driver monitoring systems that are coming into the market today and available on some of the vehicles as you know, is that it uses the concept of fusion. The camera on the outside is able to pick up the information around you, understand the scenery around it, fuse that information together with what it knows about your behavior and will make the vehicle behave differently depending on what it is. So, for example, if your driving on a highway at 50MPH the vehicle will expect a different reaction from [a minor] distraction rather than if there’s a truck in front of you 10-feet away.”

John McElroy, Autoline.tv
“So, you’re fusing with the car is looking out ahead, it’s monitoring how I’m paying attention, putting that information together and then giving me warning signals or alerts.”

Boris Shulkin, VP of R&D, Magna International
“That’s exactly right.”

If you’d like to check out more of our CES interviews, you can find our entire coverage of the show on our website and YouTube channel. I’d also recommend the one with Bose and how it’s working to improve all those annoying beeps and warnings from vehicle safety systems. And we’ll more fresh interviews up later this afternoon.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.