Automotive Industry

The Renault 5 is a crucial model for the brand. It will replace the long-running Zoe in its lineup and will be its least-expensive battery-electric vehicle. After first appearing in public as a concept at the 2021 Munich auto show, it will be revealed in production form at the 2024 Geneva auto show on Feb. 26.

The first deliveries are scheduled for next autumn, Renault said Thursday.

Tesla shares fell 1% in extended trading after closing off 1.6% at $240.08.

In the struggle for a compromise solution between the EU and the UK on the so-called rules of origin for electric cars, three solution options are now being discussed among the EU states. An agreement must be reached by the end of the year, first within the EU and then with the UK.

“With many of our pre-existing structures, processes and high costs, we are no longer competitive as the Volkswagen brand,” Thomas Schaefer told staff during a meeting at the German carmaker’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, according to a post on the company’s intranet site seen by Reuters.’

A Toyota spokesperson said it was not in a position to comment on Denso, adding the contents of the Reuters report of the share sale were not something it had announced itself.

A Denso spokesperson declined to comment.

Volkswagen has commissioned Magna to develop two electric models for its US brand Scout. Magna confirmed a corresponding report when asked by the Austrian news agency APA. The contract is worth 450 million euros.

Potential competition from China, inexpensive battery technology and concerns about consumer confidence have led to a wave of EVs for less than 25,000 euros.

Arno Antilitz, Volkswagen’s CFO, explained on a media call last month that EV orders are down to 150,000 in Europe. That’s 50% lower than the 300,000 from last year.

Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi has given the first glimpse of its debut electric vehicle, a five-seat sedan with a panoramic glass roof.

The car has a sleek exterior and the option to install sensing technology known as lidar on the top of its windscreen for advanced assisted driving. It has a top speed of 265 kph (165 mph) and weighs 2.66 tons.

Cruise CEO here. Some relevant context follows.

Cruise AVs are being remotely assisted (RA) 2-4% of the time on average, in complex urban environments. This is low enough already that there isn’t a huge cost benefit to optimizing much further, especially given how useful it is to have humans review things in certain situations.

The stat quoted by nyt is how frequently the AVs initiate an RA session. Of those, many are resolved by the AV itself before the human even looks at things, since we often have the AV initiate proactively and before it is certain it will need help. Many sessions are quick confirmation requests (it is ok to proceed?) that are resolved in seconds. There are some that take longer and involve guiding the AV through tricky situations. Again, in aggregate this is 2-4% of time in driverless mode.

In terms of staffing, we are intentionally over staffed given our small fleet size in order to handle localized bursts of RA demand. With a larger fleet we expect to handle bursts with a smaller ratio of RA operators to AVs. Lastly, I believe the staffing numbers quoted by nyt include several other functions involved in operating fleets of AVs beyond remote assistance (people who clean, charge, maintain, etc.) which are also something that improve significantly with scale and over time.

Honda's Executive Vice President Shinji Aoyama says a free-flowing supply of semiconductors is fueling production and sales while boosting profits.