Happy Friday! It’s August 18, 2023 and that is The Morning Shift, your day by day roundup of the highest automotive headlines from world wide, in a single place. Here are the essential tales it’s essential to know.
1st Gear: Ford, GM And Stellantis Aren’t Taking The UAW Seriously
The United Auto Workers union is presently locked in talks with America’s massive three automakers over its subsequent contract. So far, negotiations have caught on factors like pay rises for workers, trip time, and dealing situations, with each side accusing one another of coming to the desk with unrealistic calls for. But now, the UAW has accused GM, Ford, and Stellantis of not taking the talks very severely, with lower than a month to go earlier than contracts expire.
According to a brand new report from Reuters, UAW president Shawn Fain believes the American automakers are “still not serious” of their responses to the union’s financial proposals. These proposals included a 40 p.c rise in pay over the lifetime of a four-year deal, in addition to a swap to a four-day work week. Reuters reviews:
“Things have been moving slow,” Fain stated in an interview. He didn’t rule out strikes at General Motors, Ford and Stellantis North America if the deadline is missed.
“Everyone’s deadline is the same,” Fain stated. “It’s imperative all three companies come to the table.”
Fain has outlined an bold set of objectives, together with ending the present tiered wage system that pays new hires lower than veterans, reinstating cost-of-living changes, or COLA, and restoring defined-benefit pension plans that the automakers ended years in the past for brand new hires.
There’s now lower than a month left of talks through which the union and automakers can get on the identical web page. Tension between the events stays excessive, and the union is shifting ahead with a strike authorization vote. It’s virtually sure to go all the way down to the wire.
2nd Gear: Tesla Never Addressed Autopilot Safety Concerns After Deadly Crash
While a report this week might need discovered that superior driver help options can save 1000’s of lives yearly, that may’t occur if firms hold dismissing security issues across the tech. And that’s precisely what a gaggle of Tesla insiders allege the corporate did following a lethal crash that concerned its Autopilot driver help characteristic.
According to Automotive News, Tesla is accused of failing to “fix limitations in its Autopilot system” within the aftermath of a lethal crash in Florida in 2016 that killed a driver. Company engineers made the claims in a lawsuit over the same collision that occurred in 2019. The web site reviews:
The EV maker didn’t make any modifications to its driver-assistance expertise to account for crossing visitors within the almost three years between two high-profile accidents that killed Tesla drivers whose vehicles slammed into the aspect of vans, in response to newly revealed testimony from a number of engineers.
Despite the corporate’s data “that there’s cross traffic or potential for cross traffic, the Autopilot at the time was not designed to detect that,” in response to testimony given in 2021 by firm engineer Chris Payne that was excerpted in a latest courtroom submitting. Engineer Nicklas Gustafsson offered the same account in a 2021 deposition.
Now, the EV maker is heading to trial over the 2019 collision, which resulted within the demise of Jeremy Banner, a 50-year-old father who had simply turned on Autopilot in his Tesla Model 3. The case will probably be heard in October and marks the primary time the EV maker has headed to courtroom over a lethal crash involving its Autopilot driver help system.
The firm beforehand fought in courtroom and received its case in a trial over a non-fatal Autopilot crash. Earlier this 12 months, an LA jury cleared the corporate of wrongdoing over a driver’s declare that “the driver-assistance feature in her Model S caused her to veer into the center median of a city street,” reviews Automotive News.
third Gear: Ford Plans $890 Million Canadian Battery Plant
As automakers throughout America focus their efforts on electrical automobiles, they’re plowing massive bucks into new services and upgrading their manufacturing traces. Hyundai and BMW have introduced funding of their U.S. EV operations, Porsche is eyeing a North American plant and now Ford has introduced an $890 million funding in a brand new Canadian plant.
Automotive News reviews that the power, Ford’s first web site in Quebec, will probably be operated in partnership with battery consultants EcoPro BM and SK On. When it opens, the location will probably be utilized by the Blue Oval to provide cathode lively materials for the batteries it makes use of in future electrical automobiles. According to the location:
Ford’s first-ever funding in Quebec will produce materials destined to be used in Ford EVs, whereas serving to to form North America’s EV ecosystem, in response to Ford Canada President Bev Goodman.
“We’re excited to build this new facility to create a vertically integrated, closed-loop battery manufacturing supply chain in North America designed to help make electric vehicles more accessible for millions of people over time,” she stated in a launch.
While the brand new facility will value round $890 million to construct, Ford received’t foot all the invoice itself. According to Automotive News, nationwide governments in Ottawa and native legislators in Quebec have pledged help, which is able to make use of round 350 individuals. The outlet reviews that Ottawa has introduced a mortgage of CA$322 million ($238 million USD) and Quebec will present “a partially forgivable loan” of CA$322 million.
The plant, which is able to go surfing in 2026, will probably be able to producing 45,000 tons of cathode lively supplies, that are very important to EV batteries as they will dictate a battery’s efficiency, effectivity, and reliability.
4th Gear: There Isn’t A Legionnaires Outbreak At Stellantis’ Truck Plant
After two autoworkers at Stellantis’ Warren Truck Assembly Plant got here down with Legionnaires’ illness, an investigation has discovered that there isn’t an outbreak on the web site, and no legionella micro organism was discovered within the plant’s water techniques.
The illness, which is a critical type of pneumonia, was recognized in two staff on the facility final week. Now, the Detroit Free Press reviews that the 2 staff are again at work on the Stellantis web site, and an investigation is ongoing to seek out the supply of their sickness. The web site reviews:
It’s unclear the place the employees got here in touch with the micro organism. The Macomb County Health Department realized of the instances from the employees’ well being care suppliers, in response to an replace despatched final week by Tom Lehrer, a spokesman for the Macomb County Executive’s Office. The discover additionally famous that the sickness is a compulsory reportable communicable illness in Michigan.
As of Aug. 10, there had been 33 instances reported in Macomb County this 12 months, and the annual common for the final 5 years within the county has been 56, Lehrer stated.
Following the invention of the illness on the Stellantis web site, the corporate despatched water samples for lab testing as the commonest manner the micro organism spreads is thru contaminated waterways. The take a look at outcomes from the third-party lab got here again damaging, and Stellantis has since cleaned and disinfected the water techniques on the manufacturing unit “as a precautionary measure,” Ann Marie Fortunate, a spokeswoman for Stellantis, instructed the DFP.
Neutral: Ready For The Weekend?
It’s Friday, and which means the weekend is true across the nook, have you ever obtained any good plans? I’ve obtained a fairly quiet one, assembly up with my band for one final apply forward of a gig subsequent week and I’d fairly wish to take a protracted trip up the Hudson if the storms can keep away. What about you?
On The Radio: Hannah Peel – “Tainted Love”
Source: jalopnik.com