Category Archives: news analysis

Commercial Truck Market Upturn Is on The Road

“Pricing is solidifying, customers are buying more used trucks and new truck orders and deliveries are heading back in the right direction,” said Chris Visser, commercial truck senior analyst at Valuation Services. Continue reading

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Covid: Census Says Construction Better Off, More Optimistic Than Other Small Businesses

“These companies of one to 499 employees provided important new insights into the effects of the pandemic,” said Jane A. Callen of the Census Bureau. It doesn’t appear to have anything to do with the Trump Administration’s voter suppression efforts that us Federal Agencies such as Census to subvert our democracy. Continue reading

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Toyota and Amazon Web Services Working on Connected Cars, Ridesharing, Driving Behavior-Based Insurance…

It’s the latest example of  an emerging trend among automakers to offer owners and lessees thus far unclear advantages of processing and analyzing data from vehicle use from Toyota’s growing worldwide fleet of connected vehicles. Nowhere in the announcement was an acknowledgement that the use of such customer data raises vast unaddressed privacy, security and law enforcement concerns. Continue reading

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Milestones: Intelligent Traffic Management Now Deployed at Center for Applied Research in Reno Nevada

One reason the lidar sensors have been placed at crossing signs and intersections is because lidar used today does not allow for facial recognition. In theory smart by anonymous city applications can preserve trust among the public. However, the US is far from even thinking about privacy, let alone articulating a policy about private data use as evidenced by Google and Twitter and Facebook among many other rich and powerful corporations that own politicians. Continue reading

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Michigan and Cavnue to Create Autonomous Vehicle Lanes Linking Ann Arbor and Detroit

The project will draw on an advisory committee of automotive and autonomous mobility companies, including Ford, GM, Argo AI, Arrival, BMW, Honda, Toyota, TuSimple, & Waymo. Notably absent is Fiat Chrysler. (See AutoInformed.com on “Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis”) Continue reading

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NASCAR and BetMGM to Offer In Race Sports Betting

Live, in-race betting will begin in 2021. BetMGM is currently licensed for sports betting in seven states and has plans to be in 11 states by the end of 2020. NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. (See list of AutoInformed.com on NASCAR below.) Continue reading

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J.D. Power to Buy ALG from TrueCar

The acquisition is predicted to augment offerings from the data & analytics division of J.D. Power. It is subject to the necessary regulatory approvals. Upon approval and close, all 40 ALG employees will join J.D. Power. Continue reading

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Federal Deficit for FY 2020 To Date – $2.8 Trillion or +$1.9 Trillion Year-over-Year

The cumulative federal budget deficit for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2020 reached $2.8 trillion, +$1.9 trillion more than the deficit recorded during the same period last year. Revenues were 1% lower and outlays were 51% higher through July 2020 than during the same 10-month period in fiscal year 2019. Continue reading

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Auto Plant Downtime Looming as COVID-19 Thrives?

LMC notes that projected regional and export demand, along with inventory replenishment, has it forecast that US automakers will produce nearly 40,000 vehicles daily in the second half of 2020. Continue reading

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Ford Motor Q2- Sales Drop -53%. Debt Grows $10B

Analysts, a mysterious species to AutoInformed were surprised and delighted. AutoInformed noted an ongoing warranty cost disaster, which is a management failure not a Covid issue. It remains troubling as Ford is introducing increasingly complex vehicles. Continue reading

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GM Loses $800 Million in Covid Q2. NA Sales Drop -62%

However, GM post-bankruptcy is in a stronger position  – financially and with a wiser, faster acting management team – than it was when Wall Street speculation sent global markets plummeting in 2008-2009. The deep recession that ensued was turned around by the Obama Administration, but the non-protected classes in lower income and racially harassed populations never recovered. Continue reading

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Snapshot – The Trump Economic Depression

50.1% of American adults live in households which have experienced a loss in employment income. That’s making America gruesome again… Continue reading

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MIT Research: Widespread Autonomous Driving is at Least One Decade Away. Maybe More.

The longer rollout time for Level 4 autonomy provides time for sustained investments in workforce training that can help drivers and other mobility workers transition into new careers that support mobility systems and technologies. Continue reading

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Bye Bye FCA and PSA. Hello Stellantis

The Stellantis name will be used exclusively at the Group level, as a Corporate brand. The next step in the process will be the unveiling of a logo that with the name will become the corporate brand identity. The names and the logos of the Stellantis Group’s basic brands will remain unchanged. What actually happens to the brands is an entirely different matter. Continue reading

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Global Vehicle Sales Improve but COVID Wave 2 Lurks

This now looks like a long shot to AutoInformed with the US leading the way in spreading new infections and fatalities from the maskless and clueless Trump misadministration.  In the US, a repetition of the ‘cash for clunkers’ scheme could potentially lift sales, “but this has yet to be fully debated or agreed,” says LMC. Continue reading

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