Automotive News: Driverless cars of the future confront rules written for drivers, Dodge Challenger/Charger Hellcats Recalled Due to Potential Oil Loss
Driverless cars of the future confront rules written for drivers
When the U.S. government finally got around to regulating auto safety in 1967, it insisted that every car have seatbelts and that the steering column be engineered to absorb impact so it wouldn’t spear the driver.
The safety rulebook has since swelled to nearly 900 pages and encompasses everything from electronic stability control to rear-view backup cameras. Through all the updates, however, the regulations remain premised on an assumption that may soon be obsolete: that a human would be at the wheel.
That’s about to change.
U.S. regulators could soon undertake one of the biggest overhauls of the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards ever, one that would apply to cars that drive themselves. Tech and auto companies are pouring billions of dollars into a race to develop self-driving vehicles, which carmakers from Tesla Inc. to Volvo Cars say could be deployed in less than 10 years -- assuming the regulations can be put in place that quickly. read more »
Dodge Challenger/Charger Hellcats Recalled Due to Potential Oil Loss
Fiiat Chrysler Automobiles isn’t exactly a top scorer in terms of reliability, and issues can come up even with the company’s most exciting vehicles. The latest recall, for example, affects the Hellcat twins that made Dodge the king of the muscle cars. And wouldn’t you know it, but the 707-horsepower evil twins may suffer catastrophic oil loss if the owners choose to ignore the recall notice. read more »
Audi board to meet on Monday to reshuffle management
The supervisory board of Volkswagen's premium carmaker Audi will meet on Monday to replace four of its top executives, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Sources said last month the board was preparing to replace finance chief Axel Strotbek, production chief Hubert Waltl, human resources head Thomas Sigi and sales chief Dietmar Voggenreiter.
However, they added CEO Rupert Stadler, who has come under fire from the media and unions for his handling of the group's emissions scandal, would stay as he still has the backing of the Porsche and Piech families that control Volkswagen.
The carmaker, which is the biggest contributor of profits to VW, is grappling with car recalls, prosecutor investigations and criticism from unions and managers over the diesel emissions scandal and its performance since it broke in 2015. read more »
