VW has spent $2.9 billion on U.S. buybacks -court document

Volkswagen AG has paid $2.9 billion to repurchase nearly 138,000 U.S. diesel vehicles through Feb. 18 in the wake of its emissions scandal, a court document made public on Tuesday shows.

The report by an independent claims supervisor said the German automaker is buying back and terminating leases on about 15,000 vehicles a week. VW has made offers to buyback vehicles or cancel leases to 323,179 U.S. consumers totaling $5.86 billion, it said.

VW agreed last year to spend up to $10.03 billion to buy back up to 487,000 polluting 2.0-liter vehicles that have software that allowed them to evade emissions rules in testing. read more »

FCA reveals U.S. state, federal probes on diesel emissions

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV has received subpoenas from U.S. federal and state authorities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, related to alleged excess diesel emissions by some of its vehicles, the automaker revealed in a filing with the SEC on Tuesday.

On the diesel emissions issue, FCA said it has "received various inquiries, subpoenas and requests for information from a number of governmental authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and several states’ attorneys general. We are investigating these matters and we intend to cooperate with all valid governmental requests," FCA said in its annual report filed Tuesday with the SEC.

Earlier this month, a person briefed on the matter said the Justice Department has been involved in the matter for more than six months after getting a referral from the Environmental Protection Agency in July. Involvement by the SEC and state attorneys general has not been previously disclosed. read more »

Did 5 carmakers knowingly use unsafe Takata air bags?

Japanese auto parts maker Takata pleaded guilty on Monday to a criminal charge and agreed to pay $1 billion for a scheme to conceal a deadly defect in millions of its air bag inflators. In addition, plaintiffs in dozens of lawsuits against the air bag maker and five automakers allege the car companies knew that Takata’s products were dangerous yet continued to use them for years in order to save money.

Takata admits to hiding problems that can cause inflators to explode with too much force, hurling shrapnel into drivers and passengers. U.S. prosecutors still are seeking extradition of three former Takata executives from Japan to face criminal charges.

The allegations against Honda (HMC), Toyota (TM), Ford (F), Nissan (NSANY) and BMW were made in a filing Monday with a federal court in Miami, which is handling pretrial evidence-gathering in lawsuits against Takata and the automakers. The filing says documents produced in the case show the auto companies had independent knowledge that Takata’s air bag inflators were unsafe before putting them in millions of vehicles. read more »

Volvo recalls XC90, S90 and V90 Cross Country vehicles

Volvo Car USA is recalling 5,529 model year 2017 XC90, S90 and V90 Cross Country vehicles.

The bolts that secure the Inflatable Curtain (IC) airbags in place may break, possibly resulting in the IC airbag deploying improperly in the event of a crash. As, such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 226, "Ejection Mitigation."

If the IC airbags do not deploy properly in the event of a crash, the vehicle occupants have an increased risk of injury. read more »

A Doozy of a Lawsuit Over Self-Driving Cars

Waymo is suing Uber, and says a former employee stole nearly 10 gigabytes of secret files.

A stunning claim of stolen trade secrets may be the first big intellectual property battle of the self-driving car era.

Waymo, the self-driving car company that began at Google, is suing Uber and the self-driving truck company Otto, which Uber acquired last year. Waymo said in a federal lawsuit filed on Thursday that one of Google’s former software engineers, Anthony Levandowski, installed special software on his laptop so he could download more than 14,000 secret documents—totaling nearly 10 gigabytes of “highly confidential data”—from the company’s server when he still worked at Google. Waymo claims in the court filing that Levandowski then reformatted the laptop in an attempt to wipe it of evidence, then never used the laptop again.

Levandowski then took those secrets with him when he left Google to found Otto and used them in his role leading Uber's self-driving car effort, Waymo claims. A call to Levandowski’s cellphone went straight to voicemail, which was full. “We take the allegations made against Otto and Uber employees seriously and we will review this matter carefully,” an Uber spokesperson said in an email. read more »