Automotive Industry

The UAW has dropped their plans to organize a foreign automaker plant. Previously, the UAW vowed to organize one foreign auto manufacturer on U.S. soil by year’s end. "We're shifting our strategy a little bit. We are not going to announce a target at all. We are not going to create a fight," said UAW President Bob King. King's announcement comes a few days after UAW spokeswoman Michele Martin said the union wouldn't meet it's goal to unionize a foreign plant by year’s end. Organizing one fore

In the Math solving all of our problems file; the LA Times is reporting that MIT has developed an an algorithm that can determine whether a driver will run a red light within milliseconds.Their research is being published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems. The group did tests at an intersection in Christianburg, VA with 15,000 vehicles passing through. Their results with the algorithm was correct 85% of the time, which is reportedly the most accurate that ha

William Maley Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com December 6, 2011 Earlier today, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee it plans to hold a hearing in late January on the Volt battery issue. "It gives us great concern that recent reports indicate important safety information may have been omitted in testimony before our committee just a few weeks ago. This is a serious situation that our committee will look further into," said Jeff Solsby, a spokesman for the committee. The he

Saab seems to be the cat of the automotive industry with the number of lives it has. Last we heard from the Swedish company, the company was waiting on approval on a deal with Pang Da and Youngman. However, General Motors was concerned with the deal due to technologies used in Saab vehicles ending up in competitor hands. Now, a new deal to save Saab is in the works. Saab's parent company, Swedish Automotive is in talks with Youngman and a bank in China (possibly Bank of China). The plan accor

Aptera Motors, the company behind the odd looking, three wheel electric vehicle called the 2e has announced today they're closing up shop. In a letter written by Aptera Motors President and CEO, Paul Wilbur, Aptera was unable to raise enough money from investors to keep it going until it received a $150 million loan from the Department of Energy's Advance Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program. "This is a difficult time for everyone connected with our company because we have never been clo

After finishing contract negotiations with the big three, the UAW is turning it’s focus back onto president Bob King’s goal of organizing at least one non-union plant by the end of the year. Foreign automakers have so far resisted the idea of unionizing. But the UAW believes they have a shot. King said to reporters on a conference call that the union has set aside $60 million to achieve their goal. The plan is for the UAW to have organizers at dealers hand out leaflets and other informational m

Update: The case against the Mercedes Benz Executive has been dropped. One of the latest possible “illegals” has been arrested in Alabama for not carrying his driver’s license under the new anti-illegal immigration law. The problem? The suspect is also an executive manager for Mercedes Benz. From the AP: Prior to the new law, a person driving without a license would not be arrested, but instead received a ticket and a court summons. Mercedes Benz’s first U.S. assembly plant, built in 19

Back in 2007, the US Congress created the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing federal loan program to allow the US Government to loan out $25 billion to car manufacturers. The loans were created to help car manufacturers to retool factories and build more fuel-efficient vehicles. But those loans have been slowly trickling out. Only $9.2 of the $25 billion set aside has been used. Also, the program has been taking a long time to approve companies for loans. So far Ford, Nissan, Fisker, and