AD #3632 - NHTSA Wants Front and Rear Seat Belt Warnings; China Embraces Baidu's Robotaxis; VW Kicks Off ID.7 Production

This is Autolying Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing to mandate seat belt warnings for both front and rear seat passengers. For front seats, it's proposing audio and

visual warnings that remain active until the passengers buckle their belts, and for rear seats, NITZA wants a visual warning that lasts at least sixty seconds once a vehicle is started, and if a seat belt is unbuckled while the vehicle is operating, it wants a thirty second audio visual change of status warning. The

proposal would apply to most vehicles with a gross vehicle weight up to ten thousand pounds, and NITZA says it will prevent three hundred injuries and one hundred deaths a year by getting more people to buckle up. But most people hate seat

belt warnings. It's going to be interesting to see how this is received by

the public. A decade ago, Hunde was charging hard in the Chinese market,

but not anymore. Reuters reports that it's putting one of its large assembly

plants in chong King up for sale. The plant was built in twenty seventeen

and can make up to three hundred thousand cars a year, but Hyundai's selling it for only five hundred and five million dollars, which is a bargain.

Hyundai had five plants in China, It already sold one of them and plans to operate only two, largely for export, so it sounds like there's still another plant that will go up for sale. The Chinese government actively encouraged its

citizens to avoid South Korean products in twenty sixteen when South Korea agreed to deploy a US base missile defense system. Hundai and Kia sales took a hit from

that and never seemed to recover. They were also slow to introduce elect for

cars in China at a time when Chinese consumers are eagerly embracing evs. In

fact, most foreign brands are struggling in China right now, with one exception Tesla, which is still growing. Last week, the Detroit Free Press broke

the story that Ford is training some white collar employees to take over some blue collar jobs in case the UAW goes on strike next month. They would not

make cars or trucks, but would run a parts depot to make sure that dealers continue to get service parts, especially parts for emergency vehicles like ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars. One labor expert says this is a bad

move and that Ford should have negotiated this with the UAW to allow the parts to continue flowing out, but another labor expert says it's a smart move for Ford to have a planan b. We are now twenty three days away from

the current Labor Contract Act expiring, and the atmosphere is only getting more contentious at Schiffler we Pioneer Motion Electrifying Mobility, Manufacturing Smart, reducing CO two emissions, making energy production clean Scheffler Pioneer's Motion to advance how the World Moves.

Chinese automaker Leado recently said it's aiming to become the number one premium brand in China next year and wants to outsell all the German luxury brands, but it's already running into roadblocks. Leado is the latest automaker to fall victim to the

country's rapidly expanding car market and is being forced into China's price war. Car

News China reports that it's offering dealer discounts between two thousand and three thousand, four hundred dollars due to vehicle orders slowing down. BMW, Mercedes and Outis.

Monthly sales in China this year have ranged between thirty one thousand, five hundred to seventy thousand units respectively. The last two months, Leotto has been

running out a little more than thirty thousand vehicles, so it's right on their heels, but news of order slowing down is no good. However, Chinese

consumers seemed to flock to any new product with good specs, and Leoto is coming out with its first BEV later this year, followed by four more models next year, including three evs. The avs from GM's autonomous Division crews seemed

to have been in the news for all the wrong reasons since restrictions were lifted in Sand Francisco a little over a week ago, but it's not bad news for all avs. Gascou reports that by dues Apolo Go Robotaxi service provided seven

hundred and fourteen thousand rides in the second quarter of this year, which is a gain of one hundred and forty nine percent. That kind of growth should

be expected because it only launched a year ago, but as of June of this year, Apolo Go had given three point three million rides to the public, so consumers seem to be embracing the technology more than the US. We've

got a couple of quick follow ups from previous reports. As we've been saying

Japanese automakers need to worry about Chinese OEM swooping into their home market and stealing sales, especially evs, and now we're seeing reports that BYD is going to open its first showroom in Tokyo, Japan, later this week. At first,

it will only offer one model, an all electric crossover called the Atto three, but it will eventually be followed by the Seal sedan and Dolphin small suv. Our other follow up involves BMW and the ability to play video games

on its infotainment screen, and it just announced that starting next year, I five owners will be able to play Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Trivia

questions pop up on the center display and users answer them from an app on their phone. Other games available for the new five series include sports simulation,

strategy puzzles, and even jump and run games. Vietnamese startup vin Fast announced

range in pricing in the US for its VF nine three row electric crossover.

The Eco trim version has an EPA rated three hundred and thirty miles of range and starts at eighty three thousand dollars, while the Plus trim has two hundred and ninety one miles of range and starts at ninety one grand. Both models

feature a dual motor power train with three hundred kilowatts or four hundred and two horsepower and four hundred and fifty seven pound feet of torque, as well as a one hundred and twenty three kilowatt hour battery pack. Vin Fast plans to

start North American deliveries of the VF nine in the fourth quarter of this year, but as we reported yesterday, vin Fast has lost over fifty billion dollars in market cap since being listed on the NASDAC last week, so it really needs its models like the new VF nine to catch on with customers. Volkswagen

kicked off production of its ID seven electric sedan at its Emden plant in Germany, which is also one of the places it makes the ID four. The

ID seven will start being delivered to customers in the fall. It will initially

be equipped with a seventy seven kilowatt hour battery pack that six hundred and fifteen kilometers or three hundred and eighty two miles of range based on the European WLTP test cycle. The seven will go on sale in North America next year and

it will also be sold in China. But that brings us to the end

of today show, and we want to thank you for Tuning in Autoline Daily is brought to you by Bridgetone Solutions for your journey Intrepid Control Systems. Over

the year Engineering Boost your game Scheffler we pioneer motion and by Taging Automotive Technologies the Formula for Better Mobility. The Taging Automotive Technologies we combine world class composite

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AD #3632 - NHTSA Wants Front and Rear Seat Belt Warnings; China Embraces Baidu's Robotaxis; VW Kicks Off ID.7 Production

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