An EV, or electric vehicle, is a car that runs on electricity instead of gasoline. They're becoming popular because they are better for the environment.
The Nissan Sentra is a small car that has been updated for 2026. It's designed to be affordable while still offering good technology and safety features.
Renault is a car company from France that makes various types of vehicles, including cars and trucks. They are well-known in Europe and have expanded to other parts of the world.
A global automaker is a car company that sells its cars in many countries around the world. They often change their cars to fit what different countries want.
Volvo is a car company from Sweden that is famous for making safe and reliable vehicles. They also produce heavy trucks and are known for their quality.
Vehicle cybersecurity is about keeping cars safe from hackers and cyber attacks. As cars use more technology, it's important to protect them from being hacked.
The Jeep Cherokee is a type of vehicle known as an SUV, which stands for Sport Utility Vehicle. It's designed to handle both rough terrains and city driving, making it a versatile choice for many drivers. The mention of a hack refers to a security issue that raised awareness about how connected cars can be vulnerable to cyber threats.
Over-the-air updates let car manufacturers send software updates to your vehicle through the internet, just like how your phone gets updates. This means your car can get new features or improvements without needing to go to a shop.
OEMs are the companies that make your car and its parts. They are the original manufacturers, so when you hear OEM, think of the brand that built your vehicle.
Geolocation is a way to find out where something is located in the real world. In cars, it helps with things like GPS navigation to show you where you are and how to get to your destination.
OnStar is a service you can subscribe to that helps you with things like getting help in an emergency or finding directions. It connects your car to a support center that can assist you.
Cyber resilience is how well a company can protect itself from cyber attacks and recover from them. For cars, it means making sure they can stay safe from hacking.
ISO 21434 is a set of rules that helps car companies keep their vehicles safe from cyber threats. It tells them how to protect cars from hackers.
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You have data everywhere, but is it working together? Meet Curator, the automotive industry's first unified intelligence engine. Curator unifies data from all corners of your dealership to transform marketing, sales, and customer interactions. See it today at gubugu.com. Welcome to Daily Drive. From Monday, November 10th, 2025, I'm Kellyn Walker in Las Vegas, today on the show. The supply of next-spirit chips is flowing once again.
The Caribbean gives a CEO, RJ Strinch, and Elon Musk's style pay package. And Nissan hikes prices on the center of. Plus, upstream securities, Jennifer Tisdale talks about whether the auto industry is ready for the next vehicle hack. I would say that right now, my opinion is that compliance is the antithesis of cybersecurity. Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.
China is easing its export restrictions on next-spirit chips. That move is already relieving pressure on global automakers hit by recent shortages. Beijing's Commerce Ministry says it will allow exports for chips for, quote, civilian applications.
Shipments were halted for weeks after the Dutch government seized control of the Chinese-owned manufacturer. Volkswagen's China Chief says initial deliveries have already resumed. Suppliers including Bosch and Amovio, formerly Continental's Auto Unit, confirm they're receiving parts again.
Rivian is giving CEO RJ Strinch a pay package worth more than $4.5 billion over the next decade. It's one of the largest in corporate history. The new pay package ties Strinch's earnings to profit and share price goals, modeled after Tesla's a record-setting deal for Elon Musk.
Rivian says the plan is meant to keep its fair under focus on growth and profitability as the EV maker gets ready to launch its smaller, more affordable R2 SUV next year.
And Nissan is raising prices on its redesigned 2026 Centra by up to about 4%, but says it's still positioning the compact sedan as a strong value play.
The 9th generation Centra goes on sale in December with four trims, including a revived SL model at the top of the lineup.
The price is now star at about $23,600 with shipping, up $810 from the previous model. Nissan says it's focusing on bringing premium tech and safety features to the segment, and is also considering a hybrid version in the future to compete with the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.
And those are today's headlines, you can find more details on all those stories at autonews.com.
The architect of today's Renault Group and its audacious alliance with Nissan has died. Louis Schweitzer was 83 years old.
Joining me now to talk about his life and legacy is Luca Schafferi, associate publisher and editor of our sibling publication Automotive News Europe.
Luca, welcome back to Daily Drive.
Thank you for inviting me.
So Luca, how did Louis Schweitzer's leadership style and background as a civil servant shape his approach to transforming Renault into a global automaker?
When he took over in 1992, he immediately realized that Renault was strong but was too French and too European.
And so he started to look around what were the possibilities and in about a year, he found a good deal with Volvo.
Volvo at the time was building cars and heavy trucks and also Renault at the time was building cars and heavy trucks.
So it was a perfect combination of a volume brand like Renault with a near premium brand that Volvo was the time plus two strong players in the truck business.
They sealed the deal pretty quickly that was approved by both the board of Renault and Volvo.
And there was a final pass that it was seen as a formality of the Swedish shareholders of Volvo approving the deal.
And totally unexpected, they refused the deal.
So the deal was not down the seal of Volvo that was the counterpart which Schweitzer in the deal walk away from Volvo.
And he had to start again from square one to make first a lot of internal restructuring to cap costs to make the company was unprofitable and then look around to what could be another alternative to make the company less European.
And looking back, how significant was Schweitzer's decision to pursue the Renault Nissan Alliance and setting the stage for the modern era of cross border automotive partnerships.
It was something that left the entire automotive community pretty shocked because no one was expecting the deal.
Nissan was in a very bad shape with a lot of depth and old products that were not that doing any good anywhere.
And he rejected offers from potential savers refused to get a lifeline to Nissan.
So when in 1999, Fertzade decided to invest $5.4 billion to get a controlling stake of Nissan and trying to turn the company around.
But last, this is a very well known figure in the US said bluntly as Bob always was that was much better to sink 5.4 billion dollars in the middle of ocean on a ship rather than investing them into the Nissan.
Instead the deal work was a very complicated deal because was not a merger was an alliance.
So the company had two different companies to different quarters to different boards and try to work together on common platform and common purchasing.
Does it think that worked after respect that turn over the Nissan was made by Schweitzer right armoured was Carlos gone.
So Nissan quickly returned to the profit and became for about 20 years the source of main largest pool of profits for Renault.
And Schweitzer's legacy includes both bold innovation and controversial restructuring.
How was that balance between risk taking and practicality reflected in Renault's strategy today?
Well, the other thing that is less known of the Schweitzer tenure in the US is that the same year he bought the controlling stake in Nissan.
He bought entirely and almost unknown Romania to make a call to us with with us.
Yeah, he in visit to make a real people car so he pushed for something that we believe was impossible to make a car for 5,000 years that should be 4,500 dollars right now.
And they came out with this car built in Romania for the east at 5,000 year, the log and company sedan.
And it was so effective that surprise it was also success on Western Europe and all in Eastern Europe for it was considered for.
So at the end, I think he gave an international reach to the US and Asia with the Nissan Alliance.
And a football in the low cost car that is a segment they still dominate in Europe with Dacia 26 years they bought the company.
Perfect, Lukasheferi. Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you.
Coming up, Upstream's Jennifer Tisdale talks about vehicle cybersecurity as cars become more connected and hackers get more sophisticated.
That's next on Daily Drive.
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Welcome back to Daily Drive. I'm Kellen Walker.
Is the auto industry ready for the next vehicle cybersecurity breach?
Jennifer Tisdale is Senior Director of Strategic Engagements for North America at Upstream Security.
She spoke with Director of Technology and Innovation Hannah Lutz on the newest episode of the Automotive News Shift Podcast.
Here's a piece of their conversation.
What actually is possible in a vehicle-related cyber attack?
Well, I'm going to give you the answer that you probably don't want, and that is, it depends.
So I am of the belief, and some of the research teams I've worked within the past would indicate to me that with enough time, enough money, and enough intention, anything is possible.
Limiting factors are always budget, right?
So if you're doing research and you're doing it independently, you're more of a hobbyist, you have more time to maybe play on your own vehicle.
You might have an endless amount of resources and time, you know, to play.
But that's not true for everybody. It's not true for the professionals.
And so what I like to concentrate on, let's make an assumption that we all know how connected our cars are, a modern vehicle.
You have entertainment, you have bluetooth, you have wifi, et cetera.
What is possible and what is probable could be two very different things.
And so, you know, maybe we'll go back to the beginning of automotive cyber, and I promise to make it quick, which really only goes back 10 years, right?
So the big media splash of 2015 was the Jeep hack for the Jeep Cherokee.
And that was really a wake-up call for many in the industry.
So for an industry that's only, I'm sorry, only 100 years old, 100 plus years old, depending who you talk to.
Only in the last 10 years have we been really aware of or mindful of or intentional about cyber security and vehicle.
Now, 10 years later, we're seeing that the industry has sort of shifted in terms of maybe not solely concentrating on in vehicle cybersecurity, but the full complete ecosystem that it operates in, and the way it's production lines, et cetera.
So I think anything is possible, whether that makes you feel better or not.
But also the probability of the big Hollywood S that we see in movies, those attacks are probably less likely to happen, and it's going to look much more quiet than that.
It doesn't mean it's not there, the risk is there.
As vehicles become more connected, I mean automakers advertise the connectivity in their vehicles, the software behind it.
How has that affected data security or data privacy with over-the-air updates and other things?
You know, I was just on a panel yesterday when this question came up, and it was interesting to me that the audience was very curious about the same thing and not wanting to give away any unnecessary personal information for connected surfaces in a vehicle.
But at the end of the day, what we know is that many of the OEMs give you the option to opt in.
There are some things that you must opt into, or you don't have the choice to opt in, and those things are tied typically to critical safety features within a vehicle.
But in terms of personal data, data sharing, with geolocation, things of that nature, you as a consumer are opting into that.
It's not funny, ha ha to me, but it is a little bit funny in the sense that so many people are giving away their personal information on social media and other things of that nature for convenience, and then not adding a little bit more sensitivity around it when it comes to the car.
They want to be able to control the data.
And so I think it creates this dialogue and it's much needed dialogue for consumer education, for what data is going back and forth personal or otherwise, and what that means to them.
So you can opt out, but it comes at a cost. It could come at the cost of having like on-star services in the event you're in an accident.
And it might have a cost of giving away some of your, I don't want to say sensitive information, but your personal information that maybe isn't needed for safety, but will provide you convenience through use of vehicle.
And so everyone has to have sort of their own risk reward balance, a little mental checklist about what you're willing to give away and for what purpose.
And that's something I think that we, I'm going to add myself to the industry at large, that we have to do a better job and we'll look to you Hannah and your team for helping us tell this story so that consumers can make informed decisions.
Right. Okay. Yeah, that's important. It is interesting to see how easily we give it up for Google Maps or whatever else.
How is the auto industry prioritizing cybersecurity within their businesses? When we talked previously, you talked about some automakers replacing headcount with AI for some of this security testing.
Well, you know, and I think it's, it's going to be forever evolving. 10 years ago, they didn't know what they didn't know, they doubled down on investment, they grew teams exponentially pretty quickly.
Some OEMs that I'm familiar with went from maybe a handful of people to having 50, 70 people on teams working at rapid pace to try to understand how to segment systems, how to create an increased cyber resilience within the vehicle itself.
And that predated any type of regulation or industry standard. And so now we're in a position where the industry, and I'm going to speak more about the US because it's what I'm most familiar with.
But you know, just a couple of years ago, only a couple of years ago, the industry came together with ISO and SAE and they created 21434, which was a very innovative standard, nothing like it existed prior to.
And so that really has brought the industry to a new pivot point, and we could probably debate or have a conversation about whether or not being compliant is enough.
I would say that right now, my opinion is that compliance is the antithesis of cybersecurity. However, we all need to have a foundation to which we need to start to which cyber within vehicle or within the ecosystem of automotive needs to begin.
Does that mean it's a one and done that you never have to look at it again? I don't think so.
You can hear the full conversation between upstream securities, Jennifer Tisdale and our own Hannah Lutz on the latest episode of the Automotive News Shift Podcast.
That's available now, wherever you get your podcast. That's daily drive for today. I'm Kellyn Walker. Thanks to Automotive News executive producer Jake Nier, as well as our own David Phillips for his reporting for today's podcast.
We also had reporting from Luca Schafferi of our sibling publication Automotive News Europe.
You can get the latest news on tech and innovation, supply chains, and everything happening in the auto industry at autonews.com.
Come back tomorrow for a deeper look at record breaking pay packages for Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Rivian CEO RJ Scoring.
We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show on the topics we cover today.
Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-44-2774.
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Thank you.
About this episode
The episode covers the resurgence of Nexperia chip supply, easing pressures on automakers, and highlights Rivian CEO RJ Strinch's unprecedented $4.5 billion pay package. Nissan's price increase for the 2026 Centra is also discussed, emphasizing its value proposition. A significant segment features Jennifer Tisdale from Upstream Security, who delves into the evolving landscape of vehicle cybersecurity, the implications of connected cars, and the balance between consumer data privacy and convenience. Tisdale stresses the need for ongoing vigilance in cybersecurity as the industry adapts to new challenges.
