This 1938 Delahaye custom will be among the star attractions at the Kruse Auburn Spring Auction. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ A new Chevy Camaro, a Buick sedan, and a next-generation Cadillac CT5 will be produced on a modified Alpha platform at GM’s Lansing, Michigan plant starting in 2027. More at Car and Driver.
+ Farm manufacturing giant John Deere will pay a $99 million settlement and make diagnostic and repair tools available for 10 years in a landmark right-to-repair agreement. More at The Drive.
+ Car exports, an important source of growth for China’s auto sector, picked up the pace in March despite shipment disruptions due to the military conflict in the Middle East. More at Business Times.
+ Andretti Global will not enter a fourth car for the Indianapolis 500 this year due to Colton Herta being newly unavailable with the rescheduling of two Formula 2 races to May. More at Racer.
+ Tesla’s on-again, off-again plans for a smaller, cheaper EV are back on with a compact SUV smaller than the current Model Y and reportedly on a brand-new platform. More at Yahoo! Finance.
+ U.S. carmakers say proposed European Union regulations could keep full-size pickup trucks including the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, and Ram 1500 off European roads. More at World Auto Forum.
+ Kia America and Toyota Sales U.S.A. are both reinforcing stricter policies on broker sales, signaling an industry push to curb practices that bypass traditional retail channels. More at CBT News.
+ Sales of the redesigned Mercedes-Benz CLA sedan surged 127 percent in the first two months of 2026, accounting for 22 percent of the compact luxury market in Europe. More at Autoblog.
+ Pantheon, a custom 1938 Delahaye handcrafted by noted car builder Rick Dore, will be among the featured attractions at the Kruse Auburn Spring auction on April 24-25. More at Old Cars.
+ Gianpiero Lambiase, until recently Max Verstappen’s race engineer at Red Bull, will join McLaren as its chief racing officer, reporting directly to team principal Andrea Stella. More at Motorsport.com.
Photo courtesy of Kruse Auctions.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from April 6 here.
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Kodiak A.I.’s recent large‑scale autonomous‑trucking deployment/demonstration “electronic drawbar” in Ohio opened the floodgates. Sparking from a governor’s executive order (2019‑26D) authorizing autonomous vehicle research on any Ohio public road (including school zones aparently). Self-certifying as its own federal agency (how??), Ohio Revised Code 2744.03 twisted into pretzel somehow gives cities, counties, and other political subdivisions immunity for any actions connected to government transportation infrastructure, therefore “justifying” unlimted AV “testing” in public.
To the new lady in charge of the Ohio FHWA offic who ducks my FOIA request, y’all sure ain’t in Kansas anymore are ya’ ha ha…
Here’s a compendium of known AV testers currently conducting or planning operations on Ohio roads according to Mr. Internet, including but not limited to:
-Transportation Research Center (TRC) -SMARTCenter
-ODOT (Ohio DOT)
-DriveOhio
-ThorDrive
-Aptiv
-May Mobility
-Local Motors
-Kodiak AI
-Dioram
-Clean Earth
-Rovers
-Yost Labs
-Litens Automotive Group
-EASE Logistics
-Kratos
-Bosch
-Tesla
-INDOT (Indiana DOT)
-Aurora
-Waabi
-Einride
-Waymo Via
-Amazon Zook…
-Ohio State University
-Ohio University
-Case Western Reserve
-University of Cincinatti
-University of Toledo…
The core issue is Ohio allows autonomous‑vehicle testing under executive authority, not any legislative framework with no AV-specific regulatory agency. That means no licensing system, no mandatory safety driver, no required public reporting of close calls or crashes, no required third‑party safety audits, no public database of incidents, no rulemaking body (like California’s DMV) and zero oversight. Ohio’s approach is “permission by default”, if a company registers with DriveOhio and “carries insurance”, it can test anywhere in the state.
The Death of the “American Way” of the open road in Ohio. The elephant in the room is that NTSB recommendations are not binding and FHWA rules are not mandatory because ODOT is allowed to ignore both in Ohio.
You might ask yourself why aviation isn’t allowed to operate like AV testing is on public roads in Ohio? Aviation used to be the Wild West. But airplanes crashed, airlines cut corners, maintenance was inconsistent, manufacturers hid defects, people died, more people died, etc. The result was the creation of the FAA: mandatory safety reporting, pilot licensing, maintenance logs, accident investigations, black boxes, and public transparency requirements. Aviation is safe today because common sense regulation was imposed after tragedy.
If modern aviation was regulated like autonomous vehicles in Ohio, companies could test flocks of experimental aircraft over cities and populated areas, hide and manipulate crash data, self‑certify and define “safety”, expend massive public safety subsidies with no benefit/cost analysis and operate without any federal oversight at all.
No one should accept that.