This 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster will be offered at the Bonhams | Cars Scottsdale sale this month. Get all the latest auto industry news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s headlines:
+ According to research firm Omidia, the automakers sold 16.2 million vehicles in the United States in 2025, a 2.4 percent increase over 2024, despite a roller-coaster year. More at World Auto Forum.
+ NASCAR commissioner Steve Phelps will resign at the end of this month in the aftermath of embarrassing texts uncovered during the recent NASCAR antitrust trial. More at ESPN.
+ Stellantis has officially discontinued production of all Chrysler and Jeep plug-in hybrid models, namely the Jeep Wrangler and Cherokee 4xe and the Chrysler Pacifica PHEV. More at The Drive.
+ Ford plans to offer its first hands-off, eyes-off driver assistance system with level 3 capability in 2028 on its mid-sized EV pickup arriving in 2027 with a $30,000 base price. More at Yahoo! News.
+ Recovering from a broken femur in a fall, NASCAR Cup veteran Brad Keselowski will miss the preseason Clash on February 1, with Corey LaJoie selected as his substitute. More at Fox Sports.
+ After recording a 50 percent slide in earnings in the third quarter, used car retailer CarMax will lower vehicle prices and margins and increase marketing to drive sales in 2026. More at CBT News.
+ Volvo Cars aims to relieve range anxiety with a new electric SUV, the EX60, that will offer up to 503 miles of range on a single charge and 211 miles on a 10-minute recharge. More at ET Auto.
+ A U.S. House panel is considering a plan to fast-track the approval of self-driving cars without steering wheels or pedals by lifting a 2,500-vehicle cap on regulatory exemptions. More at Autoblog.
+ With tongues firmly in cheek, a team driving a Ligier JS50 microcar powered by an 8-hp diesel engine set a record for slowest lap at the Nürburgring Nordschleife at 28-plus minutes. More at Car and Driver.
+ Consignments at the Bonhams | Cars Scottsdale sale on January 23 include a 1956 Ferrari 250 GT Low-Roof Boano Coupe and a 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster. More at Old Cars.
+ The son and daughter of the late Formula 1 legend Sir Stirling Moss are reportedly involved in a legal dispute over the £28 million ($37.6 million) estate of his widow, Lady Susie. More at Motorsport.com.
Photo courtesy of Bonhams | Cars.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from January 5 here.
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Letting zero I.Q. software with zero common sense and a safety factor of zero replace human drivers, what could go wrong?
Piss on me and tell me its raining, Ford just recalled another 273,000 vehicles (NHTSA #25V863) after identifying a software glitch that could prevent Park from properly engaging, increasing the risk of unintended vehicle movement.
Unintended rollaways can be deadly to a driver chasing the vehicle if ran over, or any bystanders hit. Property damage almost always. Long ago at a nearby soccer park, a 5 year old was runover & rolled up into a ball, wedged under the red hot catalytic converter of another runaway ’91 Dakota. An innocent child dying the worst way imaginable in front of his mother. Root cause: “false park”. EVERY complaint & subject ’91-’92 Dakota NHTSA and Chrysler examined & tested before that tragedy (100+) had the false detent between Park & Reverse. Good luck finding the final copy of the official NHTSA report, it doesn’t exist…
Even if/when robo-driving works to near-perfection, I don’t see the practicality of taxis without human controls. It greatly increases the difficulty in transporting and maintenance. The feature seems to be driven mainly by marketing. “Look, here is a driverless car.”
Maybe they have some future vision I lack, but I don’t see the business model for driverless taxis. Historically, the money is gone from the taxi business. The great innovation in the taxi biz is convincing ordinary people to work for minimum wage using their own personal cars as taxis. Uber, Lyft.
I think there may be some reluctance and fear on the part of women to hire a cab late at night and perhaps driverless cabs would create more business by allowing them travel individually instead of splitting the fare.
Driverless trucks have obvious benefits.
But the long game is driverless electric cabs out of a single hub on a monthly subscription. Drive up the cost of charging, gasoline, registration & taxes, forcing the majority to abandon personal transport. Less pollution, probably better traffic control and the authorities can track you door to door. They conned you into giving up free TV and radio while still inundating you with advertisements, they’ll con you out of your mobility too.
It’s not too difficult to appreciate the ethical dillema and cognative dissonance facing the modern day public servant, professional engineer and PHD, paid to ignore risks & a trail of blood as the price of doing business…
Epilogue: Chrysler conducted a secret, highly illegal recall for the ’93 MY Dakota A500 & A518 transmissions. Their safety office was so uncooporative with ODI that a raid on the Kokomo transmission factory by the U.S.Marshal Service was actually floated at a byweekly teleconference. The Associate Adminstrator for Enforcement @ NHTSA at the time was a former Chrysler attorney, got wind of it and he pulled the plug on the whole investigation…
Really, we should’ve had interlocks since the ’50s requiring drivers of automatics to set the parking brake before the transmission can be shifted into Park.
The biggest concern going forward is that with electronic parking brakes becoming more common and electronic PRNDL selectors all but universal, the ECU is a single failure point for both. The parking brake should be manual and unconnected to the car’s brain as a failsafe backup.
Too much electronics and interlocks. Cars are supposed to be mechanical-‘horseless carriage’-not a mobile electronics toy shop.