Stellantis is denying reports that the legendary Maserati brand is up for sale. Get all the latest automotive news in the Executive Briefing.
Today’s Headlines:
+ Toyota has announced it will raise prices for some vehicles sold in the United States by an average of $270 starting in July, while the Lexus brand will see a $200 increase. More at MSN Money.
+ Wholesale used-vehicle prices increased 1.7 percent in the first half of June due to tight supply and steady demand, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index. More at CBT News.
+ A U.S. District court judge ruled that a lawsuit should proceed to trial involving a man who died from carbon monoxide poisoning when his Toyota was left idling in his garage. More at The Detroit News.
+ ABC’s live telecast of the Canadian Grand Prix last Sunday averaged 1.9 million viewers for the race-only portion, the largest audience ever for the event on U.S. television. More at Racer.
+ With Chinese automakers pushing into Europe, Stellantis and Renault are lobbying for a less-regulated category of small cars with fewer safety features and lower build cost. More at World Auto Forum.
+ Tesla’s former head of artificial intelligence, Andrej Karpathy, warns against believing that self-driving is solved or that fully autonomous vehicles will be arriving in the near future. More at Electrek.
+ According to the Hagerty Market Index, the median sales price of collector cars has fallen 22 percent since the late 2022 high mark driven by high post-pandemic demand. More at Autoblog.
+ In a 7-2 ruling, The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to let fuel producers legally challenge California’s pending EV mandates and tricter standards for vehicle emissions. More at the Detroit Free Press.
+ Stellatis denied reports that its legendary Maserati sports car brand is for sale after sales dropped 58 percent in 2024 and the parent company wrote down a $1.59 billion loss. More at The Drive.
+ NASCAR Hall-of-Famer and Xfinity series team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored his first victory as a crew chief as he filled in for the suspended Mardy Lindley at Pocono. More at NBC Sports.
Photo of Maserati A6G courtesy of Fiskens.
Review the previous MCG Executive Briefing from June 20 here.
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From the Electrek article- “You may sees Waymos going around and they look driverless, but there’s still a lot of teleoperation and lot of humans in the loop in this driving” & “We are still working on autonomy. We are still working on driving (AI) agents. Even now, we haven’t actually solved the problem.”
Just as I suspected, “autonomous vehicle” is apparently just a fancy term for a full scale RC car, prolly all remotely operated by lowbid contractors named “Self”…