At the national summit on distracted driving yesterday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that the government wants to limit the technology that would allow people to update their Facebook account or surf the Internet while driving. Many automakers are starting to offer WiFi technology in their vehicles.

LaHood said that he will meet with automakers to develop new guidelines for vehicle telematics. ”Put safety before entertainment,” he said emphasizing that curbing distracted driving has “become a personal crusade” for him.

While he did not refer to any automakers, LaHood that allowing drivers to update their Facebook or surf the Internet “pull attention away from the road.” GM’s OnStar announced earlier this month that it will introduce a new service that will allow drivers to update their Facebook status via a voice activated system.

He did not layout out a schedule for setting up such guidelines.

Source: eGMCarTech

General Motors, the largest automaker based in the United States, has officially filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an Initial Public Offering.

By offering preferred stock along with its IPO, GM is looking to allow the U.S. Treasury (and by extension, American taxpayers) the chance to reduce its stake in the automaker as much as possible. Unlike common stock, preferred stock carries both debt and equity, is rated by the world's credit rating companies and typically has priority over common stock in the event that the company goes into bankruptcy.

According to Bloomberg, the U.S. Treasury intends to sell a fifth of its 304 million common shares as part of the IPO, which will make the government a minority shareholder.

If GM raises the expected $16 billion in its IPO, it will rank as the second-largest in U.S. history behind Visa's $19.7 billion in 2008. The offering will be led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc.

Source: AutoBlog

President Obama said on Thursday that taxpayers will in fact be repaid for the portion of the auto bailout that his administration infused, in his praise of the industry. According to the most recent government estimate, taxpayers stand to lose about $24.3 billion on the entire bailout ($25 billion was advanced by Bush before leaving office, and Obama put in about $60 billion), and that number is expected to decline further, according to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

According to a White House report released Thursday, the auto industry added 55,000 jobs in the year ending June 30, and the major American manufacturers are expecting to add up to 11,000 jobs by the end of this year. These figures represent the best growth in the industry since 1999.

Obama is visiting Detroit today in his first trip there as president. He will be meeting with Ed Whitacre and Sergio Marchionne, as well as Bob King, president of the UAW, and will take tours around Chrysler’s and GM’s facilities. Accompanying the president are Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, auto czar Ron Bloom, and auto recovery czar Ed Montgomery.

Source: eGMCarTech

As you most likely know, the State of California is in a dire budget crunch - $20 million to be precise. And when there are financial difficulties, legislators tend to come up with all sorts of ideas to increase the State's revenue.

In California's case, Sen. Curren Price, D – Los Angeles, has proposed a bill that will allow the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) to study the use of digital license plates that would flash ads and public service announcements when the vehicle is stopped for more than four seconds, whether in traffic or at a red light. However, at all times, the license plate number would remain visible in some section of the digital screen. More in the jump!

"The Department of Motor Vehicles, by virtue of its interaction with millions of California drivers and vehicle owners each year, represents a valuable resource to the state," the bill says.

"The department may consider the use and development of existing or emerging technologies for the creation of a digital electronic license plate for the purpose of generating revenue for the department and state."

Under the bill, the California DMV would have until January 1, 2013 to research digital number plates and submit its findings and recommendations including the amount of revenue they would raise and the impact on traffic safety to the Legislature.

"We're just trying to find creative ways of generating additional revenues," said Democratic Senator Curren Price. "It's an exciting marriage of technology with need, and an opportunity to keep California in the forefront."

Source: CarScoop

Ohio's highest court has ruled that a person may be convicted of speeding purely if it looked to a police officer that the motorist was going too fast.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that an officer's visual estimation of speed is enough to support a conviction if the officer is trained, certified by a training academy, and experienced in watching for speeders. The court's 5-1 decision says independent verification of a driver's speed is not necessary.

The court upheld a lower court's ruling against a driver who challenged a speeding conviction that had been based on testimony from police officer in Copley, 25 miles south of Cleveland. The officer said it appeared to him that the man was driving too fast.

Source: Ohio

As should be expected by anyone following automotive news, Toyota has been named as a defendant in more than 320 state and federal level law suits as a result of its recent recall troubles. Thus far, 228 suits have been filed in federal court, and 99 in various state courts.

The first of the law suits against the Japanese manufacturer came last fall, when the troubles with unintended acceleration first came to light. Some plaintiffs have also put forth the assertion that Toyota’s electronic throttle control system is to blame, but this has been vehemently denied by Toyota.

Plaintiff claims vary from typical injury and death suits, to breach of warranty, fraud, and even claims of economic injury, as values of certain vehicles fell after the recalls became big news.

A key decision in these case, is the decision as to whether to establish the millions of Toyota owners as a single class, thus effectuating a class-action suit. Toyota has made the claim that those owners who have not experienced malfunction ought to be excluded from such a class.

It is estimated by attorneys that if Toyota were to settle the case against it for even modest amounts, the cost to the company would be at least $3 billion. Toyota has already paid a record setting fine to the NHTSA in the amount of $16.4 million as a result of the 52 fatalities having been connected to Toyota’s acceleration issues.

Source: eGMCarTech

President Barack Obama said that the government-funded bailouts of the auto industry had paid off. During his weekly radio and Web address on Saturday, Obama said that he will keep pressure for an overhaul of U.S. financial regulations, saying the promising news from the auto industry had not reduced the need for Wall Street changes.

General Motors and Chrysler both reported progress this week in their government-financed turnarounds. Nonetheless, the Obama administration said that it still forecasts some loss on the taxpayer bailout of both companies to help them recover from the economic downturn.

GM announced last week that it has made its final payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada, paying back its government loans in full.

Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, later said that GM’s payment was coming from U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program funds in an escrow account, rather than from GM earnings.

Source: eGMCarTech

Toyota announced today that it has agreed to settle the civil penalty demanded in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s April 5 letter related to the company’s recall for slow-to-return and sticky accelerator pedals by paying $16.4 million.

“We agreed to this settlement in order to avoid a protracted dispute and possible litigation, as well as to allow us to move forward fully-focused on the steps to strengthen our quality assurance operations,” Toyota said in a statement. “This will allow us to focus on delivering safe, reliable, high quality vehicles for our customers and responding to consumer feedback with honesty and integrity. These have been core Toyota values for 70 years, and we pledge to make an even greater effort to adhere to this philosophy now and in the future. We also welcome a new, more transparent chapter in our relationship with NHTSA
, consistent with our commitments to Congress and the American people.”

However, Toyota said that it denies that it violated the Safety Act or its implementing regulations.

“We believe we made a good faith effort to investigate this condition and develop an appropriate counter-measure. We have acknowledged that we could have done a better job of sharing relevant information within our global operations and outside the company, but we did not try to hide a defect to avoid dealing with a safety problem.”

Toyota said that is already moving ahead with a number of important steps to strengthen the company’s quality assurance operations.

Source: eGMCarTech

With all the hubbub around Toyota's unintended acceleration debacle, the New York Times reports that the United States' Department of Transportation will be seeking the highest civil fine ever (per automotive recall) allowed by the Tread Act: $16.375 million.

This is "because the company had failed to promptly notify the government about potential problems with accelerator pedals."

For reference, Automotive News states that Toyota waited "at least" four months before announcing the sticky-accelerator issue, which companies would normally have up to five days to report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Here's what a few of the players in the game have to say: (read more)

Ray Hood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation: "We now have proof that Toyota failed to live up to its legal obligations...Worse yet, they knowingly hid a dangerous defect for months from U.S. officials and did not take action to protect millions of drivers and their families. For those reasons, we are seeking the maximum penalty possible under current laws."

Toyota: "We have already taken a number of important steps to improve our communications with regulators and customers on safety-related matters as part of our strengthened overall commitment to quality assurance...These include the appointment of a new Chief Quality Officer for North America and a greater role for the region in making safety-related decisions."

Another such step includes the formation of a "global quality committee, with 70 representatives from around the world, which will be responsible for assuring that problems are shared among the company's units in various regions."

Joan Claybrook, former NHTSA head, in response to the fine: "Safety matters and [the NHTSA is] going to be tough as nails...That's very appropriate. They caught Toyota red-handed."

Sid Shapiro, Wake Forest University Law Professor, VP Center for Progressive Reform: "It's good news that NHTSA is being an aggressive regulator, but you have to have doubts whether a $16 million fine is going to have a deterrent effect on automobile companies that are worth billions of dollars." [remember, Daimler just got hit with a $185 million fine for bribes that DIDN'T end in deaths...that we know of. - Ed.]

Ed Kim, AutoPacific Inc.: "One of the biggest reasons to fight the fine would be to defend themselves from the language used by the Department of Transportation...That would seem to provide some firepower to attorneys that are suing the company."

Toyota has up to two weeks to contest the claim.

Source: CarScoop

The Obama administration yesterday announced its rule that will set a 35.5 mpg average for the U.S. auto industry by 2016, a move that will cut fuel consumption by 40% and realize $130 billion in benefits. Despite their $52 billion burden, manufacturers welcome the the standards, as it will avoid a much more costly patchwork of state and federal regulation.

The cost expected to be shouldered by the consumer works out to less than $1,000 per new vehicle sold in 2016, but should be expected to be recouped in three-years in fuel-savings.

This rule represents the first limit by the federal governemnt on greenhouse gas emissions.

Source: eGMCarTech

Here's the list! Full read at the source!

Large cars
Buick LaCrosse
Ford Taurus
Lincoln MKS
Volvo S80

Midsize cars
Audi A3
Chevrolet Malibu (built after Oct. 2009)
Chrysler Sebring 4-door (with optional ESC)
Dodge Avenger (with optional ESC)
Mercedes C-Class
Subaru Legacy
Subaru Outback
Volkswagen Jetta sedan
Volkswagen Passat sedan
Volvo C30

Small cars
Honda Civic 4-door (with optional ESC, except Si)
Kia Soul
Nissan Cube
Subaru Impreza (except WRX)
Volkswagen Golf 4-door

Midsize SUVs
Dodge Journey
Subaru Tribeca
Volvo XC60
Volvo XC90

Small SUVs
Honda Element
Jeep Patriot (with optional side thorax airbags)
Subaru Forester
Volkswagen Tiguan

Source: AOL

Two armored Secret Service vehicles, a Chevrolet Suburban and a limousine that belong to Vice President Biden's fleet, hit and killed a pedestrian just over the D.C. border in Maryland. The accident happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning as the vehicles were being returned from Andrews Air Force Base to a secure storage location. No dignitaries were on board.

The man was crossing at an intersection on Maryland's Suitland Parkway under rainy conditions at 2:27 a.m., the Washington Post reported.

The limousine and Suburban had been used on the vice president's visit to Fort Lewis in Washington State, where he attended and spoke at a memorial service for seven soldiers based there who were killed in Afghanistan. Following the service, as is customary, the vehicles were flown back to Andrews. The vehicles are both armored and therefore must be driven by specially trained employees who have taken a "protective operator's driving course," the Post reported. The paper quoted Secret Service spokesman as saying the armor protection makes them "tricker to handle than ordinary vehicles."

U.S. Park Police are currently investigating the accident.

Source: InsideLine

The White House said the influential automotive news Web site Edmunds.com's harsh analysis of the impact of "cash for clunkers" was "faulty" and "implausible."

Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl shot back that the White House was "shooting the messenger." Edmunds said cash for clunkers cost taxpayers $24,000 per vehicle sold.

Nearly 690,000 vehicles were sold during the $3 billion cash for clunkers program that offered up to $4,500 rebates, officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, but Edmunds.com analysts calculated that only 125,000 of the sales occurred as a result of the program.

Edmunds is clearly among the more pessimistic about the program's impact.

The White House, in a report in September, said it believed 440,000 were incremental sales -- though it could be as high as 560,000 under its most optimistic scenario. More in the jump!

Ford Motor Co. said in August it believed 30 to 40 percent of clunkers sales were "truly incremental" -- which would translate to an industry increase of 210,000 to 280,000.

Moody's said 60 percent were incremental, while General Motors estimated it about was 500,000. As observers pointed out, Edmunds has been skeptical of the program since the summer. In June, Edmunds called it a "non-event" and said cash for clunkers "will struggle to produce the estimated 250,000 vehicle sales."

In fact the program sold nearly that many vehicles in the program's first week.

Edmunds.com's "faulty analysis suggesting that the cash for clunkers program had no meaningful impact on our economy or on overall auto sales. This is the latest of several critical 'analyses' of the cash for clunkers program from Edmunds.com, which appear designed to grab headlines and get coverage on cable TV," the White House said on its blog Thursday afternoon. "Like many of their previous attempts, this latest claim doesn't withstand even basic scrutiny."

The White House said Edmunds based its analysis on the "implausible" assumption that "the market for cars that didn't qualify for cash for clunkers was completely unaffected by this program. In other words, all the other cars were being sold on Mars, while the rest of the country was caught up in the excitement of the cash for clunkers program."

The administration also said Edmunds didn't account for the "beneficial impact" the program will have on fourth-quarter Gross National Product because automakers have ramped up their production to rebuild their depleted inventories.

"Most importantly, this program is helping boost our economy and create jobs now when we need it most. In a comprehensive report, the Council of Economic Advisers estimated that cash for clunkers will create 70,000 jobs in the second half of 2009," the White House said. "Edmunds.com, on the other hand, is promoting a bombastic press release without any public access to their underlying analysis."

Edmunds stands by its analysis.

"Instead of shooting the messenger, government officials should take heart from the core message of the analysis: The fundamentals of the auto marketplace are improving faster than the current sales numbers suggest," Anwyl wrote.

The central issue, Anwyl said, "is how many of these sales would have occurred anyway. Apparently, the $24,000 figure caught many by surprise. It shouldn't have. The truth is that consumer incentive programs are always hugely expensive when calculated by incremental sales -- always in the tens of thousands of dollars."

Edmunds rejected the White House suggestion that people got caught up in the excitement of the program and bought cars, even if they didn't qualify. And it discarded the notion that automakers boosted production solely because of the program.

"No manufacturer increases production, a decision with long-term consequences, based on the 30-day sales blip triggered by an event like cash for clunkers," Edmunds wrote.

The White House got a boost from Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation.

While Edmunds is usually highly respected within the automotive industry for its accuracy and reliability, he said, its analysis of the cash for clunkers program is "shoddy."

"Simply put, they've misrepresented the facts, and the White House is completely justified in calling them out on it," Jackson said, adding that it appears "Edmunds' political views have tainted their usual rigorous approach to research."

"I know from our sales at AutoNation just how significant the impact of the cash for clunkers promotion was in our dealerships, and our own internal figures indicate that the rate of increase was consistent with what other retailers, manufacturers and governmental agencies have been estimating," he said.

"We believe that the incremental sales are over 500,000 new vehicles. Edmunds may not want to believe Ford or General Motors or Moody's or the White House or any of the dozens of other reliable parties who saw significant sales increases as a direct and indirect result of the program, but that doesn't make the increases any less real."

Source: Detroit News

Former U.S. President George W. Bush urged the Obama administration to sell the government’s stakes in banks and carmakers “as quickly as possible,” arguing that only private companies can spark an economic rebound.

Government “has got to get out of the private sector, and therefore I hope our government gets out of the autos and the financials in which they have a stake,” Bush told members of the Montreal Board of Trade, an association of local business people, in a sold-out speech today. “Temporary measures must be temporary.”

U.S. taxpayers are “extremely unlikely” to earn any return on the $700 billion government program to invest in banks and other companies that was approved as the financial system teetered on the edge of collapse last year, a quarterly audit said yesterday. More in the jump...

In a report to Congress, the Troubled Asset Relief Program watchdog Neil Barofsky said that recouping the billions of dollars given to insurer American International Group Inc. and automakers General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC “is far from certain.” He also said that $50 billion set aside for helping struggling homeowners lower their mortgage payments will yield “no direct return.”

Bush, in his remarks today, said that when his administration introduced TARP, “the whole system of capitalism was frozen, it was like a frozen corpse with a faint heartbeat.”

‘Here Is Some Blood’

“So we said, ‘Here is some blood. When you get on your feet, you can find cheaper money and give us back the taxpayer money with a nice return,” Bush said. “But these measures have got to remain temporary for us to recover.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Oct. 20 that the administration would end some of the biggest TARP programs in coming weeks, including the one that made capital injections into large banks.

“I don’t believe government can lead us out of the mess we are in,” Bush said. “The private sector is the only engine for economic growth.”

About 1,000 people paid between C$200 ($191) and C$400 each to attend Bush’s speech in a downtown Montreal hotel, according to the Board of Trade. Hundreds of people protested outside the building, with police arresting five of the demonstrators, according to a Canadian Broadcasting Corp. report.

Bush’s Fee

Speaking fees for Bush, 63, may exceed C$150,000 ($143,175), the Montreal Gazette reported in August. Christian Darbyshire, a partner at Calgary-based TinePublic Inc., which organized the event, declined to say today how much the former president was paid for his appearance.

Bush prefaced his remarks by saying they shouldn’t be construed as a criticism of President Barack Obama.

“I didn’t like it one bit when former Presidents criticized me,” he said. “I wish President Obama all the best. I love my country. I understand how tough the job is. He will have plenty of critics throughout his presidency, and I don’t intend to be one of them.”

On foreign relations, Bush urged the U.S. to continue its military mission in Afghanistan. Obama has been reviewing his strategy for the war there; former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech last night in Washington, said the White House was “dithering” in its deliberations.

Troop Decision

Among the decisions facing Obama is whether to add as many as 40,000 more U.S. military personnel to the 68,000 that will be in Afghanistan by the end of this year.

Under Bush, a NATO coalition led by the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 and ousted the Taliban government that had harbored the al-Qaeda terrorists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. As part of Bush’s war on terrorism, a U.S.-led coalition invaded Iraq in early 2003 and drove out the government of the late Saddam Hussein.

“I am deeply concerned that if we abandon Afghanistan too soon, the extremists will find a safe haven and I feel pretty confident that they will hit us again,” Bush said. “A functioning democracy, a democracy that can defend itself and govern itself, that will happen sooner in Iraq than it will in Afghanistan.”

Bush also urged the U.S. Congress not to endanger the $1 billion-a-day U.S.-Canadian trading relationship and to repeal the “Buy America” provisions in the stimulus package passed in February that sparked calls for retaliatory measures in Canada. “Trade leads to wealth,” Bush said. “The ‘Buy America’ provisions are bad provisions in U.S. law and ought to be taken out.”

The stimulus measure requires that steel and manufactured goods purchased with the funds be made in the U.S. or in countries with whom the U.S. has a trade accord. Because of a provision in the North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada doesn’t qualify for projects in which the stimulus money is spent by state or local governments.

Source: Bloomberg