The top 5 stories of the week
A quick glance at the top auto industry stories of the week.
GM’s Cruise prepares to resume robotaxi testing after suspension
General Motors Co.’s Cruise autonomous driving unit is nearing the resumption of robotaxi testing in the coming weeks, with Houston and Dallas emerging as potential locations, following the grounding of its fleet last year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares gears up for EV-driven industry shakeout
With China looming, he sees a need for automakers to consolidate. However, he doesn’t see a need for protectionism.
AT&T says service is restored after widespread cellular outage
AT&T said Thursday that it had fully restored service to its wireless network after a widespread outage temporarily cut off connections for users across the United States for many hours, the cause of which was still under investigation.
The outage, which affected people in cities including Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York, was first reported around 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, according to Downdetector.com, which tracks user reports of telecommunication and internet disruptions. At its peak, the site listed around 70,000 reports of disrupted service for the wireless carrier.
Multiple government agencies said they were looking into the incident, although the Biden administration told reporters that AT&T said there was no reason to think it was a cyberattack.
AT&T did not disclose the scope of the outage, nor the reason for it. When the outage first began Thursday morning, the company listed the cause as “maintenance activity.”
Jim Greer, an AT&T spokesperson, apologized in a statement confirming service was restored and said the company was “taking steps to ensure our customers do not experience this again in the future.”
Volvo to cut stake in Polestar to 18% as EV demand slumps
Polestar shares have fallen due to a slower-than-expected ramp up and overall cooling EV demand. Volvo’s move will hand more responsibility to China’s Geely, which controls both companies.