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GM laying off 510 amidst slow Cadillac, small car sales

General Motors is laying off about 510 workers from two factories beginning in January, and it could be months before the automaker needs some of that latent capacity to come back on line. A combination of poor sales and high dealer inventories are prompting the cutbacks, according to Automotive News.
The largest changes come at GM's Lansing Grand River plant, where the Cadillac ATS and CTS are made. An entire shift of about 350 workers is being laid off, but the automaker hopes to find positions for some of them at other nearby factories. The decision leaves just a single shift building vehicles there. According to Automotive News, the move is partially spurred by Johan de Nysschen's plan to make Cadillac a more exclusive brand.
The lost shift will likely return for production of the next-generation Chevrolet Camaro at the plant, according to the report, but GM isn't saying when that will be. A previous announcement from the Canadian Auto Workers union indicated that the Oshawa, Ontario, factory would lose the coupe in late 2015 or early 2016.

GM says safety is a reason it's dropping Apple CarPlay, Android Auto

Update: GM sent us a statement as a follow-up to its original comments seen in this post: "We wanted to reach out to clarify that comments about GM's position on phone projection were misrepresented in previous articles and to reinforce our valued partnerships with Apple and Google and each company’s commitment to driver safety. GM's embedded infotainment strategy is driven by the benefits of having a system that allows for greater integration with the larger GM ecosystem and vehicles." The original story can be read in its entirety below.   General Motors announced its intention to remove Apple CarPlay and Android Auto functionality from its upcoming EVs earlier this year, and internet comments sections haven't been kind since. As the first of many EVs to follow – the 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV – hits the market, GM is expanding on its initial explanations for dropping the tech. Motor Trend spoke with Tim Babbit, GMÂ’s head of product for infotainment, to learn more. Attributed to Babbit, from the story: “They have stability issues that manifest themselves as bad connections, poor rendering, slow responses, and dropped connections. And when CarPlay and Android Auto have issues, drivers pick up their phones again, taking their eyes off the road and totally defeating the purpose of these phone-mirroring programs. Solving those issues can sometimes be beyond the control of the automaker.” Babbit suggests that a world without Apple CarPlay or Android Auto will be a safer one, as folks wonÂ’t be looking to control their infotainment systems via their phones. However, Babbit also tells MT that this theory hasnÂ’t been tested in either the lab or the real world yet. Instead of using a navigation or music-playing app powered through your phone, upcoming GM EVs will use a Google-based infotainment system called “Ultifi” that runs a ton of integrated Google apps. Google Maps will be the native navigation app in the system; youÂ’ll be able to log in to Spotify or other apps to load your music up, and so on. The idea here is that youÂ’ll have all the same apps that were on your phone available but integrated within the infotainment system instead, and you'll be able to use voice controls to control every last bit of it with no need to reach for a phone. That sounds amenable in theory, but how consumers react to the removal of a feature that they know and love now is a risky gamble.

Buick Century attracts 15,000 bees searching for new hive

By most accounts, the fifth-generation Buick Century isn't considered a desirable place to live. For a swarm of 15,000 bees, however, the lure of the front-drive A-body proved irresistible, much to the chagrin of the car's Las Cruces, N.M. owner. The unidentified man had gone shopping in an Albertson's grocery store, returned to his car, placed his purchases in the car, and began driving away. Then he noticed that something was, according to the New York Times, "amiss." The Buick owner called 911, which dispatched the Las Cruces Fire Department to the scene. Luckily, one firefighter and paramedic in the brigade, Jesse Johnson, is a hobbyist beekeeper. Though he was off duty at the time, Johnson sprung into action and arrived at the Buick with equipment to transfer the bees safely, including an empty hive box, a beekeeper's outfit and lemongrass oil, which mimics the scent of the queen. Johnson told the Times that bee colonies will often split in springtime, with a swarm following a queen to search for a new home. Apparently, the partially open window of a 1982-96 Buick Century looked like an inviting, perhaps temporary, location as the bees relocated. Johnson removed 3.5 pounds' worth of bees in a span of less than a half hour. He is rehabitating the bees at his home, where he maintains other hives. “IÂ’ll do anything to keep people from killing the bees,” Johnson told the Times. He also explained that when bees swarm like this, they are typically pretty docile. Amazingly, the Buick owner was only in the store for 10 minutes, the paper reports. Johnson believes the bees came from a nearby neighborhood. Fortunately, no one was injured during the incident. One Albertson's security guard was stung, according to the Las Cruces Fire Department, and another firefighter was stung on the lip. For the record, the Las Cruces Fire Department says they don't routinely handle bees. It was just fortunate that Johnson was around. It's not clear if the bees would have flocked to a similar era Chevy Celebrity or Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. Related Video: