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GM plans to restart production in Mexico on May 20

MEXICO CITY — General Motors is tentatively planning to restart operations at its auto assembly plant in the Mexican city of Silao on May 20, according to a message to workers seen by Reuters on Sunday, as the car industry prepares to exit the coronavirus lockdown. Separately, the president of GM's Mexican unit advised suppliers to prepare to resume operations. “We are now beginning a new phase given the Mexican governmentÂ’s official announcement earlier this week to consider the transportation manufacturing industry as essential for the countryÂ’s economy,” Francisco Garza, president ofGeneral Motors de Mexico, wrote in an email to suppliers dated on Friday that was viewed by Reuters. The reopening of the plant  in Silao would be a positive signal for the auto sector in North America, whose supply lines are highly interconnected between the United States, Mexico and Canada. The plant in the central state of Guanajuato has been idled for weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak. Workers had previously been told to plan to return to their jobs on May 18. A GM spokeswoman said the company could not confirm when it would restart operations at any of its facilities in Mexico because it is awaiting more guidance from the government. The message to the plant's workers came after the government on Friday clarified when the industry could begin easing restrictions imposed because of the health emergency. On Wednesday, the government said automakers could start going back into production from May 18. It then withdrew that advice and suggested the new start date would be June 1. Finally it indicated the sector, which forms the backbone of Mexican manufacturing, could begin operating as soon as next week if companies had the required safety measures in place. U.S. officials and its auto industry have pressed Mexico's government to get its factories open again because American operations depend heavily on parts from south of the border. However, some politicians are wary of opening too fast. Mexico registered its first case of coronavirus weeks after the United States and Canada and the toll of daily infections and deaths in the country reached new peaks over the past few days. The Silao production facility, which makes highly profitable pickup trucks for GM, is one of the biggest automotive plants in Guanajuato, a major Mexican carmaking state. Related Video:

nuTonomy beats Uber to market with self-driving taxi rides, and the latest Corvette ZR1spy shots | Autoblog Minute

Software developer nuTonomy beats Uber to market with self-driving taxi rides in Singapore. A 124 Coupe could soon join Fiat's roadster lineup, and we have the latest spy shots of the new Corvette ZR!. Senior Editor Greg Migliore reports on this edition of Autoblog Mintue. Senior Editor Greg Migliore reports on this edition of Autoblog Mintue. Show full video transcript text [00:00:00] Massachusetts based software company, nuTonomy, launched its self-driving taxi service in Singapore this week. nuTonomy specializes in developing software for self-driving cars. Testing of the companies ride-hailing smartphone app occurred in Singapore, where riders were able to book a free driverless ride. nuTonomy's robo-taxi fleet is comprised of Renault Zoes and Mitsubishi i-MiEVs. Engineers from nuTonomy were present at this public launch as a safety measure. [00:00:30] The company will now continue to collect data and conduct more testing with its self-driving cars in Singapore, Michigan and the United Kingdom. nuTonomy has plans to offer widely-available commercial service in Singapore in 2018. nuTonomy's aggressive play in Singapore has put Uber and its partner Volvo in the unlikely position of playing catch-up. Autocar reported this week that we should expect FCA to add a Coupe [00:01:00] to it's 124 roadster lineup. When? Well, seeing as the 124 Spider just recently made it US dealers we may have to wait until next year to see a hardtop Fiata. It's tough to predict what kind of performance we can expect out of a 124 Coupe but in the U.S. the Spider has 160hp using a 1.4-l turbocharged engine. So the car you see in these pictures is actually Fiat's 124 Rally car that will be used for competition. [00:01:30] Now that's not exactly how the street car will look but it gives you an idea of what a 124 with a fixed roof is gonna look like. This week we got another look at what we think is the Chevy Corvette ZR1 and its massive rear wing. Now to be clear, the images that we're seeing are actually demonstrations. The car was actually captured without the rear wing. However, our spy photographers photoshopped the wing, which we've seen before, on some of these new shots just so you could get [00:02:00] a sense of what the car looks like driving around in it's most recent state. Now we think this car will make more than 700hp, which is kind of a magic number. The Hellcats from Chrysler make 707 so certainly GM wants to beat them.

BMW, Hyundai score big in JD Power's first Tech Experience Index

While automakers are quick to brag about winning a JD Power Initial Quality Study award, the reality, as we've pointed out before, is that these ratings are somewhat misleading, since IQS doesn't necessarily distinguish genuine quality issues. JD Power's new Tech Experience Index aims to solve that problem. The new metric takes the same 90-day approach as IQS but focuses exclusively on technology – collision protection, comfort and convenience, driving assistance, entertainment and connectivity, navigation, and smartphone mirroring. It splits the industry up into just seven segments, based loosely on size, which is why the Chevrolet Camaro is in the same division (mid-size) as Kia Sorento and the Mercedes-Benz GLE-Class is in the same segment as the Hyundai Genesis (mid-size premium). It makes for some screwy bedfellows, to be sure. Still, splitting tech experience away from initial quality should allow customers to make more informed and intelligent decisions when buying new vehicles. In the inaugural study, respondents listed BMW and Hyundai as the big winners, with two segment awards – the 2 Series for small premium and the 4 Series for compact premium, and the Genesis for mid-size premium and Tucson for small segment. The Chevrolet Camaro (midsize), Kia Forte (compact), and Nissan Maxima (large) scored individual wins. Ford also had a surprising hit with the Lincoln MKC, which ranked third in the compact premium segment behind the 4 Series and Lexus IS. This is a coup for the Blue Oval, whose woeful MyFord Touch systems made the brand a victim of the IQS' flaws in the early 2010s. But Ford and other automakers might not want to celebrate just yet. According to JD Power, there's still a lot of room for improvement – navigation systems were the lowest-rated piece of tech in the study. Instead, customers repeatedly saluted collision-avoidance and safety systems, giving the category the best marks of the study and listing blind-spot monitoring and backup cameras as two must-have features – 96 percent of respondents said they wanted those two systems in their next vehicle. But this isn't really a surprise. Implementation of safety systems from brand to brand is similar, and they don't require any input from users, unlike navigation and infotainment systems which are frustratingly deep.