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Waymo picks Detroit factory to build self-driving fleet by mid-2019

SAN FRANCISCO — Alphabet Inc's Waymo said on Tuesday it had chosen a factory in Detroit to mass produce self-driving cars, looking to the historical heart of the auto industry to build the vehicles of the future. The company's chief executive, John Krafcik, said in a blog post that Waymo would partner with American Axle & Manufacturing to lease and repurpose an existing Detroit facility that will be operational by mid-2019. The facility belongs to American Axle, next to the GM Hamtramck facility that is at risk of being shuttered, and is across the Detroit River from Windsor, where the Chrysler Pacificas that Waymo uses are built. Presumably Waymo will do the self-driving fitment of Pacificas at the new facility. Waymo said in January it had chosen Michigan for its first production facility, adding it would receive incentives from the public-private partnership agency, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, and create up to 400 jobs over time exclusively related to self-driving. Krafcik said in his blog post Tuesday that it's the "perfect facility," with up to 200,000 square feet to expand into. He said Waymo will hire the region's auto manufacturing talent. Waymo plans to buy 62,000 Pacificas and 20,000 Jaguars and convert them for autonomous driving. By 2022, it intends to conduct about 1 million trips per day. In a sea of rivals, Waymo is generally thought of as far ahead in the self-driving race. It already operates a robotaxi service in Arizona that it plans to expand geographically over time. Global automakers, large technology companies and startups are all engaged in self-driving efforts, but experts expect it will be years before systems are ready to be rolled out in all areas, with software and regulations among the many challenges. Waymo is competing with rivals General Motors and Uber Technologies to deploy such vehicles for the masses. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has also announced the company plans to launch a robotaxi service in 2020. Waymo, which has been working on self-driving technology for a decade, provided few new details. American Axle, with which Waymo is partnering for its Detroit facility, was formed in 1994 when an investment team purchased five plants that General Motors had put up for sale. GM plans to end output at its last Detroit factory next year, after announcing in November a plan to halt production at five North American assembly plants and cut about 15,000 jobs.

180,000 new vehicles are sitting, derailed by lack of transport trains

If you're planning on buying a new car in the next month or so, you might want to pick from what's on the lot, because there could be a long wait for new vehicles from the factory. Locomotives continue to be in short supply in North America, and that's causing major delays for automakers trying to move assembled cars.
According to The Detroit News, there are about 180,000 new vehicles waiting to be transported by rail in North America at the moment. In a normal year, it would be about 69,000. The complications have been industry-wide. Toyota, General Motors, Honda and Ford all reported experiencing some delays, and Chrysler recently had hundreds of minivans sitting on the Detroit waterfront waiting to be shipped out.
The problem is twofold for automakers. First, the fracking boom in the Bakken oil field in the Plains and Canada is monopolizing many locomotives. Second, the long, harsh winter is still causing major delays in freight train travel. The bad weather forced trains to slow down and carry less weight, which caused a backup of goods to transport. The auto companies resorted to moving some vehicles by truck, which was a less efficient but necessary option.

Detroit automakers observing 8:46 of silence to mark Juneteenth

GM Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing Gerald Johnson, right, talks with employees at the Fairfax Assembly & Stamping Plant in Kansas City, Kansas. (file photo - GM)     All three Detroit automakers are observing Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery, on Friday by observing 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence, among other companywide efforts to advance the causes of social and racial justice and equality. Juneteenth marks the date, June 19, in 1865 when Union soldiers, led by Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger, arrived at Galveston, Texas, and announced the Civil War had ended and enslaved African Americans were to be freed. President Abraham Lincoln had officially ended slavery more than two years prior via the Emancipation Proclamation, but Union forces didn't reach Texas until that time, so there was virtually no enforcement. The 8:46 timestamp is significant because it was the length of time that a police officer in Minneapolis knelt on the neck of George Floyd during an arrest, ultimately killing him and sparking waves of protests across the U.S. and overseas. Autoblog asked automakers about their plans to mark Juneteenth, what they were doing to advance the cause of social justice for Black people, and how many African Americans they employ in both blue- and white-collar jobs. We heard back from GM, Ford, Fiat Chrysler and Honda but not from Nissan and Toyota. General Motors GM’s U.S. workforce is 17.2% Black and 69.2% white, according to its most recent corporate Diversity and Inclusion Report. GM's total global employment is 173,000, and it says women and minorities represent 40% of its team of corporate officers. For reference, the Census Bureau says African Americans make up 13.4% of the U.S. population of roughly 328 million people. White people constitute 76.5%. As previously reported, GM planned to pause production at its factories on each shift today and observe silence for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The company will also have a digital countdown clock atop the GM's headquarters in Detroit for the moment of silence. Additionally, Chairman and CEO Mary Barra has said she will lead a new Inclusion Advisory Board made up of people from within and outside GM to suggest areas for change and hold the company to its commitments to fight injustice and racial inequality.