2024 Chrysler Pacifica Touring L Fwd on 2040-cars

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Stellantis to idle Chrysler Pacifica production in wake of chip shortage

Stellantis will idle production of the Chrysler Pacifica at its Windsor, Ontario, facility for several weeks due to the ongoing global chip shortage. The facility will be idled starting Monday.  "Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry," a Stellantis spokesperson told Autoblog. "Due to the unprecedented global microchip shortage, production at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be down beginning next week through mid April." Automotive production shutdowns continue to mount amid a global microchip shortage brought on by spiking consumer demand across countless industries, production slowdowns due to pandemic restrictions, and untimely natural and man-made disasters. The shortage has put a great deal of pressure on chip producers, especially in Asia. Taiwan’s central role in producing chips has shot into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, with soaring demand for laptops, tablets and other equipment to power the work-from-home trend benefiting firms like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC), the worldÂ’s largest contract chipmaker. Washington has increasingly viewed tech-powerhouse democracy as a key part of its strategy to shift global supply chains away from China, especially when it comes to technology and chip companies. Foreign governments and companies have also beseeched Taiwan to help resolve a shortage of auto chips which have idled factories around the world. U.S. companies are not standing still either. This week, processor giant Intel announced a $20 billion plan to expand its advanced chip manufacturing capacity in Arizona.  This article includes reporting by Reuters.

Chrysler and Google launch virtual 200 factory tour [w/video]

Google is no stranger to showing off some of the most interesting automotive destinations in the world, like the museums for Lamborghini and Ducati, or even a Tesla showroom. However, it's taking that technology even further with a new, in-depth look of the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant where the Chrysler 200 is made. Unlike these earlier online excursions, the new Chrysler factory tour is a fully guided experience that includes several 360-degree videos explaining many parts of the production process.
"Just as we pioneered a completely new Chrysler 200, we are pioneering a new way for consumers to research a vehicle. The Factory Tour is an opportunity for us to prove to consumers that the all-new 2015 Chrysler 200 is not one ever built before," said Olivier Francois, Chrysler's chief marketing officer, in the company's release.
Chrysler was already pretty proud of its nearly $1 billion in recent updates to the Sterling Heights factory having released a look at the 200's assembly process earlier this year. However, the new Google tour goes far deeper by including 12 videos, and between highlighted stops, viewers can swing the camera all over to get a full view of the action. The whole thing is an intriguing way to show the way a modern car gets built.

Fiat Chrysler's next-generation Uconnect is faster, built on Android

If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen). Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes. Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems. Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet.