With its maze of one-way streets, congestion, aggressive taxi drivers, double-parked cars, occasional motorcades, parades, and exploding manhole covers, New York City can be a challenge for even the more skilled drivers. And if General Motors gets its wish, you could soon add driverless to this mix. [More]
GM
Why Hurricane Harvey Was Good News For Car Companies
By 10.3.17
Hurricane Harvey wreaked havoc across swaths of Texas and Louisiana, damaging billions of dollars’ worth of property in its path. That includes cars, many of which needed to be replaced, resulting in a bittersweet sales boost for a number of automakers. [More]
GM Jumping On Zero Emissions Bandwagon With “All-Electric” Plans
By 10.2.17
A few weeks after Volkswagen said it’s planning on eventually offering electric versions of all the cars it makes, General Motors announced today that it’s jumping on the zero-emissions bandwagon with the goal of an “all-electric” future. [More]
Supreme Court: General Motors Can’t Use Bankruptcy To Avoid Lawsuits Over Deadly Ignition Defect
By 4.24.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
The Supreme Court has denied General Motors’ legal efforts to use its 2009 bankruptcy to block lawsuits over injuries and financial losses related to the carmaker’s long-ignored ignition switch defect. [More]
Settlements Allow Auto Dealers To Continue Selling Unrepaired Recalled Vehicles As “Safe”
By 12.16.16
If you bought a used car from a dealership that proudly claims to put each vehicle through “125-point” or “172-point” inspections, you might assume that your vehicle is safe to drive and that it isn’t under recall for a potentially deadly defect. However, a number of big names in used cars — including CarMax and General Motors — have recently entered into settlements with federal regulators that could allow used car dealers to continue marketing their vehicles as safe even while they may have unrepaired defects. [More]
Uber Teaming Up With GM To Offer Car-Sharing Program For Drivers
By 11.2.16
Although GM has already invested $500 million in Lyft and has a $99/week program to rent cars to drivers on that platform, it seems the carmaker isn’t interested in playing favorites: GM has now teamed up with Uber to offer a car-sharing program for its drivers as well. [More]
GM President: You Won’t Have Your Own Self-Driving Car Right Away
By 10.10.16
People looking ahead to the future of automobiles realize that car ownership might not work the same way in the near future as car ownership now. Cars with semi-autonomous features like emergency braking and adaptive cruise control are common, and autonomous cars and trucks will available to the public soon. You’ll just be hailing one before you buy one, at least if you want a car from General Motors. [More]
GM Offers To Buy Out 40% Of Cadillac Dealers
By 9.23.16
If there are fewer places around where you can buy a Cadillac, will that make the brand seem more luxurious and precious? That’s not really why General Motors has offered to buy out the franchises of 400 of its dealers that sell Cadillacs, but maybe it will help make the brand seem more exclusive, like its weird brand experience café/art gallery in Manhattan. [More]
10 Chinese Companies You Should Probably Know About
By 6.27.16
Many of the most common household brand names in America are not American companies, and that’s been true for decades. When it comes to technological innovation especially — from cars to phones and every appliance in between — we’ve become used to huge numbers of goods coming from countries in Asia. [More]
GM Debuts New “Rear Seat Reminder” Feature In Battle Against Hot Car Deaths
By 6.13.16
Every summer we find ourselves hearing about children who have died after being left behind in hot cars, and it’s no different this year: 12 kids have died from heatstroke in cars, safety advocates say. In an effort to prevent those deaths, GM has unveiled a new feature that will let drivers know when someone has been left behind in the car. [More]
Cadillac Wants To Attract Millennials Somehow, Opens A Coffee Shop
By 5.13.16
Adults under 80 apparently aren’t all that interested in General Motors’ Cadillac brand, maybe because they simply don’t connect the brand with anything that interests them. “What about coffee?” we picture someone at GM saying at the end of a very long meeting. “The kids today like coffee, right?” That’s a plausible enough origin story behind Cadillac House, a café/retail space/art gallery/I swear this is an actual thing that is going to open in June in Manhattan. [More]
California Regulators Might Stop Lyft And Uber Driver Car-Rental Programs
By 4.21.16
Drivers for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft need relatively new cars, so a program where drivers lease new General Motors vehicles for $99 per week seemed like a good match. It’s being tested in Chicago now, and the companies plan to expand the program. They won’t be expanding it to California, though: regulators there will vote today on a proposal that specifically bans such programs in the state. [More]
GM Adds Another 200,000 Saab And Saturn Vehicles To Takata Airbag Recall
By 2.16.16
General Motors has discontinued and sold its Saturn and Saab brands, respectively, but announced today that cars from both brands that date as far back as 2003 contain potentially explosive parts from Japanese part-maker Takata. The recall announced today includes a total of 180,000 vehicles in the United States and 20,000 in Canada. [More]
GM Investing $500M In Lyft, Hopes You Will Eventually Get Rides From Self-Driving Fleet
By 1.4.16
The world of business partnerships is kicking off 2016 with a bang, bringing together the old world of cars with the new. GM, the occasionally troubled behemoth carmaker founded in 1908, and Lyft, the once-mustachioed ride-hailing service (that isn’t Uber) founded in 2012, are embarking together on a half-billion dollar plan to bring the future to a street near you. [More]
Looking Ahead: 5 Big Issues To Follow For 2016
By 1.1.16
Now that 2015 is done and we finally learned that Luke Skywalker is actually Faye Dunaway’s daughter (and sister!), it’s time to take off the party hats, sweep up the confetti, and do the walk of shame forward into the uncharted territory of the year to come. [More]
OnStar Ignores Elderly Man’s Request For Emergency Help Because He’s Not A Subscriber
By 12.21.15
It can be terrifying when an elderly relative vanishes. One New York man who recently went missing was fortunate to be in a car with an emergency device equipped, and to know how to reach help — but the help then chose not to help him at all, leaving his family mystified about the response. [More]
GM Paid Out $594.5M For 399 Ignition Switch Death And Injury Claims
By 12.10.15
Four months after General Motors said it had approved 124 death claims – 10 times the number the carmaker originally acknowledged – related to the massive ignition switch defect it failed to address in more than 2.59 million vehicles, lawyers for the company have calculated a final bill for paid-out claims: $594.5 million. [More]
GM Looking To Import Made-In-China Buick For U.S. Customers
By 11.12.15
General Motors’ Buick — perhaps the oldest existing name in U.S. car brands — is trying to re-introduce itself to younger American consumers who associate it with a stuffier generation. But Buick is a hit in China, with a number of models manufactured specifically for the local market. One of those cars — the Buick Envision — may end up being GM’s first China-made car to be imported to the U.S. [More]
