Steve caught up with McKenna Valley, from our portfolio company SparkServ, to discuss their thesis that the biggest growth opportunity in automotive isn't selling more cars—it's bringing customers back to service before they ever think about going somewhere else. | LINK

A new automotive startup is betting that Americans are so fed up with high car prices they will consider buying a two-seat, all-electric pickup truck with hand-crank windows and no radio. Slate Auto, a Michigan-based carmaker backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is racing to begin production later this year of its first model: an overtly spartan, compact truck that will start in the mid-$20,000 range. Trucks like these have been missing from U.S. roads for over a decade. Car buyers today have only eight new models to choose from under $25,000, with automakers warning that it is difficult, if not impossible, to turn a meaningful profit on such vehicles. Slate thinks it can buck that trend. “A U.S. automaker can make an affordable vehicle—and not only an affordable vehicle, but an affordable vehicle that people love,” said Peter Faricy, Slate’s chief executive. Faricy said gross margins will be positive for the base truck, and he expects costs to decline further for customers once Slate proves itself to its suppliers. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The surge in pedestrian deaths has baffled researchers. Most other wealthy countries haven’t seen similar increases, suggesting that possible culprits like smartphones don’t tell the whole story. Other likely causes of deadly crashes, such as drunken and distracted driving, have attracted immense attention from the public and policymakers. But the trend toward ever-larger vehicles has received much less scrutiny, even after federal researchers in 2022 cautioned regulators that it was endangering pedestrians. After analyzing federal and industry records, including never-before-examined data on vehicle dimensions, The New York Times found that the rise of large pickups and S.U.V.s is an important factor. Their estimate is that about 200 to 400 pedestrians a year would not have died if vehicles had remained approximately the same size over the past quarter-century. That represents about 10 percent of the recent increase in pedestrian deaths. There are two reasons bigger vehicles are deadlier: They have taller hoods. And they tend to have larger blind zones. | The New York Times ($)

In an embarrassing twist of fate, American-made vehicles imported to Japan from Toyota and Nissan come with a notice for buyers—the quality might not be up to par with what Japanese buyers expect. Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a trade agreement that opened the island nation to U.S.-made vehicles. Toyota and Nissan are now shipping the American-made Tundra, Highlander, and Murano to the island nation, but they might have defects domestic buyers aren’t used to seeing. The notice on the Murano states (translated) that "this vehicle is manufactured to specifications intended for overseas markets and differs in quality standards applied to vehicles destined for the Japanese domestic market." The notice continues, stating that the SUV may have dust particles in the paint, traces of sealant residue, or misaligned or uneven panels and gaps. Thankfully, Nissan notes, "These differences do not affect the vehicle’s functionality or performance, so you may use it with confidence." Toyota has a similar warning on the Tundra and Highlander, stating that the paint finishes are "designed for overseas markets" and that customers may notice thin paint, color variations, polishing marks, and dents. | Motor1

It was one of the easiest ways to make a diesel truck faster, more powerful and more reliable: Pay a local shop to quietly gut the emissions controls with an illegal “defeat device.” Now the federal government has largely stopped prosecuting the people who sell and install them. The devices, which often include both hardware and software, began exploding in popularity about 20 years ago as pollution-control systems made tailpipe emissions cleaner but put more strain on engines. Some truck owners and mechanics have called defeat devices a necessity. By 2020, the most recent numbers available, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated that the emissions controls had been removed from more than 550,000 diesel pickup trucks over the prior decade, or roughly 15 percent of all diesel trucks originally certified with those controls. The effect, the agency found, was the equivalent of adding more than nine million additional diesel pickups to American roads, spewing harmful nitrogen oxides at levels up to 300 times the legal limits. After a headline-grabbing case in 2015 in which Volkswagen Group was caught secretly using defeat-device software in millions of its cars, the U.S. Department of Justice began to pursue criminal charges under the Clean Air Act against shop owners who installed the devices on individual vehicles. Those prosecutions have now ended, according to a Justice Department post on X earlier this year that went little-noticed outside the trucking world. | The New York Times ($)

The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security denied Polestar an authorization under the current Connected Vehicle Rule to sell cars in the U.S. from model year 2027 on. That’s because Polestar is a subsidiary of Geely, a Chinese automaker. Ironically, Polestar’s sister brand, also owned by Geely, Volvo Cars, was granted the authorization in May. Why Volvo was granted the authorization and Polestar was not is unclear. “We have no insight into Polestar’s authorization approval process,” a Volvo spokesperson told The Drive. | The Drive

Polestar says the Trump administration is barring U.S. sales of its electric vehicles after the current model year as part of a prohibition on Chinese-linked connected technology. The June 25 announcement hit dealers hard. Polestar told dealers the decision stems from Biden-era provisions on hardware, software and Chinese ownership that the current administration has upheld. The company will not receive certification to operate for the 2027 model year and beyond. Polestar has 32 dealerships in the U.S. Those that remain with the brand largely will become service points for existing customers only, with franchise investments handled on a case-by-case basis. | Automotive News ($)

At Longo Toyota in El Monte, Calif., more than 800 customers are waiting for a 2026 Toyota RAV4 — and that waitlist keeps growing despite the dealership delivering over 200 of the redesigned crossovers in May alone. And Earl Stewart Toyota in Lake Park, Fla., presold each of the 40 new RAV4s offered on its website, weeks or months before delivery. Toyota Motor Corporation dealerships nationwide are struggling with the same issue: Outsized consumer demand for one of the nation’s most popular nameplates and restricted supplies while the three plants worldwide that produce RAV4s ramp up output. | Automotive News ($)

Nearly nine million jobs were lost between December of 2007 and early 2010. Forced to make tough spending choices, many Americans prioritized their car payment over the mortgage, weighing the urgent need for personal transportation—work and groceries, church and medical appointments—against the relatively slow-moving process of home foreclosure. Even so, at the recession’s peak, in 2009, 1.8 million cars were repossessed, according to Cox Automotive, an unprecedented number. Repossessors and tow-truck drivers work different jobs but use the same equipment. The tow truck was patented in 1918 by Ernest Holmes, Sr., the owner of an auto-repair shop in Chattanooga, Tennessee, who pulled vehicles out of ditches using a modified Cadillac and chains. Today’s tow trucks, also known as wreckers, are computerized work stations with integrated digital dashboards, camera systems, blind-spot monitoring, and hydraulic rotators. | The New Yorker ($)

One in three US drivers drove uninsured at some point last year, according to a Coverage Professor survey of 1,000 licensed drivers. The findings point to a deepening affordability problem with direct implications for brokers. Clients who lapse, downgrade, or cancel coverage represent both an E&O risk and a re-engagement opportunity. Agents who identify the warning signs early are better positioned to intervene before a policy falls off entirely. The survey found 56% of drivers delayed a renewal or missed a payment in the past year. An additional 32% canceled a policy outright to cut costs. Among those who reduced or dropped coverage, 44% cited premium increases as the primary reason. | Insurance Business

Gregory Arroyo from StoneEagle tracks dealership front-end gross margins (for new cars) since before COVID. In 2019, average front gross on a new vehicle was negative $75. Pricing transparency and intense competition made it difficult to hold gross on new units. As semiconductor shortages worsened and days’ supply shrank to historic lows, new-vehicle front gross climbed from $517 in January 2021 to $3,553 by December. The trend continued into 2022, when average new-vehicle front gross exceeded $3,100 per deal. In April 2022 alone, dealers averaged $3,366 in front gross on new vehicles. For context, that’s more than 10 times the $311 per new vehicle retail in April 2026. | StoneEagle

According to a recent iSeeCars study, America's roads have become dramatically less colorful over the past three decades; gray passenger vehicles have surged in popularity by more than 500 percent since 1996, while red cars have seen their market share fall by more than 65 percent. The study analyzed more than 22 million used vehicles from model years 1996 through 2025 sold between January 2025 and May 2026. The results paint a rather dull picture. The grayscale colors of white, black, gray, and silver now account for 80.4 percent of all vehicles on the road, compared to just 47.3 percent in 1996. It seems today's buyers are increasingly choosing safe, neutral colors over anything that might stand out in a parking lot. Thankfully, sports car buyers are helping keep some color alive. While ROY G BIV are dominated by WBGS paints here as well, enthusiasts remain far more willing to embrace bold paint choices than the average car buyer: non-grayscale colors account for 36.2 percent of sports cars, nearly double the 19.6 percent market share they hold across the broader vehicle market. Still, the gray invasion is very much in effect. In 1996, just 3 percent of sports cars were painted that shade; today, gray is the most popular sports car color, at 21.2 percent. Red has moved in the opposite direction, falling from 23.4 percent of sports cars in 1996 to just 10.8 percent today. | Road&Track ($)

U.S. smartphone adoption, pedestrian fatalities, and the average weight of SUVs/pickups. | Reddit

The New York Times published a rather damning study about America’s simmering pedestrian safety crisis. A lot of the comments say a variant of the same thing: “It’s the cell phones, stupid!” Is it, though? Look, it’s a perfectly reasonable argument at face value. The Apple iPhone was introduced in 2007; pedestrian deaths in the United States began ticking up roughly two years later, and peaked during the pandemic. This would all check out beautifully if it weren’t for one little catch: They have cellphones outside the United States, too. What does that have to do with anything? Simple: If cell phones are responsible for the uptick in pedestrian deaths, that trend should be visible wherever smartphone adoption and car ownership overlap—the world’s powerhouse economies, in other words. But this isn't the case... | The Drive

Porsche is accelerating its retreat from the broad narrative it sold to investors when the company went public in 2022 with the pledge of becoming the new benchmark in automotive luxury. Facing its failure to meet nearly every target promised at the time of the IPO, Porsche CEO Michael Leiters said the company plans to slim its model lineup, deepen cooperation with Volkswagen Group and pursue further job cuts in a bid to revive profitability. Struggling under the weight of U.S. tariffs that have shattered Porsche’s export-centred business model, collapsing demand in China and a slower-than-expected transition to electric vehicles, Leiters warned investors not to expect a quick return to Porsche’s historically high profitability. “In the short term, we will not see a return to the targeted margins we have seen in the past,” Leiters told shareholders June 23. | Automotive News ($)

Uber and Lyft, the two most popular ride-hailing companies in the U.S., routinely charge different customers significantly different prices for the same rides, a monthslong Consumer Reports investigation has found. Across the routes they tested, the median difference between the lowest and highest price groupings was about 50 percent. Both apps also regularly entice customers to book rides by offering supposed discounts on what appeared to be inflated original prices, a practice that experts say not only is deceptive and manipulative but also may violate several states’ consumer-protection laws. They found that nearly 11 percent of all discounts advertised on both platforms fell into this category. They believe these discounts to be fake—what experts and regulators call false reference pricing or fictitious discounts. Uber and Lyft deny that they engage in any fictitious pricing, attributing the findings to real-time marketplace conditions. | Consumer Reports

In the yet-unwritten history of electric pickups, the Tesla Cybertruck would appear around the end of Chapter One, when things look their darkest—and dumbest. First delivered to customers in 2023, Tesla’s stainless-skinned, knife-edged pickup went on to become about as popular as tetanus. Propelled by CEO Elon Musk’s inimitable charm, sales collapsed after the first year; resale values also cratered, as few wanted to rehome Musk’s troubled teen. At the end of Chapter Two—roughly December 2025—Ford Motor Company announced a record $19.5 billion in EV-related losses, mostly owing to the Edsel-like failure of its F-150 Lightning pickup. Meanwhile, in a boardroom across town, General Motors was writing down its own $6 billion loss. At this point, consumers could have easily concluded electric pickups were never going to happen. Yet at that moment—in sequestered design studios scattered around California—engineering boffins were up to their elbows in the next generation of EV pickups, and still are. Some work for startups, others represent legacy giants—most notably, Ford, which has put $5 billion toward its Universal Electric Vehicle Platform. One will attempt to leverage a radical minimalism (Slate Auto); another a redefining scale (the TELO Trucks MT1); still others a magical name (Scout Motors Inc. and Ram). The title of Chapter Three? Less is More. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

Just five years ago, Honda’s chief executive, Toshihiro Mibe, was widely hailed as a visionary. He pledged that by 2040, the Japanese automaker — long celebrated for its mastery of internal-combustion engines — would spend tens of billions of dollars to phase them out in favor of electric vehicles. The bold shift won applause from Wall Street, then bullish on all things E.V., and environmental groups that had criticized rival Japanese automakers for clinging to hybrid and gasoline-powered cars. More recently, however, Mr. Mibe’s vision has unraveled in a way the chief executive has called “heartbreaking.” | The New York Times ($)

Chinese competition terrifies automakers in the U.S. industry who have seen their sales plunge in China, the world’s largest car market, in recent years as China’s subsidized, innovative industry exploded EV-and-hybrid sales. China ​has also emerged from nowhere to become the world’s largest auto exporter, surpassing Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States, largely on the strength of gasoline cars displaced from China’s rapidly electrifying market. Chinese carmakers are currently blocked by steep U.S. tariffs and a ban on Chinese connected-car hardware and software. U.S. lawmakers are working to codify that ​ban, fearing that U.S. President Donald Trump might strike a grand trade bargain with China's government involving cars. Trump has publicly suggested several times that he might allow Chinese carmakers into the country if they build U.S. factories. | Reuters ($)

For decades, American companies maintained a huge technological lead over their Chinese competitors. U.S. firms came to China to manufacture their goods more cheaply. As a price of entry, the Chinese government forced foreign companies into partnerships where Chinese firms could learn from them and absorb their more advanced technology. In at least a few sectors, that equation has flipped, with China racing ahead of the United States. From batteries and solar panels to rare earths and life sciences, China is developing some of the world’s most advanced technologies, and it is rapidly deploying plans to corner other markets. | The New York Times ($)

BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu has set a bold target: overtake Toyota Motor Corporation as the world’s largest automaker by 2030. The goal would require BYD to more than double its sales in just four years — a feat the chairman says will hinge on breakthrough battery technology and rapid overseas expansion. “I believe BYD will achieve significant [sales] growth by 2030,” Wang said. “That is, in five years, it will become truly the world’s No. 1 in terms of scale.” BYD said its global sales rose 7.7 percent to 4.6 million vehicles in 2025. Toyota delivered record global sales of 11.3 million vehicles in 2025, riding hot U.S. demand and surging hybrids to keep its global sales crown. Wang did not offer a volume target for 2030, but his vision implies a doubling of sales in four years. | Automotive News ($)

Nissan can now compress months of software development time into just hours as it races to catch Chinese rivals in digitally-driven cars of tomorrow. The Japanese carmaker says the technique leverages cloud-based artificial intelligence technologies to design, test and troubleshoot new automotive software systems. The approach underpins a new software-defined vehicle platform Nissan will deploy this fiscal year. Nissan did not say what vehicle would get the new technology first or say what vehicle systems would be controlled or operated by the new onboard software. | Automotive News ($)

European automakers including BMW, Volkswagen and Stellantis are pooling resources through Eclipse S-CORE to share code for software-defined vehicles. The initiative targets 40 percent development cost cuts by 2030 by standardizing nondifferentiating foundational components. Experts question whether collaboration can address speed and software expertise gaps compared with Chinese automakers. Open source initiatives bring many parties together, which experts say slows decision-making in contrast to faster Chinese competitors. | Automotive News ($)

Sometimes, a new competitor emerges that blows traditional rivals out of the water. TV makers like Philips and Grundig found they could not compete with South Korea’s LG and Samsung; European shipbuilders lost their dominance to Asian counterparts. Carmakers Volkswagen, Stellantis, BMW and peers urgently need to figure out how to avoid the same fate. The key problem, for European automotive companies, is China. Its electric-vehicle manufacturers — companies such as BYD, NIO and Leapmotor — sell cars that are 20 to 50 percent cheaper than western alternatives, according to McKinsey & Company analysis. Having run rings around the Europeans in China, companies from the People’s Republic are now gaining ground abroad too. With all but the very top end of the car market now commoditized, it is hard to imagine this trend reversing. The best that domestic carmakers can hope for is that the European Union, which is waking up to their howls of angst, will protect them from Chinese competitors for some time at least, giving them time to adapt. But whichever way one cuts it, adapting will be painful. Most carmakers are, to varying extents, attempting to close manufacturing capacity and cut costs. When BMW issued its giant profit warning last week, for instance, it said it would wield the axe to counter the pressures on the auto industry. But, with their market share continuing to decline, this is a never-ending process. And planned cuts and closures tend to hit roadblocks from local politicians and trade unions. | Financial Times ($)

Canada offers the perfect beachhead for what many industry experts view as the inevitable invasion of Chinese cars into the United States, despite current U.S. policies effectively banning them. Canada offers more than proximity to advance Chinese automakers’ U.S. ambitions. Unlike Mexico, where cheaper cars rule, Canada’s car market is almost identical to the United States in consumer tastes and industry ​regulations. Shifting to the United States later would be like “flipping a switch," said Dan Hearsch, global co-leader of consultancy AlixPartners' automotive practice."Canada is the practice run for the U.S.," says Robert Kerwal, director of automotive solutions at JD Power Canada. Chinese competition terrifies automakers in the U.S. industry who have seen their sales plunge in China, the world’s largest car market, in recent years as China’s subsidized, innovative industry exploded EV-and-hybrid sales. China ​has also emerged from nowhere to become the world’s largest auto exporter, surpassing Germany, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and the United States, largely on the strength of gasoline cars displaced from China’s rapidly electrifying market. | Reuters ($)

No fewer than 143 EV brands sold at least one car last year. But 46 of them did not sell more than 1,000, according to AlixPartners, an advisory firm. Even so, 23 new EV brands were launched while just nine were halted. Only ten Chinese companies managed to sell at least 1m cars apiece in 2025, accounting for 84% of the total. However, that share was down slightly from the year before, suggesting that the consolidation of China’s EV market that industry insiders have long predicted is yet to take place. Only occasionally does an entire company collapse. Hozon Auto, which made the Neta EV brand, is in the process of doing so. It suddenly stopped paying many of its employees last year and attracted headlines when angry staff cornered the founder at his Shanghai office demanding their wages. Still, things look rather bleak for the industry in 2026. Overall car sales in China have been falling swiftly. In April they were down by a fifth from a year earlier, marking the seventh straight month of decline. The central government has criticised EV-makers for engaging in a vicious price war since 2023. Prices started rising in May, suggesting that the industry may have started listening to the state. But BYD, the world’s largest EV-maker, attributes this instead to rising costs for components such as chips and batteries, which may mean margins remain under pressure. As demand falls and prices rise at home, China’s carmakers will become even more reliant on foreign sales, which are advancing in leaps and bounds. In April they were up 80% year on year. Setting up foreign distribution networks is costly and time-consuming. But as pressure on the industry continues to intensify, foreign sales, which tend to have higher margins, will make all the difference. China’s EV-makers are eager to hoover them up. | The Economist ($)

Billionaire Robin Zeng, co-founder and CEO of Chinese battery giant Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL), is one of China’s richest people and perhaps the ultimate avatar of the country’s in-your-face confidence that this is its moment. Arguably more than any other single Chinese entrepreneur, 58-year-old Zeng powerfully reflects the stark threat that many in the West fear in China’s growing technological prowess. Though you may have only vaguely—or possibly never—heard of Zeng and CATL, he and his company are to batteries what Jensen Huang and NVIDIA are to AI chips. CATL manufactures about 40% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, which power electric vehicles, drones, robots, grid systems and AI data centers, including xAI’s gigantic Colossus complex in Memphis. It also owns stakes in much of the metals and component supply chain it uses in those batteries. The company’s closest competitor, China’s BYD, supplies roughly 14% of the world’s batteries. U.S. companies collectively have less than 2% of the global battery market. | The Information ($)

China’s influence on the global automotive industry now extends far beyond the international expansion of automakers such as BYD, Geely, and Chery. According to industry analysts, virtually every vehicle sold worldwide contains at least one component manufactured in China or incorporates technology developed there. Eric Ramírez, director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Urban Science, said Chinese content is present across all automotive brands and vehicle categories. “I can state categorically that all brands have models with Chinese components. All of them. There is not a single one that does not,” Ramírez told Expansión.“ Each vehicle contains between 9,000 and 10,000 components, and I can assure you that at least 15% are of Chinese origin.” | Mexico Business News

The Trump administration’s Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed new changes to federal vehicle regulations that would allow companies to skip including brake pedals in “vehicles designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems.” The proposal, if adopted, would remove a major regulatory barrier for companies like Tesla and Zoox, which are developing vehicles intended to be fully autonomous, without a steering wheel or pedals. The public will now have 30 days to comment on the proposal before the DOT decides whether to approve the changes. | TechCrunch ($)

The autonomous vehicle (AV) industry loves pitching the line that their computer drivers will never get drowsy, distracted or drunk. But what about degraded? Calibration drift, often triggered by “shock and vibration, sensor noise accumulation, temperature fluctuations and general material aging,” can pose degradation issues both in hardware and software, explained Sparsh Gautam, an industry expert in computer vision, industrial automation and robotics. With Physical AI now on the agenda, underestimating calibration drift could bring unintended consequences to highly automated vehicles, robotic systems and automated manufacturing processes. | Junko Yoshida

Dozens of new robot arms have been installed at General Motors’ flagship electric vehicle factory in Detroit—even as 1,300 workers remain out of work following what was supposed to be a temporary layoff. The latest automation push has spurred union pushback over a potentially existential issue for automakers and their workers. General Motors installed approximately 50 robot arms at GM’s Factory Zero plant in Detroit, Michigan, according to reporting by Crain's Detroit Business. Made by the Japanese robotics company FANUC, the robots are designed to help attach various components to vehicles during the assembly line process. But leaders at United Auto Workers (UAW), the primary US union for autoworkers, reacted with anger to the new robotic presence, given how GM has not yet called back any of the workers affected by supposedly temporary layoffs in March. More than 1,000 union members are still “laid off indefinitely,” James Cotton, president of UAW Local 22, told The Detroit News. He said that the company could bring some of those members back to work instead of installing the 50 robots. The temporary layoffs were preceded by permanent layoffs involving another 1,200 workers at GM’s Factory Zero in October 2025. | ars Technica

Private equity investors are turning to AI-generated replicas of software to assess whether acquisition targets have a competitive advantage, as generative AI threatens to upend the industry. Bain & Company, one of the world’s leading advisers on dealmaking, is “vibecoding” — using prompts and AI to write code — to rapidly recreate pieces of target companies’ software. The mock-ups let potential buyers test how difficult the technology would be to reproduce as the cost of building software is rapidly falling, and also understand how the product could evolve. Bain staff have vibecoded hundreds of rough prototypes as part of the firm’s AI diligence work. What began in 2023 as the preserve of a dedicated team of software engineers is becoming a tool used by rank-and-file consultants. | Financial Times ($)

Some people have expressed skepticism about Elon Musk’s idea for putting AI data centers in outer space. But what does it say when even Masa thinks it’s too far out there? SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, after all, isn’t exactly a shrinking violet when it comes to wild ideas. He has his 300-year business plan and was talking about the singularity a decade ago before the idea of AGI (artificial general intelligence, or basically AI superintelligence) became a Silicon Valley buzzword. He even thought Adam Neumann, the founder of WeWork, was a visionary leader. Yet this past week, Son questioned Musk’s plans for orbital data centers. “What’s the point?” Son asked investors in Japan. | The Wall Street Journal ($)

The number of children injured from e-scooters has risen dramatically over the past five years, with children accounting for more than 45% of all e-scooter injuries in the U.S. in 2024. Doctors who work in the emergency rooms of children’s hospitals say the situation has gotten worse over the past year, with kids coming in with complex fractures, damage to internal organs, and brain injuries. To make e-scooters safer for teens, some states are crafting tougher laws, and ideally all policies would set a minimum age of 16, require helmets, and mandate some basic road safety training before a teen can head out into traffic. | Bloomberg ($)

Not far from the super yachts docked outside the island palaces of Miami’s new billionaire class, smaller boats abandoned by people who couldn’t afford them languish in Biscayne Bay. Since October, Miami Beach police have identified and removed about 140 vessels that were left to rot in the tropical heat. More sit half-submerged or anchored across the Bay, near some of the most expensive real estate in America. “A lot of people buy a boat but don’t realize how much it costs for fuel, maintenance and marina fees,” said Sergeant Javier Fernandez, commander of the Miami Beach police marine unit. | Bloomberg ($)

America’s air transport system is under strain as never before. Insiders speak of near misses in the air and of staffing shortages in critical sectors that have heightened concern about passenger safety. With traveller numbers at near-record levels, congestion is rising around major hubs while occasional federal government shutdowns are wreaking havoc on operations. Frequent flight delays and cancellations caused by technology outages have prompted federal auditors to warn of the danger posed to air safety by ageing infrastructure. | Financial Times ($)

Our Automotive Ventures “Car of the Week”: a 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO. | Bring a Trailer

Brandon Hall from Automotive Ventures portfolio company EPIC explores why loan payoff and lien release workflows remain one of the most overlooked operational bottlenecks, and how modernizing these processes can unlock significant value for dealers, lenders, and consumers alike. | Automotive News ($)

Nikhil Naikal from Automotive Ventures portfolio company Kinetic discusses how the company looks to streamline ADAS calibration using AI-enabled robotics. | Axios

Is the U.S. consumer ready to sacrifice creature comforts such as electric windows, paint, and a stereo in their quest for an affordable vehicle? Slate Auto is about to test this theory. | CBT News ($)

RockED is the premier people development platform for the automotive industry. Training Dealerships, Automotive Vendors, and OEMs to reduce lost revenue. | RockED

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