The NYT's Bill Vlasic reports it has been a largely unannounced trend – and given the public opposition experienced by Japanese automakers – it is most likely an intentionally quiet entrance.
Chinese-owned companies are investing in American businesses and new vehicle technology, selling everything from seat belts to shock absorbers in retail stores, and hiring experienced engineers and designers in an effort to soak up the talent and expertise of domestic automakers and their suppliers.
Overall, most Chinese suppliers are interested in expanding their direct business with Detroit car companies. Many Detroit car companies rely on low-wage countries like Mexico to get common car parts. Chinese companies are trying to change that.
As you read this article, just remember, people laughed at Henry Ford, too, when Ford said he wanted to make a motorized vehicle that anyone could afford to buy.
More than 100 years later, Paul Elio has the same dream.
While Ford's Model T had four wheels, Elio's car has three -- two in front, and one in the back. And the car will seat only two people, but not side by side. The passenger seat is directly behind the driver's seat.
That configuration, Elio says, largely explains the car's eye-popping fuel economy of about 84 miles per gallon on the highway.
Chrysler made a lower-than-expected profit of $166 million in the first quarter, a decline of 65 percent from last year. It was not just analysts whose expectations weren't met; the CEO of the company admitted disappointment.
Sergio Marchionne said he knew the company would be "limping" in the period, due to retooling of the Toledo plant and preparations to launch the new Cherokee, but "we just didn't know how much."
Automaker Chrysler plans to put close to $20 million into one of its northwest Ohio plants.
Chrysler says the work at the machining plant just outside Toledo will go toward new equipment and tooling. The investment won't bring any new permanent jobs though.
The spending will increase capacity for a torque converter for the new 2014 Jeep Cherokee.
The plant near Perrysburg makes torque converters and steering columns for several Chrysler plants in the Midwest as well as Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. Treasury is following through on its announcement late last year that it will sell its remaining stake in General Motors in an "orderly" fashion, within 12 to 15 months.
The U.S. Treasury held a 22 percent stake in GM on December 19, 2012.
Since January, the agency has sold 58,392,078 shares of GM stock at an average price of $28.04 each, reducing its GM ownership to 18 percent.
If the Treasury continues the sell-off at that same pace, it will sell its last remaining stock by early April 2014.
U.S. traffic safety regulators have proposed voluntary measures to keep drivers from being distracted by in-car touchscreens.
In a study, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that the tasks associated with hand-held phones and other portable devices increased the risk of getting into a crash by three times.
Regulators fear in-car devices could lead to distracted driving as well.
The government's voluntary guidelines establish recommended criteria for electronic devices installed in vehicles at the time they are built.
The guidelines seek to limit the time a driver must take her eyes off the road to manipulate a device to two seconds at a time - and twelve seconds total to complete the task.
The voluntary guidelines also recommend turning off several operations while the vehicle is in motion:
Manual text entry for the purposes of text messaging and internet browsing;
Video-based entertainment and communications like video phoning or video conferencing;
Display of certain types of text, including text messages, web pages, social media content.
In a press release, U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said:
"Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic that has devastating consequences on our nation's roadways," said Secretary LaHood. "These guidelines recognize that today's drivers appreciate technology, while providing automakers with a way to balance the innovation consumers want with the safety we all need. Combined with good laws, good enforcement and good education, these guidelines can save lives."
A spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers told the Associated Press they're concerned regulations on in-car devices would encourage more use of mobile devices while driving.
Human brains do not perform two tasks at the same time. Instead, the brain handles tasks sequentially, switching between one task and another. Brains can juggle tasks very rapidly, which leads us to erroneously believe we are doing two tasks at the same time. In reality, the brain is switching attention between tasks – performing only one task at a time.
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