Fiat Chrysler recalls 4.8 million vehicles that could get stuck in cruise control

Only one incident related to the malfunction has been reported to Fiat Chrysler (FCAU), and there are no reported injuries.

The issue can be triggered when the car accelerates while operating under cruise control, which it might do in order to maintain its speed while climbing a hill, the company said. This could potentially cause a short circuit.

When that happens, the vehicle can become locked in cruise control. The typical methods for exiting cruise control — tapping on the brakes or hitting the designated switch — can stop working.

However, drivers would still be able to slow down or stop their vehicles by hitting the brakes, shifting into neutral or both.

FCA is asking owners of the recalled vehicles to bring them into dealerships for a no-cost software update that can prevent the short circuit. In the meantime, the company is advising drivers of the involved vehicles to avoid using cruise control. Affected models include... read more »

Carmakers still cheating, says US pollution chief

As one of the team that exposed the Dieselgate scandal, Christopher Grundler of the US EPA is still hunting down emissions cheats. He thinks carmakers will continue to break laws unless there is a big shift in corporate culture.

Christopher Grundler must surely haunt the nightmares of Volkswagen executives. As director of the Office of Transportation and Air Quality at the US Environmental Protection Agency, America’s main green regulator, he helped hunt down the German carmaker’s elaborate falsification of diesel emissions from its cars.

Nearly three years after the ensuing Dieselgate scandal broke, he says VW still has a lot to do, despite paying $15 billion (€12.8 billion) in fines and ordering a massive recall. “I don’t think the VW case is over,” he told Handelsblatt. “The big question is what they are doing about their corporate culture.”

The company is finding it difficult to change, and shake off Dieselgate. Just this month, the scandal roared back to life when Porsche, a VW subsidiary, recalled 60,000 vehicles after German authorities found emissions falsification devices in the engines of new cars. read more »

Elon Musk to fix Tesla 'braking flaw'

Tesla boss Elon Musk has admitted there is a braking issue in its Model 3 cars but promised a firmware update to fix it "in the next few days".

The problems were flagged up in a review of the electric car by US website Consumer Reports.

"Our testers found flaws - big flaws - such as long stopping distances in our emergency braking test and difficult-to-use controls," wrote Patrick Olsen.

Tesla had at first disputed the findings. read more »

Who is to blame for 'self-driving car' deaths?

The confusion between fully autonomous self-driving cars and those that simply offer driver assistance technologies is leading to deaths on the road. Who is to blame and what should be done about it?

Self-driving cars already exist and there will be more of them in future, but the chances are that you won't be driven by one any time soon.

You may, however, already be using a car that can steer, brake or park by itself.

The fear is that the hype around driverless cars has led some drivers to test the limits of existing technology in ways that are downright reckless. read more »