VW, U.S. nearing $3 billion agreement to resolve diesel allegations, report says

Volkswagen AG and the U.S. Justice Department are nearing an agreement to resolve the government's civil and criminal investigations that would require the German automaker to pay a penalty of more than $3 billion, sources briefed on the talks told Reuters on Friday.

The agreement is not final and could still change or fall apart but a deal could be announced as early as next week.

Volkswagen is also expected to face oversight by an outside monitor and agree to other significant reforms in connection with its diesel cheating scandal as part of a likely deferred prosecution agreement. VW has previously agreed to pay up to $17.5 billion to resolve claims by U.S. owners, federal and state regulators and dealers. read more »

Toyota Plans Years of Building Cars Largely Controlled by Humans

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to spend years designing cars in which humans retain a large measure of control, since the goal of turning all driving decisions over to computers seems too dangerous for now.

The problem, Toyota said Wednesday, is that society has come to accept 39,000 traffic fatalities a year in the U.S., mostly due to human error, but would never tolerate similar carnage involving cars controlled by computers.

Toyota is casting skepticism on the anticipation stoked by Tesla Motors Inc. and technology companies led by Alphabet Inc.’s Google on the imminent arrival of fully autonomous cars.

“None of us in the automobile or IT industries are close to achieving true Level 5 autonomy,” said Gill Pratt, chief executive officer of the Toyota Research Institute, referring to the ability of a car to drive itself without any human intervention. read more »

Mercedes Recalls About 48K SUVs to Fix Air Bag Sensor

Mercedes-Benz is recalling nearly 48,000 SUVs in the U.S. to fix a sensor problem that could stop the front passenger air bag from inflating in a crash.

The recall covers certain GL, GLE and GLS models from the 2016 and 2017 model years. Mercedes says in documents posted by U.S. safety regulators that a sensor in the front passenger seat may be calibrated incorrectly. It can classify passengers as child seats and deactivate the air bag. 

VW must face U.S. investor lawsuit in emissions scandal

Volkswagen AG and former Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn must defend an investor lawsuit in California over the company's diesel emissions cheating scandal, a U.S. judge has ruled.

The plaintiffs, mostly U.S. municipal pension funds, have accused VW of not having informed the market in a timely fashion about the issue as well as understating possible financial liabilities, according to the 41-court document seen by Reuters. read more »