Short torque

GM faces barrage of accusations

Lawyers for car owners suing General Motors over faulty ignition switches and other defects on Thursday accused the carmaker of meddling in settlement talks and having issued threats that led to the canceling of an agreement. Under a deal with a trust that holds many GM liabilities from before its 2009 bankruptcy, the automaker would have been forced to pay $1 billion in shares to resolve millions of claims. The claims stem from GM's 2014 recall of 2.6 million vehicles with defective ignition switches, including one linked to 124 deaths.

Fiat Chrysler joins BMW R&D group

Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler on Wednesday said it was joining a BMW-led group to develop fully self-driving vehicles, the latest merger in an industry racing to get ready for the cars of the future. German luxury carmaker BMW began working on the project with United States computer chip giant Intel and the Israeli tech firm Mobileye last year. The group aims to have their first fully automated cars in production by 2021. German car parts supplier Continental and United Kingdom-based auto-equipment maker Delphi have also since joined the collaboration.

Takata given 90-day lawsuits reprieve

The United States Bankruptcy Judge, Brendan Linehan Shannon, has halted Takata airbag lawsuits for 90 days so that the parts company and automakers, including Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, can focus on developing a plan to reorganize the company in bankruptcy. A key part of that effort will involve dealing with claims related to a US recall of 43 million airbag inflators. At least 17 deaths have been linked to the devices worldwide. Mounting liabilities associated with the faulty airbags forced Takata to seek a buyer that would see it through the costly restructuring process.

Motoring - Agencies

(China Daily 08/21/2017 page19)