Auto Industry News

The U.S. Department of Justice launched the previously undisclosed probe last year following more than a dozen crashes, some of them fatal, involving Tesla's driver assistance system Autopilot, which was activated during the accidents, the people said.

The factory will be closed for one week due to the ongoing problem with semiconductor shortages, Volvo said.

The talks come as auto manufacturers from Stuttgart to Seoul have been angered by Biden's $430 billion "Inflation Reduction Act", enacted in August and aimed at rolling back climate change and making Washington a world leader in the EV market.

Volkswagen disclosed a $2.6 billion investment in Argo AI, the Pittsburgh-based self-driving startup, in June 2020. Ford has invested in the start-up as well.

"As the shortage of semiconductors continues, this is a provisional measure aimed at delivering cars to customers as quickly as possible," Toyota said in a statement.

The deal's completion would mark an end to a lawsuit by Twitter, which, along with investors, now expects the deal to be completed on its original terms of $54.20 per share.

Musk, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and investors in the deal had previously suggested moving away from advertising and seeking revenue from subscriptions and other means.

As Ford, General Motors Co and other companies began to realize they would need to step up investment over a longer period of time, "it was never clear what the financial returns were going to be" on automated vehicles, Evangelos Simoudis, an investor, author and corporate adviser