Tag: ban

Bill would ban Texas auto sellers from ‘forced financing’

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Texas state senators have overwhelmingly accredited a bill barring vehicle dealerships from penalizing or denying purchasers seeking to acquire autos with hard cash or financing organized outdoors the retail store.

Should Senate Bill 1464 move the Dwelling and be signed into regulation, it could be the initial restriction on these kinds of “forced financing” nationwide, in accordance to a Texas Senate examination produced in late March.

SB 1464 would forbid an auto dealership from necessitating buyers to use financing from the retailer or its partner loan providers, transactions that generate finance-and-insurance coverage income for dealerships. The monthly bill would also prohibit dealerships from charging far more to buyers who bring funds or outdoors financing to a offer.

A dealership also “could not make a bogus or misleading representation that is inconsistent with this portion,” the bill’s language claims.

If signed into legislation, the monthly bill would consider effect Sept. 1 it would not influence specials executed prior to then.

A random Texas Car Sellers Affiliation sample of vendors discovered 70 p.c of auto financial loans and leases included dealerships’ companion loan providers, whilst the remaining 30 per cent included outside financing or potential buyers paying hard cash, in accordance to association CEO of Legislative Affairs Rob Braziel.

The Texas Workplace of Client Credit rating Commissioner has received 121 grievances about compelled funding between August 2021 and February 2023, according to condition Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, the bill’s primary author.

“Members, this is a statewide difficulty,” West, D-Dallas, advised the Senate Organization and Commerce Committee on March 30.

The bill’s supporters contain the Texas Bankers Association, the Independent Bankers Association of Texas and the Credit Union Coalition of Texas as perfectly as person credit unions.

“We recognized it throughout the [vehicle] scarcity,” Texas Folks Federal Credit score Union CEO Stuart Himmelstein explained to the committee, but he claimed compelled funding has continued.

“It is really developing and expanding each and every working day,” he reported.

Braziel also testified on the laws ahead of the Senate Enterprise and Commerce Committee on March 30. At the time, the Texas Auto Sellers Affiliation took no formal position on the monthly bill “since we were seeking to do the job with the writer on some other ideas and language,” Braziel wrote in an electronic mail April 27. “That has not arrive to go … but we continue on to function through the legislative approach to address our problems.”

The Texas Auto Dealers Affiliation does not help the edition of SB 1464 that passed the Senate, Braziel confirmed April 27.

Braziel told senators in March that a dealership may possibly refuse a customer’s funding resource simply because of an concern with that loan provider. Some lenders are sluggish to shell out the dealer — or hardly ever end up sending the resources, he explained.

In contrast to Himmelstein, Braziel reported forced financing is on the decline.

“As inventory has normalized, we are not seeing all those matters in the market nowadays,” he reported.

Sen. José Menéndez,

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VW criticizes Entire world Cup organizers about One particular Enjoy ban

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BERLIN — Volkswagen mentioned it will proceed to sponsor the German Football Affiliation (DFB), but the automaker criticized Globe Cup organizer FIFA, the sports global governing human body, for its quasi-ban on the One particular Adore armband.

“We do not intend to end our sponsorship,” VW said when asked by German news outlet NDR. “There have been lots of very good developments at the DFB in recent months. And we want to keep on performing with the DFB in the long run on favourable adjustments in soccer as a full.”

Even so, the actions of FIFA, which experienced declared it would sanction players who wore the “One Enjoy” armband for the duration of their game titles at the Planet Cup in Qatar, was “unacceptable,” VW said.

VW would have welcomed “if the European federations experienced sent such a seen sign for variety at this event,” the automaker reported in a statement. “The discussions and reactions display that some thing fundamental urgently desires to improve in entire world soccer.”

The “A person Appreciate” marketing campaign was a joint marketing campaign declared in September by the teams from Germany, England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Wales, France, Denmark, as properly as Norway and Sweden, neither of which experienced for the Environment Cup.

The vibrant captain’s armband was to be worn at the Entire world Cup as a image of equality and independence of expression.

The armband is controversial in Qatar, which has been criticized for disregarding human legal rights requirements.

The German grocery retail store chain Rewe has by now terminated its cooperation with the DFB because of to the FIFA selection. Other DFB sponsors together with Telekom, manner brand van Laack, Adidas and Coca-Cola will all adhere to their partnership.

“We do not consider in building hasty conclusions and must first fully grasp the track record to the DFB’s selection. That is why we will focus on the full challenge with the DFB in a timely fashion,” a Telekom spokesperson mentioned when asked by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

“In basic principle, Telekom stands for what unites people today, societies and cultures. It does not tolerate discriminatory acts, unethical and immoral actions or the violation of the dignity or legal rights of other people.”

In 2021, VW extra rainbow hues to its marketing banners through the Euro 2020 soccer match to exhibit its support for diversity and LGBT legal rights.

The final decision adopted event organizers UEFA’s refusal to let Munich town authorities to light-weight up the city’s Allianz Arena stadium with the rainbow flags throughout Germany’s recreation from Hungary.

Munich’s mayor had required to use the rainbow colours, generally affiliated with the LBGT motion, to illuminate the Allianz Arena in protest at the Hungarian government’s new legislation that bans the sharing of any content seen as endorsing homosexuality and gender modify to below-18s.

UEFA refused the mayor’s ask for, saying it could not support “political” messages.

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U.S. offers blow to China tech ambitions with Nvidia chip ban

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The U.S. government’s new restrictions on the capability of Nvidia to offer synthetic intelligence chips to Chinese consumers threatens to offer a large blow to the country’s improvement of a sweeping variety of chopping-edge technologies.

The Santa Clara, California-centered corporation disclosed in a regulatory filing this week it can no for a longer period market specific significant-conclusion chips in China with out a license from Washington.

These AI accelerators go into massive data facilities to teach AI models for tasks these kinds of as autonomous driving, picture recognition and voice help.

Nvidia has almost a 95 percent share of that current market, in accordance to Fubon Securities Expense Products and services estimates, and the relaxation is accounted for by State-of-the-art Micro Equipment, a fellow US chip business that is certain by the very same export constraints.

With no entry to their equipment, tech giants that depend on large server farms to acquire almost everything from electrical and self-driving vehicles to social and cloud solutions will be at a disadvantage to intercontinental level of competition.

“This is the new Cold War reality and broader export limits are part and parcel of this,” stated Amir Anvarzadeh of Asymmetric Advisors.
“The export limitations will broaden and it will effects semiconductors, AI, autonomous systems and biotech.”

The escalated trade curbs, which Washington did not signal it was looking at prior to imposing them, add to existing sanctions and limits on exports of chipmaking equipment to China.

Chinese semiconductor firms are presently denied accessibility to the most superior lithography products from the Netherlands’ ASML Holding and reducing-edge gear from American suppliers which includes Lam Analysis.

The the latest CHIPS Act in the U.S. forces worldwide chipmakers to proficiently decide on among investing in the U.S. and China.

Now that Washington is restricting entry to AI items as perfectly, it’s developed another chokepoint for Beijing’s tech expansion although working on rising its possess domestic semiconductor ability.

The head of just one of China’s foremost EV brands rapidly decried the limitations.

The steps will “bring a obstacle to the cloud schooling of all autonomous driving,” He Xiaopeng, the CEO of XPeng, reported on his WeChat account.

Nvidia is a leader in supplying the hardware for autonomous driving — both equally for building the algorithms in massive server farms and providing the onboard processors for automobiles to be conscious of their surroundings.

Washington has told Nvidia that the new curbs are developed to stop advanced AI equipment being utilised for or diverted to military needs by China or Russia.

In June of this year, Washington, DC-primarily based consider tank The Heart for Protection and Emerging Technological innovation explained almost all of the 97 AI chips in community Chinese military services buy data concerning April and November 2020 were built by U.S. providers Nvidia, Intel, Microsemi or Xilinx, which is now aspect of AMD.

However, the brunt of the impression will be felt by Nvidia alone and China’s biggest tech corporations these types of as Alibaba Group and Tencent,

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West Virginia Moves to Ban OTA Updates

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West Virginia would like to ban Tesla and other automakers from sending out more than-the-air updates, among the other items, to auto entrepreneurs. In a letter from the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (Vehicle Innovators) received by CleanTechnica, the group lists all of the concerns it has with this problematic invoice that was initially made to reward sellers.

The group is using a stand in opposition to the bill due to the fact, if made into legislation, it would damage buyers in order to gain car dealers. The letter was sent to me by an nameless source who explained that the monthly bill, HB 4560, was introduced by the dealership trade association. It is fundamentally developed to defend dealership pursuits. Nevertheless, it overreaches to a place where it would damage the two consumers and dealers by blocking on the internet automobile purchases, above-the-air updates, and even advertising and marketing by auto manufacturers.

In the letter, Vehicle Innovators wrote:

“Rather than leveling the participating in area in between sellers and companies, this monthly bill would considerably change the legal rights and obligations of automotive brands and their franchised sellers in West Virginia. Quite a few of the proposed changes would benefit dealers but would ultimately impose fees and inconvenience on the citizens of West Virginia.

“Auto Innovators has identified certain fears and challenges with Residence Bill 4560, which if enacted would have impacts far past the vendor-company partnership. Auto Innovators and its members would take pleasure in the option to surface right before the Property Judiciary Committee to explore these concerns in additional detail and reply any inquiries committee associates may possibly have related to HB 4560.”

West Virginia HB 4560 Language On OTA Updates

One particular of the fears with the language of this invoice is that it would ban auto manufacturers such as Tesla from doing above-the-air software program updates for its consumers. The bill states:

“Except for experimental small-volume not-for-retail sale vehicles, lead to warranty and remember mend function to be carried out by any entity other than a new motor vehicle dealer, together with publish-sale software and components upgrades or variations to automobile functionality and options, and components for new motor vehicles bought by a certified new motor car or truck dealer. Furnished nevertheless, this language shall not contain any submit-sale software package updates to the motor vehicle’s navigation or amusement program.”

In the letter, Car Innovators pointed out that the language is designed to prohibit producers from providing over-the-air updates right to consumers’ cars. So far, no other condition has produced these kinds of a useless legislation. The group writes:

“Over-the-air updates enable individuals to update their automobiles from the convenience of their driveways, without having the want to travel all the way to the dealership. This language would prevent producers from using people above-the-air car updates in West Virginia.

“This is a sophisticated and cutting edge matter, but the biggest issue below is that proscribing software package updates would needlessly damage people and probably build

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Industry lobbies against 2040 UK ban on new diesel trucks | Automotive industry

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The UK automotive industry is privately lobbying against the proposed 2040 introduction of a ban on sales of new diesel trucks, amid a split between manufacturers over when heavy goods vehicles should abandon fossil fuels.

In July the government revealed plans to ban internal combustion engines in new lorries after 2040, following a ban on petrol and diesel cars after 2035 to help tackle the climate crisis. It is now consulting on the measure.

The automotive lobby group, the Society for Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), says publicly that the proposed ban is a “bold commitment” that would require financial support from the government. However, it has told MPs privately that a ban should be delayed, according to responses to the official consultation.

The responses were obtained through a formal request by InfluenceMap, a thinktank that tracks climate lobbying, which shared them with the Guardian.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA), which represents trucking companies, said the ban should be delayed until 2045 for lorries over 32 tonnes in weight. It supported earlier bans for smaller lorries.

Some individual truckmakers do support bans on fossil fuel internal combustion engines in heavy goods vehicles in 2040 or earlier, the responses show. They include Volvo Trucks and Renault, both owned by Volvo Group, the world’s second biggest truckmaker, as well as DAF Trucks and Tesla.

Car sales are already moving rapidly to electric power, but heavy goods vehicles are much harder to electrify because of the heavy loads they carry over long distances, making batteries much less effective. Lorries were responsible for 19m tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2019, 16% of UK emissions from transport, according to government figures.

Ben Youriev, a transport analyst at InfluenceMap, said: “Cutting emissions from road transport will be critically important for the UK achieving its net zero targets, yet the UK’s automotive industry group is lobbying to make that task harder. The SMMT is siding with its most regressive members to oppose a 2040 UK phase-out date for heavy-duty vehicles, despite the recommendations of the UK’s Climate Change Committee.”

The SMMT consultation response said: “Without clarity on the viable future solutions required for zero-emission HGVs, we do not support setting an end-of-sale date.”

It said the industry was committed to zero-emission HGVs “where technology options are viable and the business case for investment allows”, but that “some specific use cases are likely to be more challenging”.

Tesla’s electric truck is unveiled during a presentation in California in 2017. Photograph: Alexandria Sage/Reuters

Mike Hawes, the SMMT’s chief executive, said in a statement: “SMMT and its members do not oppose setting an end-of-sale date, but we need plans before bans. The HGV sector is committed to be fossil fuel free by 2040 and in some use cases it will be possible to switch to zero-emission trucks before this date – but at present there is no clear alternative technology available for every single HGV operation.”

Rod McKenzie, the managing director of policy at the RHA, said more time was

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