#GM

In last week’s installment of Abandoned History, we learned about General Motors’ 1966 magnet-based primitive navigation system, DAIR. The inclusive system featured emergency messages, traffic bulletins played inside the car, and route guidance. DAIR never progressed beyond the concept stage and two total test vehicles, largely because it would have meant buried magnets and accompanying signal relay stations at every major intersection in the country. Some 25 years later The General tried it again, but technology progressed considerably by that point.

While the United Auto Workers (UAW) decided to implement an aggressive strike campaign that bucks some of the historical trends American union leadership feels did not serve the cause in the past, Canada’s Unifor has vowed to take a more measured approach during its contract negotiations with the industry. However, that does not mean simply rolling over for automakers in order to strike any old deal. 

Last week, Unifor criticized General Motors for failing to meet important elements of its pattern agreement with Ford Motor Company. With both sides failing to make any tentative agreements by the Monday deadline, Unifor has announced plans to strike in Ontario — hindering the company’s ability to manufacture light and heavy-duty pickups. 

GM’s exclusive Guidestar navigation was available on a select handful of early 90s Oldsmobiles for a very short period of time. Gone as quickly as it arrived, the expensive system was at the forefront of in-car automotive navigation. Believe it or not, it was Oldsmobile that offered the very first navigation system for a passenger vehicle in the North American market. But what happened to Guidestar that led it to be featured here at Abandoned History? The tale begins in 1966, with a genius idea.

In 2017, General Motors sold Opel and Vauxhall to Frances PSA Group — which later merged with Fiat Chrysler to form Stellantis — basically ending its involvement with the European market. However, the company vowed a return in 2023 and that’s now taking place in Switzerland.

The United Automobile Workers union has expanded its strike.

After weeks of speculation over whether the UAW and Big Three automakers would come to an agreement, we have our answer: They didn’t. Last night, the Union launched a strike against Ford, GM, and Chrysler/Stellantis, taking almost 13,000 workers off production lines and factory floors across the country.

In its current guise since 2016, the ninth-gen Chevrolet Malibu is no spring chicken; the rumor is an all-new model will arrive in 2025. And after three days and some 700 miles behind the wheel of a 2023 example, your author has a few observations and a strong overall opinion on the very last domestic midsize sedan in production. Let’s hop in and journey east, through the Appalachian Plateau.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will soon release its proposal to increase Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) requirements and General Motors has signaled its concerns regarding how much more money it will cost the automotive industry. GM is estimating that the new rules could result in manufacturers paying $100-300 billion in emission fines between 2027 and 2031.

However, the Biden administration has reportedly said it’s highly dependent on which plan is implemented — suggesting industry penalties would vary heavily between companies and average out to be far lower than GM has claimed.

Today, General Motors unveiled the beginnings of a new consumer education campaign surrounding advanced driving systems. Titled “Hands Free, Eyes On,” the movement is an effort to ensure consumers and drivers know exactly what their vehicles are and will someday be capable of.

The eventual goal is, of course, zero crashes, so along with implementing advanced driving technologies such as hands-free driving, GM is educating the public about what all of the various active-safety features, from lane-keeping assistance to adaptive cruise control all the way to hands-off driving. The campaign will live on GM.com, as well as a number of social media channels, and will evolve over time as technologies find their way into dealerships.

We've reported on Ford and GM reaching agreements to use Tesla's EV charging standard.

So the obvious question is -- who's next?

Take time away from your BBQ or the Indy 500 to check out a classic TTAC post.

Readers who are fully caffeinated will recall Cadillac’s promise to exist this decade as a purveyor of electric-only vehicles. With the Lyriq already out in the wild and Celestiq in the hopper, plus a mysterious Vistiq and Lumistiq waiting in the wings, it doesn’t take an MBA in marketing to figure out Cadillac’s new naming scheme.

Except for one: Escalade. There’s a ton of brand equity in that name, so changing it to Escaladiq would likely cause weeping in the corner offices of RenCen. How about Escalade IQ, then?

On Tuesday, General Motors confirmed Apple’s Mike Abbott as the executive vice president of its Software division — an important role considering that the automaker is betting large on shifting revenue toward connectivity. The company has been stressing the importance of integrated mobile services for years and recently announced it would be dumping Apple CarPlay so that drivers would be required to interface with its proprietary operating system.

General Motors has done something that I think might be a bit dumb. It also had me checking the calendar to make sure it was for real.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra met with Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, (D-WA) and fellow Democratic Commerce Committee member Gary Peters in Washington D.C. on Thursday to help lobby for favorable legislation pertaining to self-driving cars. Though it sounds like they were already on board with whatever GM wanted, as they’ve already started repeating familiar rhetoric designed to encourage legislators to tweak Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS).

The meetings coincide with Barra's press events discussing how the automaker would like to implement artificial intelligence (including the infamous ChatGPT) into future products.