ADAPT Automotive

The NHTSA unveils a new cloud-based recall dashboard, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a law allowing low-speed autonomous delivery vehicles to operate in the state, and Car and Driver announces the Ford Mustang Mach-E as its 2021 Electric Vehicle of the Year.

This is the ADAPT News Roundup, bring you the top headlines from the week's latest industry and tech news.

Stories featured in this week's show:

NHTSA Launches Interactive Recall Dashboard

Florida Authorizes Autonomous Delivery Vehicles

Car and Driver Names Mach-E EV of the Year

Be sure to check out ADAPT Automotive on Facebook and Twitter, and visit ADAPTautomotive.com for latest on industry trends and tech. 

Tesla recalls nearly 300,000 in China due to a cruise control system defect, NHTSA officials issue an order requiring reporting of ADAS and ADS-equipped vehicle collisions, and a Slovakian tech company successfully completes a test flight of its prototype flying car. 

This is the ADAPT News Roundup, bring you the top headlines from the week's latest industry and tech news.

Stories featured in this week's show:

Tesla Recalls More Than 285K Vehicles in China

NHTSA Orders Crash Reporting for ADAS and ADS-Equipped Vehicles

Slovakian Flying Car Completes First Inter-City Flight

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey announces the state will get the first advanced graphite processing plant in the nation, BMW begins hydrogen fuel cell road tests, and a new version of the federal infrastructure deal includes $15 billion for EV infrastructure.

This is the ADAPT news roundup, bringing you the top headlines from the week's latest industry and tech trends.

Stories featured in this week's show:

Alabama Secures First U.S. Graphite Processing Plant

BMW Begins Road Tests for Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars

Volvo to Boost EV Production in South Carolina

Proposed U.S. Infrastructure Bill Would Fund EV Charging, Electric Buses

Jason Scharton, senior global expertise delivery manager for 3M, talks with associate editor Mike Munzenrider about some of the advanced vehicle materials that collision repairers work with. 

Check out the episode for a discussion of how those materials are used in vehicles and collision repair shops.

Dustin Caldwell is the owner of Old Dominion Collision in Eugene, Ore., and his shop has been certified as part of the Tesla Approved Body Shop network.

ADAPT spoke with Caldwell about what kinds of investments he made to earn the certification, what kind of training was involved, and how it's impacted his business. 

If you're a regular listener and reader of ADAPT, then you're well aware of the growth and attention around electric vehicles.

What's not as obvious is the role that automotive shops and technicians will play in the electric future. To help answer these questions, ADAPT welcomes Frank Leutz, a shop owner and regular contributor to Ratchet+Wrench magazine. 

In this podcast episode, Leutz talks plainly about the challenges ahead and what shop owners need to know about electrification.

Frank Leutz is the owner of Desert Car Care of Chandler, Ariz. For more from Frank, visit http://bit.ly/WrenchNation.

Marketing expert Megan Williams breaks down geofencing, a marketing tactic that allows you to target potential customers based on where they travel.

It's a neat tool that helps operators be precise in marketing to customers with specific interests, or who might be in need of service at the moment.

Learn about Michigan's three testing sites for connected and autonomous vehicles, Planet M, an autonomous corridor, and more. 

While researching potential preventative maintenance services of the future, associate editor Matt Hudson spoke with Gene Smotkin, who is a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern University. He's also the founder of Nuvant Systems, which sells battery repair and reconditioning equipment.

Smotkin talked about the science and engineering behind battery performance and, more importantly, how auto shops can provide routine maintenance on batteries to keep them running longer.

This episode of ADAPT's podcast takes a look into which automakers are investing into electric vehicles and how.