A top US senator on Friday called for wider federal scrutiny into Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s marketing of diesel-powered sports utility vehicles (SUVs), as British regulators sought answers from the Italian-American automaker in the aftermath of Volkswagen AG’s emissions scandal.
Shares of Fiat Chryler slid 2.2 percent after Senator Bill Nelson urged the US Federal Trade Commission to probe whether Fiat Chrysler had deceptively marketed its diesel-powered SUVs.
The call came as the company faced possible fines of up to US$4.6 billion as a result of another investigation, by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Volkswagen AG on Wednesday last week agreed to pay the largest-ever US criminal fine levied on an automaker to settle charges that it conspired for nearly 10 years to cheat on diesel emission tests.
On Thursday, the EPA accused Fiat Chrysler of violating the law by using hidden software to allow excess diesel emissions to go undetected in about 104,000 vehicles.
The EPA said they were “illegally sold” because the software was not disclosed to regulators. Fiat Chrysler could face fines of up to US$4.6 billion, the agency said.
UK regulators on Friday said they were urgently seeking information from the EPA over its allegation.
Fiat Chrysler has marketed the SUVs as EcoDiesels which are “clean by nature” and exceed emissions requirements. The 2014-2016 diesel Ram 1500 HFE and Jeep Grand Cherokee pickups under investigation won several “green” car awards.
The company on Thursday said the US Department of Justice was also investigating the emissions issue.
The EPA and California Air Resources Board told Fiat Chrysler they believed its undeclared emissions software allowed vehicles to generate excess pollution in violation of the law.
Fiat Chrysler chief executive Sergio Marchionne angrily rejected the allegations on Thursday, saying there was no wrongdoing and the company had never attempted to create software to cheat emissions rules by detecting when the vehicle was in test mode.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained