EDITORIAL: A time-out for EVs and ADAS?

Mid-September of 2023 brought a United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against each of the Detroit Three automakers. Apart from the face-value issues of a strike, the UAW's extraordinary choice to hit all three automakers - at an unusually unsettled inflection point in the industry's technology progression - may have generational implications.

By some accounts, there are more than a few untied shoelaces tangling the industry's march toward electrification. The cost of EVs (their batteries, specifically) is emerging as a persistent impediment to mainstream adoption in the U.S. and Europe. The situation is magnified by post-pandemic inflation that's pressuring consumers and hiking the cost of EV-related materials; battery prices aren't declining and manufacturers and battery developers are scrambling for options - less-expensive but lower-performing lithium-iron phosphate battery chemistry is emerging as one immediate alternative.