Automakers are investing in AI, but no one sees any benefit yet – Jalopnik

Happy Monday! It’s December 1, 2025 and this is The Morning Shift: your daily digest of the most important car news from around the world, in one place. Here are the top stories shaping the way Americans drive and get around.

In this morning’s edition, we look at carmakers’ enthusiasm for unproven AI, but also at the only country on earth that still loves Tesla. We will also look at Stellantis and Germany working together on climate change, and at European countries moving their supply chains away from China.

Automakers are pouring billions into AI-powered factory systems, promising better quality and fewer recalls, but the technology’s payoff remains unclear.

Ford and Hyundai are leading the industry in deploying AI manufacturing systems, touting the technology’s potential to detect defects before vehicles reach customers. Improving quality and reducing recalls are critical to Ford. The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker has already set a U.S. full-year recall record and is on track to lead the industry in recalls for the fourth time in five years.

The company reported that it spent $450 million on warranty costs in the third quarter of this year. But Ford wants to continue to reduce warranty costs and recalls and has touted AI as a possible solution.

“The goal is to design a product that can’t be installed incorrectly, that can’t go through the process incorrectly,” Jeff Tornabene, technology manager of Ford’s Manufacturing Technology and Development Center, told Automotive News on July 6 in an interview about the company’s AI systems.

Artificial intelligence, as we know it, is actually very good at pattern recognition – and that’s why works well in the medical worlddespite how terrible it is at text generation. That pattern recognition can be very useful in car building, to determine if something has gone wrong with an existing process (for example, a tired worker sent a car through his station too quickly, without taking the time to properly tighten the bolts), but it probably won’t cure all recalls. Especially all the Ford recalls, of which there are many.

Tesla registrations in several key European markets fell in November from a year earlier as the US EV maker continued to struggle to stem market share losses despite introducing new versions of its best-selling Model Y.

However, Norway bucked the trend with record sales in the month. The country, Tesla’s first market outside North America more than a decade ago, has been the company’s second-largest European market so far this year, behind Britain.

The number of monthly registrations, an indication of sales, fell by 58% in France to 1,593 vehicles sold, by 59% to 1,466 cars in Sweden, by 49% to 534
cars in Denmark, by 44% in the Netherlands to 1,627, and by 9% in Spain to 1,523, official data show.

But in Norway they almost tripled to 6,215 cars, surpassing the country’s annual sales record by another month.

The Norwegian enthusiasm for Tesla cars probably has nothing to do with the fact the United Nations has called out the country for racial prejudice. I guess these are just two facts that both exist without absolute connective tissue.

Stellantis Chief Executive Antonio Filosa on Monday welcomed Berlin’s call to relax the European Union’s car emissions rules, saying Germany’s proposals were in line with industry demands to revive growth in the struggling sector.

The European Commission will unveil proposals on December 10 for a package to support the automotive sector, including a review of CO2 emissions targets, amid increasing pressure from governments and manufacturers to be more flexible and allow plug-in hybrids and new fuel-powered cars after 2035.

“We welcome the German government’s support for revisions to European regulations,” Filosa said in a statement, adding that it built on the car lobby ACEA’s package of proposals, “all of which are urgently needed to get the European car industry growing again.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last week urged Brussels to allow exemptions for plug-in hybrids and high-efficiency combustion engines, arguing that carmakers need more flexibility in the fight against the slow uptake of electric vehicles and fierce competition from China.

Yes, the planet is destroyed. But for a good moment we created a lot of value for shareholders.

China’s stricter export controls are forcing European companies to explore new supply chain capacity outside the world’s second-largest economy, a European lobby group said on Monday, seeking cover for the US-China trade war.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said one in three member companies are looking to shift their sourcing from China because of Beijing’s export control regime. 40% of flash survey respondents report that the Department of Commerce is processing export licenses more slowly than promised.

“China’s export controls have increased the uncertainty felt by European companies operating in the country, with companies facing the risk of production delays or even shutdowns,” said Jens Eskelund, president of the chamber.

The restrictions have “put more pressure on a global trading system that was already under great strain,” he added.

About 130 companies took part in the survey, the chamber said, including German carmakers BMW and Volkswagen, Finnish telecommunications maker Nokia and French oil company TotalEnergies as members.

China has blocked exports of chips and magnets, but no one knows what comes next. It seems we live in an age where all we do is tamper with international trade for no real reason, harming every nation in the process. I wonder which country started that.

Everyone knows the elementary school version of the story, where Rosa Parks was tired and wouldn’t stand up to make room for a white passenger. Parks was tired, yes, but not just physically; she was tired of Jim Crow laws and had long been an activist against them. Civil rights groups in Alabama at the time were looking for a focal point on which to crack down on bus segregation laws, and Parks was part of those discussions. She knew what she was doing, she knew her rights, and she knew her actions would lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Do a little research into the civil disobedience that sparked the civil rights movement, and you’ll discover that much of it was better trained, better organized, and more planned than you were taught as a child. It takes organization to change things. Reach out to the organizations that want to change things around you.