General Motors

A wave of strikes that disrupted the three largest U.S. automakers for six weeks looked to have been finally resolved, as the auto workers union reached a tentative agreement with holdout General Motors.

The GM deal announced by the United Auto Workers (UAW) union comes after pacts with Stellantis and Ford, appearing to end the strike on the "Big Three" automakers.

Ford has said the need to retore manufacturing operations outweighed the additional costs to sweeten a labor contract to end a strike that has cost it some $1.3 billion.

Ford is halting work on a major battery plant in the northern U.S. state of Michigan, the automaker has said, just seven months after launching the project with a Chinese partner.

The stoppage, which a Ford a representative confirmed to AFP, comes as the company faces a major strike along with both of the other "Big Three" U.S. automakers, Stellantis and General Motors.

With the clock ticking down to a possible strike, Detroit carmakers are staring at tough contract negotiations with an emboldened auto workers union led by a fiery new president.

Shawn Fain, who was sworn in as president of the United Auto Workers five months ago, is laying the foundation to potentially strike if there is no agreement by Sept. 14.

California authorities have taken a major step forward in expanding driverless taxi services in San Francisco, giving the green light for operators Waymo and Cruise to compete with ride-share services and cabs.

Yiannis Kiachopoulos and Artur Saudabayev's Greek startup Causaly has raised $60 million. The main investor is ICONIQ Growth, which manages funds from the wealth of billionaires in the technology sector, including Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang.

Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure "white gold" in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.

Tesla will open its North American electric vehicle charging network to cars from rival General Motors beginning in 2024, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and GM Chief Mary Barra announced on June 8.

Under the agreement, which is similar to a collaboration unveiled last month between Ford and Tesla, GM vehicle owners will have access to Tesla's 12,000 "superchargers," said a GM news release.

General Motors is recalling certain Chevrolet Silverado medium-duty trucks for model year 2019 or later, following the discovery of a potential leak in brake fluid that could result in a fire.

Potentially 40,428 vehicles could be affected.

Ford has announced an investment of $1.3 billion to retool its Canadian assembly plant in Oakville, Ontario to make electric vehicles and batteries for the North American market.