Serial entrepreneur and TrueCar CEO Scott Painter will step down from the car-buying service he started by the end of 2015.

“After a decade of building TrueCar from an idea into a public company, I have come to the conclusion reached by many founders and entrepreneurs in my position: It is time for a change,” Painter said in TrueCar’s Q2 earnings release.

Painter will continue to serve as Chairman of TrueCar’s Board of Directors. Painter, a self-proclaimed “car guy,” along with existing board members Bernie Brenner, Tom Taira and Jim Nguyen, co-founded the service a decade ago.

Christopher Claus, a former executive with USAA, will direct the board’s search for a new CEO.

“I am honored to begin serving as the Lead Independent Director and look forward to working closely with the leadership team to build upon and execute the vision that Scott has created, as well as maintain a strong partnership with the company’s largest affinity partner, USAA,” Claus said.

The company’s second quarter was marked by yet more losses. Revenue ($65.3 million) and web traffic (more than 6 million views) both increased compared to 2014, and helped soften the blow of the $14.7 million net loss.

Have you always wanted to attend a competitive automotive event, but find the danger of motorsports off-putting? You’re in luck. American Trucking Associations has just the thing for you.

Next Thursday marks the start of the 78th annual “Super Bowl of Safety”–the 2015 National Truck Driving Championships and National Step Van Driving Championships.

More than 400 drivers from around the country will compete in America’s Gateway City for the title of Bendix National Truck Driving Championships Grand Champion.

“Safety is the trucking industry’s top priority,” said ATA Chairman Duane Long, chairman of Longistics, Raleigh, N.C., “and each year, the industry’s commitment to safety is displayed at the NTDCs. The competitors here are the safest drivers on the highway and an example for us all.”

Jackie Stewart would be proud.

The event features 431 competitors from all 50 states, including 39 first-time participants, representing 85 different companies.

The festivities begin on August 13 with the Breakfast of Champions, followed by three days of competition behind the wheel on a challenging driving course and other tests of their knowledge of safety and of the industry. Check out highlights from the 2014 championship below.

Note: The above image was not provided by the American Trucking Associations, nor does it represent the events involved. That’s a semi-truck jumping a Lotus F1 car, for crying out loud.

Nissan announced Friday that it is suspending its LM P1 World Endurance Championship program to instead focus on addressing the issues that plagued the team’s effort at Le Mans.

Nissan entered three of its brand-new GT-R LM NISMO cars in this year’s running of the legendary endurance race. Only one finished, and that car spent a substantial portion of the race in the team garage. Most of the cars’ failures were attributed to issues with their ERS, without which many of the cars’ other systems were not functional.

“We have many areas to work on – not least ensuring that we have the best ERS option available to us. The team is pushing hard on track, in the wind tunnel and at NISMO’s various facilities around the world to deliver the long list of improvements we know that we need,” said Ben Bowlby, Nissan LM P1 technical director.

The automaker emphasized that this only affects the LM P1 program. Nissan’s other global motorsports programs (Blancpain Endurance Series, Super GT, GT Academy, etc.) are not being suspended.

“We know people will be disappointed, but be assured that nobody is more disappointed than us,” said Shoichi Miyatani, president of NISMO. “We are racers and we want to compete, but we also want to be competitive. That is why we have chosen to continue our test program and prepare the GT-R LM NISMO for the strong competition we face in the World Endurance Championship. When you innovate, you don’t give up at the first hurdle. We are committed to overcoming this challenge.”

Nissan LMP1 technical director Ben Bowlby defended the program during qualifying, when problems first started to appear. He pointed out that the cars are new, requiring extensive development and tuning work ahead of and during their racing debuts.

The GT-R LM Nismo features a unique front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout, providing some aerodynamic advantages thanks to a low hood. The GT-R’s twin-turbocharged V6 engine provided weight over the front wheels to improve grip, but special traction-control management and other tricks were required to mitigate understeer.

Approximately half of the GT-R LM Nismo’s 1,250 horsepower is delivered by electric motor, however the hybrid system may have been the Achilles heel at Le Mans. The system was reportedly disabled on all three cars, including the finisher. The technology is rumored to be headed to the road-going GT-R, regardless of the racing program’s fate.

Live images by Ben Hsu.

A settlement in the ongoing legal battle over a Texas company’s use of the DeLorean Motor Company name hit a snag this week as last-minute changes by the defense drew the ire of the plaintiff’s attorney.

Sally DeLorean, widow of John Delorean, filed a lawsuit against DeLorean Motor Company of Texas in January claiming the company was using (and licensing out) her departed husband’s name and intellectual property without permission.

According to an Associated Press report, the suit alleges that DMC of Texas has been illegally using the DeLorean name to sell hats, pens, notebooks, key chains and other items, and has illegally licensed the name and images to other companies including Nike, Mattel, Urban Outfitters and Apple.

Sally DeLorean claims there was never a formal relationship between DeLorean and the Texas company, saying it started out as an exchange for DeLorean enthusiasts. DMC of Texas says that characterization is inaccurate, and that its business operated as it does today long before John DeLorean’s death, and that he was aware of and unconcerned by the company’s operations.

DMC of Texas also builds DeLorean automobiles from components purchased in the wake of the DMC bankruptcy, and had highly publicized plans to build an all-electric version. It has yet to materialize beyond a prototype that was demonstrated to media in 2011.

R. Scott Thompson claims DMC’s lawyers are seeking to have DeLorean’s estate say on the record that its case had no merit and also “consent to the use by the Defendant of the name DeLorean for virtually any purpose,” he wrote.

An attorney for the Texas-based DeLorean Motor Company denied the accusation, saying DMC simply wants to make sure this settlement protects the company against future lawsuits over the use of the name.

Electric-only automaker Tesla reported its second-quarter financial results Thursday, announcing a net loss of $182 million despite record deliveries of its mainstay Model S Sedan.

Tesla’s final delivery tally for Q2 was 11,532 of 12,807 produced. That production total put them above their 12,500-unit goal for the quarter.

Tesla plans to deliver as many vehicles in Q3 as it did in Q2, and despite having a one-week shutdown period for plant retooling that did not take place last year, the company plans a production increase of 60% vs. the same period in 2014.

“The growing success of Model S has positioned us to offer even more customer choices and accelerate the advent of sustainable transportation,” CEO Elon Musk and CFO Deepak Ahuja wrote in a letter to shareholders. They also reiterated that the upcoming Model X crossover is still on track for deliveries beginning late in Q3.

Questions still remain about the Model X’s production and Tesla warned that since both it and the Model S will be produced on the same line, issues impacting the assembly process of either would likely impact the other. Anticipation of hiccups early in the Model X’s life cycle could explain a drop in Tesla’s forecast year-end production numbers from 55,000 units to between 50,000 and 55,000.

Ford is challenging game developers to tackle the future of global mobility issues with its new Smart Mobility Game Challenge.

Announced at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany on Thursday, and developed with Cologne Game Lab, the challenge encourages developers to create games which entice players to come up with innovative solutions to integrating urban transportation systems.

“Gamification has proven to be an effective way to solve real-life problems in many areas,” said Ford in the announcement. “For instance, the games developed could reward participating commuters for successful journeys, based on criteria such as time-taken, cost, comfort and convenience. They also could utilise personal data and technology including smart phones and watches.”

In other words, Ford wants you to develop SimBikeAndRideTheTrainToWork, and they’ll give you a good chunk of change if you’re successful. The winning developers will receive €10,000 and have their work presented at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona. A five-member panel including USC’s Tracy Fullerton and Turn 10 Studios’ Dan Greenawalt will determine the five finalists.

“The Smart Mobility Game Challenge is designed to harness the creativity of the gaming community and empower gamers to take a fresh approach to tackling today’s global mobility issues,” said Ken Washington, vice president, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. “Applying the fun, engaging and rewarding aspects of games to journey planning can allow people to improve their commutes, track their success and become aware of how their behaviour impacts the transport infrastructure as a whole.”

This isn’t the first time Ford has flirted with “gamification.” Owners of some Ford hybrid vehicles are likely familiar with the company’s “SmartGauge,” which rewards drivers with “leaf” ratings when they drive in an economical manner.

Takata, the Japanese component supplier at the heart of an ongoing global airbag inflator recall campaign, announced Thursday that it managed $24.85 million (3.1 billion yen) in net profit in the first quarter of its fiscal year (April-June).

Reiterating that it cannot accurately project the costs of the recall campaign and associated fines and litigation, Takata opted to maintain a modest $160 million (20 billion yen) profit outlook for the year, according to Reuters.

Takata has resisted pressure from Congress to create a national compensation fund for victims of defective airbag inflators. When challenged, Takata representatives point out that a similar fund set up to compensate the victims of GM’s faulty ignition switch was unique due to the automaker’s bankruptcy liability shield.

The company has identified manufacturing deficiencies as likely responsible for defects in approximately 10 million components, however investigators are still working to determine a root cause for the rest of the problems. Heat and high humidity have been linked to failures, but the supplier claims the inflator designs are not inherently unsafe.

Defective inflators have been blamed for at least eight deaths. More than 20 million vehicles worldwide have been added to the recall roster, and more may yet be announced.

Depending on who you ask, it could be the most- or least-predictable development in vehicular cybersecurity: vulnerabilities in wired vehicles. Researchers at Wired discovered several of them in Tesla’s Model S; some of which they were able to actively exploit.

Lookout co-founder Kevin Mahaffey and CloudFlare Principal Secutity Researcher Marc Rogers spent two years pouring over the Model S, looking for potential exploits, eventually uncovering half a dozen vulnerabilities. The most severe among them required physical access to the car–the electronic equivalent of hotwiring.

With physical access to the vehicle, the researchers were able to start the car with a software command and drive it. While operating the vehicle, they were also able to plant a Trojan that allowed them to remotely manipulate a limited number of core vehicle functions, including shutting the car off while somebody else was driving it.

In outlining some of the vulnerabilities for Wired, the researchers pointed out that Tesla’s overall security is very good. The “gateway” between connected services and core vehicle functions operated effectively.

They also pointed out that the company was eager to work with them to seal off the software pathways that could potentially allow for remote access to vehicle functions, which was reportedly not the case with the FCA hack.

And while Tesla’s connectivity may expose its vehicles to more threats, it also allows the automaker to address them quickly and remotely. The collaboration between Tesla and the Wired researches resulted in a patch that has already been deployed; the vulnerabilities were effectively eliminated before anybody outside of the research team and the manufacturer was made aware of them.

By contrast, owners of FCA vehicles have to be reached by way of a traditional recall process and then have to use a USB thumb drive to patch vulnerabilities in their onboard systems.

The researchers plan to discuss the comprehensive findings of their exploration of the Model S software system at the Def Con hackers’ conference in Las Vegas.

Lexus is developing a new flagship model to be sold alongside its current range-topping LS, and it’s likely to be a crossover or SUV.

According to Reuters, Lexus Division General Manager Jeff Bracken told reporters on the sidelines of this week’s CAR Management Briefing Seminars that Lexus is planning the launch of a second high-end vehicle.

“It doesn’t have to be a sedan,” Bracken said, igniting speculation as to what form the new model will take. SUVs and crossovers are hot. Truck-based SUVs can still be quite successful, as Land Rover and Cadillac have proven, but Lexus only plays in the high-end space with the soon-to-be-replaced LX and the division is already scrambling to add more rows to its existing crossovers in an effort to fill gaps in its lineup.

Lexus execs have been lamenting the lack of a large, three-row CUV in showrooms for some time.

However, another possible interpretation of Bracken’s comments could point to the introduction of the production version of Lexus’ LF-LC coupe, which originally debuted in concept form way back in 2012.

Likely built on a shortened variation of the platform underpinnig the next-generation Lexus LS, rumored powerplants include a 5.0L V8 and a hybrid V8 capable of 500hp, both borrowed from existing Lexus sedans. Reports of a possible F version, powered by a twin-turbo V8 capable of over 600hp, have been floated as well.

The good news is, we won’t have to wait too long to find out. “We’ll define what it is in January,” Bracken assured reporters, suggesting an introduction at the 2016 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Photo by Bryan Joslin.

Ford announced Wednesday that it has a new solution to a common automotive problem in the United States: Spiders.

The somewhat unconventional announcement (see lead image) outlined a very conventional solution: a screen. The new screen is designed to prevent spider infestations from compromising vehicle fuel systems.

The culprit? An exceedingly common breed of arachnid referred to as the yellow sac spider, which can be found just about everywhere in North America.

“These particular Arachnids are not sedentary – they are hunters and constantly roaming,” explained David Gimby, Ford fuel systems engineer. “When it’s time to build a birthing cocoon or an over-winter cocoon, they seek a cavity or a depression, like a fuel vapor line opening, which allows them to maximize the use of their silk.”

Ford has been working on variants of the countermeasure since 1999, when Gimby first sought a solution to infestations. The new screen is an evolution of a design that was first implemented in 2004.

Mazda recalled 42,000 vehicles in the US market just last year due to spider infestations. The spiders’ webs blocked evaporative canister vent lines, causing problems with fuel-tank pressure.

In some cases, the tanks were vulnerable to cracking and leaking fuel, though the company did not know of any fires or accidents caused by compromised fuel systems.

The problems were not limited to Mazda’s fleet; similar blockages were reported in Honda and Hyundai models.