Carmaker Stellantis slashes forecasts as it faces industry slump and Chinese competition

General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle division will pay a $1.5 million penalty after the unit failed to fully report a crash involving a pedestrian, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday.

The crash on Oct. 2, 2023 prompted Cruise to suspend driverless operations nationwide after California regulators said that its cars posed a danger to public safety. The state’s Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the license for Cruise, which was transporting passengers without human drivers throughout San Francisco.

A month after the incident, Cruise recalled all 950 of its cars to update software.

The NHTSA said on Monday that as part of a consent order, Cruise will also have to submit a corrective action plan on how it will improve its compliance with the standing general order, which is for crashes involving automated driving systems.

“It is vitally important for companies developing automated driving systems to prioritize safety and transparency from the start,” NHTSA Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman said in a statement. “NHTSA is using its enforcement authority to ensure operators and manufacturers comply with all legal obligations and work to protect all road users.”

The consent order’s base term is two years. The NHTSA has the option to extend the order for a third year.

“Our agreement with NHTSA is a step forward in a new chapter for Cruise, building on our progress under new leadership, improved processes and culture, and a firm commitment to greater transparency with our regulators,” said Steve Kenner in a prepared statement, the chief safety officer for Cruise. “We look forward to continued close collaboration with NHTSA as our operations progress, in service of our shared goal of improving road safety.”

Cruise will meet quarterly with the NHTSA to talk about the state of its operations, and to review the periodic reporting and progress on the requirements of the consent order. Cruise will also submit a final report detailing its compliance with the consent order and state of operations 90 days before the end of the base term.

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Toronto police say one person is dead after being shot in the northwestern part of the city on Monday morning.

Police say officers were called to the scene in the Weston neighbourhood just before 7:30 a.m.

They say they found the male shooting victim on the northwest corner of the Jane Street and Lawrence Avenue West intersection.

Police say the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

They have not identified him or indicated his age.

Police say officers are investigating and anyone with information should contact them.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

TORONTO – A monument to honour residential school survivors is set to be unveiled in Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square today.

It’s one of dozens of events in Ontario marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, including a ceremony on Parliament Hill.

The new spirit garden in front of Toronto’s city hall comes in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call for governments to establish publicly accessible, highly visible monuments honouring survivors and thousands of children who died in residential schools.

The garden’s centrepiece is a large turtle sculpture positioned in a reflecting pool that has the names of the 18 residential schools that once operated in Ontario inscribed on its north wall.

Beginning in the 19th century, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were separated from their families and communities and sent to church-run residential schools, where abuse, malnutrition and inadequate health care were rampant.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found the school system, which operated for more than 150 years, was a central element of a state-backed policy that attempted cultural genocide.

Ontario Regional Chief Abram Benedict says the lasting intergenerational impacts of the schools “must never be forgotten.”

“Our unique Nations and cultures exist today because survivors of the residential school system fought to keep them alive — often in the face of serious personal harm,” Abrams said in a statement.

“They passed on the traditions, languages and teachings these institutions sought to destroy so that all of us today know who we are, where we come from and how we got here.”

Monday is also recognized as Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day recognizing the effects of residential schools.

The initiative began in 2013, inspired by Phyllis Webstad’s story of having the orange shirt her grandmother gave her taken away when she arrived at a residential school in 1973 at the age of six.

In a statement, Premier Doug Ford said a number of Ontario government buildings would be lit orange. He encouraged people to “learn more and reflect on this dark and disturbing period in our country’s history and acknowledge the intergenerational harm it has caused.”

The day is a federal statutory holiday, but not a provincial one in Ontario.

New Democrat deputy leader Sol Mamakwa, the only First Nation representative at the provincial legislature, said he aims to table legislation in his own Indigenous language to have the day declared a paid provincial holiday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 30, 2024.

— With files from Liam Casey.

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