March 9, 2026 | Mercedes settles UAW union case; Lidar goes mainstream

Welcome to Daily Drive from Monday, March 9th, 2026. I'm Kellan Walker in Las Vegas, today on the show.

Mercedes settles a case over allegations of union busting. Toyota supplier Denzo makes a bid for chipmaker Rome.

And dealership by sales tick up in the fourth quarter. Plus, a look at how LiDAR has gone from pricey tech on high end vehicles to a mass market sensor.

We've seen this with other technologies where sometimes in the west we're a little bit slower to adopt them, but then they can cut a snowball.

Let's run through all the news you need to know to keep up in the auto industry.

Mercedes Benz has settled a national labor relations board case over alleged anti-union conduct during a 2024 organizing drive at its Alabama plant.

The automaker agreed to distribute notices about employee union rights, including pledges to not threaten facility closure or retaliation, but didn't admit wrongdoing.

Workers voted against joining the UAW in 2024, the union objected to the settlement terms, wanting management to read notices allowed to employees.

A separate UAW case seeking to overturn that election result is still pending. Toyota supplier Denzo has made a bid for chipmaker Rome in a potential $8.3 billion deal.

The move would expand Denzo's hold on power management chips used in electric vehicles and data centers.

The two companies formed a strategic partnership in semiconductors last May focusing on integrated circuits for EVs.

Automakers have made locking down chips apply a priority since shortages during the pandemic.

The recent crisis at Dutch chipmaker nextspiria forced production cuts at Honda and Nissan, highlighting the importance of power chips.

In dealership by cell activity picked up in the fourth quarter, automotive news tracked 112 deals involving more than 160 stores and about 260 franchises,

up from 110 transactions in the 2024 fourth quarter.

Stellantis stores were most involved in deals with 25 Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram franchises changing hands.

Hudson Automotive Group was the biggest buyer acquiring 12 stores in Louisiana and California led all states with 24 dealerships sold.

Joining me now to talk more about it is Automotive News retail reporter Gail Howe. Gail, welcome back to Daily Drive.

Thanks, Kyle.

So, Gail, why did the fourth quarter see an uptick in the number of deals?

So, activity definitely picked up in the fourth quarter and there were a number of factors that were at play here.

So, at the forefront was last year dealers were worried in relation to economic policy changes.

Right after the 2024 presidential election, those were concerns that were probably in effect slowing dealers decision making processes.

They wanted to get a better read on the political landscape before they inked the deal on buying or selling a store.

In addition dealers, just like the rest of us, they were concerned about the economy overall.

And that combined with the talk of tariffs being imposed and all that talk was happening all the way last year up until spring when the tariffs actually were put into place.

So, that was dealing things.

And in general, something that we learned in the reporting of the fourth quarter story was that deals are taking longer to close.

We learned that part of that is that it's taking longer for people to get approvals from different parties involved in the transaction.

That includes underwriters and other people who need to put their approval on things before the deal is final.

Now, we also saw Stellantis dealerships were the most traded in the quarter.

What are buyers betting on when they acquire these franchises, especially given the brand's sales struggles over the past few years?

Yeah, for sure.

Those brands, Chrysler Dodge G-Bram, they were the most bought and sold in the fourth quarter.

I think of the deals we tracked.

There were 25 stores.

And that was more than double the amount that traded ownership, the same quarter in 2024.

So a significant uptick.

And in analyzing it, I spoke with dealership by sell brokers.

And they pointed out, it's important to note that not all the dealers,

we're giving up on those brands.

But some are just saying, I can't fix this store.

While other people wanted to happen and saw it as an opportunity,

these stores, the CDJR stores, they're trading relatively low multiples.

These potential buyers are pretty sure that they're going to get a good deal.

That they'll get pretty good returns over the mid to long term when it comes to this.

And then meanwhile, Stellantis' new vehicle sales, they've been down for the last six years.

But they're starting to perk up.

The brands are starting to introduce their traditional high-horsepower products.

But that's going to be interesting to watch too, as gas prices are going up.

So there's a lot at play here.

So we'll be interested to see what happens with that in Q1.

Gail Hal, good stuff.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Thanks, thanks for having me.

Coming up, how light our sensors have evolved from expensive tech on specialized vehicles

to mass market components.

That's next on Daily Drive.

Are you a dealer creating a workplace culture your employees are proud to be part of?

Applications are now open for the 2026 automotive news best dealerships to work for program.

This isn't just an award.

It's a chance to get real insight into what's working at your dealership

and where you can improve.

And we've expanded the categories this year, recognizing everything from technician experience

in leadership development to AI enablement and employer retention.

The registration deadline is April 17th.

Find out more and apply at autonews.com.

Welcome back to Daily Drive.

I'm Kellen Walker.

Light our technology was once reserved for high-end self-driving vehicles with hefty price tags.

But the sensor technology, which uses light to map surroundings, has become increasingly affordable and widespread.

Chinese Light Armaker Hassai now produces sensors for mass market electric vehicles,

with the technology appearing in 25% of new EV sold in China.

Reporter Lawrence I live spoke with our own Jake Near on the latest episode of the automotive news shift podcast.

Here's their conversation.

Lonnie, Light are used to be this really exotic $50,000 technology spinning on top of Waymo Robotaxies.

Now you're reporting that it's a $200 sensor showing up on mass market cars in China.

What happened?

It's a really fascinating story because you know, we see these Waymos or on TV or whatever.

And then also the zoos and they have these spinning things and kind of these big light hours because obviously they're level four vehicles and everything.

But quietly, the technology has been getting better.

The manufacturing has been getting better.

These Chinese companies have taken something that's kind of a US invention, right?

And iterated on it.

Mass manufactured it.

There are Western players too, but the Chinese have the majority of the market.

And so now they're using these $200 front facing light hours.

Like for automatic emergency braking, right?

You have your cameras and you have your radar, which is great, but these see further.

They see it night because they have a light source.

If the sun is in your eyes, it doesn't affect the light or that much.

And so this is something that the Chinese want on their cars.

And data point I got from Chinese automaker is that one in four of their electric vehicles now have this on standard.

And when we went to CES, we saw all these Chinese cars and most of them had a light hour sensor in there, right?

And so now the costs have come down and some of the automakers in the US, they want to get more into autonomy, right?

It's taken a long time, but now we have AI, we have better software.

And now we have these $200 sensors.

And so Rivian is putting a light hour on its new R2 crossover, first mass market vehicle.

Later this year for its what we call level three partial autonomy system.

And then Ford's doing the same with this next EV platform.

And then GM is building it into some of its vehicles.

I want to start with that stat about one in four new EVs in China now come with light hour.

I'm curious, what is this disconnect in adoption rates between China and the US?

Like why is it so dramatically different there than it is here?

Okay, so I had a great interview with the CEO of his side, which is the biggest light hour maker in the world, Chinese by market share.

And he basically said that China is building all these new platforms, right?

Almost all their automotive platforms are new, right?

And so it gives them the opportunity to holistically build in a new sensor, right?

With all the wiring and, you know, cars are complicated to build.

But if you're doing it from the ground up, you could do some interesting things.

And then consumers really want this.

They have this what they call level two plus plus, where basically the car will drive for you.

And then you supervise it, right?

And so light hour helps with that.

And so it's also the consumers want that they want tech, they're a younger buyer, they want their tech.

And some of these automakers are putting in all their cars, all their EVs, let's say.

And then, but also, you know, he was saying gas cars too, right?

Because it has the safety factor of being able to slam on the brakes better when you need that to happen.

But then it also helps you drive around in, you know, congested traffic.

I feel some current and former colleagues of ours, cringing at the level two plus plus designation.

But I mean, there is an interesting development here.

Now, like you mentioned, Rivian Ford GM, they're all planning to use light hour now.

Yeah.

What changed their minds?

Okay, so basically they have new platforms, right?

So the R2 is a completely new platform.

But also since Rivian kind of has given me a lot of information about this, I'll talk about that.

So with the advances in compute power in the advances with AI, we're getting closer to autonomy, right?

People have worked enough for years spent many, many billions of dollars and it really hasn't happened.

But now they see an opening, they see a future subscription service and revenue.

It's the next place to go.

And so they're developing a level three system, right?

In which sometimes you would be able to look at your phone or whatever.

And then the car would say, come back and you take control.

And so this is part of the autonomy roadmap that gets to level four, that gets to robo taxis.

And so the thinking is, I talked a lot of people in the light hour industry is that you really need light off for level three.

When you're going to give that much control over to your car, the human perception is gone because your car is driving.

So it needs more perception.

That's what they're saying.

And even though it's only a few automakers, they're just starting.

We've seen this with other technologies where sometimes in the West we're a little bit slower to adopt them.

But then they can kind of snowball.

So here's what I think might be the challenge though.

One of your sources said, North American drivers specifically historically won't pay for safety equipment.

So if GM or Ford asked their customers to pay extra for a level three system with LiDAR, is anyone actually going to buy that?

That's a really good question because there have been use cases with BMW and Mercedes in very, very, very expensive vehicles, right?

The seven series and the S class, right?

So these have been very small things.

And they're going away from it.

They're getting rid of the level three.

They're getting rid of the LiDAR.

And they're going to, I hate to say at a level two plus plus.

But anyway, supervised automated driving.

And so there is a use case.

I mean, there's an example there of people going in the other direction.

However, you have to remember that these are going to be optional systems.

These are going to be for the early adopters.

These are going to be for people who want the technology.

And you know, a lot of people buy Teslas and Teslas come with the hardware.

And then you could buy the software $99 for the subscription.

They say they have a 12% take rate.

That's not terrible if you sell a lot of cars.

And I think it also gives you bragging rights.

It pushes you further into the future.

I mean, you know, with EVs with technology, I mean, how long can you say we can't do this?

It's just too expensive or consumers don't want it, et cetera.

You know, it's going to be optional.

And if somebody is willing to pay $1,000 for that package,

and then maybe even a subscription on top of that, you know, we'll see.

I mean, new car buyers are already paying an average of $50,000 per vehicle.

So, you know, the extra expense there.

I am wondering though, like, is it possible the price could even come down further from here?

Well, I mean, the CEO of Hesse was saying sub $200.

Wow.

You know, is, and so they are getting less expensive and less expensive.

And then when you build a new platform and you incorporate them,

then you know, you're putting that engineering money into a lot of vehicles, you know, overscale.

And also, there is, in 2029, there is going to be a new rule about automatic emergency braking.

It has to work, you know, better at night with pedestrians,

and it has to work at higher speeds.

And so that could be an opening for lighter, right?

The experts I talked to said you can do it with cameras.

And you can do it with radar, probably.

But some people may say, hey, wait a second, we can have it for automatic emergency braking

to fulfill that requirement.

And we can have it for level three.

So we can sell people subscriptions and generate that subscription revenue.

Reporter Lonnie Eiliff spoke with our own Jake Near on the latest episode of the Automotive News Shift Podcast.

Also in that episode, Jake and host Molly Boygun do a deep dive into how connected vehicle technology works.

That's available now on Shift, wherever you get your podcasts.

That's daily drive for today. I'm Kellyn Walker.

Thanks to Automotive News journalist Gail Howe, H. Hodder and Melissa Burden for their reporting for today's podcast.

You can get the latest news on light art technology, dealership transactions, everything happening in the auto industry at autonews.com.

Come back tomorrow for a look at how record levels of negative equity are trapping car buyers and loans they can't escape.

Our own John Hutter talks with Ivan Jury from Edmunds about why this problem isn't going away anytime soon,

and what it means for dealers trying to move metal.

The only reason why we saw the number go down years ago back in 2022 and in 2003 when these loans originated that we're now seeing today

is buyers were saved from themselves. This problem is here to stay.

We'd love to hear from you. Let us know what you think of the show and the topics we cover today.

Send us an email at dailydriveatautonews.com or leave us a voicemail at 313-44-2774.

And if you enjoyed the podcast, remember to like, leave a review, and subscribe so you never miss an episode.