The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has now been striking against Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis for one month, and this week, one Ford executive has called for the labor effort to end before doing any more damage to the economy.
Ford Motor Executive Chair Bill Ford warned that continuing strikes could harm the automaker’s ability to compete with companies like Tesla and Toyota, delivering remarks on Monday from the automaker’s Dearborn, Michigan Rouge Complex (via Automotive News). Ford, who is also the great-grandson of Founder Henry Ford, said the auto industry was “at a crossroads” in the current round of negotiations.
“Choosing the right path is not just about Ford’s future and our ability to compete,” Ford said in the remarks. “This is about the future of the American automobile industry. Toyota, Honda, Tesla and others are loving this strike because they know the longer it goes on, the better it is for them. They will win, and all of us will lose.”
The historic Rouge Complex is symbolic, and Ford called the site “the crown jewel of a company that still believes building in America matters.”
“We can stop this now,” Ford added. “We need to come together to bring an end to this acrimonious round of talks.”
The news comes after Ford workers unexpectedly walked off the job at its most profitable factory, the Kentucky Truck plant in Louisville, last week. The additional walkouts doubled the number of employees on strike to 16,600, totaling more than the 9,400 and 8,000 on strike against GM and Stellantis, respectively.
UAW President Shawn Fain followed up by saying that the union wouldn’t be sharing routine deadlines for additional strikes anymore, adding that the automaker had “stopped being interested in reaching a fair deal.”
“They thought they figured out the so-called rules of the game, so we changed the rules,” Fain added.
The news also comes after Kumar Galhotra, the automaker’s president of internal combustion engine (ICE) division Ford Blue, said last week that the company had “reached its limit” with contract offers.
After sharing what Ford called “unprecedented” pay raises in a recent offer, the UAW said progress was still needed for contracts to cover workers at future electric vehicle (EV) battery plants. As of last week, the Big Three automakers had reportedly offered to increase wages by 20-23 percent. GM concessions on battery plants from the prior week prevented further UAW walkouts at the company’s factories.
During his remarks on Monday, Ford pointed out that he has been a part of every set of UAW contract negotiations since 1982, even calling himself the most “pro-union leader in the industry.” He also said he had avoided speaking publicly about the ongoing strikes but felt his perspective was critical. His advice for the over 40 years of experience was to avoid taking things personally.
“You get on an emotional roller coaster — both sides do,” Ford explained. “You just have to leave all that aside. It doesn’t matter if we’re angry at some rhetoric or not. What should matter is, for the sake of everyone, we’ve got to get back to work. And how do we find that deal? We’ve got to get to that deal and take all the personalities and rhetoric out of it.”
“What I also keep reminding everybody is when this ends, we have to all work together again, and not just work together, we have to become a family again and continue on,” Ford said. “And we will.”
You can watch the full remarks from Ford Motors Executive Chair Bill Ford below.
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Tesla features used to flunk 16-year-old’s driver license test
A license examiner in New Jersey confused one standard feature of Teslas as a way a 16-year-old excelled through his driver’s test. He failed him because of it.

In what is becoming a more common occurrence, a few Tesla features were used to flunk a 16-year-old who took his driver’s license test in New Jersey.
It is not the first time this has happened, as we have reported on several instances of this in the past, both in the U.S. and other countries in the world.
It is evidence that some officials are not caught up in the technology and innovation occurring in the automotive market, some of which is not necessarily exclusive to Tesla, but is included in each of its models, unlike other companies.
Lochlan Keefer, a New Jersey resident, showed up to his driver’s test with his dad, James, in their 2022 Tesla Model Y. However, the test did not go according to plan, according to the examiner who rode along for the test with Lochlan. They accused him of using parking and “stopping assistance” to go through the test.
The examiner cited the following as the reason for failure:
“Had the parking and stopping assistance on never stepped on the brake to stop his self let the vehicle stop it self.”
James said to NJ.com that they do not subscribe to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite, which includes things like Autopark, Navigate on Autopilot, and Autosteer on City Streets. These are a few of the things that have been used as reasoning to fail drivers in tests. Lochlan’s was a case of regenerative braking, which is standard on all vehicles, and Autopark:
“The examiner accused my son of using driver assistance features simply because he parallel parked smoothly on the first try. He was specifically accused of using paid parking-assist and driving features, which we do not subscribe to.”
It sounds as if the examiner may have confused the braking mishap for Tesla’s regenerative braking, which slows the vehicle when the accelerator is not pressed. The energy is then stored back in the battery to help with range.
The examiner failed Lochlan, and James asked if he could take the test again if they disabled the regenerative braking for the exam. The examiner said Lochlan would have to wait two weeks. A supervisor came out and backed the examiner, but James said the policy the DMV claimed the Keefer’s violated was nowhere to be found:
“I asked them to show me the policy they claimed we were violating. They couldn’t find it and they couldn’t cite it. When I showed them the policy, they refused to read it.”
The report states that drivers in California and Arizona have also been subjected to failures on their driving tests due to confusion over Teslas and their driver assistance features.
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Tesla Robotaxi just got a big benefit from the U.S. government
The NHTSA is looking to help streamline the application process for companies developing driverless vehicles.

Tesla Robotaxi just got a big benefit from the U.S. Government, as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is looking to ease some rules and streamline the application process that could hinder the development and licensing of autonomous vehicles.
Tesla is set to launch its Robotaxi platform in the coming days or weeks, but regulation on autonomous vehicles is incredibly slim, so automakers are left in a strange limbo as permissions to operate are usually up to local jurisdictions.
The NHTSA still has the ultimate say, but it is now adopting a new strategy that will see companies gain an exemption from federal safety standards and streamline the entire application process.
The agency is authorized to grant exemptions to permit manufacturers to produce vehicles over a two or three-year period that might not comply with certain Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). Robotaxi, for example, will eventually not have a steering wheel or pedals, through the Cybercab that Tesla unveiled last October.
The exemption program the NHTSA announced today would be possible through Part 555 of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act:
“NHTSA may grant a Part 555 exemption if at least one of four bases listed in the statute is met and NHTSA determines that the exemption is consistent with the public interest and the Safety Act. The statute also authorizes NHTSA to subject an exemption to terms the agency deems appropriate and requires that NHTSA publish notice of the application and provide an opportunity to comment.”
The rapid and non-stop innovation that is being performed is tough to keep up with from a legal standpoint. The NHTSA recognizes this and says current legislation is appropriate for traditional vehicles, but not for the self-driving cars companies are producing now:
“The current Part 555 process was designed for traditional vehicles. As currently applied, this process is not well suited for processing exemptions involving ADS-equipped vehicles in a timely manner or overseeing the unique complexities involving their operations. This has resulted in long processing times for applications for ADS-equipped vehicles. NHTSA must improve its Part 555 processing times substantially to keep pace with the rapid innovation of the ADS industry and to ensure that exemptions remain effective tools for nurturing groundbreaking safety technologies.”
Now, the NHTSA will be “enhancing application instructions” to help manufacturers understand the requirements involved in the application process. This will streamline the entire process by “reducing the need for NHTSA to request additional information from the manufacturer,” the agency says.
First Tesla driverless robotaxi spotted in the wild in Austin, TX
Next, the NHTSA is going to have a more flexible approach to evaluating exemptions for ADS-equipped vehicles:
“To build flexibility into the Part 555 process while also accounting for the unique aspects of those exemptions, NHTSA intends to develop terms that could be included in Part 555 exemption grants, when appropriate, to condition operations of exempted ADS-equipped vehicles on enhanced and continuing oversight from NHTSA. NHTSA would expect to administer this enhanced oversight through letters, which could be updated over time, mirroring real-world ADS development. This will enable NHTSA to focus its initial review during the application stage and align the Part 555 oversight approach more closely to exemptions administered under NHTSA’s Automated Vehicle Exemption Program (AVEP), which have proven effective for ADS.”
This will benefit any company making autonomous vehicles, but it will especially benefit Tesla in the short-term as it is readying for the launch of Robotaxi.
Tesla is trading up 1.89 percent at the time of publication.
Part 555 Letter June 2025 by Joey Klender on Scribd
News
SpaceX produces its 10 millionth Starlink kit
The first 5 million Starlink kits took nearly four years to build.

SpaceX has achieved a major milestone, producing its 10 millionth Starlink kit. The accomplishment was celebrated across the company’s Hawthorne, California, and Bastrop, Texas, facilities.
The milestone was shared in social media by Sujay Soman, Senior Facilities Engineer, in a LinkedIn post, which has since been deleted.
Starlink Production Ramp
Soman noted in his LinkedIn post that the first 5 million Starlink kits took nearly four years to build, but the next 5 million kits were completed in just 11 months. This underscores SpaceX’s intense efforts to ramp up the satellite internet system’s production, and it reflects the private space company’s manufacturing prowess.
The SpaceX Senior Facilities Engineer shared a couple of photos of the Machine Maintenance and Facilities team in Bastrop to commemorate the event.
“Today, Starlink Product teams across our Hawthorne and Bastrop sites produced the 10th Million Starlink Kit! It took almost 4 years to build our first 5 million kits, and we doubled that in about 11 months. Monumental accomplishment!” Soman wrote in his post.

World-Changing Technology
The Starlink kits, featuring dish hardware and supporting equipment, enable users to connect to the company’s growing constellation of low Earth orbit satellites. With over 6,000 satellites launched to date, Starlink now provides fast and reliable internet connectivity to over 6 million customers worldwide. This was a significant increase from the 5 million customers that the company reported in February 2025.
SpaceX has not detailed its next production targets, but the production of Starlink’s 10 millionth kit milestone signals the company’s readiness to scale further. Being an Elon Musk-led company, SpaceX is arguably the best in the business when it comes to efficient and cost-effective manufacturing. It would then be unsurprising if SpaceX announces another Starlink production milestone soon.
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