VENTURE CAPITAL POST

The market share of Nippon Ceramic's 92 cents sensor increased amid the growing interest in the autonomous driving sector. Automakers like Ford Motor and Toyota Motor along with technology companies like Google, Alphabet, and Baidu intend to unveil robot cars within the next five years.

Toyota Motor Corp. will display its latest vehicle from the Higlander Series. It will be unveiled on March 23 at the 2016 New York International Auto Show. The Highlander's performance and efficiency is boosted with the combination of new engine and transmission.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fined air-bag supplier Takata Corp for $70 million and is ordered to stop manufacturing inflators that has ammonium nitrate.

The second quarter for Japanese automobile majors is expected to be positive as the sales surged in the US market. Toyota Motor Corp, Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co. registered a rise in sales volume in the North American market during July to September. Investors are closely monitoring the forecasts about vehicle sales to ascertain the possible outcome from the third quarter results. The US and China markets account for one-third of global sales for the top three Japanese automobile companies. The rise in US sales and weaker Yen may add to profits for the Japanese automobile majors during the quarter.

Japanese automobile major Toyota Motor Corp is planning to launch driverless cars in the market by 2020. Toyota will launch three models in semi-automatic range this year in Japan market. The semi-automatic cars equipped with Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) are technology-driven vehicles that change lanes, merge with traffic or even overtake other vehicles. The fourth generation Prius hybrid car is one among the three semi-automatic models is scheduled for launch in Japan market in 2015.

Sergio Marchionne, Chief Executive of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), has decided to drop his participation in the Frankfurt auto show as FCA is leading the labor talks with United Auto Workers (UAW). Marchionne was scheduled to address the media at the auto show on Tuesday.

Japanese air bag manufacturer Takata Corp is doubling a recall of potentially deadly air bags to nearly 34 million vehicles, creating the largest automotive recall in American history, U.S. safety regulators said on Tuesday.

Japan's three biggest carmakers said on Wednesday they would expand a huge global recall triggered by potentially fatal air bags made by Takata Corp, saying they were taking back millions of vehicles worldwide for investigation.

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday it will build new factories in Mexico and China, ending a self-imposed expansion freeze and putting more pressure on global rivals.

Toyota Motor Corp's (7201.T) Lexus brand finished on top of the Consumer Reports annual "brand report card" for the third straight year, the influential U.S. magazine said on Tuesday.

An explosion and fire ripped through a gasoline processing unit at an Exxon Mobil Corp refinery near Los Angeles on Wednesday, leaving California with the threat of higher gasoline prices.

Japanese automakers are being forced to ship some car parts to U.S. plants by expensive air cargo and tweak production processes as a protracted labor dispute at U.S. West Coast ports shows no signs of letting up.

Toyota Motor Corp lifted its operating profit guidance on Wednesday in a widely expected move, as a weaker yen increases the value of sales overseas and makes up for slumping demand at home.

The auto industry’s air bag troubles deepened on Saturday as U.S. federal safety regulators said three big automakers will recall about 2.1 million older vehicles to fix defects that could cause air bags to deploy when they are not supposed to.

Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) is ending a three-year freeze on building new vehicle assembly plants and is looking to open two new assembly plants in China and another in Mexico, four executives familiar with the company's plans said.