Good morning and welcome to The Downshift, or TDS for short, The Drive’s daily news roundup serving up the biggest automotive headlines from around the world.
The Downshift recaps news items in a sentence or two, fit with links to the deeper story. Here’s the bulletin for Thursday, June 4, 2026.
💾 A number of trade groups and lobbies across industries, including the Alliance for Automotive Innovation which comprises many manufacturers, have signed and sent a letter to the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments sounding the alarm about the global drought of memory chips caused by the construction of AI data centers, and how that has and will continue to impact prices for consumers. There are some levers that policy makers can pull, but additional domestic manufacturing capacity will take years to materialize. [Bloomberg]
⛐ Toyota will ship “fewer than 500 units” of the new, more hardcore GRMN Corolla to the U.S., according to a marketing email sent out by the automaker.
🔌 Volkswagen of America CEO Kjell Gruner has reiterated that the ID4 and EVs in general will continue to be a staple in the automaker’s U.S. lineup, saying, “What’s important—because sometimes that was a bit misunderstood—is that the ID4 will remain in the market. It’s very important. We will have EVs in the market. Not just one, but at least two. For the time being, that’s going to be the ID4 and then the successor of the ID4.” [Automotive News]
🚕 Tesla has introduced unsupervised robotaxis in Austin, Texas. The company currently operates around 50 vehicles in the region, compared to Waymo’s 250. [Reuters]
⛽ Fuel economy numbers out of Canada for the upcoming C8 Corvette featuring the larger LS6 engine indicate that the new V8 shouldn’t consume much more gas than the current LT2. [GM Authority]
⚡ Rolls-Royce has given the electric Spectre a range and power bump for 2027, as well as the addition of a NACS charging port. [Automotive News]
💰 Carvana was reportedly granted the option to purchase shares of new electric truck company Slate Auto last year, though it is unclear if the automotive retailer seized the opportunity. [TechCrunch]
🤖 Meanwhile, Uber is said to have invested nearly $500 million in self-driving tech startup Nuro up to this point, in addition to the same amount it’s poured into EV-maker Lucid. The rideshare company wants to unite the two firms to offer Lucid Gravity robotaxis in its fleet. [Reuters]
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