July 11th, 2017 News of the Day: Tesla to triple its service, Porsche posts half-year sales record

Tesla to triple service capability with repair fleet and service center

Tesla is adding over 100 new service centers around the world, and putting over 350 new mobile service vans to work with its roaming fleet for house and work calls. The goal is to triple the current service capability and get prepared for the increasing demands of Model 3 owners.

By choosing the service center location, the EV company is looking at where Model 3 pre-order customers were located. The automaker is also considering a remote diagnostic service that can help identify up to 90 percent of issues before a car ever needs to visit a physical center. The EV company is now hiring 1,400 new service technicians to be onboard in 2017.

Porsche posts new sales record in the first half of 2017

Luxury automaker Porsche posts its half-year sales result, seeing a 7% increase compared to the same time period in 2016 and shipping 126,497 vehicles worldwide.

The main driver of the increase was the Macan, with 11% growth and reaching the 50,000 mark. The other bestsellers are Cayenne with 35,601 units and Panamera, whose sales increased by 54%.

The major markets are located in Asia-Pacific, Africa and the Middle East, among which 35,864 units were shipped to China.

Intuition Robotics raises $14 million from Toyota Research Institute

Intuition Robotics, maker of the ElliQ robotic elder care assistant, has just raised another $14 million from Toyota Research Institute.

Its robot ElliQ is designed to help older people connect with the outside world. Equipped with an interactive robot attached to a tablet, ElliQ allows families to video chat with older relatives and acts as a companion to recommend activities and remind elders to take medicine in time.

The company just collected $6 million from investors including Roomba maker iRobot, Terra Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta, and Maniv Mobility.

NHTSA says another 2.7 million Takata bags need to be replaced

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Tuesday that new testing prompts Takata Corp. to announce 2.7 million air bag inflators as defective in Ford Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Mazda Motor Corp. vehicles.

Takata airbag inflators has been linked to 17 deaths and more than 180 injuries around the world. The eventual recall number will exceed 100 million inflators.

The company filed for bankruptcy in June. Its business apart from liabilities will be acquired by Key Safety System, a U.S. auto parts maker owned by Chinese company Ningbo Joyson Electronics Corporation.

LeEco delays payroll until August due to "financial constraints"

According to an official statement provided to TechCrunch, Leshi Holdings (LeEco's holding company) has decided to postpone July's payroll until August 10th. This is at least the third time in 2017 that LeEco has delayed salary payments.

Currently, only employees in China will not get a paycheck. The company has not yet announced any decisions for its U.S. workers.

The statement says it has contacted the affected employees and guarantees full payment to individuals' social insurance and housing fund.