COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

VW reaches US$42 mln settlementVolkswagen's US unit has agreed to a US$42 million settlement covering 1.35 million vehicles that were equipped with potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators, according to documents filed in US District Court in Miami.The settlement is the latest by major automakers and much of the funding goes to boosting recall completion rates. To date, seven other major automakers have agreed to settlements worth about US$1.5 billion covering tens of millions of vehicles. VW did not immediately comment.The defect, which leads in rare instances to air bag inflators rupturing and sending dangerous metal fragments flying, prompted the largest automotive recall in history.To date, at least 19 US deaths have been attributed to faulty Takata air bag inflators. Honda Motor Co said in April it had confirmed the 19th US death tied to a ruptured Takata air bag inflator since 2009 - and the 16th in one of its vehicles.Honda reached an earlier US$605 million civil settlement with owners similar to the Volkswagen settlement. -Nampa/ReutersAmazon cloud service glitch resolvedA glitch in Amazon Web Services has been resolved, Japan's Kyodo news agency said yesterday, after companies from major online brokerages to the top mobile phone carrier and a leading airline suffered disruptions to their operations.Earlier, an Amazon spokesperson had said the company was working to restore its system, but declined to comment on how many customers were affected.SBI Securities and Rakuten Securities were among the online brokerages that reported delays in price data feeds and other system glitches.Mizuho Bank, a major retail bank, and the main banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group, said some internet services were being affected by a system glitch at an external network provider, but did not identify the provider.The largest airline company, ANA Holdings, said some flights were delayed after a temporary outage hit its ticketing and check-in system, which was later restored. -Nampa/ReutersIndia's Mahindra drops productionIndian car maker Mahindra and Mahindra said it expects a 20%-25% drop in September vehicle production at its automotive division due to semiconductor shortages.Car makers across the world have been hit by semiconductor shortages and warned of further pain due to stiff competition from the sprawling consumer electronics industry for chip deliveries.Mahindra will observe 'no production days' of about seven days in its automotive division plants this month, the company said in an exchange filing.Earlier this week, Maruti Suzuki, India's top car maker, said it expected production at its plants in the states of Haryana and Gujarat to be hit in September due to a shortage of semiconductors.Mahindra said its revenue and profitability would be impacted in line with the fall in production volumes. Mahindra shares were down nearly 1% after the production update. -Nampa/ReutersByteDance to downsize fintech businessBeijing-based ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, said on Wednesday that it would shrink its financial services unit and that it planned to sell its stock broking operations amid China's tightening grip on the financial technology (fintech) sector.ByteDance operates Songshu Zhengquan, which translates to Squirrel Securities, in Hong Kong, and Haitun Gupiao, or Dolphin Stocks, in mainland China.China recently has been tightening scrutiny towards the fintech sector, requiring companies to set up financial holding companies if they meet requirements to do so, as Alibaba's fintech affiliate Ant Group was forced to do earlier this year, a move that tightens capital requirements.Sources have said that ByteDance has never prioritised fintech expansion, and that it has focused on sectors including e-commerce and gaming as its new sources of growth.ByteDance also operates Douyin Pay, its own third-party mobile payment, to facilitate users on e-commerce transactions on short video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. -Nampa/Reuters12th Tesla autopilot crash identifiedUS auto safety regulators on Wednesday said they had identified a 12th crash involving Tesla Inc vehicles using advanced driver assistance systems in incidents involving emergency vehicles and demanded the automaker answer detailed questions about its Autopilot system.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Aug. 16 said it had opened a formal safety probe into Tesla driver assistance system Autopilot after 11 crashes. The probe covers 765 000 US Tesla vehicles built between 2014 and 2021.The 12th occurred in Orlando on Saturday, NHTSA said. The agency sent Tesla a detailed 11-page letter on Tuesday with numerous questions it must answer, as part of its investigation.Tesla's Autopilot handles some driving tasks and allows drivers to keep their hands off the wheel for extended periods. Tesla says Autopilot enables vehicles to steer, accelerate and brake automatically within their lane.The company could face civil penalties of up to US$115 million if it fails to fully respond to the questions, NHTSA said. -Nampa/Reuters

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