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The car industry is reinventing the wheel to prepare for autonomous vehicles.

Robots that can see, learn and grip different items are advancing quickly into the retail, food-and-beverage, and consumer-packaged-good industries. While deliveries of robots to the U.S. auto industry fell 12% last year, shipments to food and consumer-product companies soared 48%.

Barely three weeks ago, Daimler AG dialed back profit expectations for the year. The move was seen as a housekeeping exercise to allow CEO Ola Kallenius to start with a clean slate.

Volkswagen AG and Ford Motor Co. will cooperate on electric and self-driving car technology, sharing costs on a global scale to take a major step forward in the industry’s disruptive transformation.

The soon-to-expand alliance between Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG has the potential to transform the global auto industry and increase pressure on other manufacturers developing electric and self-driving cars, analysts said.

California has granted Waymo permission to carry passengers in the autonomous vehicles it is testing on the state’s roads, paving the way for the self-driving car company to roll out a taxi service in San Jose.

LONDON — Jaguar Land Rover says it will manufacture a range of electric cars in the U.K., a boost to an industry braced for turmoil ahead of Britain’s departure from the European Union.

FRANKFURT, Germany — BMW CEO Harald Krueger is stepping down after a four-year tenure in which the automaker lost its lead in luxury car sales and saw an early head start in electric vehicles evaporate.

Ford Motor Co. is preparing to make a bigger push in electric vehicles, according to Morgan Stanley.