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By Joseph White, Global Automotive Correspondent

Greetings from the Motor City!

We here at Reuters received an “upgrade” of our workplace software recently that in my case wiped out my videoconference settings and made some important files temporarily inaccessible. Aarrrgh!!!!

Well, as irritating as that was for me, it was not worse than what appears to have happened at Toyota this week. Imagine a botched software upgrade costing your company $350 million.

You know who else is in trouble over software? Tesla.

Let’s read all about it in a fast mid-week review of the news from the World of Cars.

Today –

• • A software glitch shuts down Toyota in Japan

  • The Feds demand more Autopilot information from Tesla

  • Europe’s EV market is on fire

He got the day off, thanks to software.

Toyota shut down all of its factories in Japan on Tuesday after an update of software that manages the flow of parts crashed during an update, sources told Reuters.

Toyota restarted its Japanese assembly lines Wednesday, and has not said what caused the shutdown – except to say it did not appear to be the result of a cyberattack.

Losing a day of production in its core home-country operations could cost Toyota more than $350 million in revenue, and it’s especially unwelcome when demand for Toyota’s vehicles is strong. Global sales for Toyota, Lexus and other brands jumped 8% in July.

Automakers have invested billions to transform their factories into nodes on complex, interconnected data networks. Machines in one plant fire data to machines in another – sometimes in another part of the world.

Software now does the work of signaling when parts are needed and where they should go, not paper kanban cards Toyota workers once used to manage their “just in time” lean production system.

Large-scale digital systems are great when they work. When they don’t, the impact can be far more painful than someone misplacing some paper.

Whoa! Slow that roll!

Biden administration safety regulators have demanded that Tesla hand over detailed information on a change to the Autopilot driver assistance system that allowed motorists to take their hands off the steering wheel for an extended period of time.

The order to hand over records of a recent Autopilot software revision escalates the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s investigation of accidents involving Teslas operating on Autopilot.

Elon Musk, in posts on his X social media platform, earlier this year signaled plans to reduce the amount of nagging drivers get to keep their hands on the steering wheel.

NHTSA did not order a broad recall or revision of Autopilot – one reason why Tuesday’s action did not dampen a jump in Tesla shares. Still, NHTSA’s letter adds to a growing list of challenges to Musk’s handling of Autopilot’s rollout and evolution. Tesla is headed toward trial in two civil lawsuits over Autopilot safety.

NHTSA’s letter and comments from its acting administrator suggest regulators are zeroing in on how robust the driver monitoring technology is in vehicles that purport to offer safe, hands-free driving capability.

A Volkswagen EV. 

Sales of electric vehicles in Europe jumped by 61% in July, and now make up nearly 14% of the market, according to new data from the European automakers’ association.

Diesel vehicles accounted for just over 14% of European sales in July. Diesels owned half the market in 2015. Overall, vehicle sales in Europe rose by 15%.

Redwood Materials, the battery recycling startup led by former Tesla Chief Technology Officer JB Straubel, has raised another $1 billion from investors.

The D-series fundraising, added to a $2 billion loan from the U.S. government, will go to fund expansion of Redwood’s U.S. operations. Straubel and his backers have a stiff tailwind: The escalating domestic content requirements for EV batteries to qualify for subsidies under Biden Administration rules.

Ford will take the lead in negotiating a new contract setting the pattern for the Detroit Three automakers’ Canadian plants. Lana Payne, head of Canada’s Unifor auto union, is pursuing a traditional approach to negotiations by choosing one automaker to set the pattern. In the United States, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain is demanding General Motors, Ford and Stellantis North America all come to terms by a Sept 14 deadline.

Said Payne: “We have our own strategy.”

Worried about driver distraction? You won’t like Elon Musk’s latest idea: Building an app that will pipe the cacophony from his X social media platform into the dashboard of your car.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s CEO said the company is on track to launch an electric vehicle business. Xiaomi has won a key approval from Chinese authorities to push ahead, despite a glut of capacity in the world’s biggest EV market.

Speaking cars and phones, Chinese EV startup Nio plans to offer its own smartphone next month. The Nio phone would primarily be used to interact remotely with Nio’s EVs. Meanwhile, Nio underwhelmed investors with a drop in Q2 deliveries compared to a year ago.

U.S. EV charging startups are facing cash crunches as automakers rush to connect to Tesla’s Supercharger network, Automotive News reports. Chargepoint and Blink Charging have less than a year of cash left at current burn rates.

Inceptio,  a Shanghai startup developing driver assistance technology for trucks, said it expects to quadruple the number of vehicles using its system in China by next year. Inceptio CEO Julian Ma told Reuters the company’s technology could allow a long-distance truck journey to be completed by one driver instead of two.