There are some people who still question the economic relevance of the automobile manufacturing industry to the U.S.

A recent study by the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UTK) ought to put that to rest.

The researchers looked at the Volkswagen Chattanooga plant, where the Passat is produced. The plant officially opened in May 2011.

The plant directly employs 2,415 people. UTK researchers find that the plant indirectly employs 9,985 others, such as at supplier companies. They also point out that the plant has attracted 17 suppliers to the Chattanooga area.  (Which probably wouldn’t have otherwise been attracted to Chattanooga.)

From a financial perspective, VW pays $159.2-million to its employees. In addition to that, there is indirect employee income of $483.9-million.

It also helps increase state and local tax revenues, on the order of $31.2-million and $22.3-million, respectively.

We hear a lot about the importance of “small business.” Yes, it is important.

So are 5,600,000-square meter assembly plants.

Big businesses.

While the current-generation (10^th) Toyota Corolla has had its share of knocks due to what’s widely considered bland exterior styling and a not particularly competitive interior execution, Edmunds.com recently pointed out that (1) the Corolla is the best-selling compact in the U.S., and (2) Corolla owners tend to be loyal to the car: in April, of the new Corolla sales that had a trade-in in the transaction, 35% of the trade-ins were Corollas.

That said, the people at Toyota know that they’ve got to elevate the game for the Corolla, so for the forthcoming 11^th generation (the first Corolla was launched in 1966 in Japan), they’ve not only created a striking, angular exterior (the theme: “Iconic Dynamism”), but what Toyota itself describes as “interior executions that challenge the pre-conceptions about Corolla”—i.e., there are better materials and more attention to detail.

The new car is longer, wider, and lower; the overhang in the front is increased by about an inch and it is tucked in by an inch in the back. The 3.93 increase in wheelbase (to 106.3 in.) translates into more room in the interior, particularly for the rear seat occupants (e.g., the rear seat hip point is moved back 2.95 in. and the backs of the front seats are carved out for additional knee room).

Compact cars for the masses are generally characterized as having good fuel economy, and so to underline that fact there is a new trim level offered—the LE Eco—that Toyota thinks will deliver better than 40 mpg highway.

There are two 1.8-liter, all-aluminum four-cylinder engines, with the LE Eco’s having “Valvematic,” a valve control system that continuously controls lift and phasing for the intake side of the engine; it results in higher horsepower—140 hp @ 6,100 rpm—than the other engine (available in the other three trims), the base, that produces 132 hp @ 6,000 rpm.

Another fuel efficiency enhancement is the use of an available continuously variable transmission (CVT), the first pulley-style CVT that Toyota has offered in North America. Designated “CVTi-S,” with the “I” standing for “intelligent” and the “S” for “shift,” the transmission is said to “provide a more linear connection between pedal effort and acceleration feel compared to previous CVT designs.”

Clearly, Toyota got the message about the Corolla and it is responding in a compelling manner.

Peter DeLorenzo. Autoextremist.com

Todd Lassa. Automobile Magazine.

John McElroy. Autoline Detroit.

Gary Vasilash. Automotive Design & Production.

And they begin to talk about the auto industry, circa right now.

Lassa and Vasilash are just back from a trip to the Continental AG Contidrom proving ground in Jeversen, Germany. There they learned about—by listening, driving and riding—automotive connectivity systems, vehicle electrification, high-performance tires (you really, really don’t want to drive on wet, curved roadways at, um, brisk speeds on what are described as “Asian Import Tires” when there are things like the ContiSportContact tires available—you REALLY don’t), and automated driving and autonomous vehicles.

A real car that can essentially drive itself.  The setup here shows how it will brake and/or steer to avoid pedestrian collisions.

And so the conversation begins, with a particular focus on driver assistance all the way to autonomous driving. Continental has a pair of automated vehicles that it is running tests on, VWs that have been fitted out with an array of sensors, yet sensors—four short-range radar sensors (two each front and back), a long-range radar, and a stereo camera--that are integrated into the vehicle in a way that doesn’t make the cars look like some sort of lunar rover. (Last December, Continental became the first automotive supplier to be granted “Autonomous Vehicle Testing Licenses” from the state of Nevada, which allows the cars to be tested on public roads.) Continental, says Alfred Eckert, head of Advanced Engineering in Continental’s Chassis & Safety Div., suggests that while “a lot of research and development work is still needed before fully automated driving is possible,” the company is investing more than €100-million this year in R&D, and fully automated driving is possible by 2025, if not before.

The four guys talk about the implications of autonomous driving from various standpoints, ranging from the technical to the societal.

They talk about the design of the 2014 Chevy Malibu, which was refreshed extensively to address its sagging sales.

The 2014 Chevrolet SS is the first rear-drive performance sedan that Chevy has offered since 1996, the year Internet Explorer 3 was launched and the Spice Girls had their first number-one single.

They talk about the price of the 2014 Chevy SS ($44,470) and wonder about not only that as the price of a Chevy that’s not a Corvette, and what the expectations are for this 415-hp V8, rear-drive car.

They talk about Chrysler’s response to the NHTSA for 2.7-million Jeeps (“We believe NHTSA’s initial conclusions are based on an incomplete analysis of the underlying data. . . .”) and the implications of recalls.

And they talk about a whole lot of other stuff, as well.

Think about this as one of those roundtables on the Sunday morning political shows but without the table and on a variety of more interesting subjects. . . .

You’ve probably seen the TV commercial of the Toyota Tundra pickup truck towing the Space Shuttle Endeavour over the 405 Freeway Manchester Boulevard Bridge on its way to the California Science Center.

Clearly, this was a clever way to show what the Tundra can do with the towing package that’s available on both the 4x2 and 4x4 versions of the standard truck.

The specific truck is a stock 2012 Tundra CrewMax 4x4 with a 381-hp, 5.7-liter V8. The truck was built at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas, in San Antonio.

As though tradesmen everywhere have retired rocket ships that they’re moving from one place to another. . . .

Anyway, this infographic is actually rather interesting.

The last flight of STS-134 was May 16 to June 1, 2011.

And now it is parked in LA.  Sort of like a lot of cars probably are right now on the 405.

While gaming isn’t something that we ordinarily write about, despite the fact that there is tremendous popularity among the professional automotive community in “driving” virtual cars on some of the most challenging (virtual) road courses in the world or in the world of Grand Theft Auto (and we might as well note for the two or three of you who don’t know, “Grand Theft Auto V” will drop in September, something released at the COMPUTEX fair in Taipei caught our attention as it has to do with BMW. And, yes, it is related to gaming.

Actually, it is a BMW subsidiary, DesignworksUSA, which was hired by ASRock, a manufacturer of computer motherboards, to develop a compact gaming PC.

And they developed the M8. It’s a gaming tower that can be positioned horizontally or vertically. The side panels are transparent so that the motherboard is visible. And the side panels are also magnetically attached to the case so that they can be removed to get inside the guts of the machine. The front knob features an OLED that provides information about the operating performance of the M8.

Speaking of the execution, Laurenz Schaffer, president of BMW Group DesignworksUSA, said, “Gaming is all about emotion and individuality. So we created a design which is very much an exaggerated mode of expression. It speaks to the gamers’ souls and offers iconic differentiation in a small gaming PC.”

Almost sounds like he’s describing a car, doesn’t it?