Mark Rechtin REFERENCE MARK Jobs Jobs Jobs But where are the workers?

“Build it where you sell it” used to be the motivation for foreign automakers to bring plants to America—as well as to avoid transport costs, to achieve quicker-to-market timing, and as a hedge against currency-exchange fluctuations.

But today, it’s simply cheaper to build cars here than it is in South Korea or Germany or Sweden.

Automakers might have taken a breather during the devastating recession of 2008–2010, laying off hundreds of thousands of auto workers as vehicle sales plummeted and the need for second and third production shifts waned. But auto factory employment is now at a higher level than before the last sales peak—just before the economy collapsed in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (see chart below).

It’s good news for American workers that there is a new Toyota-Mazda plant in Alabama, a new Volvo plant in South Carolina, and an expansion of Daimler’s operations in Alabama. In fact, in some auto sectors there are more jobs open than there are qualified workers to fill them. Why? Put simply: poor skills and low wages.

Auto manufacturing expert Mike Robinet, managing director for data giant IHS Markit, says some automakers have had to delay production or miss a third shift because they (or their suppliers) couldn’t find enough trained or trainable people and thus suffered shortages of labor or critical parts. He cites Denso’s new $1 billion plant in Maryville, Tennessee, which will build battery inverters and power supplies, as having to “import” people from outside the Knoxville area to fill the 1,000 jobs that will staff the plant.

A Denso spokesperson responded that the company “is not ‘importing ’ workers,” merely “adding new strategies to reach a larger radius or market than in the past.”

Tomayto. Tomahto.

As early as 2014, there were signs that America might lack the skilled and semi-skilled laborers needed to fill its available auto jobs. That year, I attended a gathering of the Japan-America Society of Indiana, where executives from three major automotive suppliers—Aisin Seiki, NTN Driveshaft, and Enkei America—said they couldn’t fill key positions at their southern Indiana operations because there weren’t enough qualified applicants.

Well, sort of.

It used to be that, back in the golden age of manufacturing, skilled workers on the assembly line received a respectable blue-collar wage, owned a home, and sent their kids to college. But recent recessiondriven labor contracts (or lack of labor influence altogether) have allowed automakers to drive wages down— especially for newcomers to the factory.

New plants are good news for U.S. workers. In fact, in some sectors there are more jobs than qualified workers to fill them.

The average hourly wage for an autoworker in America was $22.09 in 2008, a number that has inched to $22.39 over the past decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But if wages had merely kept pace with inflation, they should average $25.94 an hour today.

Remember, this is an average. Lots of grandfathered workers with seniority make well more than this amount. But many of the new auto jobs being created are actually in the $9 to $15 per hour range, according to a recent piece of investigative reporting by Bloomberg Businessweek. That’s not much incentive for a skilled job seeker seeking to support a family. And lowering the bar for new employees willing to accept those wages means the industry has to deal with less qualified candidates, higher absenteeism, and failed drug tests, Robinet says.

Of course, certain economic supplyand-demand theories contend that with 4 percent unemployment and jobs going begging, automakers and suppliers might have to sweeten the pot a little to bring in new hires.

What’s good for GM (and Ford and Toyota) is good for America. But more to the point, what is good for American workers is good for America, too. They should be treated accordingly, both by training and by what they earn. It’s great that auto jobs are back. Now wages need to follow suit. Q

EMPLOYEES U.S. motor vehicle and parts manufacturing

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946.5 In thousands, seasonally adjusted

955.1

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Frank Markus TECHNOLOGUE Motoring Cor tex Nissan researches mind-over-motor technolog y

Nissan made big, brainy waves at CES by unveiling its brain-to-vehicle research project. If you’ve read recent headlines about people controlling robotic arms or quadcopters simply by thinking about doing so while wearing funny electroencephalography (EEG) caps bristling with sensors and wires, you might wonder whether the era of drive-by-wireless imagination is upon us. It is not. Nor is direct brain control of your commute what Nissan is after. This sandbox research project simply aims to use brainwaves to make your time in a car more pleasurable in two specific instances—when you’re driving and when you’re being driven.

The simple truth of brain control of anything via EEG is that, for now at least, detecting sufficient brain activity to control roboarms, copters, or cars typically requires the user to wear something like a swimming cap containing loads of sensors that must be precisely positioned on the scalp using electrically conductive gel that’s guaranteed to ruin any coiffure. But according to Nissan’s Lucian Gheorghe, senior innovation researcher in charge of the B2V project, some signals are easier to detect reliably with less complicated sensors. His new headset features 11 pads with four contacts each, and they don’t require gel. It’s more comfortable to wear, delivers 95 percent of the accuracy of a gelled-up medical-grade sensor cap, and connects to the vehicle conveniently via Bluetooth.

The first of these signals is known as motor-related cortical potential (MRCP), and it fires from the motor cortex about 500 milliseconds before the driver’s arm muscles execute a turn. Gheorghe proposes using that advance warning to order the electric steering assist to initiate a turn. Doing so will get that first part of any turn out of the way, where all the bushing compliance and rubber bending occurs and nothing seems to happen. Get it right, and the driver perceives the steering to be super responsive (dare we say telepathic), making the car feel agile. Timing is crucial—jump the gun too much, and expert drivers will sense autonomy. Another challenge is predicting the direction—the easily detected MRCP signal doesn’t specify left or right. Onboard sensors and map data can predict the direction with greater accuracy than direct brain-signal interpretation could provide.

The second signal, known as an errorrelated potential (ERP), fires off from the anterior cingulate cortex when our brain notices a mistake or unexpected event. Researchers at MIT and Boston University have used this signal as a means for humans to fine-tune sorting decisions made by robots. Similarly, Gheorghe believes it can be used to fine-tune the driving behavior of your autonomous car. Here’s the setup: Your car has learned that on your drive home from work, you wish to be more relaxed— following slower-moving cars in a leisurely fashion rather than aggressively overtaking them. But one day, you need to get home quickly. Displeasure with the gentler driving gets registered by these ERP signals, and the car switches to an in-a-hurry driving protocol.

This is all years away, and by the time its ready, the sensing might not require a headset. Instead we could be using sensors embedded in the driver. Wireless, batteryless, implantable sensors known as “neural dust” are the latest rage in “electroceuticals” used for monitoring and even stimulating various nerves or muscles. Acceptance of implanted electronics today varies widely by region. Americans and Japanese are very “anti.” But Dutch and Spanish nightclubs have allowed special VIP access and account payment via embedded RFID chips— similar to the one in your pet if you registered it.

Oh sure, today it’s easy to say, “Club access and crisp steering would never get me to submit to an electronic implant.” Expect Big Government and Big Business to up the ante in the future with alluring prospects such as jumping bothersome lines at airport security, national borders, amusement parks, etc. By the time the deal gets sweet enough to entice you, Nissan should be ready to tap your embedded sensors and rock your ride. Q

SIMULATOR, STIMULATOR This fellow is sending electroencephalographic signals via his comfy, gelless Bluetooth headset. Those signals show up as a sine wave on a screen and order steering to commence.