General Motors is trying to speed ahead in the race for metals underpinning the industry’s shift to electric cars.

General Motors Co.’s leader said demand for expensive trucks remains robust, enabling the company to fund a blitz in electric vehicles that begins this year.

General Motors-owned Cruise is working to expand its paid service to all of San Francisco and run it 24 hours a day.

TuSimple Holdings Inc., an autonomous trucking startup that’s been the subject of U.S. investigations, said it hasn’t shared self-driving technology with another startup with Chinese ties.

General Motors Co.’s Cruise unit started offering rides with its self-driving taxi business in two more cities, expanding beyond San Francisco with cars now operating in Phoenix and in Austin, Texas.

The United Auto Workers filed a petition to gain union membership for the 900 workers at the Ultium Cells LLC battery plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that is jointly owned by General Motors Co. and Korean partner LG Energy Solutions.

Autonomous vehicle companies and suppliers have collectively spent around $75 billion developing self-driving technology, with scant sign of meaningful revenue emerging from robocar services.

Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s driverless-vehicle unit, said it has carted in excess of 1 million pounds of Modelo and Corona beer over 220 miles a day to Houston from Dallas under a pilot program with C.H. Robinson for Constellation Brands Inc.

Auto sales to rental fleets used to be seen as a sign of failure. With the dawn of the electric vehicle age, that’s changing.

It was a bit surprising when Cruise, the autonomous vehicle startup that’s 80% owned by General Motors, said it planned to expand its robotaxi service to Phoenix and Austin over the next three months.