Two leaders in motor vehicle safety testing said Thursday that they will rate the driver monitoring systems that are supposed to help make technologies like Tesla's Autopilot safe.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and Consumer Reports are pushing for safeguards that go further than what the auto industry and regulators currently ask of the new technologies.

Driver-assist technologies like Autopilot, GM's Super Cruise and Ford BlueCruise, which combine active cruise control with lane-keeping assist features, have become increasingly common on vehicles in recent years. They can often steer cars in their lane, keep up with traffic and sometimes respond to traffic signs and signals. The technology can make driving more pleasant, but they also have limitations like contributing to distracted driving, which can turn deadly. New risks emerge once a task is automated, and they may offset dangers that the automation removed.

"There is no evidence that [driver-assist systems] make driving safer," IIHS President David Harkey said in a statement. "In fact, the opposite may be the case if systems lack adequate safeguards."

Research has shown drivers are more distracted while using Tesla Autopilot. Tesla has published data showing its crash rate is lower when its drivers are using Autopilot. However, critics caution that driver-assist systems like Autopilot are more likely to be used on highways where crash rates are already much lower, and a comparison of highway driving to all other types, including urban environments, is not valid.

Drivers need to be alert and prepared to take full control of their vehicle at any moment when using systems like Autopilot. So automakers have introduced driver monitoring systems to help keep people focused on the road. But there are no regulations for those systems, leaving consumers with a hodgepodge of varying and unverified claims around capability and safety.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, asked to comment on Thursday's news, said it was "actively researching driver monitoring technologies to establish benchmarks and collect data about driver behavior that may be used to inform potential future actions."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly all the largest automakers except Tesla, released principles for driver-assist systems last April. The principles call for automakers to consider using a camera to monitor drivers, but they aren't required.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will only give a "good" rating to systems that make sure the driver's eyes are on the road, and their hands are either on the wheel or ready to grab it at any time. It said that none of the driver-monitoring systems in vehicles today meet its pending criteria. (It's yet to finalize its rating system.)

The organization also said that for systems to get a good rating drivers will need to receive multiple alerts if they look away from the road or have gone too long without steering the vehicle. It also says that drivers should confirm or initiate any lane changes, which is not something all automakers require. Tesla's "full self-driving" beta includes automated lane changes, and Autopilot drivers can change a default setting so they don't have to confirm automated lane changes.

The driver-monitoring systems from Ford and General Motors use an in-car camera to monitor drivers and make sure they're watching the road. But the systems don't meet IIHS standards because they fail to ensure that a driver isn't holding something like a cellphone in one hand and coffee in another, which may make grabbing the wheel at a moment's notice challenging.

Ford did not respond to a request for comment. GM declined to comment on monitoring a driver's hand position.

Tesla measures torque on the steering wheel to ensure that drivers are engaged while using Autopilot. Its vehicles also sometimes sound audible alerts to keep drivers engaged. Tesla isn't broadly using its in-car cameras to monitor drivers but has begun to do so with drivers using the beta version of its "full self-driving" technology, which only a small percentage of its owners have access to.

Consumer Reports said it will reward automakers in its ratings whose driver-monitoring systems effectively encourage safe driving. It's tested the systems from five automakers: BMW, Ford, GM, Subaru and Tesla.

But it will only give extra points to Ford and GM when it releases it 2022 top picks.

"Cruise and now Ford's BlueCruise both have the right combination of helping drivers enjoy the convenience of automation while verifying that they're keeping their eyes on the road," Jake Fisher, senior director of Consumer Report's auto test center, said in a statement.

Starting in 2024, Consumer Reports will penalize vehicles that lack adequate driver-monitoring systems. It criticized Tesla and BMW because their driver-assist systems could be active when the in-car camera was covered. Subaru risks losing points because the camera in its driver-monitoring system can be turned off.

Consumer Reports said it may penalize automakers for privacy issues. Most automakers say they don't transmit in-cabin data or video from an in-car camera outside the vehicle, but Tesla leaves the possibility open. If there's a crash and a driver enables data sharing the car will share image and video with Tesla, according to the Model 3 owner's manual.

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

DETROIT (AP) — The global shortage of computer chips is getting worse, forcing automakers to temporarily close factories including those that build popular pickup trucks.

General Motors announced Thursday that it would pause production at eight North American plants during the next two weeks, including two that make the company's top-selling Chevrolet Silverado pickup.

According to the Associated Press, starting Monday, GM will close its plants in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Silao, Mexico, for a week, a plant in Wentzville, Missouri, for two weeks, and other plants could be closed for two or more weeks.

Ford will stop making pickups at its Kansas City Assembly Plant for the next two weeks.

Shifts will be cut at two more truck plants in Dearborn, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Industry analysts say the delta variant of the novel coronavirus has hit employees at chip factories in southeast Asia hard, forcing some plants to close.

That's worsened a chip shortage that was starting to improve earlier in the summer.

Ford and GM aren't the only car makers having to shut down plants due to the chip shortage.

Stellantis closed a plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan this week and its plants in Belvidere, Illinois and Windsor, Ontario will be closed for two weeks.

Nissan, which shutdown its plant in Smyrna, Tennessee, for two weeks until Aug. 30, has now pushed the closure back to four weeks, until Sept. 13.

Related video above: California to ban new gas engine car sales by 2035

General Motors has set a goal of making the vast majority of the vehicles it produces electric by 2035, and the entire company carbon neutral, including operations, five years after that.

The Detroit automaker's push into electric vehicles has gone into overdrive this year.

GM has already announced that it will invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicles in the next five years, a 35% increase over plans made before the pandemic. It will offer 30 all-electric models worldwide by the middle of the decade. By the end of 2025, 40% of its U.S. models will be battery electric vehicles. The company plans to include crossovers, SUVs, sedans and trucks in its electric vehicle lineup.

GM said Thursday that it will source 100% renewable energy to power its U.S. sites by 2030 and global sites by 2035. That's five years faster than its previously announced global goal.

And it has a goal of making all new light-duty vehicles, the vast majority of its fleet, fully electric within 14 years. The company will concentrate on offering zero-emissions vehicles in different prices ranges. It's also working with others, including the Environmental Defense Fund, to build out the necessary infrastructure to power its electric vehicles and to promote their use.

To account for carbon emissions that it cannot eliminate, GM expects to invest in carbon credits or offsets.

The 112-year-old auto giant unveiled a new corporate logo this month to signify its new direction as it openly pivots to electric vehicles. It wants to be seen as a clean vehicle company, rather than a builder of cloud-spewing gas-powered pickups and SUVs.

GM scrapped its old square blue logo for a lower case gm surrounded by rounded corners and an ‘m’ that looks like an electrical plug.

It also announced a new partnership with Microsoft this month with hopes of accelerating its rollout of electric, self-driving cars.

GM's push for carbon neutrality comes a day after President Joe Biden signed executive orders that include moving to an all-electric federal vehicle fleet. His goal is to transform the nation’s heavily fossil-fuel-powered economy into a clean-burning one.

So far, Wall Street has cheered the shift by GM which says the industry has reached a history-changing inflection point for mass adoption of electric vehicles.

Its shares this year have outpaced even high-flying Tesla, rising more than 20% to date. Shares rose almost 2% Thursday.

UPS is delivering more than packages to Capitol Hill.

New campaign finance records show UPS giving to lawmakers who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election.

The donations were made after UPS paused political spending in the days following the Jan. 6 insurrection.

"Many of those companies just pulled away: Washington’s burning down, let’s not give any more fuel to it, at least not initially," said Douglas Schuler, an associate professor of business and public policy at Rice University. 

Companies froze campaign donations to avoid heat for funding people who promoted the baseless idea that President Biden didn’t actually win the election, Schuler said.

“A lot of people started asking, Who is behind those members of Congress?” he said.

Newsy reviewed recent filings at the Federal Election Commission and found 16 corporations sending money to Congress again, including to some of the 147 Republican election objectors.

The list includes Ford, General Motors, JetBlue and Lockheed Martin.

Like UPS, they are companies that announced a temporary stop in contributions to all lawmakers after the Capitol riot.

The donations come from employee-sponsored Political Action Committees known as PACs.

UPS reported giving to two Republican election dissenters in a flurry of new PAC donations that also went to Democrats.  UPS never said why it stopped donating after the insurrection and did not respond to questions about why the PAC chose to support election opponents now.

Boeing took a time-out to review political spending in January "to ensure that we support those who not only support our company, but also uphold our country’s most fundamental principles."

Now a new FEC filing shows Boeing’s PAC spending again to Democrats and Republicans, including four who challenged the election.

We asked Boeing: Who would the company not support anymore after its review?

“Thanks for the question,” a Boeing spokesman responded, "but nothing additional to add beyond the statement,” referring to an initial response from the company that said in part, “We will continue to carefully evaluate our giving…”

Cigna said it would no longer donate specifically to lawmakers who encouraged or supported violence, or who "otherwise hindered the peaceful transition of power."

But FEC filings show, two months later Cigna donated to seven members of Congress who tried to prevent certifying the election.

When Newsy asked Cigna about those donations, a spokeswoman referred us to a company statement that said voting against the election was not an act of obstructing a peaceful transition of power.

The FEC records show the companies still not giving to some of the most vocal election skeptics.

"[Missouri Sen. Josh] Hawley with his fist, that was like a very powerful symbol," Schuler said. "There might be a little more attention on those people."

Duke Energy, one of the nation’s largest electric companies, is contributing again to a number of home state representatives, but not to Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who the PAC backed in the 2020 election cycle.

That was before the North Carolina congressman spoke to the crowd of Trump supporters just before the Capitol attack.

The FEC records show companies are slowly returning to the long tradition of donating to both parties, focusing on congressional leaders and committee chairpersons, those most able to shape policies the corporations care about. 

It’s a practice Duke Energy’s CEO defended at a recent shareholders meeting.

"We must be a part of the conversation so that we can bring our subject matter, expertise, our experience, the needs of our customers to the table, and we’ll continue to do that," Duke Energy chair, president and CEO Lynn Good said.