Shop Floor Report: June 13, 2026

The REPAIR Act Just Cleared Committee — With ADAS Standards Attached

If you’ve been following this story in the Shop Floor Report, you know the REPAIR Act has been through the wringer. Two weeks ago it got gutted — the telematics mandate stripped out. Last week, Trump called out automakers at the White House for blocking independent repair. This week, the bill took another step forward.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee voted 48-1 to pass H.R. 7389, the Motor Vehicle Modernization Act of 2026. The REPAIR Act is bundled inside it, along with something new — federal ADAS calibration standards. That means camera, radar, and LiDAR calibration procedures are getting codified into law alongside the right-to-repair language. One bill, two things that directly affect your bay.

The REPAIR Act portion codifies the 2014 light-duty and 2015 heavy-duty MOUs into enforceable federal law. It’s still not the full bill independent shops wanted — the telematics mandate is still missing. But having the MOUs backed by FTC enforcement is a real step, not just a handshake agreement. The ADAS piece is arguably just as important — it establishes federal standards for who can calibrate these systems and how. That’s been a gray area for years.

The bill now moves to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Supporters are pushing to get it included in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act, which Congress has to pass by September 30. That’s the leverage point — if it gets attached to a must-pass bill, it rides.

What this means for your shop: The 48-1 vote tells you this has real support on both sides. If you’re independent, the MOU codification means automakers can’t walk away from the data-sharing agreements they already made. If you’re doing ADAS work, federal standards are coming — get your calibration procedures tight now, because once there’s a federal standard, there’s federal accountability. And if you’re not doing ADAS calibrations yet, the window to get ahead of it is closing. (Source: CBT News)

GM Is Dumping LFP Batteries. Here’s What’s Replacing Them.

GM’s VP of Batteries, Kurt Kelty, said this week that lithium iron phosphate batteries — LFP — are likely out of GM’s long-term EV plans. That’s a big reversal. GM had announced plans to build LFP batteries at a jointly owned plant in Tennessee starting in late 2027. Now they’re pivoting to lithium manganese-rich chemistry — LMR.

The reasoning is straightforward. LMR costs about the same to manufacture in the U.S. as LFP, but it stores more energy for the same weight and size. In a world where range anxiety still drives EV purchasing decisions, more energy density at the same cost wins. GM is also pushing sodium-ion batteries into their grid energy storage business — a different chemistry for a different application. One battery doesn’t fit everything.

This matters in the bay because battery chemistry determines service procedures. LFP, NMC, LMR — they have different voltage ranges, different thermal management needs, different failure modes, and different safety protocols. A tech who learned high-voltage service on a Bolt’s NMC pack is going to see something different in a next-gen GM EV with LMR cells. The fundamentals of HV safety don’t change, but the diagnostics and service information will.

What this means for your shop: If you’re a GM tech, the vehicles you’re working on today use Ultium NMC packs. The LMR stuff is coming in the next generation. Stay current on your HV training and pay attention to GM’s service updates as the new chemistry rolls out. If you’re independent, the takeaway is broader — every OEM is making different battery chemistry decisions, which means the HV service landscape is getting more fragmented, not less. The techs who understand why the chemistry matters, not just how to follow a procedure, are the ones who’ll be able to diagnose across platforms. (Source: GM Authority)

Ford Puts AI Inspectors in 17 Plants

Ford installed IBM’s Maximo Visual Inspection AI at 17 North American manufacturing plants. The system uses iPhones to photograph vehicle components on the assembly line and a cloud-based AI platform to detect defects in real time. It’s not a pilot program anymore — Ford added 40 new inspection systems in 2026 alone.

The numbers at the Kentucky Truck Plant tell the story. For the 2026 Expedition launch, Ford added 1,200 inspections, 203 new human inspectors, 72 new technology tests, and six times the number of AI-powered inspection tools compared to last year’s model launch. The goal is to catch assembly defects before the vehicle ships — not after it’s in your bay with a warranty complaint.

This ties directly into what was discussed at the Automotive News Europe Congress this week. Audi’s head of data-driven production and the CEO of Neural Concept laid out how AI and robotics are redefining car design and factory work. The factory floor is getting smarter. The vehicles rolling off these lines will have fewer build-quality issues — but the systems inside them will be more complex than ever.

What this means for your shop: Fewer factory defects means different warranty work patterns. The easy stuff — loose clips, misaligned panels, missed fasteners — gets caught before the vehicle ships. What’s left for the dealership tech are the complex, intermittent, hard-to-reproduce issues that AI couldn’t catch on the line. That’s harder work that requires better diagnostic skills. If you’re a flat rate tech at a Ford store, expect the nature of warranty work to shift — fewer quick hits, more involved diagnosis. The techs who can handle that will thrive. The ones who depended on gravy warranty jobs will feel it. (Source: WardsAuto)

Tech Life: The #1 Career-Ender Nobody Talks About Until It’s Too Late

We’ve done boots. We’ve done gloves. We’ve talked money. We’ve covered diagnostic fundamentals. This week we’re talking about the thing that ends more technician careers than flat rate, tool debt, and burnout combined. Your back.

Over 36% of automotive workers report chronic lower back problems. Back injuries account for 1 in 5 of all workplace injuries in the United States. More than one million workers suffer back injuries every year, and the average workers’ comp settlement for a back injury is $67,500. That sounds like a lot until you realize it’s supposed to replace a career that was paying you $60,000 to $120,000 a year. It doesn’t even cover two years of lost income. And most techs who go out on a back injury don’t come back to the trade. It’s not a leave of absence — it’s a forced exit.

Think about what your body does every day in that bay. You bend over engine compartments for hours. Your lower back is holding your entire upper body at an angle while your arms are reaching deep into a engine bay that was designed by engineers who never had to work on it. You twist under dashes with your spine curved in ways it was never meant to hold. You lay on a creeper and push yourself under a vehicle, then torque on a bolt above your head with your back flat on concrete. You lift transmissions, pull engines, carry brake rotors, drag toolboxes. Eight, ten, twelve hours a day. Five or six days a week. For twenty or thirty years.

The damage is cumulative. It doesn’t announce itself. You don’t blow a disc on one bad lift — although that can happen. Most of the time, it’s thousands of small insults over years. The discs between your vertebrae lose hydration and flexibility. The cartilage wears down. The muscles that support your spine fatigue and weaken because they’re never given time to recover. Then one Tuesday morning you bend over to pick up a 10mm socket off the floor and something shifts. You feel it in your lower back like electricity running down your leg. That’s sciatica — a herniated disc pressing on your sciatic nerve. And the damage that led to it started ten years ago.

The two most common locations are L4-L5 and L5-S1 — the lowest discs in your lumbar spine, right above your tailbone. Those are the discs that absorb the most force when you bend forward, twist, and lift. They’re the ones that fail first in people who do physical work for a living. Once a disc herniates, you’re looking at physical therapy if you’re lucky, epidural injections if it’s moderate, and surgery if it’s severe. Recovery from a lumbar fusion is six months to a year. And even after surgery, most surgeons will tell you straight — you’re not going back to bending over engine bays eight hours a day. The career is over.

Most techs don’t think about this at 25. At 25 your back is bulletproof. You can sleep on a concrete floor and feel fine in the morning. But the techs who are 45, 50, 55 — they’ll tell you. They’ll tell you about the mornings where it takes ten minutes to stand up straight. The days where they can’t bend over the fender without a shooting pain down their leg. The nights where they can’t find a position to sleep in. They’ll tell you about the guy who was the best tech in the shop and one day he just couldn’t do it anymore.

What you can do right now:

1. Use the lift. Every time. If the car can go on the lift, put it on the lift. Stop being a hero and working on your back under a car that’s sitting on jack stands when a lift bay is open. A two-post lift puts the vehicle at chest height where your spine is neutral. Jack stands put you on a creeper with your back flat on concrete and your arms above your head fighting gravity. The lift exists to protect your body. Use it.

2. Hip hinge, don’t bend. When you lean into an engine bay, push your hips back like you’re closing a car door with your backside. Let your hips do the bending, not your lower back. Most techs round their spine forward and hang over the fender with all the load on their lumbar discs. That’s the movement pattern that herniates discs over time. A hip hinge keeps your spine neutral and puts the load on your glutes and hamstrings — muscles that are built to handle it. It feels awkward at first. Do it anyway.

3. Core strength is not optional. Your core muscles — abs, obliques, lower back — are the brace that holds your spine in place. If they’re weak, your vertebrae and discs take all the load. A strong core distributes force across your entire trunk instead of concentrating it on your spine. You don’t need a gym membership. Three exercises, three to four times a week, ten minutes total: planks (30-60 seconds, front and side), glute bridges (3 sets of 15), and bird dogs (3 sets of 10 each side). That’s it. Ten minutes. The payoff is measured in years added to your career.

4. Stretch before your shift. OSHA data shows that stretching before physical work can cut injury rates by up to 50%. Your hamstrings, hip flexors, and lower back are the three areas that matter most for techs. Tight hamstrings pull your pelvis down and flatten the natural curve in your lower back — that’s disc compression waiting to happen. Tight hip flexors from sitting in cars and squatting under dashes pull your pelvis forward and create excessive arch — that’s facet joint pain. Two minutes of stretching each morning before you pick up the first tool. Touch your toes, pull one knee to your chest, lunge and lean back. Hold each one for 15-20 seconds. Do it by your toolbox before the first car rolls in.

5. Change positions constantly. The worst thing you can do is hold one position for an hour. If you’re under the hood, stand up straight every 15-20 minutes and extend your back. Put your hands on your hips and lean back gently. If you’re under the dash, get out and stand up every 10-15 minutes. Your discs need movement to stay hydrated — they don’t have their own blood supply. They absorb nutrients through compression and decompression, like a sponge. If you hold one position for an hour, the disc on the compressed side gets starved. Over years, that’s degeneration.

6. Invest in a good creeper and anti-fatigue mat. A flat board on five casters is not a creeper. A real creeper has padding that supports your spine and keeps your back from pressing directly on the frame rails. If you’re standing at a bench or workstation for extended periods, an anti-fatigue mat reduces the impact on your lower back and knees. These cost $30-$80. Your spine is worth more than that.

I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m saying it because I’ve watched it happen. Good techs — great techs — who had to walk away from the trade because their back gave out. Not because they wanted to leave. Because their body made the decision for them. The average tech retires around 60-65, but most start thinking about getting out around 55 because the physical toll is real. The ones who last are the ones who treated their body like a tool that needs maintenance. Run preventative maintenance on yourself the same way you run it on a customer’s car. Your back doesn’t have a warranty, and there’s no aftermarket replacement.

This is general health and workplace safety information for techs in physical trades. If you’re experiencing chronic back pain, numbness or tingling in your legs, or shooting pain down either leg, see a doctor. Early intervention with disc issues makes a significant difference in outcomes. Don’t wait until you can’t stand up straight.

Industry Watch

Ford: The U.S. Needs 350,000 New Techs by 2029

Ford said this week that the U.S. auto industry will need more than 350,000 new technicians by 2029 to keep pace with rapid vehicle technology shifts — including 7,000 in Michigan alone. This isn’t a TechForce projection or a think tank estimate. This is Ford Motor Company, one of the biggest employers of automotive technicians in the country, saying publicly that the pipeline isn’t close to keeping up. Last week we covered TechForce’s numbers — 20,000 unfilled auto tech positions per year. Ford’s number is the demand side of the same equation. The gap is real, it’s widening, and if you’re in this trade, your leverage goes up every year. (Source: WardsAuto)

Dana and Eaton Merge in $5.1 Billion Deal

Dana Incorporated and Eaton’s Mobility business are combining in a $5.1 billion deal announced June 11. The combined company will have approximately $11 billion in sales and will be one of the largest powertrain component suppliers in the world. If you’ve ever installed a Dana axle or an Eaton differential, that’s the work these companies touch. Consolidation at the supplier level usually means standardization of parts across platforms — which can be good or bad depending on how it shakes out. Worth watching. (Source: Automotive News)

Trump Won’t Renew USMCA

President Trump said June 10 he is “not looking to renew” the USMCA trade agreement ahead of its July 1 review deadline. Without renewal, the agreement enters rolling annual reviews while negotiations continue. Non-qualifying vehicles already face a 25% tariff, and automakers are warning they may not be able to profitably sell entry-level vehicles without a deal. Parts costs and supply chain uncertainty aren’t going away anytime soon. (Source: CBT News)

U.S. Aftermarket Projected to Grow 5.2% in 2026

The Auto Care Association and MEMA released the 2026 Joint Channel Forecast on June 11, projecting 5.2% year-over-year growth for the U.S. light-duty automotive aftermarket. The market is headed to over $500 billion by 2029 as the U.S. fleet continues aging and repair demand climbs. If you’re in the aftermarket — independent shop, parts store, mobile tech — the macro trend is in your favor. More cars on the road, older cars needing more work, and not enough techs to do it. (Source: Auto Care Association)

The Bottom Line

The REPAIR Act cleared committee 48-1 with ADAS calibration standards attached — the most momentum right-to-repair has had all year. GM is pivoting battery chemistry from LFP to LMR, which changes what techs will see under the hood of next-gen EVs. Ford is using AI to catch factory defects before vehicles ship, which shifts the warranty work that hits your bay toward harder, more complex diagnosis. The industry needs 350,000 new techs by 2029 and the aftermarket is growing 5.2% this year. And your back — the one tool you can’t replace and can’t buy aftermarket — needs preventative maintenance just like every vehicle that rolls into your shop. Take care of it now, or it will make the decision for you later. Stay sharp out there. See you next week.