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"Nissan Moves to Streamline Production   Nissan says it plans to accelerate vehicle design and production, hoping to halve the start-up cost for producing new models by 2005, Reuters reported.   Among &amp;#039;s goals is to reduce the number of vehicle platforms by two-thirds in Japan, and to introduce new robotic technology and flexible manufacturing that will add up to substantially lowering start-up costs for new models.   Nissan said the new production system will be in place in all 18 of its production lines around the world by 2005. In Japan, it intends to build most of its models on five platforms by 2005, compared with 15 at the end of 2001, the story said.   &amp;quot;In the past six to seven years, the pace that new models get old has accelerated,&amp;quot; Executive Vice President Tadao Takahashi told reporters at Nissan&amp;#039;s Oppama plant, south of Tokyo.   &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s extremely important for us to become more flexible in our production method,&amp;quot; he added.   GM Names New Design Chief   General Motors said that Ed Welburn will succeed GM&amp;#039;s long-term design chief, Wayne Cherry, who is retiring, Reuters reported.   The 52-year-old Welburn is currently executive director in charge of body-on-frame vehicles for GM Design. When he takes over as vice president of design, North America, on Oct. 1 he will become the first African-American in charge of design at a major automaker, the story said.   Welburn began his GM career in 1972 as an associate designer in the advanced design studios and has held various positions at GM&amp;#039;s Oldsmobile, Saturn and Opel divisions.   Welburn will report to GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who heads vehicle development and has overseen design since joining GM two years ago.   Segways Recalled   About 6,000 of the Segway Human Transporters are being voluntarily recalled for an upgrade because some of them can suddenly run out of power, causing riders to fall off, Reuters reported, citing U.S. safety regulators and the company.   Segway has received three such reports of riders falling off, including one person who sustained a head injury that required stitches, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and the company said in a statement.   Segway said in its statement, the problem can occur &amp;quot;if the rider speeds up abruptly, encounters an obstacle, or continues to ride after receiving a low-battery alert.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a9703/nissan-moves-to-streamline-production/>