# July 18, 2026 | Weekend Drive: Toyota’s Koji Sato wants parts standardization; UAW President Shawn Fain is under investigation by the DOJ

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649/july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649/july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj.md
Podcast: [Automotive News Daily Drive](https://stenobird.com/podcast/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649)
Published: 2026-07-18T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://autonews.com
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/www.buzzsprout.com/2447022/episodes/19509188-july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649/episodes/july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj
Duration seconds: 1717

## Resource

Toyota's Koji Sato wants parts standardization among Japanese automakers to combat China. UAW President Shawn Fain is under investigation by the Department of Justice. Plus, Volkswagen CEO Oliver Blume outlines up to 50,000 job cuts to hit savings goals. Michael Martinez and Larry Vellequette break it all down on this edition of Weekend Drive.

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649/episodes/july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/automotive-news-daily-drive-58649/july-18-2026-weekend-drive-toyota-s-koji-sato-wants-parts-standardization-uaw-president-shawn-fain-is-under-investigation-by-the-doj.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.