An exploded bridge, a car dealership cyberattack, and Boeing’s slow CEO search: Business news roundup

CDK Global has been forced to shut down its dealership management for the second day in a row after being struck by back-to-back cyberattacks.

CDK, which serves almost 15,000 car dealerships across North America, was first hit by an attack early Wednesday morning. That forced it to shut down its systems, which are relied on by dealerships to conduct most of their routine business. Later on Wednesday evening, a second “cyber incident” occurred, according to a message to customers viewed by Automotive News.

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The release of ChatGPT, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot, launched a race among tech companies to develop more powerful competitors. Since November 2022, the AI market has been flooded with models from tech giants such as Microsoft and Google, as well as startups including Anthropic and Perplexity.

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A possible competitor to Boeing and Airbus continues to bide its time.

Reuters reports that Brazilian planemaker Embraer is relishing the possibility of taking a little business from the commercial airline duopolists while they struggle to fill orders from their airline customers. The outlet says CEO Francisco Gomes Neto told reporters at the company’s headquarters that he thinks his planes would be a “great solution” for carriers in a bind because it can build jets more quickly.

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Hertz is raising the better part of a billion dollars to refresh its fleet and shore up its balance sheet. In a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the rental car company said Thursday that it will be selling $750 million in debt to those ends.

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Another Southwest Airlines-operated Boeing plane was involved in a serious mid-air incident. Sky News reports that a 737 Max 8 being flown by the carrier came within 400 feet of running into the Pacific Ocean during a flight in Hawai’i.

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