Tuesday Morning Coffee Newsletter - May 26 2026

If you have time for an espresso

• U.S. manufacturing started the week with real momentum: S&P Global’s flash manufacturing PMI rose to 55.3 in May, the highest reading in four years, as companies built inventory against potential supply shocks and higher input costs. That is a useful reminder that demand may still be there even while supply risk and cost pressure keep rising.
  https://www.marketscreener.com/news/us-manufacturing-activity-rises-to-four-year-high-in-may-s-p-global-survey-shows-ce7f5adedf89f522
• Waymo paused freeway rides across the U.S. and halted Atlanta operations while it updates software around construction zones and flooded-road behavior. For anyone working in autonomy, it is another clear signal that scaling is still being limited by edge-case validation and safety execution, not just model capability.
  https://www.jalopnik.com/2179357/waymo-pauses-autonomous-highway-rides-atlanta-operations-safety-issue/
• Medtronic agreed to buy SPR Therapeutics for about $650 million, adding a minimally invasive peripheral nerve stimulation platform to its pain portfolio. The deal shows larger medtech players still paying up for devices that can move treatment earlier in the care pathway and reduce invasiveness.
  https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/medtronic-inks-650m-deal-spr-therapeutics
• Subaru said it is delaying its in-house EV plans and cutting back investment after slower-than-expected U.S. EV adoption. That is one more sign that even committed OEMs are rebalancing around hybrids, capital discipline, and nearer-term product economics.
  https://www.motor1.com/news/796196/subaru-delays-in-house-electric-vehicles/
• The FDA issued an early alert on Abiomed Impella Automated Controllers after identifying a software issue that can force a restart and briefly interrupt support. In medtech, software quality and field-correction readiness are becoming just as commercially important as device performance.
  https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-recalls-and-early-alerts/early-alert-heart-pump-controller-issue-abiomed

If you’re sipping a latte

• Stellantis and Jaguar Land Rover signed an MoU to explore product and technology collaboration in the U.S. The interesting part is not the headline partnership itself, but what it suggests about shared-development economics getting harder to ignore.
  https://www.motor1.com/news/796442/stellantis-jlr-collaborate-product-technology-development/
• May Mobility launched a fifth-generation autonomy stack that combines deep learning with its existing reasoning engine. That mix of learned behavior plus structured decision-making feels increasingly like the practical path for deployable autonomy in messy real-world conditions.
  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/may-mobility-launches-new-av-architecture-that-understands-and-reasons-through-the-physical-world-302776946.html
• Boston Scientific put $1.5 billion into MiRus and secured an option on its TAVR system. Cardiovascular medtech remains an area where strategic investors are still willing to make big bets when platform and procedure upside look strong enough.
  https://www.fiercebiotech.com/medtech/boston-scientific-funnels-15b-mirus-pens-option-buy-its-tavr-system
• FANUC announced a collaboration with Google focused on “Physical AI” for industrial robotics. For manufacturers, the practical takeaway is that robot suppliers are moving beyond fixed automation toward systems that can perceive, decide, and adapt more flexibly on the factory floor.
  https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fanuc-accelerates-physical-ai-through-collaboration-with-google-302775837.html
• The FDA posted a Class I recall for certain React Health VOCSN V+Pro ventilators tied to a manufacturing-process deviation that could create an undetected oxygen leak. It is a sharp reminder that production test coverage and process discipline remain make-or-break issues in regulated manufacturing.
  https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/medical-device-recalls-and-early-alerts/ventilator-recall-react-health-removes-vocsn-vpro-ventilators

If you’ve got a venti anything

• Ars Technica reported that Congress’ 2026 transportation bill includes a proposed $130 annual federal registration fee for EVs. On its own, the fee is not huge, but it matters because it adds one more policy headwind at a time when several automakers are already slowing EV programs, trimming launches, or redirecting capital toward hybrids and more flexible powertrain strategies. For suppliers, that means program timing, volume assumptions, and business-case math may keep shifting even when the long-term electrification direction stays intact.
  https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/05/bipartisan-bill-in-congress-includes-130-annual-ev-registration-fee/
• Tech Briefs highlighted Sandia’s AI-assisted ceramic inspection workflow, which uses optical and acoustic imaging plus human-checked anomaly detection to catch defects earlier. The story is compelling because it is not “AI for AI’s sake”; it is a very practical example of moving inspection upstream, reducing expensive downstream waste, and keeping people in the loop where quality risk is high. That is exactly the kind of deployment model more manufacturers are likely to trust first.
  https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/55215-catching-tiny-flaws-preventing-big-failures-ai-assisted-ceramic-inspection
• Another Tech Briefs piece covered brain-inspired memristors from Cambridge researchers that could cut AI hardware energy use by as much as 70 percent. This is still early-stage research, but it is worth watching because lower-power AI hardware would matter far beyond data centers, especially for embedded systems, industrial controls, sensors, and automotive electronics where power, heat, and form factor all matter.
  https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/55224-brain-inspired-memristors-could-slash-ai-energy-use-by-70-percent

What it means for customers
This week’s signal is less about flashy disruption and more about disciplined execution: software validation, production robustness, smarter automation, and capital going only where the use case is clear. Automotive customers are still recalibrating EV timelines while looking for flexible product and manufacturing strategies; medtech customers are doubling down on quality systems, software reliability, and differentiated platforms. For TKD2 clients, that makes technical credibility, launch discipline, and practical factory automation support even more valuable than broad “innovation” claims.