> Leading semiconductor manufacturers reassigned capacity from automakers last year after the pandemic slashed car sales, instead shipping chips to companies that produce smartphones, gaming systems and other tech gadgets that remained in high demand.

Sounds like an inability to predict demand accurately given the uncertainties introduced by the pandemic.

The "chip crisis" seems to be a red herring here. The more obvious explanation is the one stated in the article's second paragraph: that demand for new cars is low right now (probably, I'd wager, because people are typically unwilling to sink tens of thousands of dollars into a new car amid an ongoing rollercoaster of income insecurity). And instead of acknowledging the more obvious and simpler explanation, auto manufacturers prefer to blame external forces (never mind that even those external forces are hitting the auto industry specifically because of - you guessed it - the low demand for cars in the midst of economic uncertainty).

Maybe I'm missing something?