Iowa Car Dealer Named TIME Dealer of the Year; AI Firm Launches NEXUS
LAS VEGAS – David Wright, president of Dave Wright Nissan Subaru in Hiawatha, Iowa, was named the 2026 TIME Dealer of the Year at the 109th National Automotive Dealers Association (NADA) Show on February 5, 2026. The award, now in its 57th year, recognizes industry accomplishments and dedication to community service, according to TIME.
Wright was selected for his leadership in the automotive industry and his commitment to community service. His dealership has been recognized by Automotive News as a "Best Dealerships to Work For" 12 times, indicating a strong focus on employee satisfaction and a positive work environment.
In other news, Fundamental, a San Francisco-based AI firm founded by DeepMind alumni, launched NEXUS, a Large Tabular Model (LTM), with $255 million in funding. According to multiple sources, NEXUS is designed to address the challenges of understanding structured, relational business data, which existing Large Language Models (LLMs) often struggle with due to the non-sequential nature and dimensionality of enterprise-scale tables. NEXUS aims to improve business outcome forecasting by treating business data as a complex web of relationships.
TIME also released its first edition of "America’s Best Financial Services" list for 2026, in partnership with Statista. The list, compiled from a nationwide survey of over 20,000 consumers conducted between October and December 2025, highlights prominent financial service providers across ten key product categories, ranging from banking and loans to investments and payment solutions. The rankings are based on consumer ratings of digital services, customer service, value for money, and trust. Many of the top financial service providers across multiple products and categories are credit unions, according to TIME.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the electric vehicle (EV) market continued to grow. Multiple sources reported a 29% sales increase in the European EV market, reaching a 19.5% market share. Overall vehicle sales saw a smaller rise. Volkswagen surpassed Tesla in EV sales for the first time, although Tesla's Model Y remained Europe's most-registered car. Volvo's EX30 experienced sales declines due to recalls and production shifts.
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