Friday, 31 March 2017
2018 Mercedes-AMG GT / GT C Roadster – First Drive Review
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Solid-State Batteries Make Strides in the Charge toward the Future of EVs
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The electric car’s role in the future is assured by today’s race among General Motors, Hyundai, Nissan, Tesla, and others to advance range and affordability. With a rising number of startup challengers, these automakers agree that winning depends on making the electric car’s engine—its battery pack—cheaper, lighter, smaller, safer, and longer-lasting.
The current lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have buried previous lead-acid and nickel-metal hydride designs, but there’s fervent interest in alternatives to the Li-ion concept that Exxon, of all entities, patented in 1976.
Earlier this decade, a startup enterprise called Sakti3, working in deep secrecy one building away from Car and Driver’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, headquarters, quietly began touting a solid-state lithium-ion battery that eliminates the normal liquid electrolyte to improve energy density and safety while shortening recharge times and, potentially, lowering manufacturing costs. British inventor and consumer-electronics manufacturer James Dyson was so convinced that his firm bought Sakti3 for more than $100 million in 2015.
Various universities, research organizations, and automakers including Toyota also are targeting solid-state manufacturing, where a lithium-ion battery is created layer by layer through vapor deposition—the methodology long used to construct computer chips. At the University of Texas at Austin, research fellow Maria Helena Braga is eager to patent a battery using a solid-glass electrolyte in combination with an inexpensive sodium anode. Along with three times the energy density of today’s lithium-ion batteries, Braga’s new formulation has demonstrated 1200 charge-discharge cycles and successful operation below zero degrees Fahrenheit.
John Goodenough, 94, professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and co-inventor of the lithium-ion battery.
On the surface, this sounds like one of countless pursuits with a slim chance of discovering gold at the end of a long rainbow. What makes Braga’s endeavor especially interesting is her mentor: Professor John Goodenough, who has been active in the lithium-ion field for four decades. Most significant, Goodenough created the breakthrough in this field—a viable lithium-cobalt-oxide cathode—in 1980 while in residence at Oxford University. In 1991, Sony added a carbon anode to that concept to commercialize the first lithium-ion batteries for use in cameras.
At 94, Goodenough visits his laboratory daily to work with Braga, whose solid-state-battery research began at the University of Porto in Portugal. A growing cadre of electric-car enthusiasts, developers, and manufacturers is rooting for their success.
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Electrified Audi RS Models Will Happen, But Not until They’re As Good As Regular Versions
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While he admits that creating cars that can cut consumption and hit increasingly tough emission standards is at the top of his list of priorities, Audi Sport boss Stephan Winkelmann believes pure-electric RS models are still some way off.
Electric-vehicle development at Audi has been on and off enough times to tempt us into a light-switch metaphor. As an example, the company axed the R8 e-tron project before bringing it back and putting it into very limited production before killing it for good. Winkelmann says that performance EVs will definitely happen and that Audi Sport will be developing them alongside conventional RS models, but that they won’t arrive on the market until they can satisfy the requirements of a typical owner.
“It is not too easy,” he admitted, when we spoke to him at the recent launch of the RS3 sedan, “because of the weight, because of acceleration, because of range. It’s clear we want to be part of it, but it’s also clear we can’t be the first ones inside [Audi] AG, that’s not what we’re aiming for. We are also pretty sure that you cannot compare the best of the combustion engines of today with the first electric cars of tomorrow.”
So it sounds as though Audi will lead and then Audi Sport will follow, with Winkelmann hinting that this holds true for hybrids as well as pure EVs. He said forthcoming European emission standards are going to be extremely tough to beat with conventional cars and described the new RS5’s more efficient V-6 as “a step, but it won’t be sufficient for the cars of the future.”
Whatever the future holds, Winkelmann said, Audi Sport’s lineup will always be the pinnacle of the model range: “Performance is at the heart of everything we do, now and in the future.”
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Groovy, Baby! Jaguar Puts the E-type Back into Production (Sort Of)
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Here’s apparent proof that somebody at Jaguar Land Rover is a massive Austin Powers fan. The fictional secret agent/playboy came out of cryogenic hibernation in the late 1990s after 30 years in stasis to discover that women had acquired rights and that free love had got expensive. But also that his Union flag–painted Jaguar E-type—a.k.a. the Shaguar—had remained unchanged.
Now Jaguar is trying a similar time-traveling trick with the E-type, announcing it will be the latest product of its factory-restored Reborn program, with 10 remanufactured Series 1 versions set to be sold by the company’s Jaguar Classic division. Let’s just hope that at least one buyer orders a roadster with the full Rule Britannia paint scheme. Oh, behave!
We’ve been here before, of course. First with the “continuation” Lightweight E-types that Jaguar made using a bunch of chassis plates that it had (pretty much literally) found sitting in a drawer at its Browns Lane factory. And then with Reborn versions of both the Land Rover Series 1 and, just recently, the first-generation Range Rover.
The arrival of the E-type effectively confirms that this will be a continuing trend as the company moves through its back catalog, although we imagine it will stop some way short of bringing us factory-freshened versions of the X-type sedan or the first Land Rover Discovery. As with the Land Rover and the Range Rover Classic, the E-type will be a restoration rather than a re-creation, with appropriate donor vehicles sourced and then completely restored to original factory standards.
The first car to go through the program is the one you see here, a gray 1965 4.2 coupe that originally was exported to California and only covered 78,000 miles before being stored in 1983. The body shell, engine, and gearbox have all been rebuilt by the Jaguar Classic team using period-appropriate parts and techniques.
For those wanting to cheat slightly, we’re told that it will be possible to incorporate “sympathetic upgrades from later E-types” including an all-synchromesh gearbox or more powerful Series 2 front calipers, but Jaguar won’t be slotting in any unacceptably modern updates—so don’t ask for power steering or any audio system beyond a bitchin’ eight-track. The company says that the level of attention to detail will include “re-creating the correct type of spot welding” when attaching panels.
Unsurprisingly, this won’t come cheap. While the Reborn E-types won’t approach the seven-figure price of the continuation Lightweights, buyers will have to find a minimum of $350,000 at current exchange rates, before appropriate taxes. Values of early E-types have been rising for years, but that’s still enough to make the nearly $170,000 charged for the Reborn Range Rover look like a relative bargain. We also discovered that one of the original Shaguars used in the first Austin Powers movie was offered on eBay for just $59,900 back in 2010.
So, as the man himself would ask, does it make you horny, baby?
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Groovy, Baby! Jaguar Puts the E-type Back into Production (Sort Of)
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Proposed Regulatory Changes Mean Electric Cars Could Face a Dirtier Future
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under the leadership of administrator Scott Pruitt, is reopening the review of 2022–2025 standards that had been closed by the previous EPA administration ahead of the original timeline. While that alone could affect the future market—and automakers’ research and development decisions for electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids—there’s another dark cloud hanging on the electric-car horizon: Plug-in vehicles of all kinds are bound to be a little bit dirtier over their lifetime than they might have been.
That’s because electric cars are only as clean as the electricity used to charge them. With the expected dissolution of the Clean Power Plan, after an EPA review initiated by President Trump’s “energy independence” executive order this week, it’s likely that some states could take considerably longer to clean up their power generation. There would no longer be an assumption that all states would work to wean themselves from coal and toward renewable sources and natural gas.
The EPA previously said of the Clean Power Plan that it “establishes the foundation of long-term clean energy investments that will ensure the reliability of our electric grid, maintain affordability for consumers, and establish the U.S. as a leader in addressing climate change.” It aims to cut pollution from the power sector by 32 percent by 2030 and sets carbon-pollution standards across the nation in which it says “all gas and coal-/oil-fired plants are treated fairly.” That allows states to take different approaches depending on their current energy mix.
In Some States, an EV Could Spend a Lifetime Rolling Coal, Sort of
Over the compliance period that goes from 2022 to 2030—a period that would coincide with the tougher 2022–2025 federal vehicle regulations that would incentivize more plug-in vehicles (although not require them as California does)—the EPA says the plan “helps avoid long-lasting changes to our climate caused by carbon pollution.” Through the often squishy math that’s used to affect policy, total costs are $8.4 billion, and the agency estimates $34 million to $54 million in benefits, including reductions in deaths, hospitalizations, and missed work and/or school days.
Simply put, EVs get cleaner as the electricity they’re charging with becomes cleaner, which was to be a secondary benefit of the Clean Power Plan’s revamping of power generation and the grid. It’s one of the signature pieces of policy from the particularly EV-friendly Obama administration. Under Pruitt, a reemphasis on coal and fossil fuels could quash the improvement in some of the states that arguably need it most—leaving electric vehicles charged in those states only marginally better than most gasoline models for overall carbon emissions.
The states that depend most heavily on coal, according to the federal Energy Information Administration, are West Virginia, Kentucky, and Wyoming, while states that rely heavily on hydroelectric (Washington, Idaho, Oregon) or even nuclear (New Jersey, Connecticut) power lie at the opposite end of the pollution scale and thus have a cleaner grid to plug into.
EPA administrator Pruitt made a telling comment recently that served to underscore the level of regulatory change that could be on the way. He contradicted information on his agency’s own website, saying that he believed carbon dioxide not to be a primary contributor to global warming.
The Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
The Senate confirmed Pruitt’s appointment last month to the lead position at an agency that he had been combating for much of the time in his role as Oklahoma attorney general. Pruitt has previously joined attorneys representing 27 states to allege that the EPA had overstepped its Clean Air Act authority.
Unsurprisingly, the appointment of Pruitt has garnered some strong reactions from environmental groups. The executive director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, said that Pruitt was unfit to serve in the role and that putting him in the position is “like putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires.” The League of Conservation Voters likened Pruitt running the EPA to “the fox guarding the henhouse.” The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) said, “Since becoming Oklahoma’s top legal officer in 2011, Pruitt has sued the EPA to stop vital protections for public health—including standards for reducing soot and smog pollution that crosses interstate lines; protections against emissions of mercury, arsenic, acid gases, and other toxic pollutants from power plants; and standards to improve air quality in national parks and wilderness areas. Each time he failed.”
There’s already been a regulatory row in the making, as the Obama-era EPA, under Gina McCarthy, jumped ahead of a public comment period and made a proposed determination—a politically charged maneuver, by most interpretations—citing “robust technical analysis” that greenhouse-gas-based standards for cars and light trucks through 2025 remain in place. The Global Automakers association, a group that represents 12 foreign-owned automakers, had asked for the action to be withdrawn for a normal timeline and policy review.
Another Type of California Fault Line
A federal government that reduces its regulation of carbon emissions or pulls back on targets could create a major rift pitting the 10 states that follow California’s Air Resources Board ZEV mandate against the rest of the nation. The auto industry has been moving rapidly toward electrification over the past few years, with current trajectories showing estimates of plug-in-vehicle (pure EV and plug-in hybrid) sales reaching more than a million by 2024.
While reopening the review of fuel-economy standards (and relaxing future fleet regulations) will likely be relatively easy, the EPA’s Clean Power Plan will take longer to unravel. It’s currently under a court stay and might not be completely resolved until 2018. Pruitt may end up overseeing a U.S. energy landscape with more energy independence, cleaner energy, and, perhaps, lower gas prices and kilowatt-hour rates. But it’s likely there won’t be nearly as much rapid change happening under the hood of the vehicles on the market.
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Hail to the Chief: Jeep Quietly Releases Wrangler Chief and Smoky Mountain Limited Editions
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Two years ago, Jeep teased us with its Chief SUV concept. Created for the 49th Easter Jeep Safari, the retro Wrangler-based concept bore a distinct resemblance to the classic Cherokee Chief and wore a slick two-tone paint job.
Although the Chief remains a concept, the blue-and-white SUV’s essential style lives on in the new 2017 Jeep Wrangler Chief. Available in one of three colors (including Chief Blue), every Chief includes a white hardtop and white graphics that travel from the bottom of the hood through the tops of the doors. Chief badging on the fenders and a kitschy “4 Wheel Drive” graphic on the rear gate complete the Chief’s throwback look.
Pricing for the Chief starts at $35,540 for the two-door model and $39,340 for the four-door Unlimited. Both come standard with a six-speed manual transmission connected to their 285-hp 3.6-liter V-6 engine, although a five-speed automatic is available for $1400. Although the Chief is currently available at Jeep dealerships, we’re told the brand has plans to formally debut the model at the upcoming New York auto show.
Along with the Chief, Jeep has also added the Smoky Mountain edition to the 2017 Wrangler lineup. Like the Chief, the Smoky Mountain is offered in either two- or four-door form and comes standard with a six-speed manual transmission.
Where the Chief is an ode to nostalgia, though, the Smoky Mountain is styled for modernity. A set of gloss black 18-inch wheels, trim-specific hood graphics, and gloss black accents on the front and rear bumpers, headlights, and the classic seven-slot grille help the special-edition model stand out from the rest of the Wrangler herd. The two-door Wrangler Smoky Mountain starts at $35,440, with the four-door Unlimited model going for $3800 more.
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2017 Honda Ridgeline – In-Depth Review
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2017 Audi Q7 – Long-Term Road Test
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Shelby GT350 Owners Sue Ford for Overheating on the Track
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Three owners of the 2016 Shelby GT350 have sued Ford for what they claim are warranty violations and deceptive advertising after their cars allegedly overheated on the track.
This may seem like a far-fetched claim, but the law firm behind it is none other than Hagens Berman, which successfully won $1.1=6 billion from Toyota for its floor mats, sued General Motors for at least $350 million over defective ignition switches, and most recently sued Mercedes-Benz and Fiat Chrysler for allegedly violating emissions laws on diesel models. The Shelby lawsuit, filed earlier this month in a Florida federal court, says that the 2016 GT350 is “not fit for track use due to defective transmissions and rear differentials that cannot keep cool enough to function without external transmission and rear differential coolers.” The plaintiffs are a Miami surgeon and his wife, a medical investigator; a Los Angeles lawyer; and an owner in Texas. Hagens Berman estimates there are several thousand more GT350 owners who could potentially join the class-action lawsuit.
At issue is the 2016 GT350 in base trim or equipped with the Technology package, both of which did not and could not be equipped with coolers for the engine oil, rear differential, and transmission as on the Track and R packages. The lawsuit—and what appear to be a handful, if not dozens of owners without factory coolers posting on Mustang forums and YouTube—alleges that these cars overheat quickly, sometimes in as little as 20 minutes, when driven hard on the racetrack. The cars then revert into a limp-home mode which limits speed and engine revs. The lawsuit claims that since Ford advertised all GT350 models as “track-ready” and employed features such as a Track mode, the cars were “defective,” “dangerous” to other drivers on the track, and caused owners costly repairs, which it did not specify. It also claims that Ford would not honor warranty claims caused from the overheating and that the company recommended owners install an aftermarket pump on its Ford Performance transmission cooler kit it later offered, which could technically violate the warranty. Both parties refused to provide comment or background information.
For the 2017 model year, Ford made the Track package standard, meaning that all GT350 models now include a full complement of coolers. While Hagens Berman claims these changes are an admission of the earlier car’s defects, in a July 2015 supplement for the owner’s manual Ford explicitly referenced that the base and Technology-package cars could have reduced performance in track driving. “Your vehicle is capable of sustained high speeds and track-day driving if equipped with powertrain coolers (Track, R model),” the supplement read. “For sustained high speeds or track day use with a Base or Tech model, we recommend that transmission and differential coolers are added. Your vehicle has electronic controls to reduce power and/or limit RPM to reduce powertrain temperatures if required.” In a separate promotional brochure for the 2016 GT350, Ford wrote that it offered “five different package levels, for different performance demands and purposes.”
Without knowing how these GT350 owners maintained or drove their cars, in general, track driving is one of those things nobody likes to take responsibility for in standard contracts. Insurance policies and automaker warranties typically don’t cover accidents or damage done on a private circuit. It’s typically on the owner’s dime if anything happens out there, regardless of how the car was equipped. We’ll have to see whether a judge decides if the GT350 case has any merit.
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How to Make Your Car Last Longer in Four Easy Steps
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Every driver knows the importance of oil changes and routine maintenance to help keep any car ticking, and air filters clog, brake pads wear out, and serpentine belts stretch as the miles add up. Usually there are warning signs that let you know something is off, but there could be things you’re doing—or not doing—that will shorten your car’s life span.
If you’re the type of driver who wants to keep your car for as long as possible, these are the four things you need to know.
1. Keep It Clean
Washing your car does more than make it look nice. It aids longevity by cleaning away contaminants that cause corrosion. Paint protects your car’s body panels from the elements, but the underside has it rough as it’s continually exposed to water, dirt, and grime that form rust. That’s why it’s especially important to wash your car during the winter when there is salt on the road. Road salt keeps the pavement free from ice but is notorious for eating holes straight through metal parts. Most cars have drainage points so rust-causing water can drip out, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to give it a good wash every so often.
2. Lighten Up
Colin Chapman, creator of the legendary Lotus sports-car brand, summed up his engineering philosophy as “simplify, then add lightness.” What he meant is that the less a car weighs, the better it will drive. If you have kids to shuttle to school, materials to haul to a job site, or outdoor gear to take to the trail, you probably don’t drive a lightweight sports coupe. Still, Chapman’s words apply even if you have a minivan, pickup, or SUV.
The more a car weighs, the harder the engine, transmission, brakes, and suspension have to work. While cars are designed to carry extra weight, over the long term any unnecessary strain will take miles off its life. So remove excess stuff and only drive with the essentials. If nothing else, you’ll get a few extra miles per gallon out of it.
3. Start Slow
Between breakfast, cleaning up, and checking your your online life, it’s always a rush to get out the door in the morning. When you finally hop in your car, you drive off right away hoping to beat traffic. However, like you, your car needs time to get ready to roll when it has been resting for a while. After a few hours of sitting, motor oil cools and sinks to the bottom. When you fire up your car, the oil pump distributes oil through the engine, but it takes time for all the parts to get lubricated.
Driving immediately after startup increases friction between engine components, wearing them out faster. Let your car idle for 30 to 60 seconds after you start it to allow the oil to get up to temperature and flow through the engine. Waiting a minute for this to happen prolongs your engine’s life span, but if you absolutely must hit the road, drive gently for the first mile or two.
4. Floor It
Most cars redline at above 6000 rpm, but in everyday driving, it’s not often that you crest even half that. Modern drivetrains are programmed to keep engine revolutions low in the name of efficiency, and while it’s indisputable that high-rpm driving burns fuel faster and increases strain on components, it’s actually good for the engine to run through its rpm range on occasion. This helps clean out carbon deposits that can foul the valves, throttle body, intake manifold, and the combustion chamber itself.
Untreated carbon buildups can cause misfires, reduce performance, and require extensive work to clean. Prevent carbon gunk building up in your engine by letting it reach the redline every few hundred miles. Never do this unless the engine is fully warmed up, and you’re somewhere safe, like merging onto the freeway. Yes, it will waste some gas, but it’s an easy way to make your engine last longer.
Even if you take great care of your car, parts are bound to wear out and need replacement eventually. When that happens, don’t skimp on paying for a qualified mechanic to make repairs with high-quality components. Using cheap parts or ignore your car’s maintenance needs is only going to damage it in the long run, and investing in repairs is almost always going to be less expensive than buying a new car.
If you want to make your car last longer, keeping it maintained is a guaranteed way to do it.
This story originally appeared on Popular Mechanics.
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Thursday, 30 March 2017
2017 Volkswagen Golf GTI Manual – Instrumented Test
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Jeep Grand One Concept: The 1993 Grand Cherokee ZJ Gets another Day in the Sun
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March 30, 2017 at 5:58 pm by Joseph Capparella | Photography by Michael Simari and the Manufacturer
Twenty-five years after the original Jeep Grand Cherokee arrived on the scene, the ZJ-generation SUV is getting a new outlook on life. Behold the Jeep Grand One concept, part of Jeep’s 2017 Easter Jeep Safari haul that brings a bit of modern off-road equipment to the now-old-school sport-utility. We’re used to seeing retro Wrangler creations as part of this annual off-road bash, but it’s a fresh idea for Jeep to pay homage to the history of its more luxury-oriented off-roader.
Painted in a lovely light-blue hue, the exterior of the Grand One mostly stays faithful to the original boxy profile—no surprise considering the donor car is a 1993 Grand Cherokee that the Jeep team found on Craigslist. Key modifications include 18-inch gold wheels, fender flares, subtle woodgrain-look siding, and slightly restyled front and rear bumpers. Jeep also slightly stretched the wheelbase, lifted the car by two inches, fitted meaty 33-inch BFGoodrich tires, and installed locking front and rear differentials for maximum off-road prowess. A period-correct 5.2-liter V-8 and four-speed automatic transmission provide motivation, just as they did back in the day.
The interior is also true to the 1990s, with few changes to the rectilinear dashboard. Nostalgia-inducing touches such as a car phone and an old Nintendo Game Boy really drive home the point, and a plaid-pattern headliner provides a bit of whimsy. Even MC Hammer gets a shout out, thanks to the graphic over the brake light that reads “Hammer Time.” Those with a keen eye will also notice that this Grand Cherokee’s classic Jeep grille has eight slots, rather than the current seven-slot iteration.
Along with several other fanciful Jeep concept creations, the Grand One will hit the trail in a few weeks as part of Jeep’s Easter Safari event in Moab, Utah, to be held April 8–16.
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2019 Mercedes-Benz GLE-class Spied outside the Factory – Future Cars
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New 2015 Model Volkswagen TDI Diesels Are Once Again on Sale!
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The buying opportunity of a lifetime is here, thanks to the Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California: You can now buy a brand-new two-year-old Volkswagen or Audi TDI at what should be a cut-rate price.
Volkswagen received approval today to sell new 2015 TDI models with the 2.0-liter diesel four-cylinder, or what’s known as the Generation 3 engine. A software update will delete Volkswagen’s illegal emissions programming, while a few physical parts (exact details are not yet available) will be swapped out later as part of a recall. The cars can be sold and driven now without the new hardware, which won’t be ready until early next year, according to a report in Automotive News. Only the 2015 Jetta, Golf, Beetle, Passat, and Audi A3 diesels are approved for sale. Any older 2.0-liter TDI models or 2015 TDI models with the 3.0-liter V-6 are still barred. A similar update and recall will be offered for 2013–2016 3.0-liter models later this year.
VW had been working on a repair for the Gen 3 engines since July 2016 and received approval in January. Only now can it carry out the repairs and resell the cars. There are roughly 12,000 new cars in dealer inventory and 67,000 used cars, the majority of which have been sitting in enormous parking lots across the country since VW began buying them back in November 2016. VW and Audi dealers have not been allowed to sell new or used TDI models since the diesel-emissions scandal broke in September 2015 and triggered a nationwide stop-sale.
It shouldn’t be hard to negotiate on a car that has been sitting around for nearly a year and a half. Insist on an oil change and thousands off the sticker.
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Jeep Grand One Concept: The 1993 Grand Cherokee ZJ Gets another Day in the Sun
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2017 Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 – Instrumented Test
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2017 Volkswagen Touareg – In-Depth Review
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So Chill: Dodge Demon to Cool Engine’s Intake Air Using A/C System
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The drip of info about Dodge’s drag-strip special, the Challenger SRT Demon, continues, with this week’s tidbit focusing on cooling. Specifically: a special system that cools air entering the engine.
Plenty of performance cars use hood scoops to feed cooler ambient air to an engine in order to increase power output. But the Challenger SRT Demon takes things a step further. When Drag Mode is selected, the vehicle’s air-conditioning system switches from cooling cabin air to putting the chill on engine intake air, via an evaporator that’s downstream of the supercharger. It would supplement the air-to-liquid intercooler.
Chrysler boasts that it’s a first-ever factory fitment of such a system and claims it can lower intake-air temperatures by as much as 45 degrees.
Unfortunately, the notion of cooling air doesn’t make for tremendously exciting video footage, although you can judge for yourself by watching the clip below. There is still more info to come, so stay tuned—provided this drawn-out tease hasn’t already cooled you to this most devilish Dodge.
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Watch a Twin-Turbo Ford GT Rocket from Zero to 294 MPH in One Mile [Video]
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How do you get within a hair’s breadth of 300 mph? You can strap into a Top Fuel dragster or any of a number of mid-size aircraft. Or you can send this twin-turbo Ford GT down a mile-long stretch of pavement. From a halt, it’ll get to nearly 300 by the end of that distance.
NCS Designs’ video shows M2K Motorsports’ heavily modified Ford GT obliterating the standing-mile world record at the Texas Mile on March 26. The Ford, running a fire-breathing 5.4-liter V-8 but appearing nearly stock from the outside, hit the end of the mile doing an astounding 293.6 mph.
Watch for yourself:
M2K Motorsports’ decisive standing-mile performance smashes the Guinness world record set by Johnny Bohmer, whose similar Ford GT hit 283.232 in the standing mile in October 2012.
The Texas Mile, run on a 1.5-mile-long airstrip at Victoria Regional Airport in Victoria, Texas, hosts standing-mile competitions for street cars, race cars, motorcycles, and land speed vehicles.
We have just one question: If this GT can knock on the door of 300 mph in the span of a mile, what could it do on the wide-open 5.4-mile straightaway of Volkswagen’s Ehra-Lessien track, the 12-mile loop where the German automaker clocked the top speed of the various Bugatti Veyron variants?
This story originally appeared on Road & Track.
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2016 Nissan Titan XD Diesel – Long Term Road Test
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Proposed Laws May Favor General Motors’ Self-Driving Cars and Sideline Competitors
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A high-profile skirmish between prominent developers of self-driving technology begins next month in a California courtroom, when arguments in Waymo’s lawsuit against Uber over allegations of stolen trade secrets gets underway. Another one, which involves some of the autonomous-vehicle industry’s biggest players, so far overlooked, is already occurring in state capitals across the country.
Lawmakers in at least five states are considering legislation that, if passed in current form, could prohibit companies that are not traditional motor-vehicle manufacturers from deploying autonomous vehicles.
Just as the outcome of the Waymo-Uber lawsuit promises to play a key role in determining winners and losers in the race to deliver self-driving technology, the upcoming legislative debates are likely to have serious ramifications in the intensifying competition for a slice of an autonomous market experts say may be worth as much as $70 billion by 2030.
In Massachusetts, Maryland, Georgia, Tennessee, and Illinois, lawmakers have proposed legislation that contains provisions that would limit the deployment of self-driving fleets to automaker-led or automaker-affiliated projects. At least three other states have mulled similar proposals, but resulting bills have not contained the restrictive provisions.
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“We don’t believe that manufacturers or any one industry, or any one company, for that matter, should have a monopoly on this.” – Chan Lieu, Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets
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“There’s a lot here that embraces one vision of autonomous driving to the exclusion of other visions, and that’s why you’ve seen some companies speaking out aggressively about their concerns,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a University of South Carolina law professor who specializes in autonomous vehicles and new technologies.
The legislation worries the likes of Uber and Waymo (the company spawned from Google’s self-driving-car project). But it would be a boon for General Motors, which holds a $500 million investment in ride-hailing service Lyft. The two companies are currently testing autonomous Chevrolet Bolt EVs. That vehicle has become a central component in their planning for the era of autonomous travel.
It’s no surprise, then, that General Motors has been instrumental in pitching and promoting the legislation. There are slight differences in the bills depending on the state, but they’re all based on draft versions of a Michigan law known as the Safe Autonomous Vehicles Act (SAVE). Given the contentious nature of the legislation, GM’s role in the proliferation of proposed SAVE Acts popping up in state houses across the country raises questions.
Emails obtained by Car and Driver via a public-records request in Colorado show the company and the Capstone Group, a lobbying firm working on GM’s behalf, urging lawmakers to use the SAVE Act as model legislation there. In one dated October 2016, Hal Lenox, a GM regional director for state government affairs, thanks Colorado Department of Transportation officials “for your time and interest in GM’s involvement in autonomous vehicles in general, and the SAVe Act in particular.” Colorado later introduced an autonomous bill not based on the SAVE Act.
Further, the Associated Press details campaign contributions GM made to state lawmakers, who subsequently all sponsored SAVE Act legislation. Multiple lawmakers told the news outlet that GM lobbyists requested they introduce the bills.
The tactic seems to echo GM’s earlier state-to-state strategy of endorsing legislation that ensured only dealerships could sell cars, which has effectively prevented Tesla, which does not operate dealer networks, from selling cars in states that enacted the legislation.
Harry Lightsey, an executive director of federal affairs for GM, says the company has only presented the SAVE Act as a starting point for legislative discussions. He disputed the idea the company is attempting to elbow competitors aside and said GM is amenable to removing provisions that would render other companies ineligible to compete.
“There has continued to be this drumbeat of allegations that somehow we’ve been engaged in a public-policy environment not conducive to certain companies participating, and I think that’s disingenuous,” he said. “We do not support any legislation that would restrict who could offer self-driving technology.”
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“There’s a lot here that embraces one vision of autonomous driving to the exclusion of other visions.”
– Bryant Walker Smith, University of South Carolina
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Competitors are still crying foul. Fighting the legislation has become a key priority for the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, an autonomous-technology lobbying group of which Waymo, Uber, Lyft, Ford, and Volvo are members.
In Michigan, those efforts were successful. The version of the law ultimately enacted by Michigan lawmakers scrapped the provisions that restricted autonomous-vehicle deployment. Nonetheless, the draft version of that bill, complete with the provisions that have raised objections, has become the blueprint for the legislation in Massachusetts, Tennessee, Maryland, Georgia, and Illinois.
While the changes in Michigan showed the coalition’s efforts can reap rewards, Chan Lieu, senior legislative adviser for the group, says that’s no guarantee of success elsewhere, although potential compromises are afoot in Tennessee and Georgia. If anything, he says his job has grown more complicated as the number of bills has grown.
“The unfortunate thing is that maybe politicians or policymakers weren’t fully briefed on what the [anti-competitive] provisions or implications are,” said Lieu. “Maybe the initial thinking is, ‘This makes sense,’ but once you understand the industry and recognize there are a lot of major stakeholders who are not traditional manufacturers—they’re the ones coming in and disrupting this—then you have a greater appreciation for what this language means.”
The specific language varies by state, but it generally calls for “participating fleets” to be part of something called a “SAVE project.” That sounds innocuous, but it’s at the crux of what the Self-Driving Coalition finds alarming.
In Maryland, for example, Senate Bill 902 calls for autonomous and connected vehicles operating on state highways to be part of SAVE projects—which are owned and controlled by automated- and connected-vehicle manufacturers. In Illinois, Senate Bill 1432 would authorize “eligible motor-vehicle manufacturers” to make self-driving vehicles available for public use if they are part of a “SAVE project initiative.”
These SAVE projects govern autonomous operations in certain geographic areas, such as university campuses or certain downtown corridors or retirement communities—exactly the type of limited-scale deployments where most experts say autonomous vehicles will first be launched. By limiting deployments to traditional manufacturers, states could tilt the race to put self-driving cars on the road.
There are some ambiguities in the way SAVE projects are presented, but whatever the obfuscations, Lieu said it’s easy to read between the lines and see their intent.
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“We disagree with the idea states can just stand by and let people put vehicles on the road. We think that’s a huge risk.”
– Harry Lightsey, General Motors
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“If you look at who is advocating and supporting this and who’s against it, it becomes abundantly clear,” he said. “We don’t believe that manufacturers, or any one industry or any one company, for that matter, should have a monopoly on this. It should be about innovation and the technology.”
The SAVE Act–based bills are a small slice of the overall activity in statehouses working on legislation related to self-driving vehicles. Twenty-eight states currently have legislation pending on autonomous transportation technology, according to records kept by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Eleven states, plus the District of Columbia, have already enacted laws or regulations, while two have authorized autonomous testing via executive orders.
In recent years, tech companies and traditional automakers alike have been wary of any legislation that attempted to set parameters for self-driving deployments, and they have campaigned against much proposed legislation. Companies such as Google and Uber, for two examples, flocked to Texas, Colorado, and Arizona because they found it advantageous to test in areas that had no laws whatsoever rather than in states that had passed laws related to autonomous driving—even laws intended to encourage testing.
General Motors, however, takes exception to the idea that autonomous testing is best served by an unregulated approach. “We think legislators have an important role to play in making sure these vehicles are being put on the road in a safe way,” said GM’s Lightsey. “We disagree with the idea that states can just stand by and let people put vehicles on the road. We think that’s a huge risk.”
Safety may be GM’s stated reason for supporting the legislation, but USC law professor Bryant Walker Smith sees an additional motivation. He says the company’s new eagerness to push legislation is a signal that it’s ready to deploy.
“For a long time, automakers have said this should be addressed at the federal level, and in some ways, that’s legitimate,” he said. “But what it seems to say is, ‘Don’t do anything until we’re ready.’ At a point when a company figures out what it wants, that’s going to change. And now you have a company that’s seeking specific language for a specific deployment concept.”
In that respect, the significance of SAVE Act laws could lie not only in provisions that may be anticompetitive, but in the sudden rush to introduce the legislation itself.
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Uber Safety Driver: “No Time To React” before Autonomous Crash
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A driver turns left across multiple lanes at an intersection. Traffic obscures his or her view. An oncoming car approaches unseen. A collision occurs.
That’s a scenario that’s all too common among the estimated 6.3 million traffic crashes that take place each year on U.S. roads, and it’s the same one that resulted in a collision last week that involved one of Uber’s self-driving vehicles in Tempe, Arizona.
More details from the incident emerged Wednesday, when the Tempe Police Department released the full crash report. Consistent with preliminary findings, the report said a human driver was to blame for the four-car crash.
According to police, Alexandra S. Cole drove her 2008 Honda CR-V northbound on South McClintock Drive, a main arterial road in the city. She turned left at the intersection of East Don Carlos Avenue and struck the Uber autonomous vehicle, a specially equipped 2017 Volvo XC90 SUV, which had been traveling through the intersection in the far right of three southbound lanes.
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“There was no time to react, as there was a blind spot created by the line of traffic.” – Patrick R. Murphy, Uber
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Cole plowed into the left side of the XC90, which subsequently struck a traffic-signal pole and two more vehicles before coming to rest on its right side. She was cited for failure to yield.
“As far as I could tell, the third lane had no one coming in it, so I was clear to make my turn,” Cole wrote in the report. “Right as I got to the middle lane about to cross the third, I saw a car flying through the intersection, but I couldn’t brake fast enough to completely avoid the collision.”
Operating in autonomous mode, the Uber vehicle was traveling at 38 mph, according to Patrick R. Murphy, the Uber safety driver behind the wheel at the time of the crash. The posted speed limit on that area of McClintock Road is 40 mph, according to the police report. From his vantage point, Murphy said, he didn’t see the other car coming until it was too late.
“As I entered the intersection, I saw the vehicle turning left on [Don Carlos Avenue] from the northbound McClintock lane,” he wrote in the police report. “There was no time to react, as there was a blind spot created by the line of traffic in the southbound left lane on McClintock.”
The car was part of a pilot project Uber is conducting in both Tempe and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in which users can summon the autonomous vehicles in the same manner they regularly use the ride-hailing service. No passengers were in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
As far as the humans involved are concerned, the causes of the crash are clear. What remains unanswered is how Uber’s self-driving system sensed and reacted to the sudden threat posed by the turning CR-V. Although the XC90 was found not at fault, the police report offers no details on how the software may have attempted to avoid or mitigate the crash.
An Uber spokesperson said the company fully cooperated with the Tempe Police Department, but remained tight-lipped on whether Uber shared sensor data or camera images with crash investigators. Tempe police did not comment on whether they had received camera or sensor information from the company.
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“The interaction between robot cars and human-driven cars is an area of serious concern and requires research.”
– John Simpson, Consumer Watchdog
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One of the bedrock promises of self-driving vehicles is that they will reduce the number of overall motor-vehicle crashes and the severity of the ones that cannot be avoided. Executives from any number of autonomous-technology companies regularly cite federal research that suggests 94 percent of traffic crashes are caused by human error or behavior, and they tout safety improvements as a core reason for pursuing self-driving deployments.
Data from the self-driving system involved in the Tempe crash could be a valuable learning tool for both Uber and others, which is why John Simpson, privacy director at Consumer Watchdog, a nonprofit organization that tracks autonomous developments, thinks it’d be a mistake if the company didn’t share the information.
“The interaction between robot cars and human-driven cars is an area of serious concern and requires research,” he said. “That’s why all the data about crashes must be made public.”
In California, regulations mandate that self-driving technology companies file a report with the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles if one of their cars is involved in a crash. Arizona has no such requirement. Arizona’s governor, Doug Ducey, legalized autonomous testing via executive order in August 2015 and has often touted the state’s lack of regulatory requirements in attempts to woo testing from rival California.
Uber paused its testing in the state following the crash and commenced a review of its fleet, but the hiatus was short-lived. The company resumed operations Monday.
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Wednesday, 29 March 2017
Ford Recalls 400,000 Cars for Engine Fires, Door Latches, and Driveshafts
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Ford is recalling the current-generation Escape for engine fires, according to the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This is the fifth such recall, involving some 400,000 Escape vehicles in the United States, since the compact SUV made its debut for 2013.
The 2014 Escape, along with the 2014–2015 Fiesta ST, the 2013–2014 Fusion, and the 2013–2015 Transit Connect, have a turbocharged 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine that, due to a leaky coolant system, can overheat, crack the cylinder head, and then leak oil. A total of 208,584 cars are affected in the United States.
A November 2013 recall addressed this same problem on 140,000 Escape models from 2013, the first model year of the car’s redesign and the first application of the 1.6-liter engine. A December 2012 recall, also on 2013 Escape models, addressed the coolant leaks. Ford recalled the 2013 Escape two more times for fuel lines on the 1.6-liter engine that could split and leak gasoline. The company said it is aware of at least 29 reported engine fires in the U.S. and Canada.
Ford previously modified the cooling system and installed new software to prevent overheating, but this time it doesn’t appear to have a fix to plug the leaks. Instead, Ford will mail instructions to owners reminding them to check their coolant levels, refill the coolant, and schedule service if the coolant “frequently” needs to be topped off. Later, dealers will install coolant-level sensors on all the affected cars.
Ford is expanding a September 2016 recall to fix door latches on another 191,432 U.S.-market cars, including the 2013–2014 Fusion and Lincoln MKZ, and the 2014 Fiesta. Pawl spring tabs in the interior door-latch pulls can break, which means the door may not be secured even if it seems to be closed, the company said. The door may suddenly open while driving, rebound while closing, or be difficult to close. Ford said it knows of at least one accident and three injuries within the 2 million cars it recalled in September. Ford has recalled nearly 2.9 million cars for these faulty door latches since 2015.
Certain 2017 F-450 and F-550 trucks need new driveshafts due to a “resonance frequency that may fracture transmission and/or driveline components.” The problem occurs at 75 mph and above, Ford said. A total of 509 trucks are affected in the United States. Dealers will swap out the two-piece driveshaft with a new three-piece driveshaft and install two center bearing brackets.
Lastly, 84 brand-new 2017 Edge crossovers may not be completely welded across the top of their windshield headers. This may reduce the vehicle’s structural integrity in a side-impact collision, Ford said. It is not certain how the dealers will repair the headers as filings were not yet posted by NHTSA.
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2018 Jeep Wrangler Possibly Exposed on a Forum Ahead of Official Debut
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If you assume a small batch of photos that landed on a Jeep Wrangler online forum today are legit, meet the all-new, fully redesigned 2018 Jeep Wrangler. As we ascertained from spy photos of the new Wrangler, the vehicle seen here appears to be a faithful rendition of the traditional Jeep profile. Can you spot the minor changes compared with the current JK-generation Wrangler?
Posted to JL Wrangler Forums by user FS90, these images are a little on the grainy side. This, purportedly, is the 2018 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Rubicon, the top dog of the Wrangler lineup. It’s unclear where the black-and-white images came from, but site admins of the JL Wrangler Forums believe they’re legit. Absent our independent confirmation of the images’ source, we remain skeptical, although the vehicle they portray seems to fit what we expect from the 2018 Wrangler.
The front grille seen here still features Jeep’s traditional round headlights, but they squeeze into the edges of the outer grille slots, a feature last seen on the Jeep CJ that preceded the Wrangler and ended production in 1986. The upper portion of the grille leans back in a kink, a design flair found on the original YJ-generation Wrangler of 1987 to 1995 that was softened for the TJ generation of ’97–’06 and disappeared entirely on the flat-faced JK that made its debut in 2007.
As folks on JL Wrangler Forums have pointed out, the photos depict a fold-down windshield, as evidenced by the hinges at the bottom edge of the windshield frame. This model seems to have a flatter windscreen than the curved item on the current Wrangler, although it could be the image quality playing tricks; the glass is definitely more steeply raked, however. This four-door maintains the general shape and size of the current model’s doors, with slightly redesigned exposed hinges and a new horizontal character line running the length of the passenger compartment. A new pocket-style vent sits just behind the front wheels, presumably to help evacuate air from the Wrangler’s signature open-to-the-front fenders and lessen their aerodynamic drag.
The second image shows the same purported four-door Wrangler Unlimited with fully removable roof and doors, as well as a roll bar similar to that on the current model. The taillights feature a more wraparound design than today’s units, and while this slightly fuzzy image does not show a spare tire, the inset in the bumper seems to indicate that this vehicle retains the Wrangler’s classic tailgate-mounted spare.
Compare the alleged 2018 Wrangler’s design with the 2017 model shown above, and you might notice subtle changes. The rig shown in these black-and-white photos doesn’t stray too far from the familiar design of the wildly successful JK-generation Wrangler, but there are flourishes that freshen and modernize the design. Given everything we’ve heard so far about the all-new Wrangler, we expect it will maintain the off-road capabilities of the current model while dramatically improving its on-road manners, fuel efficiency, and comfort. We can’t wait to see, and drive, the finished product—and the long-promised Wrangler pickup truck that will be based on it.
This story originally appeared on Road & Track.
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Put Other People’s Junk in the Trunk: Roadie Pays Drivers to Take a Package Along for the Ride
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Roadie is a newish mobile app that, at first blush, appears to want to be the Uber of the shipping sector. With the app, you can post a “gig,” which amounts to paying to have an item sent across town or cross-country in a random person’s car or truck. Or you can take on a gig and get paid to transport an object for a stranger in the unused cargo area of your car or truck. To test out Roadie, I decided to try to send a bottle of homemade hot sauce to a friend in New Orleans. I posted the gig and waited.
A Billion Cubic Feet of Unused Space
Roadie launched in 2015 when founder Marc Gorlin of Atlanta needed to get some boxes of custom tile from a warehouse a few hours away to finish a bathroom renovation. When he realized there would be no possible way to get the tiles the same day through traditional shipping methods (not to mention the cost of same-day shipping), he had a eureka moment from which the concept for Roadie was born.
This kind of impromptu need is where Roadie hopes it can fill a niche. By its own estimates, vehicles traversing U.S. roads have about 1 billion cubic feet of unused cargo space. Company spokeswoman Jamie Gottlieb said the figure is based on the 252,700,000 light vehicles on U.S. roads in 2014 and figuring 15 to 70 cubic feet of cargo space in each car or truck.
Roadie aims to fill that space with items as small as a shoe box or as large as a couch. Gottlieb said using the app can save money on shipping clumsier items such as furniture or car parts across the country, and some small businesses, such as florists, can (and already do) use it to send smaller items around town the same day.
If you post a gig, the app calculates your price based on distance, urgency, and size. Your delivery can be tracked on the mobile app, and the goods you’re sending are automatically insured up to $500, with the option to buy additional coverage up to $10,000.
How Does It Stack Up Pricewise?
I got some estimates for non-urgent shipments of items from the Detroit area to New Orleans, about a 1050-mile trip. Roadie quoted me at $274 for a “huge” item (such as a sofa), $249 for an “X-large” item (such as a bicycle) and $234 for a “large item” (such as a television). Pets could be sent by preapproved drivers for $299.
The same kind of casual solicitation for a 200-pound shipment—a conservative estimated weight for a piece of furniture—was quoted by UPS at $372 and by FedEx starting at $588. However, for a 50-pound, medium-size package, both UPS and FedEx gave me a quick quote for about $50 for ground shipping, while express and next-day shipping, as expected, were both significantly more expensive.
So Roadie does appear to be cheaper, especially for bigger items, and you don’t have to worry about packing the item. In fact, Gottlieb said the company insists that items are left at least partly unpacked as part of an “open-box policy,” so that drivers are not unwittingly ferrying illicit items across the country through the mobile app.
Roadie’s unique nature gives it the air of a disruptor, but the company does not see itself as upending shipping companies such as UPS or FedEx. In fact, UPS is an investor in Roadie, and Roadie gets its shipping insurance through UPS Capital.
Not-So-Big Payday
How much does one get paid to transport something? When I looked at the app, there was an offer to take two chairs from Merrillville, Indiana, to Miami—a 1360-mile trip—for $267. If your car gets an average of 25 mpg, for example, you’d need 54.4 gallons of gas to get there. Estimating fuel prices at $2.50 a gallon, the trip would cost about $136. So when factoring in gas costs, the job would pay a net of $131.
But apparently that’s not the way Roadie is supposed to be used. The idea is for someone already going from Merrillville to Miami to use extra space in their vehicle to take these two chairs and get $267 for it. Although Roadie looks to fill needs that can be immediate or impulsive, in the same way people use Uber or Lyft, it actually is not intended to function in the same way in terms of employing smartphone-based contractors.
Roadie drivers are subject to a rating system, similar to mobile-app-based chauffeurs. But where ride-sharing apps act as a secondary or even primary source of income for drivers, Roadie driving is not intended to be a full-time gig, according to Gottlieb. “Roadie’s a little different—we’re on the way instead of on demand,” she said. In other words, anyone planning on quitting a day job in favor of becoming a full-time Roadie driver would be in for a sporadic and unreliable source of income.
My 1050-mile Gig Promises a $40 Payout
Meanwhile, speaking with Gottlieb helped me see how flawed my approach to this whole thing was. My hot-sauce gig was posted and would cost me $51 while promising to pay the Roadie driver $40, as the company takes about a 20 percent cut.
Who on earth would want to drive a bottle of hot sauce for some stranger, who demands that it be kept refrigerated or at least on ice, more than 1000 miles to New Orleans for a mere $40? It became clear to me that shipping small items long distances is not what this startup app is geared for. Not yet, anyway.
But even if my initial approach to Roadie was a bit backward, posting the gig made it clear there is still another hurdle the company needs to overcome, at least in the upper Midwest: There are very few gigs. At press time, my hot-sauce post was the only solicitation for a courier in the state of Michigan. Zooming out geographically, at least eight states in the middle of the country appeared to offer no gigs.
Gottlieb said Roadie has had tens of thousands of gigs posted to the community since its launch and has been downloaded some 300,000 times. Its legitimacy was underwritten financially by $15 million in Series B venture funding last June. But it’s still working to get the word out that it exists. It has enlisted rapper Ludacris for promotion and has embarked on partnerships with companies including Waffle House and Goodwill.
Media coverage certainly doesn’t hurt, either. Speaking of, if anyone is headed from the Detroit area to New Orleans, you’re welcome to take a bottle of hot sauce along for the ride. Roadie will pay you $40, and I’ll pay them $51.
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