Cars

on-self-driving,-waymo-is-playing-chess-while-tesla-plays-checkers

On self-driving, Waymo is playing chess while Tesla plays checkers

Cars, Features, self driving cars, Tesla, waymo / /
A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco.

Enlarge / A Waymo autonomous taxi in San Francisco.

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tesla fans—and CEO Elon Musk himself—are excited about the prospects for Tesla’s Full Self Driving (FSD) software. Tesla released a major upgrade—version 12.3—of the software in March. Then, last month, Musk announced that Tesla would unveil a purpose-built robotaxi on August 8. Last week, Musk announced that a new version of FSD—12.4—will come out in the coming days and will have a “5X to 10X improvement in miles per intervention.”

But I think fans expecting Tesla to launch a driverless taxi service in the near future will be disappointed.

During a late March trip to San Francisco, I had a chance to try the latest self-driving technology from both Tesla and Google’s Waymo.

During a 45-minute test drive in a Tesla Model X, I had to intervene twice to correct mistakes by the FSD software. In contrast, I rode in driverless Waymo vehicles for more than two hours and didn’t notice a single mistake.

So while Tesla’s FSD version 12.3 seems like a significant improvement over previous versions of FSD, it still lags behind Waymo’s technology.

However, Waymo’s impressive performance comes with an asterisk. While no one was behind the wheel during my rides, Waymo has remote operators that sometimes provide guidance to its vehicles (Waymo declined to tell me whether—or how often—remote operators intervened during my rides). And while Tesla’s FSD works on all road types, Waymo’s taxis avoid freeways.

Many Tesla fans see these limitations as signs that Waymo is headed for a technological dead end. They see Tesla’s FSD, with its capacity to operate in all cities and on all road types, as a more general technology that will soon surpass Waymo.

But this fundamentally misunderstands the situation.

Safely operating driverless vehicles on public roads is hard. With no one in the driver’s seat, a single mistake can be deadly—especially at freeway speeds. So Waymo launched its driverless service in 2020 in the easiest environment it could find—residential streets in the Phoenix suburbs—and has been gradually ratcheting up the difficulty level as it gains confidence in its technology.

In contrast, Tesla hasn’t started driverless testing because its software isn’t ready. For now, geographic restrictions and remote assistance aren’t needed because there’s always a human being behind the wheel. But I predict that when Tesla begins its driverless transition, it will realize that safety requires a Waymo-style incremental rollout.

So Tesla hasn’t found a different, better way to bring driverless technology to market. Waymo is just so far ahead that it’s dealing with challenges Tesla hasn’t even started thinking about. Waymo is playing chess while Tesla is still playing checkers.

The current excitement around Tesla’s FSD reminds me of the hype that surrounded Waymo in 2018. Early that year, Waymo announced deals to purchase 20,000 I-Pace sedans from Jaguar and 62,000 Pacifica minivans from Fiat Chrysler.

But the service Waymo launched in December 2018 was a disappointment. There were still safety drivers behind the wheel on most rides, and access was limited to a handpicked group of passengers.

It wasn’t until October 2020 that Waymo finally launched a fully driverless taxi service in the Phoenix area that was open to the general public. And even after that, Waymo expanded slowly.

Waymo began offering commercial service in San Francisco in 2023 and is now expanding to Los Angeles and Austin. Today, the company has only a few hundred vehicles in its commercial fleet—far fewer than the 82,000 vehicles it was planning to purchase six years ago.

What went wrong? In an August 2018 article, journalist Amir Efrati reported on the limitations of Waymo’s technology. Efrati wrote that “Waymo vans have trouble with many unprotected left turns and with merging into heavy traffic in the Phoenix area.” In addition, “the cars have trouble separating people, or cyclists, who are in groups, especially people near shopping centers or in parking lots.”

On self-driving, Waymo is playing chess while Tesla plays checkers Read More »

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This EV builder has given a Land Rover Defender four electric hub motors

BEDEO, Cars, EV restomod, Land Rover Defender, Protean motors / /

who doesn’t love a defender? —

BEDEO and Protean have been converting commercial vans to hybrid power for some time.

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A green classic land rover defender drives through some standing water

Enlarge / The Land Rover Defender has a cult following, and if you’re looking to make one electric, there’s now one more option.

BEDEO

British electric vehicle company BEDEO specializes in turning diesel vans into hybrids thanks to smart in-wheel motor tech. And its latest project—an electric Land Rover Defender conversion—could see its tech wind up on your driveway.

Land Rover’s now defunct “old” Defender is a ripe candidate for an EV restomod. There’s space for motors, batteries, and various other sundries within; in certain parts of the world, you’ll find yourself tripping over them without trying. For some reason, people go all gooey with nostalgia over them, so they don’t mind throwing money at their perfect Landie. There are plenty out there already—the UK military is looking into converting some of its fleet of Defenders into EVs, while restomod companies will sell you one upholstered with the skin of an exotic creature, and numerous others promise super silent cruising up and down the lumps and bumps of the world.

Whereas most will rip out the diesel motor and replace it with a traditional EV powertrain, BEDEO’s method is different. Rather than mounting the motor(s) on the chassis, connected to the wheels by driveshafts, the company hub-mounts them, putting a motor in each wheel, saving room elsewhere to avoid encroaching on space previously used by oily bits.

  • There’s not much to see from the outside.

    BEDEO

  • A peek underneath will reveal a battery box.

    BEDEO

  • There’s a display built into the rear view mirror that displays your state of charge and other information about the powertrain.

    BEDEO

  • There’s a rear-view camera, too.

    BEDEO

  • No one would ever accuse the Defender of having good ergonomics.

    BEDEO

  • Hub motors have been tried before, but they add unsprung weight.

    BEDEO

  • Off-road, you can feel the four motors working independently in slippery conditions.

    BEDEO

BEDEO isn’t planning on selling directly to consumers, though. Instead, it will offer its solution to other businesses looking to offer electric conversions and let them give whatever level of resto-service they want. Before that happens, the company has converted its own Land Rover as a proof of concept.

The motors are from partner Protean, which has been working on hub motor tech for years. The two work together on BEDEO’s bread-and-butter business of converting existing diesel vans into hybrids—the ICE components remain in place driving the front wheels, and the rear wheels gain electric power, linked to a conveniently placed battery. Fleets can keep their existing vehicles in service and still comply with the UK’s low emissions zones. (BEDEO also offers a full EV conversion as an alternative to the hybrid upfit.) These EV and hybrid conversions have given BEDEO plenty of real-world data—over 37 million miles (60 million km) of it—and have shown how hardy Protean’s wheel motors are. Few things stress test wheels like a van driver in a hurry.

How does this system work, then? Rather than a couple of axle-mounted motors being fed by a battery, here there are four in-wheel motors and a 75 kWh battery. This combination, says BEDEO, means it weighs about the same as the ICE setup it’s replacing and is good for 153 miles on the WLTP cycle. Charging to 100 percent takes five hours on a 22 kW AC charge, or you can spec a 50 kW DC fast charge to get the job done in 90 minutes. The motors generate 320 hp (239 kW) and a staggering 1,916 lb ft (2,598 Nm), though that doesn’t mean it’s mega quick; 0–62 mph (0-100 km/h) takes 10 seconds, and the vehicle tops out at 80 mph (129 km/h).

I wonder what vehicle BEDEO will convert next.

Enlarge / I wonder what vehicle BEDEO will convert next.

BEDEO

On the road, it feels much like a Defender—heavy, not all that quick, and very much of its era. The controls, bar some fancy displays and a new steering wheel, are just as you’d expect from Solihull’s finest. The biggest difference is that all the squeaks and rattles that came standard from the factory can’t hide behind a clattery diesel engine anymore. There are a few regenerative braking modes to pick from, and in town, I found it was best to leave it at its strongest setting, allowing one-pedal driving. Power delivery is smooth, and though its 0–62 mph time seems a smidge glacial by modern EV standards, in this context, it feels appropriate.

For my test drive, BEDEO didn’t limit me to road driving, pointing me toward some muddy tracks with instructions to see what it could do. I’d not call the route that challenging, but it was enough to show the benefit of having four independently controlled wheels. You could feel the wheels doing different things when the going got a little slippery. The advantage of having power going to each wheel on its own is evident here—no need for big, heavy mechanical differentials, just motors talking to an electronic brain.

As a concept, it works well. The cabin and trunk don’t end up full of electronics or battery, and you can have at least 100 miles (160 km) of fun. The issue of unsprung weight will come into play for some, but it doesn’t really matter here. The car is a heavy lump already, and no one driving it will be trying to clip apexes at top speed. This might be an issue in a supercar, but in a Landie? Nah. More BEDEO kits are potentially on the way using Protean tech, but who knows what they’ll be. For now, the Defender concept works and will soon be coming to a restomodder, or maybe even a bold OEM, near you.

This EV builder has given a Land Rover Defender four electric hub motors Read More »

this-is-volvo’s-production-ready-fully-autonomous-class-8-truck

This is Volvo’s production-ready fully autonomous Class 8 truck

aurora, Autonomous Driving, Cars, Volvo Trucks North America / /

still need a human to hook up the trailer —

Some believe autonomous trucks are the answer to a shortage of truck drivers.

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A Volvo VNL truck covered in autonomous driving sensors

Enlarge / Aurora’s sensors festoon this Volvo VNL class 8 truck.

Volvo Trucks

Recently, we took a look at Volvo’s VNL new Class 8 heavy truck developed for the North American market. Last night at the ACT Expo trade show, the company debuted a new variant, called the VNL Autonomous. The name should give it away—this truck has been designed to drive itself using autonomous tech from the startup Aurora.

The VNL Autonomous has been designed for SAE level 4 autonomy and combines long-range lidar with radar, cameras, and other sensors. Input from these sensors is processed by a redundant pair of computers running Aurora’s AI software. Aurora has been a partner with Volvo Autonomous Solutions for some years now, working on hub-to-hub driverless freight systems for the North American market.

“Our platform engineering approach prioritizes safety by incorporating high-assurance redundancy systems designed to mitigate potential emergency situations,” said Volvo Autonomous Solutions’ chief product officer Shahkh Kazmi. “We built the Volvo VNL Autonomous from the ground up, integrating these redundancy systems to ensure that every safety-critical component is intentionally duplicated, thereby significantly enhancing both safety and reliability.”

This is the first production-ready system from this partnership, and the two companies say the truck has driven more than 1.5 million miles (2.4 million km) on public roads in testing and billions of miles in simulated environments.

“This truck combines Aurora’s industry-leading self-driving technology with Volvo’s best-in-class truck, designed specifically for autonomy, making it a must-have for any transport provider that wants to strengthen and grow their business,” said Sterling Anderson, cofounder and chief product officer at Aurora.

Autonomous trucking remains of interest to the freight industry due to ongoing shortages of commercial drivers. But the future of Class 8 heavy trucks carrying cargo with no human on board may still be some time off. The California Legislature is again trying to pass a law that would require a trained human to be present aboard any autonomous vehicle weighing more than 10,001 lbs (4,536 kg); a similar bill was vetoed in 2023 by California Governor Gavin Newsom.

This is Volvo’s production-ready fully autonomous Class 8 truck Read More »

connected-cars’-illegal-data-collection-and-use-now-on-ftc’s-“radar”

Connected cars’ illegal data collection and use now on FTC’s “radar”

Cars, connected car privacy, ftc / /

wipe your data when you sell —

The regulator is warning OEMs to respect data privacy or it will get mad.

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An image of cars in traffic, with computer-generated bounding boxes over each one, representing the idea of data collection

Getty Images

The Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Technology has issued a warning to automakers that sell connected cars. Companies that offer such products “do not have the free license to monetize people’s information beyond purposes needed to provide their requested product or service,” it wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Just because executives and investors want recurring revenue streams, that does not “outweigh the need for meaningful privacy safeguards,” the FTC wrote.

Based on your feedback, connected cars might be one of the least-popular modern inventions among the Ars readership. And who can blame them? Last January, a security researcher revealed that a vehicle identification number was sufficient to access remote services for multiple different makes, and yet more had APIs that were easily hackable.

Later, in 2023, the Mozilla Foundation published an extensive report examining the various automakers’ policies regarding the use of data from connected cars; the report concluded that “cars are the worst product category we have ever reviewed for privacy.”

Those were rather abstract cases, but earlier this year, we saw a very concrete misuse of connected car data. Writing for The New York Times, Kash Hill learned that owners of connected vehicles made by General Motors had been unwittingly enrolled in OnStar’s Smart Driver program and that their driving data had been shared with their insurance company, resulting in soaring insurance premiums.

The FTC is not taking specific action against any automaker at this point. Instead, the blog post is meant to be a warning to the industry. It says that “connected cars have been on the FTC’s radar for years,” although the agency appears to have done very little other than hold workshops in 2013 and 2018, as well as publishing guidance for consumers reminding them to wipe the data from their cars before selling them.

(By contrast, the California Privacy Protection Agency announced last year that its enforcement division had begun making inquiries with automakers to ensure they complied with the state’s 2018 Consumer Privacy Act.)

The FTC says that automakers and other businesses must protect users’ data against illegal collection, use, and disclosure. It points to recent enforcement actions against companies in other sectors that have illegally collected or used geolocation data, surreptitiously disclosed sensitive user data, and illegally used sensitive data for automated decisions.

The FTC says the easiest way to comply is to not collect the data in the first place.

Connected cars’ illegal data collection and use now on FTC’s “radar” Read More »

could-your-car-power-your-home?-gm-makes-it-a-reality-in-ev-truck-demo.

Could your car power your home? GM makes it a reality in EV truck demo.

Cars, General Motors, GM Energy, V2H, vehicle to home / /

V2H is vehicle to home —

GM’s Ultium-based EVs can power your house during an outage.

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2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST in a residential garage at dusk with GM Energy products.

Enlarge / GM used a Silverado EV to power a 10,000-square-foot house as a demo of its Home Energy system.

General Motors

LOS ANGELES—Let’s face it: The American power grid is a hot mess. The system is outdated and overstressed by amp-sucking appliances, air conditioning units, and extreme weather. Depending on where you live, it’s likely only a matter of time before your home will experience a blackout. GM Energy, a subsidiary of General Motors, is here to help.

At a demonstration in a swanky 10,000-square-foot mansion in Beverly Hills, California, where I counted 51 recessed lights in the great room, the new home products from GM Energy easily kept the electrons flowing, eschewing the grid and drawing power from the 200 kWh battery in a 2024 Chevrolet Silverado RST.

It all starts with the GM Energy PowerShift charger. On an 80 A circuit, the charger can charge your EV at a whopping 19.2 kW, and its bi-directional technology can push electrons from the truck’s battery into an inverter to convert it to the AC power your home requires. The happy little AC current then goes into the Home Hub that distributes the power to the appropriate circuits, and voilà—the lights are on.

But if the power goes out suddenly, how does the process start? GM Energy’s “Dark Start” battery holds just enough juice to get the whole thing running. At the demo, it took about 36 seconds from the main breaker being shut off to the system powering up, flooding the garage full of tech reporters and GM brass with steady, non-flickering lights. Oh, and of course, you can keep track of everything in the My Chevy app.

MyChevrolet mobile app displaying charging status of 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST in a residential garage with GM Energy products.

Enlarge / MyChevrolet mobile app displaying charging status of 2024 Chevrolet Silverado EV RST in a residential garage with GM Energy products.

General Motors

Currently, the system only works with the Silverado EV RST. The company expects the EV versions of the 2024 Sierra Denali, Cadillac Lyriq, and Chevrolet Blazer and Equinox to come online soon, though some may require a dealership or over-the-air update. GM plans to include bidirectional technology on all its Ultium-based EVs by model-year 2026. As for the Honda Prologue and Acura ZDX EVs that were developed in partnership with GM—no dice. Owners of those cars will not be able to use this technology.

One further bugaboo was found on the GM Energy website, which says, in tiny print, that the products are only available in California, Florida, Michigan, New York, and Texas. However, the company says the tech will be available in all 50 states later this year.

How long can it last?

GM Energy engineer Brent Deep has been running the system for two years with no problems. He claims his family has not been trying to conserve power, instead running two air conditioning units, a hot tub, laundry machines, an electric range, an oven, and the myriad other appliances four people in Michigan would use to remain comfortable. In this case, a Silverado RST can power the house for four days.

Deep and his family are slightly heavy in their energy use, however. The US Energy Information Administration says the average house uses 899 kWh of energy every month, or about 30 kWh per day. By that math, the Silverado RST should provide juice for just over six days.

I, however, do not have a family of four. In fact, I’m a bit of an electricity miser, at least during the non-summer months. I live in the high desert of California but still keep the air conditioning at 80 degrees in my two-bedroom home during the hot season, turn off every light except the one I’m using, and if I can eke out another wear of a pair of jeans instead of throwing them in the laundry, I do it. How long could I power my house?

When I looked at my bill for the past 12 months, the least I’ve used was 126 kWh in April of 2024, for which Southern California Edison charged me $53.35. I used the most in July of 2023: 774 kWh for $325.

Could your car power your home? GM makes it a reality in EV truck demo. Read More »

biden-set-to-levy-100%-tariffs-on-chinese-evs-this-week

Biden set to levy 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs this week

biden administration, Cars, Chinese EVs, tariffs / /

The Chinese government does not have US consumer interests at heart —

Both the US and EU are deeply concerned about heavily subsidized Chinese OEMs.

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The photo is filled with row after row of new SUVs, all painted white or grey.

Enlarge / New energy vehicles are being loaded into containers for export at Taicang Port and Taicang International Terminal in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, on April 26, 2024.

Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

President Joe Biden is expected to levy new 100 percent tariffs targeted at specific Chinese industries, including electric vehicles, on Tuesday. The announcement follows growing calls from automakers, unions, and bipartisan efforts in Congress to address the problem of China unfairly subsidizing its own industries to undermine foreign competitors.

Why are Chinese EVs so cheap?

The Chinese government has been giving its green industries heavy direct subsidies for some time now, far in excess of those handed out by US or European governments. For EV makers like BYD, this has meant billions of dollars a year, in addition to the consumer-facing tax benefit for car buyers, similar to how EV sales are incentivized in the US.

Brands like BYD have concentrated on making their cars cheaper to build—only using one windshield wiper instead of two, for example—but also through vertical integration. Other than Tesla, automakers in the US, Europe, Japan, and Korea instead rely heavily on multiple tiers of suppliers, most of whom supply parts to more than one automaker.

Chinese EV makers have also embraced technology to a degree still not matched by other brands, with screens stretching across entire dashboards and online connected services (plus the associated government tracking) that are anathema to many Ars readers. (Indeed, in February, the US Department of Commerce opened an investigation into whether imported Chinese-connected cars pose a national security threat. The Chinese government has repeatedly restricted the places that Tesla drivers are allowed take their cars, as it considers them a threat to its own security.)

That has allowed Chinese automakers to sell their products in foreign markets at prices no one else can hope to compete with, undermining local industries in the process. This has been most relevant in Europe, where Chinese automakers like BYD and MG have already set up shop. Last year, 1 in 5 EVs sold in Europe were made in China; this year, it’s expected this number will rise to 1 in 4.

What’s everyone doing about it?

Last year, the European Union began an investigation into anticompetitive behavior by Chinese OEMs, and stronger EU tariffs on Chinese EVs are expected to be levied in the next few weeks.

Chinese car imports to the US are already subject to an additional 25 percent import tariff on top of the 2.5 percent tariff that applies to any car imported to the US. And Chinese brands have yet to enter the US market. If enacted this week, the new 102.5 percent tariffs would apply to Polestar and Lotus, both of which currently build their US-market EVs in China. But that doesn’t mean the industry isn’t terrified.

“If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world,” said Tesla CEO Elon Musk in January.

“If you cannot compete fair and square with the Chinese around the world, then 20 percent to 30 percent of your revenue is at risk,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley in February.

It probably goes without saying that the United Auto Workers also thinks protecting the US auto industry is worthwhile. “The transition to cleaner technologies cannot be used to intensify the global race to the bottom through offshoring and low wages. We need to see movement by the administration to protect these jobs. The nascent EV industry needs tariff protections—otherwise we are going to be awash in imports. The stakes of the transition are high for American workers,” the union said in a statement in March.

US politicians have already passed laws to counter the threat of China dumping EVs here. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 revised how the IRS clean vehicle tax credit works; the consumer subsidy is now only eligible on vehicles assembled in North America. Each year, an increasing amount of the battery pack’s content and value must also have originated in the US or a country with which we have a free trade agreement in order to be eligible, and EVs with Chinese batteries are explicitly not eligible.

This year, senators on both sides of the aisle—most recently Sherrod Brown (D–Ohio)—have called for a ban on Chinese EV imports. And pressure from the US Trade Representative has seen the Mexican government promise not to offer incentives to Chinese EV makers looking to establish a beachhead inside the United States-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement.

Biden set to levy 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs this week Read More »

the-2025-aston-martin-vantage-gets-a-bold-new-body-and-big-power-boost

The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage gets a bold new body and big power boost

Aston Martin Vantage, car review, Cars, First drive / /
An orange Aston Martin Vantage in the Spanish countryside

Enlarge / First revealed in 2017, the current Aston Martin Vantage has just had a styling and engineering overhaul.

Aston Martin

It’s high time Aston Martin had a winner on its hands. Last year it updated the DB12 with a smart new face, plenty of power, and the sort of infotainment you’d hope for from a luxury GT. The Vantage, the firm’s ‘entry-level’ car, has been given similar treatment in the hopes that it can peel a few more people away from Porsche dealerships.

Aston is looking not only to make better cars, but also to shift its image—it’s aiming to be seen as more luxurious than before, and is throwing as much power at the cars as possible. At first glance, it looks like Aston has cooked up something truly delightful.

The new car is more than 150 hp (112 kW) more powerful than the one it replaces, with 656 hp (490 kW) and 590 lb-ft (800 Nm) from a wonderfully appointed turbocharged 4.0 L V8. Its 0 to 60 time is quoted at 3.4 seconds, and Aston reckons that if you have enough space (and no speed limits) you’ll see the far side of 200 mph (321 km/h). It is not slow.

Aston has never really had a problem with building good-looking cars, but the new Vantage is a huge leap over its immediate predecessor. With the old car, the idea was that each model in the lineup would look suitably different depending on what it did. It was supposed to look like an athletic, purposeful sports car. And it did—but it didn’t nail its Aston Martin-ness.

In addition to keeping it looking fresh, the facelift also improved the car's cooling and aerodynamic performance.

Enlarge / In addition to keeping it looking fresh, the facelift also improved the car’s cooling and aerodynamic performance.

Aston Martin

The new one very much does. From its new headlights to its grille, side vents, skirts, quad exhaust pipes, and one of the best rear ends on the market today, the new car looks like an Aston Martin through and through. Of course, some of the changes are necessary—the front grille is 38 percent bigger than before because having a V8 with quite so much power means it needs better cooling. In fact, look closely and you’ll spot a number of tricks Aston has used to improve cooling and airflow all over the car. Were I the type to wear my glasses at the tip of my nose, I’d start muttering something about “form and function working in harmony,” but I’m not, so I won’t.

Aston has made a point of saying there won’t be another V12 Vantage and that the last generation’s take on it was the end of the line. This meant the engineers didn’t have to worry about giving the V8 so much power. The old V8 Vantage could have been nearly as potent, but the need to differentiate with the V12 meant it would have been imprudent.

The outside will turn heads, the inside should make you smile. The direct predecessor’s seats and dash were pleasant, and comfortable, but the center console and infotainment? Not great. It was of the ‘slap a tablet to the dash’ generation, and it was run off a reskinned version of Merc’s COMAND system, which was definitely of its era and not a patch on current systems. Today’s Vantage gets the same setup you’ll find in the DB12—a 12.5-inch touchscreen paired with actual buttons that do actual things.

The 2025 Aston Martin Vantage gets a bold new body and big power boost Read More »

forget-aerobars:-ars-tries-out-an-entire-aerobike

Forget aerobars: Ars tries out an entire aerobike

bicycles, Cars, Features, velomobile / /

Here comes a future —

Taking to the road in a modern, high-speed version of a 40-year-old dream.

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Image of a aerodynamic recumbent bicycle parked in front of a pickup truck.

Enlarge / The Velomobile Bülk, with its hood in place. Note the hood has an anti-fog covering on the visor (which is flipped up). The two bumps near the front of the hood are there to improve clearance for the cyclist’s knees.

JOHN TIMMER

My brain registered that I was clearly cycling. My feet were clipped in to pedals, my legs were turning crank arms, and the arms were linked via a chain to one of the wheels. But pretty much everything else about the experience felt wrong on a fundamental, almost disturbing level.

I could produce a long list of everything my mind was struggling to deal with, but two things stand out as I think back on the experience. The first is that, with the exception of my face, I didn’t feel the air flow over me as the machine surged forward down a slight slope. The second, related to the first, is that there was no indication that the surge would ever tail off if I didn’t hit the brakes.

Living the dream

My visit with a velomobile was, in some ways, a chance to reconnect with a childhood dream. I’ve always had a fascination with vehicles that don’t require fuel, like bicycles and sailboats. And during my childhood, the popular press was filled with stories about people setting human-powered speed records by putting aerodynamic fiberglass shells on recumbent bicycles. In the wake of the 1970s oil crises, I imagined a time when the roads might be filled with people cycling these pods for their commutes or covering long distances thanks to a cooler filled with drinks and snacks tucked in the back of the shell.

But the pods seemed to vanish from public consciousness as I got older, and I also learned that recumbent bikes are absolutely terrible on hills, which I’m now fond of climbing. The dreams had faded from my awareness when a reader, in response to one of our e-bike reviews, suggested I check out a velomobile. It turns out that my dreams weren’t dead; they had just relocated to Europe without mentioning it to me.

Marc Rosen and two of his velomobiles. The newer model, the Bülk, is closer to him.

Enlarge / Marc Rosen and two of his velomobiles. The newer model, the Bülk, is closer to him.

John Timmer

Velomobiles are a product category with a variety of designs and manufacturers producing them, most of them based in Europe. They’re also the fiberglass pods of my youth updated to current standards. Gone is the weight of fiberglass, and the one-off, hand-made hardware has been replaced by standardized models that have gone through refinements across generations. Safety features like lights, directionals, and mirrors are now standard.

But the prices, while not exorbitant (mostly in the $8,000–$10,000 range—for bicycles; you can pay more for far less carbon fiber), mean that living my childhood dream really wasn’t an option. The European Union-based companies don’t seem to have any agreements with US bike shops that would let me check one out in a showroom; I’ve heard of only two dealers in the US that keep velomobiles in stock, and neither is anywhere close to me. Fortunately, that didn’t preclude the option of trying one. One major vendor of velomobiles, Romania’s Velomobile World, has an ambassadors program, where people agree to let potential buyers take test rides in return for a discount on purchases.

That’s how I found myself setting out for a short spin near the Maryland-Pennsylvania border in a Velomobile Bülk owned by Marc Rosen, who also fielded a lot of my questions about the hardware.

Forget aerobars: Ars tries out an entire aerobike Read More »

automakers-hedge-their-bets-with-plug-in-hybrids-as-ev-sales-slow

Automakers hedge their bets with plug-in hybrids as EV sales slow

BEV, Cars, Hybrid, PHEV, syndication / /

electrons and hydrocarbons —

Originally regarded as stopgap solutions, hybrids are in it for the long haul.

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Automakers hedge their bets with plug-in hybrids as EV sales slow

Honda

Global carmakers are stepping up their investment in hybrid technologies as consumers’ growing wariness over fully electric vehicles forces the industry to rapidly shift gear, according to top executives.

A combination of still high interest rates and concern over inadequate charging infrastructure has chilled buyers’ enthusiasm for fully electric cars, prompting a rebound in sales of hybrid vehicles that most of the industry had long regarded as nothing more than a stop-gap.

Tapping the resurgent demand for hybrids was a priority, executives from General Motors, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen and Ford told the Financial Times’ Future of the Car Summit this week.

“We have to invest heavily in the future of plug-in hybrids,” said Mark Reuss, the president of General Motors. “We have to be agile. We have a global tool chest of technical things that we can deploy fairly rapidly.”

The view was echoed by José Muñoz, global president of Hyundai, which is now considering manufacturing hybrids at its new $7.6 billion plant in Georgia given more drivers are balking over buying fully electric vehicles.

“If you asked me six months ago, definitely a year ago, I would have told you… fully electric,” said Muñoz. “A lot of things have happened between then and now. Electric is still the future. But now we are seeing a longer transition.”

Electric car sales growth slowed in the US and Europe last year, prompting carmakers to offer discounts. Industry executives have already acknowledged that the market has lost some momentum as future sales growth increasingly depends on demand from mainstream buyers rather than early adopters.

At the same time, there are concerns over whether governments might backtrack on previous plans to force a rapid transition away from petrol-based cars.

Ford’s European boss, Martin Sander, said that the pace of the transition in Europe was “down to the consumer,” and that the US group was prepared to continue selling hybrid models into the next decade.

“We want to make sure that we are setting up our business model so that we are flexible enough” to address shifts in demand, Sander told the summit. “Our whole business and life cycle planning is much more dynamic now.”

US rival General Motors, which had largely eliminated plug-in hybrids from its range, said in January that it would reintroduce the technology.

Consumers’ increasing hesitation comes just as carmakers face a growing threat from Chinese manufacturers rolling out cheaper electric vehicles both in their domestic market and, increasingly, in Europe.

To remain competitive in China, Peugeot needs to stay “agile” to avoid getting sucked into the country’s price war, said its chief executive, Linda Jackson. “We’re holding on, but the Chinese market is the biggest automotive market in the world so it’s very difficult for a global manufacturer not to be present,” Jackson said.

According to Schmidt Automotive Research, Chinese brands like BYD as well as brands such as Polestar that manufacture in China accounted for almost 10 percent of the fully electric cars registered in western Europe in March. That is up from just over 4 percent two years ago.

“We see an increase of competition coming from China brands and other technology worlds,” Nissan chief executive Makoto Uchida told the summit.

The threat from Chinese companies has only heightened carmakers’ focus on hybrids, which typically have double-digit margins compared with often loss-making fully electric vehicles.

For many carmakers, the slower switch is allowing them to continue to squeeze profits from traditional engines while also providing more financial firepower to develop electric vehicle technology.

The majority of the industry still believes that developing profitable fully electric cars is the most important long-term goal.

Earlier this week, Toyota, the biggest champion of hybrids in recent years, said that it planned to lift spending on new technologies by more than 40 percent after hybrid sales drove the group’s profits to a record last year.

© 2024 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.

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Phantom braking lands troubled EV-maker Fisker in feds’ crosshairs

Cars, Fisker, Fisker Ocean, nhtsa, phantom braking / /

eek —

This makes four open federal safety investigations for the Fisker Ocean.

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A 2023 Fisker Ocean One sports utility vehicle (SUV) during the Montreal Electric Vehicle Show in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on Friday, April 19, 2024

Graham Hughes/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The federal government is looking at a phantom braking problem that appears to be affecting the Fisker Ocean electric crossover. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Defects Investigation opened a safety probe into the electric vehicle—its fourth so far. Open investigations are also examining whether the doors can fail to open, in addition to problems with shifting into or out of park and issues with partial braking loss over low-grip surfaces.

The newest preliminary investigation was opened by NHTSA’s ODI after the regulator received eight complaints of alleged inappropriate automatic emergency braking. AEB is one of the more effective new active driver safety systems. NHTSA added it to its list of recommended safety features almost a decade ago, and last month, it published industry standards that will make the feature mandatory on all new cars and trucks, although not until September 2029.

But not every AEB implementation is equal. Both Tesla‘s and Honda‘s systems have suffered from too many false positives, also known as phantom braking, triggering the feature inappropriately, sometimes resulting in that car being crashed into from behind.

NHTSA’s report makes it clear that’s what’s happening here:

The complaints allege the activation of AEB, without an apparent roadway obstruction in the vehicle’s forward path, resulting in sudden vehicle deceleration. This occurs without adequate warning or input from the driver. The braking applications range from momentary, partial application resulting in rapid loss of speed to full application, which brings the vehicle to a complete stop in the travel lane. Three of the complaints alleged an injury.

Last August, Fisker held an event in California to debut an entire range of EVs, including one meant to sell for less than $30,000. Now, less than a year later, it’s unclear how much longer the company will survive. At the end of February, its share price tumbled when it issued a going concern warning, saying that it would not survive the next 12 months without fresh investment.

The startup automaker was in talks with Nissan that would have led to a partnership as well as an infusion of funds for Fisker. But Nissan walked away in March, devaluing Fisker’s stock price even further in the process. Earlier this week, Fisker filed for bankruptcy for its Austrian division.

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Tesla is under a federal wire fraud probe for misleading investors

Cars, DoJ, SEC, Tesla / /
A Tesla Model X with Roger the inflatable autopilot (from the movie Airplane!) in the driver's seat

Aurich Lawson | Tesla | Airplane!

There’s more bad news for Tesla. On Monday, we learned that CEO Elon Musk is continuing to slash his way through the company payroll as Tesla went through a fourth round of layoffs in four weeks. Yesterday, we discovered exactly what questions the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants answered about the safety of Tesla’s Autopilot driver assist. And today, it emerged that the US Department of Justice is investigating whether or not Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by making misleading statements about Autopilot and its so-called “Full Self-Driving” (FSD) option.

Reuters reported that three people familiar with the matter told it about the investigation. One of the sources also told Reuters that the Securities and Exchange Commission is also investigating Tesla’s claims about its driver assists.

Not the first time

This isn’t the first time Tesla has been accused of securities fraud. In 2018, Musk agreed to a settlement with the SEC over his infamous “funding secured” tweet that sent the company’s share price skyrocketing despite the fact that there was never actually a possibility that he would take the company private. As a result, Musk was required to step down as chairman, and both Musk and Tesla were ordered to pay $20 million in penalties, to be distributed to investors who lost money after being misled by Musk.

(However, a federal jury in 2023 sided with the CEO in a class-action lawsuit brought by investors.)

In another case, several Tesla owners filed a class-action lawsuit against the car company about “grossly exaggerated” range claims, alleging fraud and false advertising. The judge in that case ruled that the customers could not sue Tesla as a class, telling them instead that they had to pursue their cases individually via arbitration. We learned last October that the DOJ was also investigating the matter.

(Authorities in South Korea fined Tesla $2.2 million in January 2023 for misleading customers about range.)

Federal prosecutors first became interested in “whether Tesla misled consumers, investors, and regulators by making unsupported claims about its driver assistance technology’s capabilities” in 2022. Critics have regularly pointed out that even the name “Autopilot” is misleading, and there have been multiple instances of Musk demonstrating the system on camera without keeping his hands on the steering wheel, despite other Tesla literature that states drivers must do so at all times.

The CEO has also regularly claimed that Tesla is far ahead of the rest of the industry in autonomous driving technology, issuing deadlines for full autonomy that, like most of Musk’s deadlines, have come and gone without delivering the product.

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Here are all the F1 cars designed by the legendary Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey, Cars, F1 / /

the goat? —

No other F1 designer has penned more championship winning cars than Adrian Newey.

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Red Bull Racing Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey prepares to drive the Red Bull Racing RB5 up the hill during day one of The Goodwood Festival of Speed at The Goodwood Estate on July 2, 2010 in Chichester, England.

Enlarge / When you’re a legendary F1 designer like Adrian Newey, it’s easy to persuade the team to let you have a go in one of your own creations.

Andrew Hone/Getty Images for Red Bull

In Formula 1, the car isn’t quite everything, but ultimately, how well the team’s designers did their job creating a racing car is a more important factor in a team’s success on track than how good their drivers are. It’s not that F1 drivers don’t matter, but even the best driver on the grid will struggle to earn points if they’re not in a competitive car.

One designer has been responsible for creating competitive cars more than any other, penning 12 championship-winning cars in 32 years. His name is Adrian Newey, and this week, we discovered he’s looking for a new job.

As in other sports, F1’s “silly season” is what they call that time period when contracts are up and people are switching to new teams; it’s named as such because it’s what happens when there’s no real news to report but you need a story anyway.

This year, the silly season got underway well before the first of the year, and it’s been sillier than most. First, Andretti Cadillac got snubbed by the sport—because an email went to a spam folder—then seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton announced he was leaving longtime home Mercedes, for Ferrari. Just as everything started to calm down, the Red Bull team started to look a little… implodey as Red Bull team boss Christian Horner was accused of inappropriate behavior by a female employee.

At the time, rumors circulated that Red Bull’s superstar Max Verstappen could try to use the Horner scandal as a way to leave the team. That didn’t happen, but something just as consequential did—it precipitated the departure of Newey. The superstar designer will finish the Red Bull RB17 hypercar project before departing the team early in 2025.

“Ever since I was a young boy, I wanted to be a designer of fast cars. My dream was to be an engineer in Formula 1, and I’ve been lucky enough to make that dream a reality,” Newey said in a statement. His autobiography, which tells the story of how he made that happen, is worth a read, but today we’ve put together some galleries of Newey’s various creations—an illustrated history of his career as the world’s most successful race car designer.

The early years

Newey’s first racing cars weren’t F1 machines. He started work at the race car builder March, and after working as a race engineer in IndyCar and then F2 for March customers, he designed the March 82G, aka the Lobster Claw, which raced in IMSA’s GTP category. He then penned the 1985 Indy 500-winning March 85C, then its successor in 1986, before leaving March for a couple of years, then returning to design his first F1 car for the small F1 team Leyton House in 1988. Newey designed Leyton House’s cars for March until 1990 when he moved to Williams as chief designer.

  • Newey worked as race engineer for Keke Rosberg’s Fittipaldi F8 before moving to March to design cars.

    Bernard Cahier/Getty Images)

  • You can see why the March 82G earned the nickname Lobster Claw, seen here racing in Miami in 1983.

    Brian Cleary/Getty Images

  • Newey is known for his F1 accolades, but winning the Indy 500 with his first IndyCar (the March 85G) is nothing to sneeze at either.

    Focus on Sport via Getty Images

  • Newey’s first F1 chassis, the March 881.

    Pascal Rondeau/Allsport/Getty Images

  • Ivan Capelli of Italy drives the #16 Leyton House Racing March CG891 Judd V8 during the Fuji Television Japanese Grand Prix on 22 October 1989 at the Suzuka Circuit in Suzuka City, Japan.

    Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images

  • Mechanics assemble the Adrian Newey designed Leyton House CG901Judd V8 on 1st June 1990 at the Leyton House Formula One Racing Team in Bicester, Great Britain.

    Photo by Pascal Rondeau/Getty Images

The Williams years

Williams was a much more competitive team then than now, and Newey’s FW14 turned out to be one of the most successful F1 cars, notching up seven wins in 1991 and 10 wins in 1992, earning Nigel Mansell the championship in the process. 1993 saw Alain Prost take the crown with the Newey-designed FW15C, then Damon Hill became champion in 1996 with the FW18, followed by Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 with the FW19.

  • The FW14 was the first Newey car to win an F1 race. It was so good, Williams kept it for the following season (in B-spec), where it won the championship.

    Paul-Henri Cahier/Getty Images

  • The FW15C is considered by many to be the most advanced F1 car ever thanks to fully active suspension, a semi-automatic gearbox, and anti-lock brakes.

    Pascal Rondeau/Allsport/Getty Images

  • Damon Hill almost won the 1994 championship in the FW16. Here, we see Newey driving the car up the hill at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

    Mark Thompson/Getty Images

  • In 1995, Damon Hill did not drive a great season, and Michael Schumacher won everything.

    Paul-Henri Cahier/Getty Images

  • But 1996 went much better and Hill took the title. Williams dumped him anyway, and Newey also left, disliking the way Hill was treated.

    Darren Heath/Getty Images

  • Newey was on gardening leave while his FW18 earned another championship in 1997.

    Paul-Henri Cahier/Getty Images

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