Cars

what-happens-when-you-trigger-a-car’s-automated-emergency-stopping?

What happens when you trigger a car’s automated emergency stopping?

advanced driver assistance systems, Cars, Evergreen, Features, road safety / /
screen grab from a Mercedes training video; illustration of sleeping driver

Mercedes-Benz

Most car crashes begin and end in a few seconds. That’s plenty of time to get in a tiny micro-nap while driving. The famous asleep-at-the-wheel film scene in National Lampoon’s Vacation, where Clark Griswold goes off to slumberland for 72 seconds while piloting the Wagon Queen Family Truckster (a paragon of automotive virtue but lacking any advanced driver safety systems), might be a comical look at this prospect. But if Clark were in the real world, he and his family would likely have been injured or killed—or they could have caused similar un-funny consequences for other motorists or pedestrians.

There’s plenty of real-world news on the topic right now. Early in 2023, the Automobile Association of America’s Foundation for Traffic Safety published a study estimating that 16–21 percent of all fatal vehicle crashes reported to police involve drowsy driving.

With the road fatality numbers in the US hovering close to 38,000 over the past few years, that means between 6,080 and 7,980 road deaths are linked to drowsy drivers. Further research by the AAA’s Foundation finds that drivers likely under-report drowsiness in all car crashes. Nodding off while driving is as dangerous as—and potentially more dangerous than—driving drunk. And while drunk-driving figures have decreased between 1991 and 2021, the opposite is true for drowsy driving.

Nissan

Automakers have not been unaware of the problem, either. As long ago as 2007, manufacturers like Volvo began offering drowsiness-detection systems that monitored the driver, though in a simpler way than what’s seen in the leading systems of today. They sensed the velocities of inputs to steering, throttle, and brakes. Some even used a camera aimed at the driver to discern if drivers were becoming inattentive, including drooping their head or simply averting their view from the straight-ahead.

These systems chime a warning and project a visual alert on the dashboard asking if the driver wants to take a break, often with the universal symbol for wakefulness—a coffee cup—appearing in the instrument cluster. Many new cars today still have this feature. And to be sure, it was then, is now, and forever will be a beneficial and effective method of alerting drivers to their drowsiness.

But a level beyond the above audible and visual cues has changed this landscape of blunting the upward trend of drowsy driving. As Level-2, semi-autonomous capabilities emerge in medium- and even lower-priced automobiles, these features also allow cars and SUVs to take control of the vehicle should the vehicle determine that the driver has become inattentive or incapacitated.

On some vehicles, like this Mercedes, you can select the sensitivity of the drowsy driver program (“Attention Assist” in this case) to have a lower or higher threshold for activation.

Enlarge / On some vehicles, like this Mercedes, you can select the sensitivity of the drowsy driver program (“Attention Assist” in this case) to have a lower or higher threshold for activation.

Jim Resnick

Because all the pieces of a vehicle-control puzzle are already on board, enabling a system to take over from an inattentive driver is a matter of programming—extensive programming, of course, but all the critical pieces of hardware are often already there:

  • Selective braking from adaptive cruise control and stability control
  • Self-steering functions of lane-keeping and lane-centering
  • A cellular telematics network.

It’s a lengthy programming exercise that can take control of a vehicle in a simplified way, but not before three forms of human stimuli are triggered to wake up a drowsy driver: sight, sound, and a physical prompt.

This is all great in theory and in a digital vacuum, but I wanted to explore what occurs inside a car that has determined that the driver is no longer actually driving. The Infiniti QX60 and Mercedes EQE 350 have such emergency stop capabilities; I recently tested both.

What happens when you trigger a car’s automated emergency stopping? Read More »

the-2024-kia-ev9,-an-electric-three-row-suv-designed-with-the-us-in-mind

The 2024 Kia EV9, an electric three-row SUV designed with the US in mind

car review, Cars, E-GMP, First drive, Kia, Kia EV9 / /

mostly good —

Kia bets on edgy design, a futuristic interior, and plenty of interior space.

–

A blue Kia EV9 drives along a forest road in California

Enlarge / The 2024 Kia EV9 takes many of the things people love about the Telluride but does them on one of the best purpose-built EV platforms in the industry.

Kia

American car buyers love purchasing way more car than they need. Have a kid and a dog? You’d better get a Suburban. Need to tow a Hobie Cat to the lake once or twice a year? Get a full-size diesel four-wheel drive pickup. Looking at an EV for your family? Well, it had better do 400 miles at a time and charge in 15 minutes, despite you having a six-mile commute. This mentality would make a cynic say that Kia’s EV9 is a pointless exercise, but that cynic would be wrong.

The 2024 Kia EV9 is ostensibly a three-row, midsize electric SUV that in its most efficient form—the Wind RWD Long-Range trim—will do a claimed 304 miles (489 km) of range, but it’s also Kia’s flagship model and the vehicle that seems to give us the best look at the formerly cheap-and-cheerful brand’s more upscale future.

The EV9 is the latest vehicle based on the E-GMP platform that underpins the Ioniq 5, EV6, and Genesis GV60. Like those vehicles, it features a skateboard-style chassis and is available in rear- or all-wheel drive. Power ranges from 201 hp (150 kW) in the entry-level Wind RWD model to 379 hp (283 kW) in the Land AWD and GT-Line models. There are two available battery packs, with the smaller coming in at 76.1 kWh and the long-range pack rated at 99.8 kWh.

The larger size of the EV9 means you won't get quite the same range efficiency out of the same powertrain as the smaller E-GMP cars. Not that it matters on the commute, school run, or grocery errand.

Enlarge / The larger size of the EV9 means you won’t get quite the same range efficiency out of the same powertrain as the smaller E-GMP cars. Not that it matters on the commute, school run, or grocery errand.

Kia

The conversation around electric vehicles, especially with new buyers, tends to be dominated by range. The claimed range figures for the EV9 won’t light anyone’s hair on fire, particularly with the GT-Line model and its not-so-whopping 270 miles (434 km) or the bottom-of-the-barrel Light RWD model that only offers 230 miles (370 km). Still, these figures should prove to be ample for most Americans.

Like other E-GMP-based vehicles, the EV9 is built on an 800 V architecture and supports DC fast charging at up to 235 kW. The onboard AC charger is rated at 10.9 kW, and for home-based level 2 charging, Kia is partnering with Wallbox and is pushing that company’s Quasar 2 home charging setup. While the Quasar’s vehicle-to-load and vehicle-to-home capabilities are neat, its $4,000-plus price before installation isn’t, and neither is Kia’s decision to not sell them through dealers, preventing new EV buyers from wrapping the system into their car loan.

On the road, the EV9 is just nice. It’s not particularly quick, even in its most performative variant. Kia claims a 4.5 second 0–60 time, but that’s only if you pay for the acceleration boost unlock (more on this later), and while that’s not slow per se, it won’t impress veteran EV drivers. Ride quality is also average. Like many other Kias, the suspension is tuned on the slightly firmer side, but it’s not harsh, even over very broken pavement.

Only the EV9 GT-Line features an exterior vehicle-to-load AC outlet.

Enlarge / Only the EV9 GT-Line features an exterior vehicle-to-load AC outlet.

Kia

The EV9’s steering is perfectly ignorable in most drive modes, but it leans hard into artificially heavy territory in sport mode. The EV9 has a super long wheelbase—122 inches (3,098 mm) vs. the Telluride’s 114.2 inches (2,900), despite being essentially the same size—but it lacks any kind of rear-wheel steering, meaning that parking lot maneuvers are a bit of a chore—and don’t even think about u-turns unless you’re ready to do a very fast three-point turn.

The 2024 Kia EV9, an electric three-row SUV designed with the US in mind Read More »

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Ford’s CEO gives us a ride in the crazy electric transit Supervan 4.2

Cars, electric van, Ford Performance, Ford Supervan, racing, vantime / /

Its a bird, its a train, no it’s supervan —

You don’t often get the head of the company giving rides in an EV demonstrator.

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Ford Supervan 4.2 lights up its tires in the pitlane

Enlarge / Everyone loves a good van, and Supervan 4.2 is a very good van.

Ford

Concorde, NC—On Wednesday, Ford Performance held an official launch event for the 2024 season. The new GT3 version of the Mustang makes its competition debut at next weekend’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, marking the start of a new approach to racing for the Blue Oval, one that involves selling customer race cars as a business line, not just a factory team. While we were there, we also rode in a new electric racing truck demonstrator, but the main reason I got on the short flight down to Charlotte was to check out one of the most delightfully weird race cars of the past few years, the Ford Transit Supervan 4.2.

It’s the latest in a line of wild demonstrator vehicles based on the venerable Transit van, Ford’s commercial workhorse in Europe and, increasingly, the US. Ford started making an electric version of the Transit a couple of years ago, and when we drove that electric van, I might have driven a couple of the engineers and PR people to tears by repeatedly asking them, “So, are you going to make a Supervan version of this, too?”

The first Supervan dates back to 1970 (or maybe 1971), when someone had the bright idea to stick a Transit body shell on a Ford GT40 race car chassis as a way to promote the new van. The 1980s and 1990s saw two new Supervans, this time using Formula 1 engines. Now that EVs are the new hotness, the appeal of an electric Supervan probably seemed obvious.

  • It’s definitely Transit-shaped.

    Ford

  • Supervan has a new livery compared to its Pikes Peak run.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • The wings and diffuser create more than 4,400 lbs (2,000 kg) of downforce.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • OK, you get less cargo volume than in a production Transit, thanks to the aerodynamic styling.

    Jonathan Gitlin

Ford worked with an Austrian motorsports company, STARD, to develop Supervan 4, which made its debut at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Last year, a heavily revised version, now called Supervan 4.2, was built for the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, one of the more challenging races still held today and an event where EVs excel—unlike internal combustion engines, electric motors and batteries don’t lose any power as they climb into thin air above 14,000 feet (4,270 m).

Like the previous Supervans, this did not start with a production vehicle that got souped up; it’s a custom spaceframe with composite body panels that just happens to look mostly Transit-shaped, albeit with some wild aerodynamic appendages to keep all four wheels pressed to the ground. It does have some cargo capacity behind the two-seat cockpit, though, and a tow hook at the back. Strapped into the passenger seat, I couldn’t help noticing an infotainment screen from a Mustang Mach-E.

Supervan 4.2 is actually a little less powerful than the 2022 version, going from a 1,973-hp (1,471 kW) four-motor arrangement to a 1,408-hp (1,050 kW) three-motor configuration for Pikes Peak. The motors draw energy from a 50 kWh battery pack, complete with a CCS fast charging port capable of up to 350 kW fast charging. (At Charlotte Motor Speedway, the mechanics and engineers used a portable 60 kW fast-charger connected to a 600 kWh storage battery in the paddock to top up Supervan between sessions.)

  • The air jack (left) and CCS (right) charging port. The native port is CCS2, because Supervan 4.2 was built in Europe, but the crew had an adapter that lets them charge at US CC1 DC charging stations if necessary.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • I love the production infotainment screen from the Ford Mustang Mach-E, and the fact that it still uses the same user interface, even if the software modes are different.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Yes, that’s a tow hitch.

    Jonathan Gitlin

  • Supervan’s tires were probably warmer than the rest of us on a very chilly day in Charlotte.

    Jonathan Gitlin

Getting a ride in something cool like Supervan 4.2 is an occupational hazard in this job. What’s less common is being chauffeured for that ride by the company’s CEO. But our driver was indeed Ford CEO Jim Farley, who is rather handy behind the wheel.

“We don’t want to make generic vehicles at Ford anymore,” Farley told us that morning before explaining that the company’s new strategy is for Ford Performance to become a sustainable business and not just a marketing strategy that ebbs and flows depending on whether there are enough motorsport fans in the C-suite. After all, Ford got its start after Henry Ford proved his new creation in competition.

But Farley explained that he also learned from the late Ken Block that “he taught us… that in this world of enthusiasts, digital content is super-important for customers and brands. And so we continue to commit to doing demonstrators like the Supervan 4 and others that are there for one reason: to have fun. To generate digital content so people can just enjoy having fun in vehicles, and some of them don’t make any sense, like Supervan 4.”

My ride was brutal—1,900 lb-ft (2,576 Nm) has that effect—and rather brief—it took about 90 seconds to leave the pit lane, negotiate the relatively tight infield at Charlotte, then return back to the pits, where Farley brought us to a halt with a nicely executed 180-degree turn.

Come for a short ride with us in Ford’s Supervan 4.2 EV demonstrator.

Supervan 4.2’s next adventure is going to be a trip Down Under—Ford is taking it to Mount Panorama in Australia to put on demonstration runs ahead of this year’s Bathurst 12 Hour race. It won’t be defending its class win at Pikes Peak in June, but Farley told us to expect a different, as-yet unrevealed EV demonstrator for the 2024 event.

Ford’s CEO gives us a ride in the crazy electric transit Supervan 4.2 Read More »

lucid-delivered-just-6,001-electric-sedans-in-2023

Lucid delivered just 6,001 electric sedans in 2023

Cars, Lucid, Lucid Air / /

airs and graces —

The Saudi-backed builder of high-end EVs is not having an easy time.

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A lucid air seen from the front 3/4

Enlarge / Lucid has dropped the Air’s drag coefficient to just 0.197, making it the most aerodynamic car on sale.

Jonathan Gitlin

When we saw our first Lucid Air prototype in 2017, we came away extremely impressed. This alpha build appeared far more realized than some prototypes, complete with functioning infotainment software as opposed to the pre-rendered demos that are often more common in such cases. But the startup automaker has had anything but an easy time since then. Yesterday, it announced its Q4 2023 deliveries ahead of an investor call in late February, and the numbers are bad.

Lucid originally planned to launch the Air sedan in 2019. Designed by Tesla’s former VP and Chief Vehicle Engineer Peter Rawlinson, together with designer Derek Jenkins, the Air aimed for Mercedes-Benz S-Class levels of space and luxury on the interior but with the footprint of the smaller Mercedes E-Class. Under its ultra-low-drag body was a highly advanced electric vehicle powertrain capable of extremely rapid acceleration, a high top speed, and class-leading range.

But starting a new car company is neither easy nor cheap. Lucid struggled to obtain funding until Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund invested a billion dollars in the company in 2018, allowing Lucid to complete work on its factory in Arizona and push on with developing the Air.

The company then told us that production would begin in 2020—a date that fell by the wayside thanks to the global pandemic that broke out early that year. At the time, Rawlinson told Ars that production was still possible later that year, and the specs it announced were indeed impressive—more than 1,000 hp (745 kW) and a range of 517 miles (813 km) for the launch version, the Air Dream Edition.

But those big numbers were matched by an equally big price—$169,000, or $139,000 for the slightly less powerful, slightly shorter-range Air Grand Touring.

But 2020 came and went without a production car. In 2021, we got our first ride in a release candidate prototype, but Ars wouldn’t get to sample the Air from behind the driver’s seat until just over a year ago. What we found was a car that was very competent in many areas but missing in others, with uneven build quality between cars.

Since then, the company added some cheaper variants to its lineup—Lucid will sell you an Air Pure for $74,000 after its current incentives are taken into account. But that hasn’t resulted in a glut of orders.

For the last three months of 2023, Lucid built just 2,231 Air EVs and delivered 1,734 of those to customers. The results for the whole year weren’t any better—Lucid built 8,428 cars and delivered 6,001 of those.

As you might expect, that hasn’t been especially good for the company’s share price, which has fallen by 20 percent since the start of the week.

Lucid delivered just 6,001 electric sedans in 2023 Read More »

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I parked a BMW from across the parking lot at CES 2024

bmw, BMW iX, Cars, CES, remote parking / /
A BMW iX is remotely driven around a CES parking lot

Enlarge / Until now, remote parking systems have mostly required the parking lot or garage to fit expensive sensors and equipment. BMW’s approach is different, requiring nothing that isn’t already on the car.

Tim Stevens

If I had a dollar for every automated self-parking demo I’ve seen over the years, many of which happened at CES, I’d probably have enough money to tip a Las Vegas valet, folks whose jobs are still very secure.

But that might actually be changing soon. Given all those earlier demos that went nowhere, I wasn’t particularly enthused when I heard that BMW and Valeo were demonstrating yet another implementation of a car parking itself for the 2024 CES in Las Vegas.

However, after a quick chat with the folks behind the technology and getting a chance to try it myself, I realized I was wrong. Remote Valet is impressive not only for what it can do but because it does it without any technology more advanced than what’s already found in today’s production cars.

The core concept is a simple one. You pull up to the entrance of wherever you want to go. Instead of dealing with the drudgery of parking your own car or risking paying to let some red-vested teenager take your car for a joyride, you get out, tap a button in the My BMW app, and walk away.

The car parks itself, and when you’re done, you just open the app, tap the button again, and the car magically returns to pick you up.

The secret is that the car is not truly parking itself. This isn’t a limited case of driving autonomy. You’re actually handing over control of your car to a real human sitting in a sort of call center full of sim racing rigs.

BMW's remote operators use high-end sim racing equipment to control the cars remotely.

Enlarge / BMW’s remote operators use high-end sim racing equipment to control the cars remotely.

BMW

That person then remotely pilots your car, using footage livestreamed from the 360-degree cameras in the car. That streaming happens courtesy of the car’s wireless connection, which also returns the driver inputs back from the call center to the vehicle.

It’s a mechanical Turk situation, with a driver very much in the loop, though not within the car—nor, necessarily, within the state. That vastly reduces the complexity of the situation, so much so that this technology could theoretically be deployed very soon, potentially even pushed to current BMWs via an over-the-air update. It relies entirely on sensors and antennas already built into cars.

No new hardware needed

Indeed, at CES 2024, the demo machines were BMW iX SUVs. They had additional developer-specific hardware inside since they’re test vehicles, but I was told that once the software is final, no additional hardware will be necessary. So unlike other automated parking demos that require things like beacons within garages for locational positioning, perfectly pristine paint markers on the road, or, indeed, high-resolution maps of the entire lot, this solution just requires butts in seats and a reasonably good wireless connection.

At the show, I was able to remotely pilot one of the iX SUVs. BMW had set up a surprisingly high-end sim racing rig, a Fanatec DD2 wheel plus Clubsport pedals. All this was overkill, given that the maximum speed for a car remotely piloted like this is 10 km/h, or about 6 mph.

I parked a BMW from across the parking lot at CES 2024 Read More »

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Biden administration awards $632M for EV charging in new funding round

Cars, CFI, charging infrastructure, infrastructure investment and jobs act, joint office, NEVI / /

and some H2, too —

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act set aside $2.5 billion for underserved and rural areas.

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Young multiracial man charging his electric car, close-up.

Getty Images

The federal government’s Joint Office of Energy and Transportation announced on Thursday $632 million in grants to fund clean vehicle infrastructure. Twenty-two states along with Puerto Rico will be the recipients of this first round of funding from the $2.5 billion Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program, which started accepting applications in March 2023.

Although US carbon emissions fell last year, most of that was achieved through much cleaner energy generation. But when it comes to transportation’s contribution to our annual carbon impact, that line is sadly still going up. Which is why it was encouraging that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2022 included $7.5 billion for clean vehicle infrastructure.

Two-thirds of that was set aside for the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure formula program. That $5 billion is being spent mostly on DC fast charging infrastructure, mostly at regular intervals along highway corridors, but also on charger reliability. Rather than paying for the chargers directly, the federal government is awarding it to states and metropolitan planning organizations the way it does with other highway formula funds.

The other $2.5 billion was allocated for CFI. Unlike NEVI, CFI has been open to a wider pool of applications, including local governments and public-private partnerships looking to fund clean vehicle infrastructure in underserved or rural areas. For this round of $632 million in grants, more than 70 percent of the funds will be spent in disadvantaged communities, according to the Joint Office.

“A hallmark of the CFI program is its context sensitivity—it gives communities the opportunity to build the right mix of charging to meet the specific e-mobility needs of people where they live, work, and play,” said Joint Office Executive Director Gabe Klein.

“These awards will leverage the creativity and expertise of American communities around the country advancing clean and equitable transportation options through innovative projects like charging and hydrogen fueling for heavy duty trucks on major corridors, electrification at multifamily housing, multimodal charging hubs for e-bikes and scooters, and even pedestrian safety improvements,” Klein said.

Of the 47 projects being funded (you can see the entire list here), 43 are for EV charging, one is for EV charging and hydrogen refueling, and the remaining three are for hydrogen facilities. That translates to more than 7,500 new charging ports, the Joint Office says.

Biden administration awards $632M for EV charging in new funding round Read More »

hertz-is-selling-20,000-used-evs-due-to-high-repair-costs

Hertz is selling 20,000 used EVs due to high repair costs

Cars, electric vehicle adoption, Hertz / /

too expensive to fix —

The rental car company will replace them with gasoline-powered vehicles.

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A row of white Teslas by a Hertz sign

Hertz

If you’re looking for an electric car bargain and you’re braver than the average bear, you might want to check out Hertz, the car rental agency. After announcing big plans to purchase tens of thousands of EVs from Tesla and then Polestar, it’s now liquidating a third of that fleet, the company told investors.

After Hertz went bankrupt during the early days of the pandemic, its big EV ambitions began in 2021, when the company revealed it wanted more than 20 percent of its rental fleet to be electric by 2022. To that end, it placed an order for 100,000 Tesla Model 3 sedans, then followed up with an order for 65,000 Polestar 2s.

By early 2023, it was still far short of the ambitious goal, in large part due to Tesla’s inability to actually fill that order in time, and EVs still represent just 11 percent of the total Hertz rental fleet. In total, the Hertz EV fleet is around 60,000 vehicles. But it may not actually be that upset at falling short—it turns out that the electric rental cars haven’t been the panacea it needed.

At the end of Q3 2023, Hertz told investors that significant price cutting during the year had “resulted in lower EV residual values, increasing vehicle depreciation expense and negatively impacting salvage cost.” Additionally, its rental EVs were damaged or crashed more often, and the much higher cost of repairs for Tesla vehicles—on average about 20 percent higher than other EVs—has meant that Hertz’s Teslas earn it less money per vehicle than its other rentals.

Consequently, it’s selling off 20,000 EVs over the course of this year. Currently, the company has over 700 EVs for sale, including 35 Chevrolet Bolts, four Kia EV6s, a single BMW i3 and Nissan Leaf, and then 673 Teslas—552 Model 3s and another 121 Model Ys.

Some of the used EVs are rather affordable—the cheapest Model 3 is just $20,125. A long-range Model Y will cost a fair bit more than that, although even here, the most expensive one for sale by Hertz is just $38,116. As a reminder, there is now a tax credit of up to $4,000 available when buying a used EV that costs less than $25,000, assuming one meets the income caps.

But they are all ex-rental cars, and that means most of these cars have had relatively hard lives and now have plenty of miles on them—the cheaper Model 3s are all closing in on 100,000 miles. Not all of them, though—in New Orleans, there’s a Kia EV6 up for sale with just under 5,000 miles.

Hertz says depreciation of $245 million for its EV assets will show up in the Q4 2023 financial results. The company plans to use some of the proceeds of the sale to purchase more gasoline-powered rental cars.

Hertz is selling 20,000 used EVs due to high repair costs Read More »

tesla’s-revamped-model-3-sedan-has-now-gone-on-sale-in-the-us

Tesla’s revamped Model 3 sedan has now gone on sale in the US

Cars, Tesla, tesla model 3 / /

rear lights look better, finally —

The midlife upgrade was available in China and Europe last year.

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A grey Tesla model 3 rendered driving through the mountains

Enlarge / Look closely and you’ll spot the changes to the 2024 Tesla Model 3.

Tesla

Tesla might not have the most expansive range among automakers—the vast majority of its sales come from just two models. But it’s hard to deny that the company has sold a lot of those EVs; in some areas, the only car you might see more than the Model 3 would be the similar-looking Model Y crossover. But now, the eagle-eyed among you may spot some subtle differences on new Tesla Model 3s as the company finally starts selling the restyled version here in North America.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the Model 3 in 2016, with customer deliveries starting the following year. Were Tesla any other automaker, a replacement model would almost certainly be in the works for 2025. But Tesla rarely uses the same playbook as its rivals, and it only gave the electric sedan a styling refresh after six years on sale rather than the more-usual four.

The restyled 3, codenamed Highland, went on sale in China in September 2023, and European customers have been able to buy one since last October. But changes to the federal tax credit for clean vehicles may have delayed the introduction of the revised Model 3 here in the US—for 2024, the car is no longer eligible for the credit.

  • The new headlight cluster takes up much less real estate.

    Tesla

  • Opinions are subjective, but I’ve always felt like Tesla designed 90 percent of its cars, then phoned in the rear lights. Finally, that is no longer the case.

    Tesla

  • The upgraded interior can have colored mood lightning now, a feature that’s common on many other EVs.

    Tesla

  • The rear screen is for controlling the climate but also the infotainment, Tesla says.

    Tesla

  • I get a very strong Polestar vibe from the way the top and bottom elements of the lights extend toward each other.

    Tesla

That was then, and now the updated-looking EV is on sale here. The most obvious changes are to the lights. The headlight clusters are smaller than before, with more stylized daylight running lights in a similar vein to the Models S and X. At the rear, it seems someone in the studio has finally worked out how to draw a rear light cluster that looks finished—something that until now let down what has otherwise been a rather handsome car (although I do note a certain resemblance to Polestar’s rear lights in some of the images Tesla has provided).

Tesla says it has two new colors for the Model 3: ultra red and stealth grey. There are new wheel designs that it says are lower drag, which helps the range and wind noise. There’s also an updated interior with user-configurable LED lighting, a better sound system, and now an 8-inch touchscreen for the rear-seat passengers to interact with.

But the range has been simplified. The $50,990 Model 3 Performance (that we tested in 2019) is gone, and there are now just two versions on offer. The rear-wheel-drive Model 3 starts at $38,990 and has an EPA range estimate of 272 miles (438 km). The all-wheel-drive Model 3 Long Range, meanwhile, starts at $45,990 and has a range of 341 miles (549 km).

Tesla’s revamped Model 3 sedan has now gone on sale in the US Read More »

these-are-honda’s-concepts-for-its-new-family-of-evs-due-in-2026

These are Honda’s concepts for its new family of EVs due in 2026

Cars, CES, concept cars, honda / /

that’s more like it —

A production car based on the Saloon should go on sale in the US in two years.

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A futuristic-looking concept car called the Honda Saloon

Enlarge / Honda says a production version of this car will go on sale in 2026.

Honda

The global auto show might be in decline, but at least fans of futuristic cars still have CES. Today, Honda unveiled a pair of concepts in Las Vegas that it says preview a new range of electric vehicles. Called the Honda 0 series, the first of these new EVs is due to go on sale here in the US in 2026.

That car will be based on the Saloon, a sedan-ish car that looks like it just teleported in from Neo Tokyo. Some of the Saloon’s details might get watered down by the inevitable compromises of road legality regulations, but fans of the sedan should take comfort in its name—”saloon” is what they call one of those in Britain.

  • Just the other day, someone was lamenting the lack of cool-looking concepts.

    Honda

  • Honda says it will use posture control, derived from its robotics know-how, to assist the driver.

    Honda

  • How will it look when it’s not moodily lit?

    Honda

The low-slung form factor is increasingly out of style these days due to a confluence of factors that now includes the difficulty in packaging a slab of batteries into something that isn’t crossover-shaped. But that appears to have been taken as something of a challenge by the automaker.

“The mobility we dream of is not an extension of the trend of ‘thick, heavy, but smart’ EVs,” said Toshihiro Mibe, global CEO of Honda. “We will create a completely new value from zero based on thin, light, and wise as the foundation for our new Honda 0 EV series to further advance the joy and freedom of mobility to the next level.”

Honda says it wants to bring the “joy of driving” to EVs, which it plans to deliver through new steer-by-wire and handling algorithms, perhaps similar to the way Ferrari programs its cars to flatter and enthuse their drivers.

“We have gone back to basics and formulated the Honda 0 Series with a design for the new era,” said Honda global EVP Shinji Aoyama. “A bold and pure proportion that from the first glance is overwhelmingly different from other EVs to evoke a new perspective for people.”

  • Does the Space-Hub preview a new Honda minivan?

    Honda

  • A big glasshouse means the Space-Hub is a good place to stargaze.

    Honda

Honda’s second concept is called the Space-Hub, and with any luck, it signals a future for the minivan, itself an endangered species. There should be no packaging constraints here—instead, Honda says the Space-Hub can be configured to a range of different uses, with big windows that connect “people with each other and the outside world.”

Honda has even gone to the trouble of designing a new “H” logo for the 0 Series—the outstretched hands represent “Honda’s commitment to expand the possibilities of mobility and continue to meet the needs of its customers,” we’re told.

These are Honda’s concepts for its new family of EVs due in 2026 Read More »

volkswagen-is-adding-chatgpt-to-its-infotainment-system

Volkswagen is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system

Cars, cerence, chatgpt, natural language processing, voice recognition, Volkswagen / /

I’m sure you’re asking why —

VW is using Cerence’s Chat Pro, which now incorporates ChatGPT.

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A VW Golf interior showing the infotainment screen, which is asking the question

Enlarge / From mid-2024, ChatGPT is coming to VWs.

Volkswagen

This year’s Consumer Electronics Show got underway in Las Vegas today. For nearly a decade, automakers and their suppliers have increasingly expanded their presence at CES, such that today, it’s arguably a more important auto show than the once-proud, now-sad, extremely underattended events held in places like Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. Volkswagen is one of the first automakers out of the blocks with CES news this morning. Working with the voice recognition company Cerence, VW is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system.

We first experienced Cerence’s excellent in-car voice recognition at CES in 2016—back then, it was still part of parent company Nuance, and the system was called Dragon Drive. Nuance spun Cerence off in 2019, and its conversational AI and natural language processing can be enjoyed in current Mercedes and BMW infotainment systems, among others. I remain in the minority here, but I think it makes a good alternative to poking away at a touchscreen.

From mid-2024, we can add the VW ID.3, ID.4, ID.5, ID.7, Tiguan, Passat, and Golf to the list of cars with decent voice commands. Using “Hello IDA” as the prompt, VW drivers will be able to control their infotainment, navigation, and climate control by voice, and there’s also a general-knowledge search built in. VW notes that ChatGPT doesn’t get access to any vehicle data, and search queries and answers are deleted immediately. The feature should come to VW electric vehicles if those vehicles already have the latest infotainment system, VW told Ars.

“With software at the core of the Volkswagen of the future, it’s critical that we quickly deploy meaningful innovation powered by advancements in AI,” said Thomas Ullrich, a member of VW’s management board responsible for new mobility. “By leveraging Cerence Chat Pro, we are able to bring added value and a fun and engaging experience to our drivers with minimal integration effort and on a short development and deployment timeline, ensuring our customers are benefitting from new AI-powered conversational technology.”

“We’re proud to build on our automotive expertise and our long-term partnership with Volkswagen to continue to bring new innovation to customers, even post-vehicle purchase,” said Stefan Ortmanns, CEO of Cerence. “It was impressive to see the agility and speed of the Volkswagen team as our companies collectively sprung into action to bring this project to life in just a few short weeks, marking our shared commitment to leveraging advancements in AI to enhance to the in-car user experience.”

VW isn’t the only automaker to think about adding ChatGPT. In March, we discovered that General Motors was experimenting with the tech, and last summer, we demoed a similar implementation in a Mercedes-Benz.

That automaker began a beta program that allowed customers with its MBUX infotainment system to try the improvements to the system’s natural language processing from OpenAI’s tech. I was already a convert to MBUX’s (and therefore Cerence’s) speech recognition capabilities, so I found the improvements took a system that was already better at understanding my voice than either Siri or Google’s and further refined it. I just don’t know whether that will be enough for skeptical car drivers to start talking to their cars.

Volkswagen is adding ChatGPT to its infotainment system Read More »

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A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life

car review, Cars, electric pickup truck, Ford F-150 Lightning / /

stalking horse or white elephant? —

The big electric pickup truck is out of the suburbs and out of its element.

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A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life

Jonathan Gitlin

I seem to be thinking a lot about Ford’s electric pickup truck, the F-150 Lightning. Earlier this week, we got the news of price cuts and price increases. Before that, there was a pending cut to planned production output. Taken as it is, it’s just the all-electric version of America’s favorite pickup—and arguably the best version unless you need to pull something on the end of a trailer hitch.

But the Lightning doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Depending on who you talk to, it’s a clever attempt to get Americans to go electric, an utterly familiar wrapper on a slab of new technology that, yes, still requires the owner to adjust their mindset a bit from the gasoline-powered way of thinking. To others, it’s a white elephant, one that costs too much and languishes on dealership forecourts, proof positive that electrification is a thing other countries might bother with, but forget that here at home, cowboy.

I’ve never found life to be quite that simple, and neither is the Lightning. Here in Washington, DC, the vehicle remains a rare sight—the only time I’ve seen one in the wild, it belonged to the DC government’s fleet of vehicles (its job was inspecting abandoned vehicles). Out west, it’s much more common to see electric F-150s on the road, and last year, Ford sold about 40,000 Lightnings, despite halting production for a fire and then again to retool part of the line.

Because I last drove one more than 18 months ago, it seemed prudent to book a week with an example from Ford’s press fleet to see how the pickup has matured since its release. The Monroney sticker did little to bust the idea that these things are expensive—$97,374 is a high price, although with the recent adjustment and an ongoing $7,500 incentive from Ford, a 2024 model would be just over $10,000 cheaper, according to Ford’s online configurator.

Jonathan Gitlin

I had bigger concerns than the sticker shock—quite literally. After all, you don’t have to buy a Platinum trim Lightning; a search on cars.com shows 823 Platinums for sale around the country out of a total of 7,531 new Lightnings. Many of the rest of those electric F-150s will be cheaper, but all of them will be the same size. And that size is just too darn big for my life in the city.

Size matters

This was immediately apparent as I backed into my parking space. The Lightning dwarfed my neighbors’ SUVs as it jutted out into the parking lot, almost entirely filling the space between the white lines. There’s no hiding a vehicle that’s 237 inches (6,020 mm) long and 80 inches (2,032 mm) wide before you include the mirrors.

Part of the reason it’s so big is that the four-door, five-seat pickup truck somehow became the replacement for a sedan in the minds of so many American men. On four wheels, with at least eight inches of ground clearance, you could drive it on an overlanding adventure, but in practice, you’ll just obstruct the views of everyone else on the road. The only way to see around a big truck is in another big truck, and before you know it, the country is buying several million full-size pickup trucks every year.

I'll be honest: I used neither bed nor frunk during the entire week. Groceries and cargo went on the back seat or the floor behind the driver's seat. Which made most of the F-150 Lightning's bulk superfluous to my needs.

Enlarge / I’ll be honest: I used neither bed nor frunk during the entire week. Groceries and cargo went on the back seat or the floor behind the driver’s seat. Which made most of the F-150 Lightning’s bulk superfluous to my needs.

Jonathan Gitlin

For people living in newer homes in suburbs or exurbs who commute to jobs in office parks surrounded by vast expanses of surface parking, the size thing might not even be that noticeable. Garages are built big enough to house brodozers now, and houses out in those parts are set back from their neighbors. Climb up into the driver’s seat of a Lightning in the middle of a dense city, though, and it’s on stark display.

Although I adapted to the Lightning’s size, it was really only once I ventured into the suburbs of Northern Virginia that I started to feel truly comfortable behind the wheel. The multilane roads in places like Fairfax and Tysons Corner were much more the Lightning’s element. No road diets here, nor people on bicycles to be ever-vigilant for. Driving in the city, I was always aware of its size, although the view from the high-up driving position was mostly excellent, and the one-pedal driving mode made it simple to stick to the 20 mph speed limits.

A week with a Ford F-150 Lightning: This truck is too big for city life Read More »

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Technical headaches put the brakes on GM’s big EV push

Cadillac Lyriq, Cars, Chevrolet Blazer EV, Chevrolet Bolt, Chevrolet silverado EV, General Motors, GM, GMC Hummer EV, Ultium / /

has Barra failed? —

GM sold a record number of EVs in 2023, but only thanks to the Bolt EV and Bolt EUV.

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Ultium batteries and components Monday, December 13, 2021 at the General Motors Brownstown Battery facility in Brownstown Charter Township, Michigan. (Photo by Santa Fabio for General Motors)

Enlarge / A GM Ultium battery pack like that found in the Lyriq.

Santa Fabio for General Motors

General Motors ended 2023 as the number one automaker in the United States, selling 2.6 million new vehicles during those 12 months. That’s a 14.1 percent increase from its performance in 2022, and comfortably eclipses the 2.3 million cars that Toyota sold during the same period. It had a strong year in terms of electric vehicle sales too—up 93 percent year-on-year.

But a quick look at the data reveals a somewhat less rosy picture. Yes, it was a banner year for GM EVs, with 75,883 deliveries in 2023. But only because of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV. Chevy delivered 62,045 Bolts in 2023, a 62.8 percent increase on the 38,120 Bolts it sold in 2022.

But as Ars has detailed in the past, the Bolt is no more. Production ended at the Orion Assembly plant in Michigan on December 18, and GM is laying off 945 workers at the plant as it retools the factory to make electric trucks like the Chevy Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV.

GM CEO Mary Barra has promised a new Bolt EV, this time using GM’s newer battery platform, known as Ultium. But the second-generation Bolt isn’t scheduled to appear until 2025 at the earliest.

Cheap, mass-produced cells?

GM has bet big on Ultium. In 2020 it revealed the new battery platform and told us that the new cells, developed together with LG Chem (which also produced the packs for Bolt) would drop below the $100/kWh barrier “early in the platform’s life.” $100/kWh is the point at which an EV powertrain reaches price parity with an internal combustion engine powertrain, at which point an EV should no longer cost several thousand dollars more than an equivalent conventionally fueled vehicle.

Together with LG Chem and now Samsung, GM is investing billions of dollars in battery factories, and the automaker had said it plans to build a million EVs a year by 2025.

But most of those battery plants are still under construction, and last July it had to pause building some Ultium EVs due to a lack of cells.

In fact, in 2023 GM delivered just 13,838 Ultium-based EVs: 9,154 Cadillac Lyriqs, 482 Chevrolet Blazer EVs, 461 Chevrolet Silverado EVs, 3,244 GMC Hummer EVs, and 497 BrightDrop delivery vans.

A spokesperson for GM told Ars that “cell production is going great, but the automation we use to pack cells into modules was not able to keep up,” and that “things are definitely improving.”

During the automaker’s Q2 2023 call with investors, it said that it had “deployed teams from GM manufacturing engineering to work on site with our automation supplier to improve delivery times,” and that it had added manual module assembly lines and was installing “more module capacity at all of our North America EV plants, beginning with Factory ZERO and Spring Hill this summer, Ramos Arizpe in the fall, and CAMI in the second quarter of next year.”

Three months later, GM told investors that “our battery module constraint is getting better, which helped us more than double Ultium Platform production in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. We are now in the process of installing and testing our high-capacity module assembly lines, which will continue into the first part of next year.”

GM also said that it believes the production constraint will have been overcome by mid-2024.

Software is hard

Unfortunately for GM, a lack of Ultium cells isn’t its only headache where new EVs are concerned. Last year the automaker revealed that it was dropping support for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, the extremely popular phone-casting apps, from its EVs from model year 2024. Instead, its Ultium-based EVs would ship with a new infotainment system called Ultifi, built using Google’s Android Automotive OS (not to be confused with the phone-casting Android Auto).

The infotainment system crashed more than once during our drive of the Blazer EV, and the problem is serious enough that GM issued a stop sale for the SUV as a result.

Enlarge / The infotainment system crashed more than once during our drive of the Blazer EV, and the problem is serious enough that GM issued a stop sale for the SUV as a result.

Jonathan Gitlin

In December, GM told Motor Trend that it dropped CarPlay and Android Auto because they caused stability issues. Which probably makes it all the more awkward that the company has had to issue a stop sale for the Blazer EV—which Motor Trend inexplicably crowned its SUV of the year—thanks to a litany of problems with its infotainment system crashing. Indeed, during Ars’ brief time with a Blazer EV on the first drive last month, we also experienced these problems, with the system crashing randomly.

A spokesperson for the company told Ars that “GM is working quickly to address these issues and to implement a fix. Customers will be able to bring their Blazer EVs to Chevrolet dealers once they are notified that the related software update is available. Our engineering teams are working around the clock toward a solution.”

Listing image by Jonathan Gitlin

Technical headaches put the brakes on GM’s big EV push Read More »