Cars

as-ev-sales-slump,-volkswagen-scales-back-battery-factories-buildout

As EV sales slump, Volkswagen scales back battery factories buildout

Cars, Volkswagen, vw / /

another one —

VW might only need 170 GWh of cells in 2030 if demand stays depressed.

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A VW worker assembles an EV battery pack

Enlarge / A VW worker on the assembly line at Emden in Germany.

Volkswagen

Volkswagen will wait to see what electric car demand is like before building out all six of its previously planned battery factories. Thomas Schmall, VW’s board member in charge of technology, told a German newspaper that “building battery cell factories is not an end to itself” and that a goal of 200 GWh of lithium-ion cells by 2030 was not set in stone.

It’s a bit too simplistic to say that all new technologies conform to the now-infamous Gartner hype cycle, but it’s hard not to think of that squiggly line when discussing EVs. After years of hearing lofty goals of all-electric lineups and an end to internal combustion engines from OEMs, Tesla’s skyrocketing valuation got investors interested in electrification, and for a while, things just went mad.

But the promised fall in battery costs never really materialized, and in the US, EVs still command a price premium, at least for the first owner. The initial hype, coupled with the limited availability of new models, saw dealers load the cars and trucks they could get with hefty markups, further alienating potential customers. And now, when those markups and inventory shortages are mostly a thing of the past, interest rates have soared.

All of that makes it pretty hard to escape thinking we’re in the trough of disillusionment, and the automakers are reacting accordingly. Both General Motors and Ford have already made their electrification plans more modest, with more hybrids and fewer EVs in their roadmaps now.

For VW, the previous goal of 200 GWh by 2030 from six factories (through a new subsidiary called PowerCo) could now be just 170 GWh capacity from three already-announced plants in Valencia, Spain; Ontario, Canada; and Salzgitter, Germany. If necessary, Schmall said that the Spanish and Canadian battery factories could be expanded to meet additional demand.

This battery news follows another sign of slowing confidence in EVs at VW. Last week, it emerged that the company has pushed back plans for the ID.4’s successor, which now may not see showrooms until 2032.

As EV sales slump, Volkswagen scales back battery factories buildout Read More »

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Lufthansa is using artificial sharkskin to streamline airplanes

air travel, Cars, lufthansa, Shark skin / /

don’t bite —

Copying a trick from the animal kingdom can help cut aircraft emissions.

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An outline of an airplane going through the water with its wing mimicking a shark fin

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Companies are often caught between wanting to cut emissions but also grow profits. But for airlines, these two different imperatives actually align. Cutting carbon emissions means burning less fuel and spending less money buying fuel. This is why Lufthansa has been copying a trick from the animal kingdom: applying a special film that mimics sharkskin to parts of its aircraft.

When it comes to decarbonization, reducing the emissions of air travel is both a high priority and something of a difficult task. Globally, air traffic accounts for about 2.5 percent of carbon emissions, but since those emissions are emitted at altitude, studies have found that the warming effect may be almost twice as large.

The problem is that it’s extremely difficult to rival the volumetric energy density of jet fuel, which contains almost 50 times as many megajoules per liter than alternatives like hydrogen, ethanol, or lithium-ion batteries. That’s less of a problem for ground or sea transportation, where weight and volume is less important, but it’s a real stumbling block for switching jet airliners to a different fuel source.

Synthetic carbon fuels are obviously of great interest to the aviation sector, but they have their own problems—biofuels can divert cropland away from feeding humans, and the direct air capture of carbon dioxide to turn it into methane (and then more complex hydrocarbon fuels) is massively energy intensive and extremely expensive, costing perhaps five times as much as oil extracted from underground. And we’re yet to see direct air capture working at a proper industrial scale, either.

Sharkskin isn’t a magic fix

Lufthansa will fit four Boeing 777-200ER aircraft (operated by Austrian Airlines) with the shark skin technology, joining 17 other airframes (a Lufthansa Boeing 747-400, 12 Swiss Boeing 777-200ERs, and four Lufthansa Cargo Boeing 777Fs), which already feature the film.

Nearly 9,000 square feet (830 m2) of the planes’ surface—along the fuselage and also the engine nacelles—will be covered with sheets of AeroSHARK film, which mimics the scales on actual sharkskin with 50-micron-thick riblets that reduce friction by minimizing the turbulent boundary layer.

Lufthansa is adding the sharkskin panels to four more aircraft.

Enlarge / Lufthansa is adding the sharkskin panels to four more aircraft.

Lufthansa

In sharks, it’s calculated this equates to about a 10 percent reduction in drag versus smooth skin, and using this approach has helped Olympic swimmers cut through the water more easily. But that’s for swimming through water; the effect on a plane traveling through the air is more modest, but it should still cut fuel by around 1 percent per flight. (For a longer explanation of how this works, check out this coverage from Ars Senior Reporter Jennifer Ouellette from last week.)

“We take our responsibility seriously and take every possible step to reduce CO2 emissions within our flight operations. At one percent, the sharkskin’s efficiency potential may not sound like much, but in total it will save thousands of tons of CO2 per year on long-haul flights,” said Austrian Airlines COO Francesco Sciortino. “Even though our Boeing 777-200ERs are in their final years of service, we take this investment to get one step closer to our CO₂ reduction targets.”

Lufthansa says the upgrades should be completed by March next year.

Lufthansa is using artificial sharkskin to streamline airplanes Read More »

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Why the Fiat 500e could be your ideal second EV

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The Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty.

Enlarge / The Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty.

BradleyWarren Photography

Over two decades of parenting has left me with a healthy appreciation for SUVs and minivans. But there comes a time when the nest empties and transportation needs change. While it’s useful to have a larger car around for road trips and hauling stuff around, one such vehicle is sufficient. The second car can be small, economical, energy efficient—the kind of car that I wouldn’t have given a second glance in the past.

When Ars first drove the Fiat 500e last spring, we were impressed with what we saw and how it drove during the few hours spent behind the wheel. But Fiat is positioning this as an ideal second car, as Fiat CEO Olivier Francois told Ars at the drive. “My ambition is not to replace your sedan or [S]UV.” The automaker wants the 500e to be your stylish but economical secondary ride.

A novel approach to branding

After spending a week with the Fiat 500e Inspired by Beauty, I can attest that the 500e does indeed make for an ideal second car, at least if you don’t have regular backseat passengers. Fiat’s tiny hatchback is also one of the most efficient BEVs Ars has ever driven, as it consistently averaged 5 mi/kWh (12.4 kWh/100 km).

Returning to US shores after a five-year absence from the market, the 500e rolls on an all-new platform designed from the ground up for EVs. That’s a great change—and here’s a weird one. Instead of buying a black 500e, one purchases the Fiat 500e Inspired By Music edition, which is black. I drove the Fiat 500e Inspired By Beauty edition, which is a striking rose gold. The 500e is also available in red (RED) and silver Marine Layer Mist (Inspired By Los Angeles).

The branding may be a bit twee, but it makes sense for a car that Francois has referred to as the “ultimate fashion accessory.” But you’re reading Ars, not our most-excellent sibling Vogue, so this review focuses more on functionality than style.

That said, the 500e is all kinds of cute. In an ocean of black, white, and gray SUVs, Fiat’s wee, rose-gold car stands out. It’s not just the color—Fiat has given the 500e a distinctive face, with the hood giving the headlight/running-light combo an eyebrow-eyelid-eyeball appearance.

A rose gold car stands out in a sea of monochrome SUVs.

Enlarge / A rose gold car stands out in a sea of monochrome SUVs.

BradleyWarren Photography

No frunk for you!

Enlarge / No frunk for you!

BradleyWarren Photography

Although the materials feel more fast-fashion than haute couture, the 500e interior looks sharp. Seats are white, with “FIAT” embossed all over. Most importantly, the front seat feels bigger than it should. There’s never a sensation of feeling confined or penned in. Visibility is excellent (unless there’s an SUV next to you blocking your view), and storage is adequate with the rear seats folded down (unfortunately, they do not fold flat). With the back seats up, there are 7.5 cubic feet (212 L) of storage. Unlike most other BEVs, the 500e is frunkless, as the short (142.9 in/3,630 mm) chassis means the motor, power electronics, and other equipment needs to live there.

Why the Fiat 500e could be your ideal second EV Read More »

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BMW makes the Internet happy, brings M5 station wagon to the US

Cars / /

trombone delivery car —

After denying us previous M5 station wagons, BMW now thinks the time is right.

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A BMW M5 Touring drives through a volcanic landscape

Enlarge / Everyone loves a wagon, especially when it’s an M5.

Fabian Kirchbauer Photography/BMW

Telling someone they can’t have something is a great way to make them want it. Take the station wagon, for example. This once-popular form factor for family transport has all but disappeared from new car showrooms in North America, consequently making the station wagon all kinds of cool in the process. At the apex are the superwagons, factory-tuned models with prodigious power outputs, with one in particular attaining legendary status in large part because BMW chose never to import the M5 Touring across the Atlantic. Until now.

BMW first made a Touring—or station wagon—version of the M5 in 1992 with the second-generation (better known as the E34) 5 series. When I was growing up in the UK, these were unavailable, as they were in the US, quickly giving the five-door M5 an extra level of cachet that the four-door lacked, despite a starring role in Ronin.

Truth be told, the E34 M5 Touring looked very cool, but it wasn’t the greatest sales success.

The same could be said for the next M5 Touring, which turned up in 2007 with the E61 generation 5 Series and a V10 under the hood. Only about 5 percent of E61 M5s were the five-door wagon, and US customers were again denied the chance to buy one. For the American M5 Touring devotee, the answer seemed to be “wait for the 25-year rule to apply,” something that has meant E34 M5 Tourings have been eligible for import for a few years now.

The M5 Touring skipped a generation, but BMW decided to bring it back for the newest iteration of its midsize continent crusher. And while it looked for a while like the Touring would again be a Euro-only thing, BMW’s North American arm has decided that the market is now ready for its most practical of performance machines.

  • The two-box shape looks so well-proportioned when it’s a wagon.

    Fabian Kirchbauer Photography/BMW

  • The 2025 M5 launch will take place toward the end of this year.

    Fabian Kirchbauer Photography/BMW

  • Colors other than bright red are available.

    Fabian Kirchbauer Photography/BMW

  • The Touring is still hugely practical.

    BMW

  • E34 M5 Touring are eligible for import under the 25-year rule.

    BMW

  • The E61-generation Touring body was most handsome.

    BMW

People say it’s too heavy

The G60-generation (or G61, for the Touring) M5 is a bit of a controversial car, however. It uses the same plug-in hybrid powertrain as the XM SUV, generating 717 hp (535 kW) and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm)—more than double the power and torque of the E34 M5.

While there are obvious advantages to a PHEV performance car in both performance (electric motors deliver their torque immediately) and efficiency (since it can run on just electric motors in low-speed situations), there is a bit of a drawback when it comes to weight. Adding a 14.8 kWh (useable) lithium-ion battery pack and the 194 hp (145 kW) electric motor have pushed the M5 Touring’s curb weight to 5,530 lbs (2,508 kg).

That’s 1,683 lbs (763 kg) heavier than the first M5 Touring, and all that mass has made enthusiasts mad (though almost every road test and first drive has come back aglow about the car’s capabilities). And I’m pretty sure that the 1992 M5 Touring didn’t have heated and cooled seats or an infotainment system capable of playing video or games. And it definitely didn’t have a torque-vectoring rear differential.

BMW debuted the US version of the M5 Touring on Thursday as part of Monterey Car Week and also announced the pricing. If you want a car that can carry loads of up to 57.6 cubic feet (1,632 L) and accelerate to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, be prepared to pay BMW at least $122,675.

BMW makes the Internet happy, brings M5 station wagon to the US Read More »

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A cute, cheap deathtrap? Japanese Kei cars banned by yet another US state

Cars, kei cars, road safety / /

not an easy one, tbh —

Limited in size and power, Kei cars are like fishes out of water on US roads.

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A cute, cheap deathtrap? Japanese Kei cars banned by yet another US state

Aurich Lawson | Getty Images

Kei cars are the antithesis of the big American SUV. Where EPA regulations effectively penalize automakers for building smaller, more efficient cars, Japan’s Kei car regulations cap size, weight, and power to just fractions. Kei cars aren’t just small, they’re also pretty cheap, a fact that has made them a sales success in Japan and highly desirable as a gray-market import, particularly by people who think new cars have gotten too large, too complicated, and too expensive. A few years ago, Ars even wrote a guide on how to go about importing one from Japan.

But not everyone is a fan of the diminutive Kei import. As far as the federal government is concerned, as long as it’s more than 25 years old, an imported car does not have to comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards or fuel economy standards; just makes sure you pay all your import duties.

That’s because the federal government doesn’t license vehicles to operate on public roads. That task belongs to the individual states, and increasingly, they are giving Kei cars the thumbs down—sometimes even in cases where previously those cars posed no problem.

Some states restrict Kei cars—often Kei trucks, in this case—to working as farm vehicles; depending on the state, they may travel up to 20 miles from the farm. Some states like Alabama and Arkansas allow them with conditions such as speed restrictions or no highway use. And others are outright banning them. Georgia, Maine, and New York have all done so, and now Massachusetts is the latest to join that movement, helpfully even publishing a list of examples of Kei cars it won’t now register.

Are they safe on American roads?

The states aren’t all using exactly the same reasoning for their crackdowns. In some cases, Kei cars have been classified as “off-road vehicles,” deemed unfit for road use. In other cases, state DMVs have pointed to the lack of compliance with federal safety standards as justification for banning them.

The thing is, that’s not exactly a misleading argument. Kei cars really are small, even compared to cars you do think are small, like a Mini Cooper or Fiat 500e. In 2017, the fine people at the Lane Motor Museum held a microcar rally, giving me a chance to drive a whole array of tiny four-wheel vehicles, including more than a few Kei cars.

While it was mostly a wonderfully fun day, driving cars that small surrounded by hulking full-size SUVs and even bigger class 8 dump trucks and tractor-trailers was flat-out terrifying. As I wrote then and reiterate now, half of those trucks wouldn’t even have noticed if they’d run me over.

It’s a problem of context. In their natural setting—the narrow and crowded streets of dense, urban Japan, the Kei car makes pretty good sense. But Americans have always liked their cars on the massive side of things, preferring land yachts like the Ford Galaxie, Buick Roadmaster, and Cadillac Eldorado over compact hatchbacks every day of the week. And let’s not pretend the big SUV is a new phenomenon on North American roads—the oversized Chevy Suburban traces its birthday back to 1967.

Which brings up the harsh reality that is the laws of physics. When a big car hits a small car, the small car does worse. The fact that imported Kei cars are at least 25 years old adds a further snag—passive and active safety has come a long way in that time, and crashes that might not trouble a SmartCar may well mean severe injuries in a Kei car.

I reached out to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the nation’s leading independent vehicle safety testing organization, to see if it had any data on the matter. IIHS hasn’t crash-tested any Kei cars recently, but it referred me to its position from a few years ago, which says that smaller, lighter vehicles that don’t conform to the FMVSS, which includes Kei cars as well as Low-Speed Vehicles (which are limited to surface streets and 25 mph) “should not share busy public roads with regular traffic.”

Although the Kei trucks that IIHS refers to are speed-limited to 25 mph, most Kei cars imported for road use are not similarly limited, and keeping up with the flow of traffic ought not to be an issue. But the crashworthiness should certainly give some pause.

A cute, cheap deathtrap? Japanese Kei cars banned by yet another US state Read More »

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Self-driving Waymo cars keep SF residents awake all night by honking at each other

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The ghost in the machine —

Haunted by glitching algorithms, self-driving cars disturb the peace in San Francisco.

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A Waymo self-driving car in front of Google's San Francisco headquarters, San Francisco, California, June 7, 2024.

Enlarge / A Waymo self-driving car in front of Google’s San Francisco headquarters, San Francisco, California, June 7, 2024.

Silicon Valley’s latest disruption? Your sleep schedule. On Saturday, NBC Bay Area reported that San Francisco’s South of Market residents are being awakened throughout the night by Waymo self-driving cars honking at each other in a parking lot. No one is inside the cars, and they appear to be automatically reacting to each other’s presence.

Videos provided by residents to NBC show Waymo cars filing into the parking lot and attempting to back into spots, which seems to trigger honking from other Waymo vehicles. The automatic nature of these interactions—which seem to peak around 4 am every night—has left neighbors bewildered and sleep-deprived.

NBC Bay Area’s report: “Waymo cars keep SF neighborhood awake.”

According to NBC, the disturbances began several weeks ago when Waymo vehicles started using a parking lot off 2nd Street near Harrison Street. Residents in nearby high-rise buildings have observed the autonomous vehicles entering the lot to pause between rides, but the cars’ behavior has become a source of frustration for the neighborhood.

Christopher Cherry, who lives in an adjacent building, told NBC Bay Area that he initially welcomed Waymo’s presence, expecting it to enhance local security and tranquility. However, his optimism waned as the frequency of honking incidents increased. “We started out with a couple of honks here and there, and then as more and more cars started to arrive, the situation got worse,” he told NBC.

The lack of human operators in the vehicles has complicated efforts to address the issue directly since there is no one they can ask to stop honking. That lack of accountability forced residents to report their concerns to Waymo’s corporate headquarters, which had not responded to the incidents until NBC inquired as part of its report. A Waymo spokesperson told NBC, “We are aware that in some scenarios our vehicles may briefly honk while navigating our parking lots. We have identified the cause and are in the process of implementing a fix.”

The absurdity of the situation prompted tech author and journalist James Vincent to write on X, “current tech trends are resistant to satire precisely because they satirize themselves. a car park of empty cars, honking at one another, nudging back and forth to drop off nobody, is a perfect image of tech serving its own prerogatives rather than humanity’s.”

Self-driving Waymo cars keep SF residents awake all night by honking at each other Read More »

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The cheapest Tesla Cybertruck is $99,990; promised $60K model canceled

Cars, Tesla Cybertruck / /

sells better than the hummer or lighting though —

When the Cybertruck debuted in 2019 it was supposed to start at $39,900.

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A Tesla Cybertruck in a Tesla store

Enlarge / The Cybertruck remains a divisive vehicle.

Jonathan Gitlin

When Tesla CEO Elon Musk first unveiled the Cybertruck in 2019, the angular pickup was pitched right at the heart of the highly competitive truck market. With a promised starting price of $39,900, the single-motor version ever so slightly undercut the cheapest version of Ford’s electric F-150 Lightning. Tesla increased the entry-level price by more than $20,000 by the time the Cybertruck was actually getting close to production, with promises of deliveries in 2025. But now, all mention of the cheaper rear-wheel drive Cybertruck is gone from Tesla’s ordering page.

Although pickup trucks have dominated new vehicle sales in the US for decades, their buyers are not exactly clamoring to swap their V8s or diesels for a slab of batteries and some electric motors. Ford has been finding that out the hard way—a constant string of price changes have helped keep demand depressed enough that the Blue Oval is shifting its entire electric vehicle strategy as a result.

And the F-150 Lightning has the advantage of looking just like all the other F-150s that roll off the production line. Not so the Cybertruck, a vehicle that manages to look even less elegant when you see one in the wild rather than on a screen.

As is typical with new Tesla models, the stainless steel pickup’s gestation was anything but easy. Last October Musk told fans “we dug our own grave with the Cybertruck,” having previously berated his workforce about quality control, insisting “sub 10 micron accuracy.”

Things appeared to get worse as customer deliveries began. A problem with the Cybertruck’s pedal led to crashes and a stop to new deliveries, and there had been four official recalls by late June.

Still outselling the competition

And yet, the Tesla has been outselling the Ford despite the cheapest Cybertruck costing a minimum of $99,900, with Lightnings available on dealer lots with price tags that are $20,000-$30,000 less.

A better cross-shop might well be the GMC Hummer EV. Like the Cybertruck, the Hummer is so heavy it counts as a class 3 truck here in the US, a fact that precludes international sales in most markets, which require special licenses to operate heavier vehicles. Both also effectively have six-figure starting prices now, once you take into account delivery charges. So far, the Tesla is winning this sales battle, too, with nearly three times as many being sold in Q2.

That makes it the best-selling vehicle costing more than $100,000, according to industry analysts Cox Automotive, telling Automotive News that “sustained high volume at that price point will be a challenge.”

The cheapest Tesla Cybertruck is $99,990; promised $60K model canceled Read More »

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More than greenwashing? Sustainable aviation fuels struggle to take off

Cars / /
Contrails from a jet

Enlarge / Sustainable aviation fuels could help cut carbon emissions from commercial flights.

Costfoto/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Last November, Virgin Atlantic Airways made headlines for completing the world’s first transatlantic flight using “100 percent sustainable aviation fuel.”

This week, the Advertising Standard Authority (ASA) of the U.K. banned a Virgin radio ad released prior to the flight, in which they touted their “unique flight mission.” While Virgin did use fuel that releases fewer emissions than traditional supplies, the regulatory agency deemed the company’s sustainability claim “misleading” because it failed to give a full picture of the adverse environmental and climate impacts of fuel.

“It’s important that claims for sustainable aviation fuel spell out what the reality is, so consumers aren’t misled into thinking that the flight they are taking is greener than it really is,” Miles Lockwood, director of complaints and investigations at the ASA, said in a statement.

The ruling is the latest in a string of greenwashing crackdowns against sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which are made of components other than fossil fuels. In recent years, the U.K. and U.S. governments and private sector have offered incentives and funds to help ramp up SAF production. But skeptics say the alternative fuels will hardly make a dent in the airline industry’s large carbon footprint.

Plant-powered flights

Aviation accounts for roughly 2.5 percent of global emissions, largely from the burning of petroleum-based fuels. Sustainable aviation fuels have been made with a number of alternative ingredients—from worn-out tires to plastic waste (though my colleague James Bruggers has previously covered some setbacks in the plastic-to-jet-fuel field).

The majority of SAFs are made using materials already found in the environment, such as cooking fats or plant oils. These alternative fuels still emit carbon dioxide when they burn, but they typically have lower “lifecycle” emissions than petroleum-based fuels due to the way they are harvested. SAFs tap into renewable resources found in the environment instead of fossil fuels that have trapped carbon underground for millions of years.

Currently, international standards require SAFs to be mixed with conventional fuels, which enables airlines to continue using the same infrastructure rather than developing new aircraft that can handle exclusively bio-based accelerants. To qualify as “sustainable” for U.S. tax credits, though, the mixture must cut net emissions by at least 50 percent compared with exclusively oil-based fuels.

More than greenwashing? Sustainable aviation fuels struggle to take off Read More »

here’s-what-the-electric-dodge-charger’s-“fratzonic-exhaust”-sounds-like

Here’s what the electric Dodge Charger’s “Fratzonic exhaust” sounds like

Cars, Dodge Charger, Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust / /

Does it come with yellow packing strips? —

Dodge wants to keep the aural spectacle even as it moves to electric propulsion.

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A rendering of a silver Dodge Charger EV

Enlarge / Dodge doesn’t want to be accused of building a boring EV.

Dodge

Electric motors have many advantages over internal combustion engines, including the fact that they don’t waste a lot of their power as sound energy. So quiet are electric vehicles, in fact, that federal vehicle safety regulations require EVs (and hybrids) to make a certain amount of noise at lower speeds to warn vulnerable road users like blind or visually impaired pedestrians of their presence.

Almost all of those cars end up sounding like a choir of depressed angels, a phrase memorably coined by either Richard Porter or Jonny Smith on the Smith and Sniff podcast. That’s not the case with the forthcoming electric Dodge Charger, however. When it first broke cover in March, we learned that the electric Charger would feature something called a “Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust” to give it some aural character. Now, thanks to the video from Dodge embedded here, we can all hear what that sounds like in practice:

Dodge knows that emotion is a big part of muscle car sales, so it’s made the electric Charger sound very emotional.

The Fratzonic Chambered Exhaust—the name refers to a Dodge logo—combines various chambers underneath the Charger’s body with some woofers and mid-range speakers, all driven by a dedicated 600 W amplifier. The system is also designed to transmit vibrations into the chassis through elastomeric bushings, mimicking an internal combustion engine and its motor mounts.

“We know our Dodge enthusiasts want that visceral feel you get when you drive a Dodge muscle car, and the Charger’s new Fratzonic system delivers the adrenaline-pumping spirit that they expect. It reacts to specific inputs and driving events, giving the driver a direct connection to their new Charger. Simply put, when you hear it and feel it, you will know it’s a Dodge Charger Daytona,” said Matt McAlear, Dodge brand CEO at Stellantis.

As you can hear in the video, the Fratzonic system makes more than one sound. Dodge says it “intensifies a suite of dynamic vehicle events, including power up/power down, idle/rev, acceleration/throttle, powershot [like a boost function], and deceleration/regenerative braking.”

Dodge is not the first automaker to apply a degree of automotive skeuomorphism in an effort to appeal to the more traditionally minded car enthusiast. Last year, we tested a Toyota fitted with a fake manual transmission, and later this month, we’ll be conducting a more extensive test of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, which sonically replicates gearshifts, winning over just about every skeptic who has driven it.

The two-door electric Charger Daytona goes on sale later this year and will cost $59,595 for the Charger Daytona R/T and $73,190 for the Charger Daytona Scat Pack.

Here’s what the electric Dodge Charger’s “Fratzonic exhaust” sounds like Read More »

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This AI humanoid robot helped assemble BMWs at US factory

bmw, Cars, Figure AI, humanoid robots, robot / /

why humanoid, though? —

BMW has no timeline to integrate humanoid robots into its production lines.

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A humanoid robot

Enlarge / This is the Figure 02, a new humanoid robot that recently tried its hand(s) at assembling BMW chassis in South Carolina.

BMW

Robots have been working in car factories for decades now, starting with machines performing some welds on a General Motors production line back in 1961. Now, robots work alongside people on production lines, excelling at tasks like manipulating parts too heavy for humans to easily lift or welding or bonding with more precision than we can manage.

Those robots mostly look like big multi-axis arms, but a new breed of two-armed, two-legged robots is being tested in car factories. BMW is the latest automaker to try them at its factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Unlike Tesla, which hopes to develop its own bipedal ‘bot to work on its production line sometime next year, BMW has brought in a robot from Figure AI. The Figure 02 robot has hands with sixteen degrees of freedom and human-equivalent strength.

“We are excited to unveil Figure 02, our second-generation humanoid robot, which recently completed successful testing at the BMW Group Plant Spartanburg. Figure 02 has significant technical advancements, which enable the robot to perform a wide range of complex tasks fully autonomously,” said Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure AI.

Figure 02 assembled chassis parts.

Enlarge / Figure 02 assembled chassis parts.

BMW

BMW wanted to test how to integrate a humanoid robot into its production process—how to have the robot communicate with the production line software and human workers and determine what requirements would be necessary to add robots to the mix.

The Figure robot was given the job of inserting sheet metal parts into fixtures as part of the process of making a chassis. BMW says this required particular dexterity and that it’s an ergonomically awkward and tiring task for humans.

Now that the trial is over, Figure’s robot is no longer working at Spartanburg, and BMW says it has “no definite timetable established” to add humanoid robots to its production lines. “The developments in the field of robotics are very promising. With an early-test operation, we are now determining possible applications for humanoid robots in production. We want to accompany this technology from development to industrialization,” said Milan Nedeljković, BMW’s board member responsible for production.

This AI humanoid robot helped assemble BMWs at US factory Read More »

gamification-gets-drivers-to-put-down-their-phones,-study-finds

Gamification gets drivers to put down their phones, study finds

Cars, distracted driving / /

use bluetooth —

Gamification plus cash prizes worked even better.

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Close-up Of A Man's Hand Typing Text Message On Mobile Phone While Driving Car

Enlarge / You should not do this while you are driving.

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Distracted driving isn’t only a result of drivers using their phones when they should be paying attention. But it is a significant cause of the problem, accounting for at least 13 percent of distracted driving deaths and rising to 1 in 5 for young drivers. Now, a study conducted with customers of the Progressive insurance company has tested different strategies to get those drivers to put their phones down in the car, and it found two that significantly reduced handheld use, with the effect persisting after the end of the study.

The study recruited 1,653 customers already enrolled in its Progressive Snapshot program, which involves the use of a smartphone app that detects phone use while driving. Before the start of the trial, the participants all averaged more than 6.4 minutes per hour of handheld use while driving—Progressive says its safest customers have handheld usage of less than 1 minute per hour while driving.

Five test groups

The drivers were split into five different arms, each with increasing amounts of intervention. The first group just received education about the problem, such as statistics about state laws that ban phone use while driving, increased crash risks, and recommendations to use hands-free options like a phone mount or casting interface instead.

The second arm received the educational materials and a free phone mount with the message “Driving? Park your phone here.” The authors were particularly interested to see whether this arm worked, given the relatively low-cost and one-time nature of this intervention.

The third arm received both educational materials and the mount, but the participants were also asked to commit in writing to reducing their phone use while driving. The researchers informed these participants about their baseline phone use while driving and then gave them weekly goals to reduce their phone use to below 1 minute per hour over the course of the 10-week study. This arm also got regular tips on helpful habits, like mindfulness reminders, encouraging prompts, or using a phone’s “do not disturb” mode while driving.

Arm four included all the same interventions as arm three but added competitive gamification as well. Each Monday evening during the 10-week trial, the participants in arm four received a message with their handheld usage goal for the coming week and whether they met the previous week’s goal. Points were awarded for meeting the goal and were taken away for backsliding. Additionally, participants with similar baseline usage were grouped together in tens to form leaderboards so individuals could compete against (anonymized) peers.

Finally, arm five included the same interventions as arm four and added a financial incentive. Participants who scored enough points over the course of the 10-week study shared a $2,000 prize, each taking home $15.63 in the end. This arm was also told they would earn $5 for finishing at the head of the weekly leaderboard, which displayed a “total winnings” column in this arm.

What worked?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, none of the interventions in groups one, two, or three resulted in those participants significantly reducing their handheld use while driving. But the drivers in arm four had a 20.5 percent reduction in the amount of handheld usage while driving during the study.

What’s more, this effect persisted throughout the rest of the Progressive Snapshot period (a variable-length post-intervention period lasting 25–65 days) following the end of the 10-week study, with this arm still showing 16.2 percent less handheld usage compared to the control.

Paying drivers on top of competitive gamification was the most effective way to get them to put down their phones. This group reduced its handheld usage by 27.6 percent, or 89 seconds/hour, compared to the control. That reduction was maintained at the same level throughout the post-intervention period for this arm.

Gamification has already been adopted to varying degrees of success by automakers and their UI designers to try to encourage hybrid and EV drivers to be more efficient. So it’s not entirely surprising to see the same approach can work to modify other types of driving behavior. It’s even possible that insurance companies could start financially incentivizing drivers to behave better, assuming prizes cost less than the amount saved by paying for fewer crashes and claims.

PNAS, 2024. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2320603121  (About DOIs).

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The 10 things car buyers say they want in their next car

car buying, Cars / /

how much will you pay though? —

The data explains why we keep seeing certain features on many new cars.

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A wireless charging pad is now the most-desired in-car feature among people intending to buy a new vehicle. Being able to forget about a USB cable and still not run down one’s battery topped the list of 163 features that AutoPacific asked about in its annual survey on future demand. Almost 15,000 people intending to buy a new car within the next three years replied to the survey, with 44 percent ticking the box for wireless charging for the front passengers.

This market research data is rather illuminating; as we test new cars, they’re increasingly equipped with features or gadgets that don’t seem exactly necessary—an extra infotainment screen for the front seat passenger, for example, or remote parking via a smartphone app. Sometimes, the features are even mandatory—several luxury brands won’t let you order certain cars without a glass moonroof.

These decisions are justified by product planners as responding to customer demand, so it’s helpful to see one of the sources that feeds into that.

In joint second place were a second wireless charging pad for the back seats and heated and ventilated seats. These were each picked by 37 percent, narrowly beating out rain-sensing windscreen wipers (36 percent).

The aforementioned moonroof (or sunroof) shared fifth place (35 percent) with having the ability to store more than one driver profile. Interestingly, this feature has grown in popularity over the years, rising from 19th-most requested in 2022 up to 10th-most in 2023. More and more automakers are moving to Android Automotive OS, which uses Google accounts to bring a driver’s digital life seamlessly into their vehicle; others are building their own solutions on private clouds, but either way, it’s increasingly becoming built into every new car we test. (It’s probably time I created a Google account to test out those features on AAOS cars going forward, too.)

Seventh on the list is a feature that requires a car to be electrified—it’s a household 110 V socket (34 percent). Ford’s much in-demand Maverick hybrid pickup—now in AWD, too—is a good example, with some EVs offering enough onboard juice to run a little outdoor office or movie theater.

I’m not sure I can remember seeing rear sunshades in a car—I probably wasn’t looking—but a third of survey respondents wanted them in their next vehicle. Only 32 percent showed interest in rear-cross traffic alert with automatic emergency braking.

I’m surprised this safety tech didn’t rate higher—its value is easily proven when reversing in a crowded parking lot when the spaces on either side of your car are occupied by gargantuan SUVs and pickups. Perhaps the other two-thirds only ever reverse into parking spaces? That’s certainly safer and much easier to do now that backup cameras have been legally required for the past few years.

Who wants hands-free?

Finally, 31 percent of the people who replied to AutoPacific also said that a built-in air compressor would be on their list, too. Notably, hands-free driving tech like Super Cruise or Autopilot did not crack the top 10.

But perhaps first place should really have gone to unresponsive driver detection. AutoPacific says that this idea was represented by two different options: a system that stops the car in its lane and a system that pulls the car over to the shoulder in the event of an unresponsive driver. When combined (45 percent), the demand for these two features edged out the demand seen in 2023 (43 percent) for a less well-defined unresponsive driver system.

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