Cars

Tesla CEO Elon Musk held a press conference last week about the release of the latest version of the company’s software for the Model S and X. The update added new and improved autonomous features to the automaker’s fleet.

During the press call, Musk reiterated that the current sensor suite the company is using to implement new autonomous features will not support full autonomous driving, but the CEO was extremely vague about the timing of the roll out for the new hardware suite that could enable fully self-driving cars.
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National Electric Vehicle Sweden (Nevs), the firm that bought Saab’s assets out of bankruptcy in 2012, is singing some ridiculously big deals to supply electric vehicles to China lately. Last month, we reported on the company closing a massive 78-billion-yuan ($12 billion) deal to supply 150,000 electric cars to Chinese leasing firm Panda New Energy and now we learn from Reuters (via Autoblog) that Nevs signed a framework deal worth about 8.5 billion crowns ($1 billion) with China Volant Industry Co. (Volinco) for 20,000 electric cars.
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When Tesla’s Elon Musk tweeted that he expected to the company’s cars to be able to drive themselves across the U.S. from coast to coast within two years, my response was that I might believe the tech could hit that deadline, but not the law. It seems I may be wrong.

The WSJ reports that the Obama administration wants to invest $3.9B in crafting rules and policies to facilitate the rapid rollout of self-driving cars. This would take place at the federal level, ensuring consistent national laws rather than a patchwork of state-by-state regulations …

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After unveiling the 2017 Porsche 911 Turbo and Turbo S (see picture above) at the Detroit Auto Show this week,  911 program manager Dr Erhard Mossle revealed that the automaker plans to introduce a plug-in hybrid version of its flagship sport car.
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A Tesla Model S caught fire while charging at a Supercharger in Norway on New Year’s day. No one was in the car when the fire started and fortunately nobody was harmed, but the car almost completely burned down.

The authorities and Tesla launched investigations to determine the cause of the fire. Last week, the police released the scene of the Supercharger for the ‘crime technical examination’. Today we learn that the ‘Accident Investigation Board’ (AIBN) is shutting down the investigation, but not before disclosing that they found indications that the fire “originated in the car”.
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After the release of several teasers, Hyundai finally unveiled the final design of its IONIQ, which will be offered with 3 electric powertrain options, and revealed the details of hybrid version. The vehicle will be available in all-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and conventional hybrid without a plug (HEV). We will have to wait for more information about the BEV and PHEV version.
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During Tesla’s last shareholder meeting, two proposals were brought forward to offer vegan animal-free options for Tesla’s vehicles. The proposals were struck down, but Tesla went ahead with a vegan option for the Model X: Ultra White synthetic leather.
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Medium’s tech hub editor-in-chief Steven Levy provides an interesting behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to be a test-(non)driver of one of Google’s self-driving cars. Among the more surprising facts is that there’s a four-week full-time course to qualify to sit behind the wheel of one of the company’s testbed Lexus cars – with additional training needed for the cute prototype cars with only emergency controls.

There’s an abbreviated version for those who will only be sitting in the cars on the company’s private test facility. If you fancy the job, the most reliable way to apply, says Levy, is to be friends with an existing driver. If you can’t swing that, there’s always the option of applying to be a professional pedestrian …

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Switzerland continues to be an impressive market for Tesla where the company delivers just as many cars as in Germany, even though it’s a much smaller market than its neighboring country. According to registration data, Tesla delivered 1,556 Model S’s in Switzerland last year and 193 units in December alone.
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Germany joined the International Zero-Emission Vehicle Alliance (ZEV Alliance) last month and committed to make all passenger vehicles emission-free by 2050. Today, Reuters reports what seems to be the government’s intention to make the first actionable move toward the ZEV Alliance’s goal.
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Just weeks after GM announced a $500 million investment in car-sharing company Lyft, the company says that it expects the first self-driving cars to be use for ride-sharing application instead of direct ownership. General Motors President Dan Ammann made the comment to Mashable at the Detroit Auto Show this week. 
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Seth test drove the Bolt at CES last week and left the event quite impressed with GM’s new all-electric car. I don’t think it’s too farfetched to think the Bolt will be a popular car, especially when you consider that it has a MSRP ($37,500) equivalent to a Nissan LEAF, while the Bolt has twice the battery capacity (60 kWh vs 30 kWh) and likely around twice the range (~200 miles vs 107 miles). 
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Tesla confirmed achieving a 238 units per week production rate for the Model X during the last week of December. The company produced just over 500 Model X’s in 2015, which represents about half of the ~1,000 US reservation backlog of limited-edition ‘Signature Model X’.

If the company maintained its production rate during the past two weeks, it means the company is starting the production of its regular production Model X, and the first report of a production Model X reservation holder having his car entering production is corroborating the assumption.
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Samsung SDI unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show this week a new battery cell prototype, which the company claims has the “world’s top high energy density” and could allow electric vehicles to travel 373 miles (600 km) on a single charge.
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Google published today its annual report on disengagements of autonomous mode for its self-driving car program (SDC), which is required by California’s DMV. The report details events where Google’s test drivers have taken control over the car’s autonomous system, whether it’d be because of a shutdown due to technology failure or for safety reasons.

After having driven over 1.3 million miles in autonomous mode, Google’s self-driving cars were involved in 17 reported accidents, but the company prides itself of not having been at fault in any of them. But with today’s report, we learn the self-driving cars would have caused 10 accidents during the past year if test drivers wouldn’t have disengaged the system and taken controls.
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In his very first public comments, John Krafcik, chief executive of Google’s self-driving car division (which is still within Google[X] at the time of this writing), reiterated Google’s focus on achieving full autonomy in contrast to the incremental approach being taken by just about every other company pursuing the technology…

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At the Detroit Auto Show this week, Volkswagen debuted the second generation concept of what it calls an ‘extreme off-road’ vehicle, the Tiguan GTE.
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In its latest video, Drag Times demonstrated a potential application for Tesla’s latest feature. Drag Times used the new ‘Summon’ feature to  autonomously move the Model S a few dozen feet to “save” the owner from the rain by picking him up under a porte-cochère.
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Tesla had an incredible year for sales and deliveries in 2015. The California-based automaker delivered 50,580 vehicles last year, which represents a 60% increase over the previous year. It’s hard to find any weaknesses with such an incredible sales performance. Yet the company increased its deliveries in almost all markets but Norway, where according to registration data, Tesla delivered the exact same number of Model S’s in 2014 and 2015: 4,039 units.
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Mercedes unveiled its new 2017 E-Class at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show this week and announced the details of its new plug-in hybrid powertrain option: 350e.  While Mercedes is working on 4 new all-electric vehicles to be released before the end of the decade, the automaker is introducing more electric hybrid powertrains in its established lineup of luxury vehicles and the 350e is the first we get to see.
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Tesla’s ‘Summon’ feature got most of the attention after the release of the version 7.1 of its software pushed via an over-the-air update this weekend, but the Autopilot’s ‘Autosteer’ feature also got a significant upgrade, which the following video beautifully highlights.
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