In the years since the great recession of 2008-09, the auto industry has been on a steady and impressive growth pattern as it recovered from the low point of the collapse. But as even Apple has learned in 2016, growth cannot go on forever. At some…
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Another Downside Of Driving Automation: What If The Manufacturer Decides To Shut Your Car Down?
For the past 130 years, whenever we have bought a car, we've expected it to continue operating relatively normally until the mechanical components simply wear out. These days, that means a vehicle may on the road for 20 to 25 years or more as long as…
Mobileye Picks Luminar Lidar For Initial Robotaxis While Developing In-House Lidar
It’s no secret that Mobileye, the Israel-based pioneer in camera-based advanced driver assist systems (ADAS) has been actively developing its own Level 4 automated driving systems. Mobileye has always taken a camera-centric approach to this problem…
2021 Ford F-150 – All The Important Stuff Is Under The Skin
The Mustang might be the icon that gets people excited, but there is no question that the F-series trucks including the light-duty F-150 are the most important products in the Ford lineup. They collectively generate enormous profits that fund a lot…
Ford’s Electric E-Transit May Hit Sweet Spot On Cost, Range, Payload For Commercial Customers
Ford is taking a very different approach to its entry into the battery electric vehicle (BEV) market from cross-town rival General Motors GM . First up is the Mustang Mach-E which basically copies the Tesla TSLA Model Y playbook. Rather than an…
470-Hp 2021 Jeep Wrangler 392 Coming Early 2021
Just two months after showing off the Hemi-powered Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 as a concept, the V8 off-roader is headed to production early in the new year. With the addition of the 470-hp 6.4-liter V8 under the hood, the plug-in hybrid Wrangler 4XE’s…
FordPass Connect Goes Fee-Free For Life
As automakers scramble to find new revenue streams to overcome stagnating and even falling sales, connected services are becoming ever more important. General Motors launched the first cellular connectivity system with the debut of OnStar back in…
Velodyne’s $500 Velarray Solid-State Lidar Goes Into Production In 2021
Velodyne was the pioneer in automotive lidar sensors, providing the units used on the vehicles that won the DARPA Grand Challenge 13 years ago. Those iconic rotating buckets on the roof of many early automated driving prototypes worked, but at…
Infiniti Launches New QX55 Crossover Inspired By FX
It could be quite reasonably be argued that the vehicle that kicked off the wave of so-called SUV “coupes” now produced by so many premium brands was the 2003 Infiniti FX which predated the BMW X6 by five years. On the other hand, the real genetic…
BMW Jumps Into Electric SUV Race With 2022 iX
Twelve years after launching its Project i electrification program with the original Mini E test fleet, BMW is finally bringing to market its second purpose-built electric vehicle, the iX. Unlike the first two i models, the compact i3 urban commuter…