Volvo dials into NZ owners with Skype app

January 6, 2017 by Alastair Sloane

Owners of semi-autonomous vehicles in New Zealand will soon be able to make Skype calls from their dashboard – and Volvo appears to be leading the way.

The Chinese-owned Swedish carmaker has said it will equip its premium 90 series vehicles, the XC90 SUV (above) and S90 sedan (below), with a Skype productivity app.

Volvo New Zealand general manager Coby Duggan says the integration demonstrates the potential for advancing productivity while driving.

“Volvo’s vision is to produce a seamless transition from the office to the car allowing us to spend less time behind a desk,” he said.

“As autonomous driving technology develops, reducing the need for drivers to have their full attention on the road, new concepts are being developed which will allow them to better utilise their time while traveling.”

Duggan said the Skype app is actively used by millions of people at work around the globe and drivers will be able to view their upcoming meetings, participant details, and join meetings with one click via the large centre display.

Ben Canning, Microsoft’s director of product management for Skype for Business, said the integration follows a global trend towards workplace mobility.

“Volvo is leading the way in its recognition that the nature of work is increasingly mobile,” he said. “People need to be productive from anywhere – including their cars.”

If you are in a position to shell out upwards of NZ$600,000 for the 60^thanniversary Porsche 911 S/T or optional Porsche 911 S/T Heritage, you’ll no doubt want the signature titanium watch that goes with it. That’s how Porsche figures it anyway. Or, if you want the watch you’ll need to get the car. Both the car and the watch are limited to 1963 units, the year the original 911 model broke cover. The watch – Chronograph 1 911 S/T and Chronograph 1 911 S/T Heritage – and the car carry matching edition numbers. The watch is priced at $US13,500, or around $NZ22,200. The car, says Porsche NZ, starts at $NZ608,000. A “strictly limited number” will go into production for NZ early next year.

Eight European Union countries are pushing to weaken new EU emissions limits for cars, saying they are overly ambitious and unrealistic for carmakers to hit. The eight countries – France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – said in a joint paper that parts of the proposed Euro 7 regulation, including curbs on exhaust pipe emissions, should be scrapped entirely. They said the limits would force carmakers to invest in improving exhaust emissions performance, money which would be better spent on developing zero-emission vehicles. Taken together, the countries would have enough votes to block the proposal.

A go-anywhere EV concept for the US military uses an onboard 12kW diesel generator to top up the batteries on the move. The all-wheel-drive has 800-volt technology and a 200kWh battery pack to power three electric motors, two in the rear and one up front. Claimed output is 745kW/15,590Nm, or 1000hp and 11,500 ft-lb of torque. The four-seater was developed by the defence division of General Motors and is based on the platform of the Hummer SUV. It rides on Fox performance shock absorbers and 37-inch tyres and comes with “exceptional” approach and departure angles for off-road mobility. Maximum range using the generator to keep things ticking over is said to be around 500km.

The outside temperature in Midland, Texas, was 40.5C when staff at the local office of the US National Weather Service set out to show the cabin of a closed car can literally get baking hot in summer. They mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies and laid them on the car’s dashboard – the surface of which showed a temperature of 87.7C. A little over four hours later the cookies were ready to eat. “Even though ours weren’t golden brown, we can confirm that they are done and delicious,” the staff wrote on Facebook.