Driverless cars

Future of car: one day badge will be pretty much obsolete, says IBM

July 29, 2020 by Alastair Sloane

Technology giant IBM predicts a future for carmakers where the focus for buyers will be more on the digital services the car provides, rather than the cars themselves. Daniel Knodler, IBM’s director of global sales for its automotive, aerospace and defence groups, says what happens on the screens inside the car will be far more important than the badge on the … [Read more...] about Future of car: one day badge will be pretty much obsolete, says IBM

Self-driving cars will spend more time on road and chew up fuel, says study

March 16, 2015 by Alastair Sloane

Driverless cars will do more daily trips than cars with drivers and thus consume more energy, says a study by researchers at the University of Michigan. The finding puts into reverse an ongoing trend in most developed countries towards declining fuel use, and comes as carmakers and high-tech companies continue to develop robot cars. The researchers say a self-driving … [Read more...] about Self-driving cars will spend more time on road and chew up fuel, says study

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.

Future of car: one day badge will be pretty much obsolete, says IBM

Self-driving cars will spend more time on road and chew up fuel, says study

Electric G-Wagen takes you for spin

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Electric G-Wagen takes you for spin

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