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January 8, 2023

CES 2023: The Biggest Car News From BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Sony and More

CES is known for showcasing massive TVs, thinning laptops and new phones, but it’s also one of the largest and most important auto shows in the US. Each January some of the latest innovations in vehicle technology are demoed in Las Vegas as part of the electronics extravaganza.

This year at CES 2023, hundreds of exhibitors from across the automotive sector have already unveiled some of their latest products and cutting-edge technologies. BMW announced the futuristic i Vision Dee electric car, while Sony and Honda revealed their EV prototype Afeela, integrated with Epic Games’ Unreal Engine technology to provide next-level entertainment, communication and safety features.

If you want to take a closer look at the new auto technology that’s been unveiled at CES 2023 so far, check it out below. For more, here are the wildest highlights we’ve seen this week and the wackiest tech, too.

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Hearing Dolby Atmos in a Car Blew Me Away

5:11

Mercedes-Benz is one of the first car companies in the world to get immersive Dolby Atmos surround sound tech

Dolby Atmos is immersive surround sound technology that you’ll really only find at the theatre or in a few pricey speakers, soundbars and headphones for consumers. Unlike your typical left and right audio experience, Dolby Almost brings you sounds from every direction imaginable, and that immersive audio experience is coming to the Mercedes-Benz Maybach. Check out our experience with Dolby Atmos at CES 2023 in the video above.

A silver Mercedes-Benz — Dolby Atmos is currently only available in a few select luxury vehicles.

BMW’s color-changing concept car

BMW unveiled the i Vision Dee, a futuristic midsize electric sedan with a digital assistant, color-changing technology and an augmented-reality windshield. The car’s exterior is equipped with 240 E Ink segments that can be controlled individually; you could go with a solid color if you want, but each separate panel can be customized, so you can go wild with patchwork designs. But the most exciting new feature has to be the fully digital, mixed reality windshield. You’ll be able to decide how much “digital content” you see in front of you while you drive, such as driving information, communications, AR projections and virtual worlds.

Mixed Reality head up display in action — Crank the Mixed Reality Slider to max and the windshield is filled with information or even fully virtual worlds.

BMW

Sony and Honda’s electric sedan has Unreal Engine-designed interfaces

Sony and Honda unveiled the Afeela, an electric midsized sedan, at CES on Wednesday. The alliance between the two companies works like this: Honda provides the automotive engineering and after-sales service part, while Sony covers the tech side of things, including electronics, sensors and entertainment. The front of the EV has a built-in display that can be used to show off information to other drivers and pedestrians, while the entire body comes equipped with dozens of cameras and sensors to detect objects and provide an autonomous driving experience. Inside, the interface of the car is powered by Qualcomm technology and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine to enhance the driving experience and provide a quality entertainment system.

Afeela Sony car announced at CES 2023 — The two companies plan to have preorders up and running for the EV in 2025.

James Martin/CNET

Amazon Ring now wants to live in your car

Amazon’s Ring creates security cameras for your home and business, to provide security and allow you to keep an eye on package deliveries and other activities, and now it wants to do the same thing for your automobile. The Ring Car Cam is a dashboard-mounted dual-facing camera that can record both inside and outside your car, while you’re driving or parked. While the camera stores footage locally, it can connect to your Wi-Fi network whenever you’re parked nearby to upload footage. You can also get LTE support to always stay connected, allowing you to view a live feed in case someone else has your car; you’ll need to pay for a Ring Protect Go subscription for that. You can preorder the Ring Car Cam for $200 right now, or wait to buy it when it’s released in February for $250.

The Ring Car Cam, a dual-facing dashcam with Wi-Fi connectivity, sits atop the dashboard of a vehicle pulling past a bokeh background. — You can remotely talk with anyone in the car thanks to the camera’s built-in speaker and microphone.

Ring

An electric pickup truck… that follows you around?

Ram unveiled the Ram 1500 Revolution BEV, its first ever fully electric pickup truck, at CES 2023. The electric truck is equipped with back-swinging suicide doors, three rows of seats, an AR display, an AI personal assistant and “themes” for the interior of the car. For example, you can enable party mode or relax mode — each changes the seat positions and orientation, lighting, sound system and even the opacity of the skylight. But the most interesting thing about the electric truck has to be its “shadow mode” feature, which allows the truck to follow the driver around, sort of like a dog, when they’re on foot.

Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept — Arriving in 2024.

Stellantis

Nvidia will bring its gaming platform to select cars

GeForce Now, Nvidia’s popular cloud gaming service that allows you to play games like Fortnite and Apex Legends on your phone, tablet and TV, is soon coming to your car. During its showcase at CES 2023, Nvidia announced a partnership with Hyundai Motor Group, Polestar and BYD to integrate the gaming platform to several internet-connected vehicles. A passenger in the car can load up GeForce Now in a built-in display and play games such as Rocket League with a connected gamepad.

Nvidia GeForce Now in car — More than a thousand games will be available.

Nvidia

Google launched its new Android Auto update

On Thursday, Google announced the release of its latest Android Auto software. The redesign prioritizes navigation, communication and music — for starters, Maps is now closer to the driver’s seat, making it easier to view, and there’s also a new quick launcher that lets you access the apps you need most, faster. A new split-screen layout adapts to your screen size and orientation, and Google Assistant provides smart suggestions like arrival time sharing, message replies and music or podcast reminders. If you have one of the latest Pixel or Samsung phones, you’ll soon be able to make WhatsApp calls via Android Auto.

Android Auto will better adapt to a variety of screen sizes and aspect ratios.

Google

Oh yeah, a four-seater flying car was announced

Flying cars haven’t quite taken off yet, but we seem to be one step closer. US company Aska announced what may be the world’s first four-seater flying car at CES this year. The Aska A5 is an electric-powered vehicle, the size of a small SUV, that can travel on the road and up to 250 miles by air with a single charge. It’s also equipped with a small gas engine that can give you an extra 50 miles. And you can expect it to hit the roads (and the skies) pretty soon. According to CEO Guy Kaplinsky, the Federal Aviation Administration could approve the A5 this month, and the company plans to begin a ride-sharing service with a fleet of its flying vehicles in 2026. The A5 comes with a hefty price tag of $789,000, and you can pay a $5,000 deposit to get on the preorder list right now.

An image of ASKA's flying car on display at CES. — Why fight traffic on the street when you can just fly over it?

Bree Fowler/CNET

December 12, 2022

All-Electric Car Registrations Exceeded 600,000 By End Of October 2022

Gross sales of all-electric powered automobiles in the US speed up, which translates into a steadily rising current market share.

According to the most up-to-date registration knowledge from Experian (by way of Automotive News), all through the 1st ten months of 2022, some 604,638 new battery-electric powered autos (BEVs) ended up registered in the US, which is about 60{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} more than a year in the past.

Registration details lags behind sales/deliveries, by at minimum quite a few months, but can be used as a proxy of revenue, in particular simply because not all figures are publicly available (precisely on a monthly basis).

BEVs accounted for about 5.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} of the complete variety of registrations (soon after September it was 5.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502}), in comparison to 2.9{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} a yr ago.

Tesla maintains its dominant position in the segment with practically two-thirds of all BEV registrations (65{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share), but non-Tesla BEV product sales increase a lot quicker (by 81{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} calendar year-over-12 months).

BEV registrations in January-Oct 2022:

Tesla (65{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} BEVs): 391,937 (up 50.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} from 260,932)
Non-Tesla (35{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} BEVs): 212,701 (up 81{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} from 117,534)
Total: 604,638 (up 60{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} from 378,466) and 5.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share (up from 2.9{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})

Just one of the most critical points proper now is that Ford (44,219) strengthened its place as the next most well-known BEV brand in the US.

On the other hand, Hyundai Motor Group weakened in current months. Automotive News hyperlinks the South Korean group’s weakening to shed access to the federal tax credit score for new orders because of to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed in August.

Kia model was the next most popular with 25,911 models, a bit ahead of Hyundai (23,210).

Amid the top five versions we can see four Tesla vehicles (Product Y, Model 3, Model X and Model S) and a single Ford in the center (Mustang Mach-E at #3).

The sixth most registered model was the Hyundai Ioniq 5, adopted by the Chevrolet Bolt EUV, Kia EV6, Volkswagen ID.4 and Rivian R1T.

Picked BEV registrations in the US – January-October 2022:

Tesla – 391,937 (up 50.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
Ford – 44,219 (ip 116{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} calendar year-in excess of-year, 7.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share)
Kia – 25,911 (4.3{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share)
Hyundai – 23,210 (3.8{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share)
BMW – 8,524 (up from 973 a yr ago)
Polestar – 7,576 (approximately tripled 12 months-about-year)
Lucid – 2,571 (up from 9 a year ago)
Nissan – N/A (down 13{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
Volkswagen – N/A (down 1.4{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
Porsche – N/A (down 26{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
Jaguar – N/A (down 72{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
Genesis – N/A (.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502} share)
Toyota (bZ4X) – 124
Subaru (Solterra) – 122

Tesla, categorized as a quality/luxury brand, drastically strengthened also in the high quality phase with the best quantity and sizeable expansion rate.

For reference, the other prime 4 quality brands famous a yr-around-year decline.

Quality model registrations in the US – January-Oct 2022:

Tesla: 391,937 (up 50.2{515baef3fee8ea94d67a98a2b336e0215adf67d225b0e21a4f5c9b13e8fbd502})
BMW: 267,151
Mercedes-Benz: 227,375
Lexus: 225,235
Audi: 151,354

November 27, 2022

The UK car industry’s prospects go from bad to worse

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has much less area to spend to aid what is remaining of the UK’s car producing foundation.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt final week unveiled a £55 billion ($66.7 billion) established of tax hikes and paying out cuts that a cost-free marketplace believe tank termed a “recipe for managed drop.”

Involved within that: a prepare to start off subjecting EVs to street taxes in the coming a long time.

The UK’s austerity press adds insult to damage induced by Brexit, which plunged the nation into a prolonged interval of uncertainty and delayed automotive investment decision.

All through the 12 months major up to the 2016 referendum, Britain created approximately 1.7 million vehicles. In the past 12 months, automakers have created less than 50 percent that.

“We are witnessing a sluggish-motion automobile crash of the British isles auto sector,” said David Bailey, a business enterprise economics professor at the College of Birmingham. “Britain employed to have an industrial technique, but now the governing administration appears to be standing on the sidelines.”

The UK’s battle to modernize its automobile marketplace threatens 1000’s of industrial work as the transformation redraws the map of where automobiles are made.

BMW past thirty day period said it will transfer production of electrical Mini hatchbacks from Oxford, England, to China.

Honda shut its vehicle factory in Swindon past yr, leaving Britain with just four mass companies: JLR, Nissan, BMW and Toyota.

The British isles made use of to boast the world’s 2nd-largest automobile producing foundation in the 1950s.

It’s considering that dropped to 18th area, at the rear of rivals like Canada and Slovakia.

Nearby desire is not a reason to adhere close to — providers are on program for their worst year of profits in the marketplace given that 1982.

Even much more worrisome is the UK’s deficiency of a substantive battery offer chain desired to aid mass producing of EVs.

The region has just a person reasonably sized mobile plant in operation, owned by China’s Visualize Group, and has failed to appeal to expense in added huge-scale services.

Britishvolt had been at the center of options for a factory in the north of England to supply batteries for millions of electric powered cars. But the startup backed by mining giant Glencore is now searching for money to hold likely further than early December.

The considerably less than 3-yr-outdated company’s struggles pose a chicken-and-egg problem. Automakers in the British isles are going to be unwilling to establish new factories or retool present types except if they can resource battery cells nearby. Battery companies, in switch, are unwilling or not able to devote with out predictable consumer demand from customers or sizable federal government support.

As opposed to its Swedish rival Northvolt, which has signed about $55 billion in contracts with foremost automakers, Britishvolt has not secured big-scale orders.

When the firm has signed define agreements with Aston Martin and Lotus, neither of the two small-volume producers have made firm commitments.

September 28, 2022

Construction aims to smooth car, bike travel through Boundary Channel Drive maze

If your travels have taken you near the Pentagon, you’ve got seen freeway signals for Boundary Channel Push — and on Wednesday, building begins to make the present maze of cloverleaf interchanges less difficult and safer to navigate for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

If your travels have taken you in close proximity to the Pentagon in Virginia, you’ve seen freeway symptoms for Boundary Channel Generate — and on Wednesday, design commences to make the latest maze of cloverleaf interchanges simpler and safer to navigate for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists.

A morning groundbreaking of the Boundary Channel Drive at I-395 Interchange Improvement challenge aims to lower vehicle congestion on ramps on and off the highway, and improve selections for non-auto travel in the spot that is within just walking length to the new Amazon HQ2 and Pentagon City.

The project’s place at Boundary Channel Travel and I-395, just east of the Pentagon. Click to enlarge. (Courtesy VDOT)

The current ramps that dump drivers on Boundary Channel Push will be replaced by roundabouts on both side of Interstate 395. The road by itself — Boundary Channel Drive — will be lowered from 4 lanes to two.

Sidewalks in the space will be improved, a shared-use path will be built together the westbound facet, and tie into the Mount Vernon Trail inside of Countrywide Park Company property.

West of I-395, Boundary Channel Travel passes the Pentagon Lagoon Yacht Basin and follows the Boundary Channel, and supplies obtain to the larger Washington Boulevard, also acknowledged as Va. Route 27, as effectively as Va. Route 110, also acknowledged as Richmond Highway.

The regional venture, coordinated by the Virginia Office of Transportation with Arlington County and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, is envisioned to be finished by late 2023.

NVTA, which focuses on regional commuter jobs, invested much more than $4.3 million to fund the challenge.

By the time it is accomplished, some of the existing on-and-off ramps with I-395 will be shut and eradicated.

The groundbreaking ceremony will be held at the Extensive Bridge Aquatics and Physical fitness Centre on Prolonged Bridge Push, located east of I-395. The eastern roundabout will connect Very long Bridge Travel to Boundary Channel Push.

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