Motor News

UPDATE 2/22/22: General Motors will discontinue the Marketplace app starting next month. While the ordering-on-the-go app has been available in millions of Buicks, Cadillacs, Chevrolets, and GMCs since 2017, usage rates didn’t match expectations, with only “thousands” of drivers utilizing the app, according to a GM spokesperson quoted by CNBC. For some commuters who make stopping for a cup of coffee part of their daily routine, the morning drive to work may never be the same. In the wee hours of the morning, General Motors enabled a new feature, called Marketplace, in about two million vehicles, with the ultimate aim of enabling twice that many. It lets car owners order things like coffee and fast food using the touchscreens in their dashboards and pay for items in advance. No more waiting for an order to be assembled at the local fry shack. It should be ready and waiting when commuters arrive.Many retailers, including Starbucks, already allow mobile ordering via smartphone apps. But with cars morphing into what industry insiders call “the third screen,” auto executives foresee some portion of commerce shifting to in-vehicle purchases, with the result of entirely new revenue streams as they snag a percentage of those transactions.Using the 4G LTE connection in millions of GM vehicles produced for the 2017 and 2018 model years, the automaker is linking customers with restaurants, gas stations, coffee shops, and hotels.“Whether customers prefer to stick with the app-enabled purchases on their phones or shift their business to thein-vehicle screens remains a central competitive question.”GM’s initial partners include retailers such as Dunkin’ Donuts, TGI Fridays, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Priceline.com. Starbucks has signed on, too, and will enable the service in GM cars early in 2018. Other participants include Parkopedia, a service that allows drivers to find, reserve, and pay for parking, and the restaurant chains Applebee’s and IHOP. A spokesperson said more retailers will be added quickly, adding that the company is having conversations with national pizza-delivery outfits that have shown early interest in the platform.Competitors will be watching the way motorists treat this ability to order from their infotainment screens. In some cases, such as ordering from Starbucks, GM will need to offer a superior experience to lure drivers away from their smartphones. In other cases, such as a motorist searching for a roadside hotel along an unknown route, the immediate benefit seems more evident.The arrival of GM’s Marketplace through an over-the-air software update in the middle of the night marks a separate milestone. To date, Tesla Motors had been the undisputed leader in the remote addition of new features. Most other automakers have either not attempted remote updates at all or used them only to patch back-end bugs that most motorists didn’t notice. With Tuesday morning’s update, GM has joined an exclusive club. And it says Marketplace is only the “first of a suite of new personalization features” the company will roll out in the coming 12 to 18 months.Customers who received the update should be notified via email this morning. Some customers who don’t get notifications may be eligible to enable Marketplace but will need to download it via GM’s app store.

General Motors

This in-vehicle shop is designed to for motorists to use while they’re driving. That may be a concern considering that fatal crashes involving distracted driving accounted for 3450 deaths last year, according to the latest federal figures. But, like features that project phones onto infotainment screens such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Marketplace was designed to meet federal standards set to minimize the time drivers look away from the road, according to GM.On average, a driver spends 46 minutes per day in his or her vehicle, according to AAA research. Marketers have long wanted to reach consumers during that time, but aside from roadside signage, that has been a vexing problem. Some car owners may not welcome the new intrusions, but others might find Marketplace an incentive-laden gateway to purchases they already intended to make.In part, the system is the outgrowth of the company’s partnership with IBM, announced in 2016, which intertwines IBM’s artificial-intelligence platform, Watson, with the vehicle’s infotainment underpinnings. If drivers buy a tall cappuccino each day from a certain Starbucks, for example, Watson will learn those preferences and subsequently make it easier for motorists to make their usual selections.Initially, the Marketplace platform does not pair with voice-recognition systems in the cars, although GM says it eventually intends to let customers place orders via voice commands rather than swipes on the touchscreen.Whether customers prefer the app-enabled purchases on their phones or will shift their business to the screens in their vehicles remains a central competitive question. Whatever the outcome, GM seems poised to be the first automaker ready to learn the answer.This story was originally published December 5, 2017.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Ford has revealed the new Raptor version of the Ranger mid-size pickup.This model follows the Raptor treatment we’ve seen on the F-150 and Bronco, with a more powerful engine and off-road goodies.Ford CEO Jim Farley confirmed that the Ranger Raptor will go on sale in the U.S. next year.The global reveal of the Ford Ranger Raptor is exciting enough, but we also now have confirmation from Ford that this off-road pickup is officially coming to the U.S. next year. It’ll look much like what you see here, but likely with a few tweaks to its appearance and slightly different specifications.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The Ranger Raptor largely mirrors the Bronco Raptor in terms of its powertrain: it has the same twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 engine, making 392 horsepower and 430 pound-feet (those figures may change for the U.S. market). A 10-speed automatic transmission and four-wheel drive are standard, as is a two-speed transfer case and front and rear locking differentials.

While the Bronco Raptor shares its 3.1-inch diameter Fox Racing adaptive shocks with the F-150 Raptor, the Ranger gets 2.5-inch diameter Fox shocks. The same anti-lag feature from the Bronco is found here, which allows the turbos to remain spooled when you lift off the throttle for brief periods. Several driving modes will be available that will affect the tuning of the shocks, the loudness of the exhaust, and other factors.As is de rigeur for any Raptor model, there’s a large “FORD” script that dominates the front grille, and the body looks to be wider than the standard next-generation Ranger thanks to exaggerated fender flares. 33-inch BF Goodrich K02 all-terrain tires can be seen in the photos, along with 17-inch bead-lock-capable wheels that will be optional.
Inside, the interior is far more modern than the current Ranger’s and features a large 12.0-inch vertically oriented touchscreen and a digital gauge cluster. The touchscreen runs Ford’s Sync 4A software and a premium audio system will also be offered. We expect the Ranger Raptor to be offered only as a crew cab, as is the F-150 Raptor.Look for more U.S.-specific information to come on the Ranger Raptor within the next few months, as it’s slated to go on sale on our shores sometime in 2023.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Mazda has announced pricing for the 2023 CX-50, which starts at $28,025.It’s a bit more expensive than the CX-5 but offers the same engine choices: a naturally aspirated 2.5-liter inline-four and a turbocharged 2.5-liter inline-four.A rugged-looking Meridian Edition is coming later on, as is a CX-50 hybrid with a Toyota-sourced powertrain.Mazda will soon have two entries in the popular compact-crossover segment with similar price points. The 2023 CX-50 is the newer of the two, and we now know it will be more expensive than the existing CX-5 that’s just received small updates for 2022. The CX-50 starts at $28,025 and ranges up to over $42,000 in its fully loaded turbocharged trim level. That starting price is $900 more than the CX-5’s base price, while the loaded CX-50 is $2900 more than a CX-5 Signature.

The CX-50 has a similar trim structure as the CX-5, with 2.5 S models coming with the same naturally aspirated 187-hp 2.5-liter inline-four engine that we’re familiar with from other Mazda models. Select ($29,425), Preferred ($30,725), Preferred Plus ($33,165), Premium ($35,625) and Premium Plus ($37,625) packages will be available with varying levels of equipment. A more powerful 256-hp turbocharged version of the 2.5-liter engine is offered on the CX-50 2.5 Turbo models, starting at $37,625.Unlike the CX-5, the CX-50 won’t call its top trim level Signature, instead going with the Premium Plus moniker for the fully loaded 2.5 Turbo model that costs $42,775. All-wheel drive and a six-speed automatic transmission are standard across the board, and a hybrid model is coming later on with a powertrain sourced from Toyota.Mazda also says it will eventually launch a Meridian Edition version of the CX-50 with a more rugged look that includes 18-inch wheels with all-terrain tires, hood graphics, and a few other outdoorsy accessories. We assume this is the version of the CX-50 that Mazda showed in the initial press pictures (pictured below). Pricing isn’t available yet but we reckon it will also be more than $40,000.
Mazda says production of the CX-50 has already begun at its new plant in Alabama that’s a joint venture with Toyota. We don’t yet have a specific on-sale date for the CX-50 but it should start arriving at dealerships within the next month or so.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

Our Bring a Trailer pick of the day is this 1989 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Syncro Camper conversion.This rare beast features a pop-top roof for extra sleeping space and an all-wheel-drive system to make easier work of navigating to off-grid camping spots.The seller has replaced several key items, including tires and the air conditioning compressor, so this adventure mobile comes ready to hit the open road.Like many other auto enthusiasts, we can easily find ourselves lost for hours in the car-auction dreamland that is Bring a Trailer. This weekend we found this 1989 Volkswagen Vanagon GL Syncro camper conversion that got our car-nerd juices flowing and also gave us a serious case of wanderlust. It’s up for auction on the Bring a Trailer auction site—which, like Car and Driver, is part of Hearst Autos—with bidding open until Saturday, February 26.

Bring a Trailer

The Vanagon was sold in North America from 1980 to 1991, and those models are becoming increasingly rare these days due to their age. This 1989 model is rarer still, in that it comes with Volkswagen’s Syncro all-wheel-drive system and has been converted for camper use. Given the explosion in interest in camping and overlanding in recent years, this gem seems like a perfect way to get into the hobby. Of all the Vanagon trim levels, the GL was the most luxurious, although that word is relative since we’re talking about a late-1980s van. According to the enthusiast site Vanagons.org, the GL added features such as front-seat armrests and a padded steering wheel rim. How fancy. The owner of this one splurged, not only on the optional Syncro system, but also on 14-inch five-spoke alloy wheels and air conditioning.

Bring a Trailer

Bring a Trailer

While Volkswagen sold a factory-built pop-top camper version of the Vanagon in 1989, this particular one was actually converted and had its pop-top roof installed by Country Home Campers of Santa Cruz, California. The company is still in business, too, which means if you need replacement parts or want to further customize this Vanagon you can.

Bring a Trailer

Because the stock water-cooled flat-four is only rated at 90 horsepower, a lot of these older Vanagons have had their engines swapped out for more powerful and more modern Subaru flat-fours, but this example has been preserved with the original engine. We also love that it has a five-speed manual transmission. When we tested an example back in 1980, it needed 17.9 seconds to reach 60 mph, and that one didn’t have all the camper accoutrements that this one has. So yeah, it’s probably extremely slow, but this is the kind of vehicle that encourages you to enjoy the journey as much as the destination. Speaking of the journey, to prepare the Vanagon for sale, the seller apparently put new tires on it last year and also made several other repairs, including replacing the air conditioning compressor. Summer fun, here we come! Bidding is already up to $27,000 with five days to go before the auction closes.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

An image circulating on social media purports to show the new Ferrari SUV.Called the Purosangue, this new model is slated to begin production later this year.We’re expecting a turbocharged V-8 engine to be standard, with a possible hybrid setup.Just the idea of Ferrari producing an SUV has created plenty of controversy on its own, and this first glimpse of the upcoming Purosangue is sure to get people talking all over again. A few leaked images making the rounds on social media purport to show the new Ferrari SUV from the front and rear angles on the factory floor. Whether it’s the camera angle, the poor image quality, or some combination therein, they don’t paint the most flattering portrait of the Purosangue’s proportions.
This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The overall shape seen here lines up with what we’ve seen in spy photos of the Purosangue. It appears to have a long nose, four doors, and a sloping roofline not entirely unlike the GTC4Lusso shooting brake’s. A sharp cutline runs from the hood and creates a scooped-out portion of the front door, while black plastic body cladding around the wheel well ensures that it will look the part of an SUV. The rear appears to have a full-width light bar connecting two sets of taillights.

A turbocharged V-8 engine, possibly with assistance from an electric motor, is the most likely choice for the Purosangue’s powertrain. But it’s possible that Ferrari could stuff a hybrid V-12 setup under the hood, or a V-6 hybrid powertrain for the base model. We should learn more later this year when the Purosangue makes its official debut. Ferrari has confirmed that production will begin in 2022, with customer deliveries starting next year.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

KenStevens5150 via YouTube

A massive number of Ford Broncos have been spotted parked up outside of Ford’s Michigan Assembly Plant. The build-up of SUVs is directly tied to the global semiconductor shortage, Automotive News is reporting this week.Bronco fanatics may actually recall this parking lot, as it gained a bit of notoriety during last year’s hardtop-related delays. Back then it garnered the nickname Dirt Mountain, though Michigan’s winter weather has made it harder to see the large earth pile for which the lot is named. As such, some members of the various Bronco forums have begun referring to the area as Ice Mountain. Regardless of what you call it, recent videos uploaded to the Bronco6G forum confirm that Ford has once again packed the lot full of completed trucks.

Thankfully for the frustrated Bronco fans out there, one dealership owner was more willing to speak on the matter. According to Ford dealer council chairman Tim Hovik, who owns San Tan Ford in Gilbert, Arizona, the production issues are related to ongoing chip shortages. Hovik told Automotive News that these issues are not exclusive to Ford or the Bronco, but that certain semiconductor chips have become more difficult to acquire from suppliers. Without official confirmation from Ford, there is no way for us to be entirely certain about the situation at hand outside MAP. That said, the act of parking completed vehicles while waiting for chips isn’t new in the pandemic era.
This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

While the auto industry as a whole continues to struggle with production and supply chain constraints, the visuals of this parking lot are tough to see. That is especially true when you consider the markup prices that have arrived as a result. Road & Track has reached out to Ford for comment and will update this story if we hear back.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced this week it has opened an investigation into over 400,000 Teslas—all 2021 and 2022 model year Tesla Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles—for problems with their automated emergency braking systems.This isn’t the first time Tesla has had to deal with NHTSA about its potentially faulty AEB technology. In October, Tesla recalled almost 12,000 of its EVs because an over-the-air update caused communication problems between two chips that help run the AEB systems.Other automakers, including Nissan and autonomous shuttle company EasyMile, have also had problems with their AEB systems.New technologies can lead to new problems, for which we sometimes have to invent new terminologies. In the automotive world, the growing number of cars with automated emergency brake capability has led to something called “phantom braking,” which is when the AEB system thinks it needs to brake in order to prevent a collision, but there’s actually nothing there to hit.

This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it has received 354 complaints from Tesla drivers concerning these unexpected automatic braking incidents over the past nine months. NHTSA said that Tesla drivers have reported “that the rapid deceleration can occur without warning, at random, and often repeatedly in a single drive cycle.” The issue potentially affects around 416,000 vehicles, all 2021 and 2022 Tesla Model 3 and Model Y electric vehicles, and the rise in complaints broadly tracks Tesla’s shift away from multi-sensor perception systems that use both radar and cameras to the new Tesla Vision system that relies solely on cameras. Since May 2021, Tesla has not installed radar sensors in its Model 3 and Model Y cars built for the North American market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk still champions the camera-only system, tweeting last December that “Whereas radar has trouble seeing small pedestrians, they’re obvious to Tesla Vision.” NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation has opened a Preliminary Evaluation into the issue and said it is not aware of any crashes or injuries related to the issue.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This isn’t the first time that NHTSA has looked into Tesla’s phantom braking problem. Last October, NHTSA announced Tesla would recall some 2017–2021 Model S, Model 3, Model X, and 2020–2021 Model Y vehicles (a total of 11,728 units) because a “communication error may cause false forward-collision warning (FCW) or unexpected activation of the automatic emergency brake (AEB) system.”NHTSA said at the time that the problem was an over-the-air software update that introduced a communication problem between two onboard chips when the vehicle would come out of Sentry mode or Summon Standby mode. At these times, one of the chips could remain in a low-power “sleep” state, NHTSA said, with the effect that the video neural networks that operate on one of the chips then wouldn’t correctly communicate with the other chip and then “run less consistently than expected.” When this happened, an affected vehicle could incorrectly identify objects around it, and this happened enough times that Tesla drivers soon reported a noticeable increase in the number of problems with forward-collision warnings and AEB events. Tesla told NHTSA it resolved the issue with a follow-up OTA update. Tesla isn’t the only automaker facing questions over phantom braking problems. In 2020, autonomous shuttle operator EasyMile was forced to suspend operations when one of its vehicles injured a passenger in an abrupt stop. In 2019, NHTSA looked into phantom braking problems in 2017–2018 Nissan Rogue SUVs following driver complaints. NHTSA announced in late 2020 that it was working with 20 automakers on a voluntary basis to make low-speed AEB and forward-collision-warning systems standard on “almost all new passenger vehicles” by August 31, 2023.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More

The ship that caught fire Wednesday with around 4000 vehicles on board is still ablaze and adrift in the Atlantic Ocean today.Firefighters are on their way to the ship, which might—repeat, might—be challenging to put out because of some electric vehicles on board. We have no idea yet what caused the fire.Whatever caused the blaze, the kinds of roll-on-roll-off (RORO) ferries that can transport thousands of cars at once are at high risk for total loss once a fire starts on board.The Felicity Ace, the cargo ship that is still on fire in the Atlantic Ocean, does have thousands of new vehicles from the Volkswagen Group on board, but the impact of any electric vehicles is not yet known.To recap, the car carrier was on the way from Europe to the U.S. with a load of new vehicles on board when it caught fire Wednesday near the Azores. All 22 crew members were rescued, and the ship was left adrift and burning. There were reports that the ship would be towed to the Azores, but the 650-foot-long ship is too big for the port of Horta there. The ship is likely to be towed back to Europe or to the Bahamas, Captain Joao Mendes Cabecas from Port of Horta told Reuters.
This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Firefighting crews and salvage teams are on their way to deal with the massive fire, which could be more difficult to get under control with EV batteries on board. There is no confirmation yet that this is the case, but it is likely that EVs were part of the cargo. Both Porsche and VW import some vehicles from Europe to the U.S., but as VW only imports the GTI, Golf R, and ID.4 from Europe, the automaker most likely to be affected is Porsche, which imports the Taycan from the plant in Zuffenhausen, Germany. A Porsche spokesperson told Car and Driver, “It is too early to speculate on the cause of the incident.”Lamborghini declined to give a comment to C/D, but a VW spokesperson told us that the U.S. arm doesn’t know much more about the situation on the ship other than what’s available in media reports. Bloomberg, which managed to get access to an internal email from Volkswagen AG’s U.S. operations, reported there were 3965 vehicles on board. Around 100 of the vehicles are apparently VW models destined for the U.S.Porsche spokesperson Luke Vandezande told Bloomberg that the automaker estimates it had around 1100 vehicles on the Felicity Ace, and 189 Bentleys have also been confirmed as being part of the cargo list.The software company Skytek issued a short report today that claims the estimated market value of the Felicity Ace is $24.5 million, while the total value of the 3965 vehicles could be over $500 million.Cargo vessel fires were the number three cause of shipping losses over the past decade, and there were 10 “total loss” cargo ship fires in 2020, according to Reinsurance News. While, overall, the shipping industry has improved its safety record in the past 10 years, roll-on-roll-off (RORO) ferries are at high risk for fire.”To facilitate carriage of automobiles the internal spaces are not divided into separate sections like other cargo ships,” said Rahul Khanna, global head of marine risk consulting at Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, told Reinsurance News. “The lack of internal bulkheads can have an adverse impact on fire safety and a small fire on one vehicle or battery can grow out of control very quickly. Vehicles are not easily accessible once loading has been completed.”

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io More