Motor News

The latest Bowlus Road Chief rolling palace is the $265,000 Terra Firma 26-foot travel trailer.
Health-conscious buyers will appreciate built-in water and HEPA air filters.
Pets can be treated to a personalized matching bed and integrated food and water bowls.
The luxury travel-trailer manufacturer that makes the Bowlus Road Chief, has launched the Terra Firma model, its third and most lavish model yet. The Terra Firma rides on the same 26-foot platform as the brand’s Endless Highways series trailers and sports the same polished-chrome exterior styling, but adds interior amenities with people and pets in mind.

Bowlus Road Chief

An onboard water-filtration system uses s carbon filter to deliver better-tasting and safer water through the designer faucets in the kitchen and bathroom. Bowlus has also included a HEPA air filter and built-in UVC lighting elements to reduce bacteria and other impurities in the air inside the trailer. High-tech touchscreen controls for the trailer’s power management system are also standard and can be controlled remotely via a smartphone app.

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The Terra Firma features upholstery and linens rendered in light-colored natural tones, and even four-legged family members will find comfort here with a personalized pet bed. Integrated into one of the lower drawers in the dining area is a set of food and water bowls. Like other Bowlus models, the Terra Firma packs a large lithium iron phosphate battery pack, good for a week’s worth of grid-free camping.

Bowlus Road Chief

As the demand for travel trailers and motorhomes continues to surge during the extended COVID-19 pandemic, wealthy travelers may find that Bowlus’s more traditional rivals don’t quite cut it when it comes to style and luxury. Toward that end, the company provides a seemingly endless list of ways to customize one of its hand-crafted trailers to suit the individual buyer. The Terra Firma currently carries the highest price of all three of Bowlus’s trailers at $265,000; interested parties can order their bespoke trailer now through the Bowlus Road Chief website.
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Porsche has added an AI build suggestion tool to its online configurator.
A blue lightbulb icon on the screen suggests options and gives their prices. It’s based on the tool’s Recommendation Engine, which “learns” about your preferences from other choices you’ve made.
Porsche says no two users get the same set of recommendations, and it claims the tool is 90 percent accurate in giving buyers what they really want.
Porsche’s configurator has a seemingly endless amount of options, giving customers numerous possibilities when building their ideal Porsche sports car, sedan, or SUV. Now, the German automaker has added an AI assistant tool that gives suggestions on options, because who doesn’t want to make their Porsche as expensive as “humanly” possible?

Porsche

The suggestion tool is a small blue lightbulb icon that’s located at the bottom right of the screen when building a Porsche on its online configurator. When we were building a 2021 911 Turbo S, we got suggestions to add a Porsche Exclusive Manufaktur leather interior ($10,680), a Burmester sound system ($3980), and a front axle lift system ($2770). Porsche’s AI also told us the $10,680 bespoke leather interior is an 86 percent match for us. And it would be, if only our pockets were deeper than the Mariana Trench.

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Porsche says the suggestions are based off millions of data points from the configurator (it sometimes seems that there are that many options, too), and it uses algorithms to find patterns and predict user options. Porsche boasts that its recommendations are more than 90 percent accurate in suggesting something that the customer will end up choosing. Bentley launched a similar program in 2015, using facial recognition to build customers a suggested Bentayga SUV, though it’s no longer available.
The new suggestion tool is available on Porsche’s online configurators in Germany, China, Switzerland, Taiwan, the U.K., and the U.S, and Porsche says it’ll be available elsewhere in the world soon. It works on all Porsche models from the 718 Boxster and Cayman to the Cayenne SUV.
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Airstream is launching a variant of its midrange Flying Cloud travel trailer with a built-in office area.
The 30-foot trailer combines the space and luxury of the regular model with a special setup intended to give remote workers or students a dedicated place to work.
As the coronavirus pandemic continues into 2021, the RV industry is poised for continued success as Americans look to motorhomes and travel trailers as alternatives to vacations that involve flights and hotel stays.
An unexpected winner during the tumultuous, virus-choked 2020 calendar year was the American RV industry, as more families took to the road to cure the quarantine blues. As remote work and school continues to be the norm for many, the opportunity to satisfy one’s wanderlust while remaining dedicated to a career or home-schooling children is something luxury travel-trailer maker Airstream is hoping to enable with its latest product.

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Airstream

Based on the brand’s mid-range Flying Cloud trailer, the new 30FB Office floor plan offers a built-in desk in the back adjacent to the lavatory that would allow a remote worker to maintain a 40-hour work week while also traveling the country. The desk features built-in drawers for storage, USB ports for charging devices, and a pull-out table to create a larger workspace. It’s not the most roomy home office, but Airstream has put considerable thought into setting it up perfectly for video conference calls, with blackout curtains on the windows and a privacy divider to shut the area off from the rest of the trailer.

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Airstream

The new model is based on the 30-foot-long Flying Cloud—the lineup’s longest model—and features a queen-size bed in the front and a spacious dinette that also can be transformed into a bed for guests or children. The office area can also be used for guest accommodations if needed, as the integrated side seat can be transformed into a twin bed.

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Mobile internet is available through the brand’s Airstream Connected service, which uses AT&T and the 4G LTE network. Plans start from $25 per month, but remote workers will likely need more connectivity than that basic plan offers. Airstream also offers an optional roof-mounted antenna to make the best use of campground-provided Wi-Fi signals at a campsite. Workers or students who need a more robust service may find that newer 5G hotspot devices provide a better method for getting online from the road. That technology, however, isn’t as widespread as 4G and may limit destinations for working road trippers.

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Airstream

According to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), RV sales surged to over 430,000 new motorhomes and travel trailers sold in 2020—an increase of 6 percent over 2019. RVIA is projecting an even more lucrative 2021 for the industry, with sales expected to grow to over 500,000 this year thanks to growing interest from Millennial and Gen-X demographic groups.
Airstream’s decision to offer a mobile office floor plan appears to be a smart one and it’s a trend that could spread to other motorhome and travel-trailer manufacturers in 2021. The Flying Cloud 30FB Office starts at $107,500 and is available for order at Airstream dealers now.
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Some might say it’s a scheme to get you to buy two copies, but the way you can build and rebuild the new Porsche 911 Lego set into either Turbo or Targa versions could also be seen as bang for your buck.
When built into Turbo mode, the model shows off its whale tail and black rims, while the Targa’s removable roof fits under the hood. Both models feature a flat-six boxer engine in back and a tan interior.
The $150 set will go on sale March 1, but if you’re a Lego VIP, you can order early and get bonuses like four art prints.
When shopping for an actual Porsche 911, the decision to go Turbo or Targa is likely made early in the process. With a new Lego set, though, you don’t need to decide right away, and you can always change your mind after you’re finished.

Two-in-One Porsche 911 Set
LEGO
$149.99

Based on the late ’70s and early ’80s 911s, the new Porsche 911 set is actually the eighth 911 model Lego has produced for sale. There have been Speed Champion and Technic versions, but this is the first one to be made at this scale and with this level of detail. That means it has a working steering wheel, and the doors, trunk, and hood all open up to reveal a rear-mounted flat-six boxer engine and the gorgeous tan interior with tilting front seats, a gear shifter and a hand brake.

Lego.com

While the base of the build is the same no matter which option you choose, at some point in the process you do have to decide between the fixed-roof Turbo with the classic spoiler or the open-top Targa. The differences include not just the obvious exterior changes, but also two sets of rims (black for the Turbo, and sliver for the Targa) as well as Turbo badging, a wider rear axle and a little Lego turbocharger and intercooler on the Turbo version. When you make the Targa, there’s a brick-built rear window and you can store the removable roof under the hood.

Targa version of the Lego Porsche 911.
Lego.com

The new 911 set started as a side passion project for Lego designer Mike Psiaki, and he said in the promotional video shown above that Lego created a few new pieces were created for this model, including a new “triple bow” and a 5×5 quarter-circle that were both needed to get the 911’s iconic shape as accurate as possible in brick form.

LEGO Speed Champions Porsche 911 RSR and 911 Turbo 3.0 75888 Building Kit (391 Pieces) (Discontinued by Manufacturer)
LEGO amazon.com
$76.99

With eyes on the global market, Lego is including license plates tiles for three countries: U.S. (P51AK3), Germany (S-CU 6000) and Japan (Gunma 93 10-295). Psiaki gave away that there are Easter eggs in these plates, and the U.S. one is kind of easy. For the Japanese plate, the Kanji on the tile mean Gunma Prefecture, but they could also be read as a group of horses. All of the printed elements in this set are actually printed on the brick, so there’s no need to apply any stickers or worry about taking them off if you want to rebuild the kit into the Targa/Turbo version you didn’t build the first time around. It also means getting some cool printed Lego tiles with the Porsche logo on them, to add to your collection.

Lego.com

The $149.99 set comes with 1458 pieces and will be available March 1. The finished model measures 4.25 inches high, 6.3 inches wide, and 14.0 inches long. The on-sale date is February 16 for members of the Lego VIP program, which is free to join. If you get in early enough as a VIP, Lego will throw in a “limited-edition Lego Porsche owners pack” with your purchase. This pack includes “a certificate of ownership, an official Lego Porsche card wallet and a set of four unique art prints based on contemporary Porsche 911 adverts, all presented in a smart collector’s wallet.”

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Today Ford and Google formed a partnership to use Google’s cloud platform and Android operating system in Fords and Lincolns beginning in 2023.
The infotainment system will be Ford branded but will have native access to Google Maps, Google’s voice assistant, and the Google Play store.
Google’s cloud platform will be used to help with supply chain management and training.
The partnerships between automotive and tech powerhouses continue with Ford and Google announcing today that they will enter a new partnership called Team Upshift. Part of the deal is that in 2023, new Ford and Lincoln vehicles will have an infotainment system that uses the Android operating system. On the business side, Ford will also use Google’s cloud platform to help with manufacturing, train its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning systems, and train Ford employees.

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As part of the use of the Android operating system, starting in 2023 Fords and Lincolns will have be outfitted with an infotainment system that natively uses Google’s voice assistant, Google Maps, and will have access to the Google Play store to add additional applications to the vehicles. While the visible portion of the system will be a uniquely Ford and Lincoln experience according to the automaker, the Android operating system will be the underlying platform. In other words, it won’t look like the Android Automotive experience found in the Polestar 2 and Volvo XC40 Recharge.
On the back end, Ford will make Google its preferred cloud partner to help facilitate the training of AI and machine learning to help streamline manufacturing and make it easier to send personalized notifications to customers. The Google Cloud system will also be used to push over-the-air updates to the vehicles outfitted with the Android operating system.
Today’s news is part of a trend of automakers partnering with tech companies to help deal with processing issues around AI and over-the-air-updates. In January, GM and Microsoft announced a deal that would make Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform the automaker’s preferred platform service to help GM build its autonomous driving platform.
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Nissan has given us a glimpse of what to expect with the new 2022 Frontier and 2022 Pathfinder ahead of their unveiling this Thursday.
The new Frontier will be completing its redesign which started last year with a new powertrain, while the Pathfinder will be wholly redesigned this year.
The reveal will be streamed live at 1 p.m. Eastern time on February 4 on the Nissan website.
Nissan is set to reveal the 2022 Frontier and the 2022 Pathfinder this Thursday, February 4, and ahead of those debuts, the automaker has teased both of the vehicles, giving us a glimpse of what to expect. The Frontier, which got a new powertrain last year, is completing its redesign this year with a new look. Meanwhile, the Pathfinder will be entirely new for the 2022 model year.

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Both teasers show the vehicles darting down unpaved, sandy roads, suggesting for at least the Pathfinder—which currently doesn’t offer any sort of off-road trim—could gain some off-road attributes. The teaser of the Frontier PRO-4x shows an upright, aggressive-looking grille which matches the direction other small pickups have gone. The Pathfinder clip shows a quick shot of the rear of the car, showing that the Pathfinder name is written across the rear trunk, as on the new Armada. It’s difficult to tell from the teaser, but the Pathfinder may also be regaining its more upright and trucklike stance that disappeared in the last generational changeover in 2013.
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Nissan started changes to the Frontier last year when it introduced a new 310-hp 3.8-liter V-6 to the pickup. With that change, the manual transmission was discontinued, and the Frontier now comes standard with a nine-speed automatic. The Pathfinder could also see some changes to its powertrain including dropping the standard continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT).
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The new Frontier and Pathfinder will both be revealed on Wednesday, February 4, at 1 p.m. Eastern time on Nissan’s website.
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Ford Performance has created a trio of Bronco 4400 rally trucks racing this weekend in the King of the Hammers race in California.
The purpose-built Bronco SUVs have custom tubular chassis along with long-travel suspensions to handle the mix of rock crawling and high-speed desert rally driving seen through the race.
This Wednesday, Ford will also be revealing a “never-before-seen” Bronco model live.
This weekend, in the form of the Bronco 4400 custom-built rally truck, the Ford Bronco name will be darting across the California desert in the grueling King of the Hammers off-road race. The three Bronco 4400s, which will race in the Ultra4 4400 unlimited class, have custom tubular chassis along with huge off-road tires attached to long-travel suspensions. These trucks were purpose-built to overcome the mix of rock crawling and high-speed desert rally driving which the King of the Hammers race is known for.

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The Bronco 4400s will be tested in the King of the Hammers race. In last year’s rally, there were 105 entrants who started the race, and of those, 44 finished. The winner of that race took the podium with a time of just over seven hours; the last racer to complete the race finished roughly seven hours after the winner.
Ford Performance didn’t release many details on the powertrain going into the Bronco 4400s but said that they’ll be powered by high-powered engines and will also get custom 4×4 systems which build on the GOAT driving modes seen in the production Ford Bronco. The custom Broncos are much different than the Bronco R raced in the Baja 1000, a truck which took many of the components from the yet-to-be-revealed Bronco.

Perhaps most exciting, Ford said that it will reveal a “never-before-seen” Bronco model live on February 3, the qualifying day for the race. We’re unsure what the automaker has in store, but we’ll be checking that live stream to see what it will be.
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From the VW ID.3 and ID.4 to this solar-powered ship called the Silent-Yacht 50, VW is ready to spread its EV love around as part of its overall promotion of electromobility.
VW is partnering with Austrian builder Silent-Yachts and VW division Seat’s Cupra on the electric boat, which will use VW’s batteries, pulse-controlled inverters, and electric motors.
We’re starting to detect a bit of a trend here, since both Toyota and BMW have also looked for ways to adapt their zero-emission powertrains to the open seas.
For millennia, watercraft were the only zero-emission vehicles on the planet. But then along came wheels and then diesel engines and bunker fuel, and things got messy. Sure, sailboats have always kept their carbon-neutral propulsion system, but they’re about to be joined by solar-powered yachts powered with help from Volkswagen.

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Working with solar-electric yacht company Silent-Yachts, VW is adapting its MEB modular e-drive system (as seen in the ID.3, for starters) for use on the open seas. The two companies started working together in 2019. Silent-Yachts founders Heike and Michael Köhler have been trying to find a greener way to plow the seas since starting research on alternative-energy yachts in 2005. They built the first oceangoing yacht to “exclusively use solar energy not only for the actual propulsion, but also to power all the equipment on board” in 2009. That ship, called the Solarwave 46, turned into a business with 400 employees that has built a dozen solar-powered catamarans since then.Now, Silent-Yachts and VW will take the automaker’s modular electric vehicle platform, called MEB, to the water as a way to reduce the costs of making zero-emission ships. As with wheel-based EVs, VW says that using an electric powertrain means “maintenance and servicing are reduced compared to a conventional yacht, as the electric drive system is less susceptible to repair than conventional engines.”
VW-powered ship will be called the “Silent Yacht 50” and will use batteries, pulse-controlled inverters, and electric motors from VW. The inverter will be programmed differently for use in the ship instead of a car, and Silent-Yachts will also change some of the software interfaces to suit its needs. The Silent Yacht 50 will be able to use up to six batteries and have 500 kW of power.
Volkswagen says its expansion to yacht building partnerships is a way both to encourage excitement about electric vehicles in general and to prove that “driving pleasure, long ranges, quiet cruising, and clean mobility are also possible on the high seas.” The one asterisk there is that while battery-powered yachting is entirely possible, all of Silent-Yachts’ models have a backup diesel generator onboard in case of emergencies.

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So, VW supplies the powertrain, Silent-Yachts brings the shipbuilding experience, and that leaves room for a third partner, Seat’s performance brand Cupra, to help with design. The automotive designers at Cupra “had to think in completely different terms of dimensions, proportions, and surfaces,” VW says, as they worked on the Silent Yacht 50. We say the results speak for themselves, with renderings that look sleek and ready for action.
We have to wait to see the first physical MEB-powered yacht, though, as it won’t hit the waves until 2022, if everything goes according to plan. From there, Silent-Yachts will ramp up production over four years until it reaches the capability to make 50 ships a year.
Volkswagen has made bold claims about the power of batteries before, not only for wheeled transportation. Battery-powered options “are considered by experts to be one of the best choices for vehicles that combat climate change,” the company said last September in a corporate blog post about “Why battery power will drive the future of transportation.”
VW is not the only company interested in adapting a zero-emission powertrain for boating. Toyota and Yanmar used hydrogen tanks from the Mirai fuel-cell car for a zero-emission boat concept last year. In 2019, BMW and Torqeedo adapted batteries from the i3 and i8 for marine use in the company’s electric boats.
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