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Last year, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) changed the criteria for their Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+ awards to include headlight quality.
Following that change, automakers have upgraded their headlights and many have standard headlights that have achieved the top rating of Good.
The IIHS evaluates headlights based on how well they illuminate both straight and curved roads.
After the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) revised the criteria for a vehicle to earn one of its top two safety awards to include headlight quality, automakers promptly responded, the safety institute claims. The IIHS revised the rule for 2020, and following that rule change, at least 10 automakers have improved their headlights for the 2021 model year.

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As a result of the rule change in 2020, many automakers fell short of the top two awards from the IIHS. And for many of those which did satisfy the IIHS’s criteria for Good or Acceptable headlights in 2020, they didn’t come standard with that level of headlight. “More manufacturers are going to a single headlight package for many 2021 models, which is a big win for consumers,” IIHS president David Harkey said in a statement. “Sometimes, taking an inferior piece of equipment off the market is as important as the invention of a better one.”
For instance, in 2020, Subaru offered multiple headlight options on the Outback, Forester, Ascent, and Legacy, with only one of the options being rated as Good by the IIHS. Now, all of those vehicles offer just one option, which is rated as Good, for 2021.
The top two awards the IIHS gives out are Top Safety Pick and Top Safety Pick+, with the latter being the superior rating. So far through testing of 2021 models, 10 vehicles earned the higher of the two awards this year—and the lower one last year—as a result of a headlight upgrade. The Ascent is one such vehicle. The others are the Audi A7, Honda Accord, Hyundai Palisade, Mazda CX-30, Nissan Altima, Toyota Highlander, Volvo S60, Volvo XC40, and Volvo XC60.
The IIHS rates headlights based on how well they illuminate straight and curved roads; headlights rated Good, on their low setting, can illuminate the right side of the road at least 325 feet ahead (IIHS notes that the worst headlights are good for only 220 feet, and sometimes less). The IIHS also awards points for vehicles with high-beam assist, which automatically switches between high- and low-beams. The agency also deducts for any headlights if they produce a glare that can blind oncoming drivers.
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Amazon-owned Zoox today unveiled its “purpose-built robotaxi” that is fully autonomous and can seat four people seated face to face.
The shuttle is 142.9 inches long, putting it about halfway between a Smart Fortwo and a Toyota Corolla, and has a top speed of 75 mph, the company claims.
The shuttle will be built in the U.S., but there is no word on a manufacturing partner or a timeline for production.
The homogenization of autonomous shuttle design continued today, with Amazon-owned Zoox unveiling its vision of a robotaxi future. The name “Zoox” is also the vehicle’s name, which its maker says is “built for riders, not drivers.”

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The fully electric autonomous vehicle seats four passengers and has zero controls for a driver. Its design is similar to what we’ve seen from Cruise, Toyota, and other companies working on self-driving shuttles. What sets the vehicle apart from those offerings is that Zoox says it has a top speed of 75 mph, giving it the option of escaping from surface streets and hitting the freeway while in service. Cruise has yet to announce a top speed for its Origin, a similar autonomous shuttle unveiled last January.

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Zoox

The all-wheel-steering Zoox is also bidirectional, meaning that no matter where you’re going it’s pointed in the right direction. It’s also equipped with a unique airbag system that, Zoox says, gives each of the four passengers “five-star crash safety protections” because the airbags “envelop passengers.” With all that, it’s also much smaller than a traditional compact vehicle. At 142.9 inches long, it’s almost 40 inches shorter than the 2021 Toyota Corolla.
As expected, the vehicle is outfitted with a host of sensors including lidar to help to navigate the road. The company says it has 360 degrees of overlapping views and can see nearly 500 feet away in every direction.
The Level 5 autonomous vehicle (meaning it has no driver or controls and is able to handle driving conditions on its own) has a 133.0-kWh battery pack, which the company claims will allow it to operate for 16 continuous hours. Unfortunately, that number doesn’t really give us an indication of the range of the vehicle. But with a pack capacity above 130.0 kWh, it’s likely to have a range of at least 300 miles, although this vehicle is still in the testing stages and these specs have not been proved yet.
Zoox is currently testing in Las Vegas, as well as in San Francisco and Foster City in California’s Bay Area. There’s no word on when the Zoox shuttle will be available for trips around town or which company Amazon or Zoox is working with for manufacturing. The company has said the robotaxi will be built in the United States, but no release date was named.
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CNBC reports that Tesla will shut down its Model X and Model S production lines for 18 days during the holidays, starting on Christmas Eve.
Employees who work the lines will receive one week of pay and one week without pay, although they are being encouraged to try to slot into other shifts or tasks during that time.
The news was shared via email on Friday, the same day an email from CEO Elon Musk asked employees to increase production.
Getting extra paid time off during the holidays can be great. Losing a week’s pay, on the other hand, can mean the difference between paying bills and sinking into debt. That’s what it looks like is happening to Tesla employees who work on the production lines of the Model S and Model X this holiday season.
CNBC reports that on Friday Tesla employees at the Fremont factory received an email informing them that the Model S and Model X production lines would go dark for 18 days starting December 24 and resuming on January 11. During this time, the affected employees are to receive one week of paid time off, from January 4 through January 8. But December 28 through December 30 will be unpaid.

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During that time, Tesla says, affected employees can attempt to pick up shifts in other parts of the factory or volunteer for deliveries from December 26 through December 31. The email states: “There will also be limited paid opportunities for you to support other shops or volunteer for deliveries during some of this time.” If employees want to work in other parts of the facility or volunteer over the holidays, they need to sign up quickly because there aren’t enough opportunities for other tasks to include everyone. Apparently, nothing rings in the new year like working for free.
Why Tesla is shutting down the lines of its two premium vehicles is unknown. It might be due to the lack of demand for these vehicles. For its third quarter, the company noted that those vehicles only made up about 11 percent of the Teslas delivered. It could also be the company retooling the lines because of the ongoing suspension issue with the Model X that’s caused a recall in China and an investigation in the United States. There’s also the possibility that the lines are being retooled to update the Model S and X.
Meanwhile, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent out an email on the same Friday asking employees to increase production as much as possible during the rest of the current quarter. The CEO is currently worth $148 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the second richest person in the world, behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
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Alfa Romeo is sending off the 4C Spider with a special-edition 33 Stradale Tributo model that honors the 1967 33 Stradale mid-engine sports car.
The 4C Spider 33 Stradale Tributo is finished in a new, exclusive Rosso Villa d’Este (red) with carbon-fiber trim, gold wheels, and a black and brown interior.
They’re limited to 33 examples in North America and will cost $81,590 when they arrive in February.
Alfa Romeo has discontinued the 4C coupe, and soon the 4C Spider is going to say goodbye, too. Alfa is sending off the little rear-wheel-drive targa with a special-edition model that honors the 1967 33 Stradale mid-engine sports car. Production is limited to 33 cars bound for North America, and they’re finished in an exclusive red with gold wheels.

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Alfa Romeo

The unique exterior color is called Rosso Villa d’Este, a new color specifically reserved for the 33 Stradale Tributo. Alfa Rosso and Rosso Competizione are the other red exterior color options available on the standard 4C Spider. The special red looks great paired with the gold five-hole wheels and the black suede and tobacco leather interior. It also comes standard with carbon-fiber trim and Italian flag mirror caps. And it wouldn’t be a limited-edition model without plaques on the dash, doorsills, and center console.

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A 237-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine powers the 2020 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, and it sends power to the rear wheels through a six-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. During Car and Driver testing, a 2015 model launched to 60 mph in 4.2 seconds on its way to a 12.8-second quarter-mile at 107 mph. In 1968, an Alfa Romeo 33 coupe reached 60 mph in 6.0 seconds in our testing. The 4C Spider 33 Stradale Tributo comes with an Akrapovic dual-mode center-mounted exhaust and a race-tuned suspension.

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Alfa Romeo

The 2020 Alfa Romeo 4C Spider 33 Stradale Tributo will arrive in the U.S. in February, priced starting at $81,590. The special-edition cars come with a matching, numbered book that highlights the 4C’s design, technology, materials, the Modena factory, and the history of the 33 Stradale.
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Mini is launching a new special-edition Countryman called the Boardwalk.
The Countryman is the company’s best U.S. seller. The new-for-2021 version of the Countryman went on sale in July.
U.S. pricing and quantities on the Boardwalk are expected closer to its spring 2021 launch.
Mini is launching a new limited-run, special edition Countryman called the Boardwalk. The company says the name comes from “the promenades of traditional seaside resorts in Britain, home of the Mini brand.” It is available in Cooper and Cooper S versions, starting at the equivalent of around $42,000 in the U.K. (Here in the U.S., the regular 2021 Countryman starts just over $27,000.) Mini plans to offer the car here, but an official told Autoweek the automaker is “a bit of a ways” out for the U.S. model, so details are scarce.

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U.S. production is set for a March time frame, with the first vehicles expected to arrive April/May, the official told us, adding that U.S. pricing and product details are still being worked out. “We’ll do a U.S.-specific announcement sometime in the first quarter closer to market launch that includes such details,” Autoweek was told. The Countryman is the company’s best U.S. seller, and the new-for-2021 version went on sale in July.
For now, we know that the European version of the Boardwalk has sharp-looking Deep Laguna Blue metallic paint, rides on 19-inch alloy wheels and has a contrasting black roof and black roof rails as well as a power hatch and LED front and rear lights.

Inside, the doorsills, the cockpit fascia, and the roof sport unique Boardwalk logos. For the Europe market, Mini is offering more standard equipment including a number of options from regular Countrymans as standard—mood lighting, illuminated handles, and external logo projections from the mirrors are among them. The interior also has piano-black detailing. A digital cockpit is included, too, alongside cruise control with automated emergency braking, automatic climate control, and heated seats. The Navigation package includes an 8.8-inch display, Apple CarPlay capability, and real-time traffic information. There’s also park assist, front parking sensors, and front- and rearview cameras.
Remember, though, that this is the equipment Europe is getting. We’ll know more about our specs next spring.

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