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Hyundai filed a recall with NHTSA over an issue with a fail-safe malfunction in the transmission oil pump.The recall affects 53,142 vehicles spread across six Hyundai models, all of which utilize a dual-clutch transmission (DCT): the 2021 and 2022 Santa Fe, Sonata, and Veloster N and the 2022 Elantra N, Kona N, and Santa Cruz.Hyundai will inspect and replace affected transmissions while reprogramming the controlling software. The automaker will begin mailing notification letters to owners by December 5. Hyundai issued a recall through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NTSHA) over a potential malfunction found in six models’ high-pressure transmission oil pump. Specifically, the recall affects models equipped with Hyundai’s eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission (DCT). Filings with NHTSA detail improper fail-safe software logic when oil pump faults are detected, leading to total loss of drive power. The recall report says drivers may be alerted to the problem by “illumination of multiple warning lamps.” At that point, internal fault detection can put the vehicle into a limited-mobility “fail-safe” mode. This can be followed by total loss of motive ability as the transmission clutches and drive gears disengage after 20 to 30 seconds, Hyundai’s filing said. Hyundai’s documents filed with NHTSA say there have been 229 reported incidents in the United States from June 2021 through September 2022 but no confirmed accidents or injuries as a result of the problem. Michael Simari|Car and DriverAffected models include 2022 model year Elantra N, Kona N, and Santa Cruz vehicles and Santa Fe, Sonata, and Veloster N vehicles from both 2021 and 2022, with 53,142 total vehicles involved in the recall. Dealers will inspect the transmissions, replacing them free of charge when necessary. They will also reprogram the transmission control unit with updated software to fix the fail-safe driving capability.Hyundai issued a “stop sale” order of the affected vehicles on October 7 and will begin contacting owners by December 5. In the meantime, owners can check whether their vehicle is affected on the NHTSA recalls website.This content is imported from OpenWeb. 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. More

The Safer Streets Amendment Act of 2022, passed by the District of Columbia’s council in early October, is part of the Vision Zero initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities.D.C. has suffered an uptick in traffic fatalities and injuries recently. Three cyclists were killed in accidents with motor vehicles in July alone, Washingtonianmagazine reports.Right turns on red are considered dangerous to pedestrians because drivers are watching traffic coming from the left before making a turn, as walkers get the signal to proceed and step off the curb.Washington, D.C., will eliminate right turns at red traffic lights in “virtually all cases” beginning in 2025 in what could become a nationwide reversal of laws enacted across the country in the late 1970s. The Safer Streets Amendment Act of 2022, passed by the District of Columbia’s council in early October, is in a broader bundle of safety initiatives that is “part of a toolkit for the Vision Zero initiative,” says Colin Brooke, communications director for the Washington Area Bicyclists Association. On October 5, the same day the D.C. council approved the measure, the Ann Arbor, Michigan, city council banned right turns on red at 50 downtown intersections, according to MLive.StatisticsEliminating right turns on red is more about pedestrians, Brooke says, while that broader bundle also includes partial adaptation of the so-called Idaho Stop for cyclists and electric scooter riders.Vision Zero, initiated in Sweden (naturally) in the 1990s, is “a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all,” according to the Vision Zero Network website..The Safer Streets Amendment was introduced by Mary Cheh, chair of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment. Her committee’s bill to increase registration fees for vehicles over 6000 pounds to $500 annually passed earlier this year.While D.C. has embraced Vision Zero for years, it has suffered an uptick in traffic fatalities and injuries recently. Three cyclists were killed in accidents with motor vehicles in July alone, Washingtonian magazine reports.The U.S. highway death rate spiked 10.5 percent to 42,915 in 2021, according to preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration numbers. That’s up from 32,367 in 2011, and much of the increase comes from motor vehicles striking pedestrians and cyclists.The Idaho Stop was established in 1982, when the state enacted laws allowing cyclists to treat stop signs as yield signs and to proceed through red lights, according to Bicycle Universe.Bicycle commuters head east on Market Street in San Francisco. San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images|Getty ImagesTen more states have adopted the Idaho Stop, though some, like D.C., do not allow the traffic rule’s full Monty (in some cases, cyclists may proceed through a red light when the stoplight system does not recognize the bike in the intersection).Because of the “hub and spoke” street design Pierre Charles L’Enfant drew up for the District of Columbia in the late 18th century, many streets meet intersections at acute angles rather than at 90 degrees, so bicycles and scooters will be allowed to roll through stop signs but must stop for red lights, WABA’s Browne says.The urban movement to add bike lanes and provide more deference in traffic to bicycles has added to the rift between motorists who believe too much space on urban and suburban streets has been given up for such sparsely used lanes, while cycling advocates counter that the reason bike lanes are often empty is because cars and trucks still are given priority on public roads.Right turns on red are considered dangerous to pedestrians because drivers are watching traffic coming from the left before making the turn, as people step off the curb, often when pedestrians get the signal to proceed while the light remains red.Councilwoman Cheh’s bill does not guarantee all rights on red in Washington will be gone after 2025, as it gives the District’s Transportation department authority to evaluate intersections where it might still be safer to retain right turns on red.”In negotiating the bill, the agency told us that it would be likely there would be [such] locations,” Cheh says. “However, I am not aware of any specific intersections.”Those of us old enough remember when the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 prompted U.S. states and D.C. to adopt traffic laws allowing right turns at red lights. They already were legal in western states, according to Wikipedia, and Massachusetts was last to the party, in 1980. They have been “severely restricted” in New York City but most prevalent on Staten Island with its relatively low traffic and pedestrian volumes, according to nyc.gov.”As the fuel savings argument for allowing right on red becomes less and less relevant with more efficient cars, hybrids, and EVs, and while traffic violence continues to rise across the country, I would imagine other jurisdictions will make the same common-sense decision we did in the District,” Cheh says. [“More efficient cars” includes the proliferation of mild-hybrid stop/start systems.]If this is the beginning of a reverse wave, it probably will be the result of a widespread movement begun years ago to de-car congested urban areas in favor of walkable city streets. A reverse wave would happen without the push from something like the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, as “Individual traffic regulations are under the purview of local jurisdictions,” according to the Federal Highway Administration.The upshot? Any wave of such bans will start in congested cities, not in states. This content is imported from poll. 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 OpenWeb. 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. More

Ask anyone on our staff, and they’ll tell you minivans are the unsung heroes of the automotive world. They might even add that minivans are the ultimate enthusiast cars. Why? These owners actually use their vehicles for what they’re made to do. Why else would you buy one? Ego has no role in minivan ownership.So Much SiennaConsider our 40,000-mile test of this Cypress Green 2021 Toyota Sienna as proof. It traveled across the country multiple times; it hauled cargo and equipment; it served as a camera car on multiple photo and video shoots; and a member on our staff even outfitted it with a roof tent and took it on a honeymoon. The Sienna did all this in relative comfort, and its hybrid powertrain returned significantly better fuel economy than other minivans we’ve tested. We cover all the details in this video, from interior comfort and functionality to service costs and what it was like to drive in winter. We also explain the downsides of installing a trailer hitch, including the reduced departure angle and how annoying the rear collision mitigation tech can be when you have a bike carrier installed. Yes, this video is tardy—we wrapped up our test a few months back—but blame for that falls on internal scheduling alone, because reverence for the Cult of the Minivan remains steadfast. This content is imported from poll. 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 OpenWeb. 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. More

The GMC Sierra EV will be revealed at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 20, according to the brand’s social media accounts.It’s not our first glimpse of the electric Sierra—GMC already teased its front end—but now we know the debut truck will be the Denali Edition 1. We expect the Sierra EV to share core components with the Chevy Silverado EV when the GMC version goes on sale in early 2024.Teasers are a fun way for an automaker’s marketing department to drum up awareness and excitement ahead of the launch of a new model. Of course, said model usually has to be interesting or notable to really catch people’s attention. Luckily for GMC, the upcoming Sierra EV qualifies as attention-worthy, so today when the company posted a short video clip on its social media accounts, we took notice and learned that the electric pickup truck will be revealed at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, October 20.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.Along with posts on its branded Facebook and Twitter pages, GMC announced the reveal details and more on its consumer site. The video itself is only 15 seconds long. And while the company already released a teaser image of the Sierra EV’s front end last December, we do get a better look at its design and other details in the brief clip. For instance, a set of lower lights on the front bumper are now visible. Plus, we get our first look at the truck’s interior with a close-up of the material on its front seat and Denali embroidered on the headrest. Another Denali call-out is the badge on the rear tailgate next to one of the Sierra’s slim taillights. The other significant detail we see is a massive glass panel on the roof.An earlier teaser of the GMC Sierra EV.GMCEven before this latest teaser, we knew the Sierra EV would offer a fancy-pants Denali model. Because, duh, it’s a massive moneymaker for GMC. What we learned today is that there will also be a Denali Edition 1—similar to what the company did with the Hummer EV Edition 1, which was a fully loaded, limited-edition model. In the small print at the bottom of one of the ads, GMC says the Sierra EV Edition 1 will be available in early 2024 by reservation only; the regular Denali is said to be available that spring.GMC’s Electric Truck StuffIt’s basically a given that the Sierra EV will share core components with the Chevy Silverado EV that’s already been revealed. That suggests the GMC version will also offer up to 400 miles of estimated range, as much as 664 horsepower, and a max towing capacity of 10,000 pounds. Pricing for the Silverado EV is expected to be between about $40k and $105k, but we expect the Sierra version to be a little pricier. As with the specs, we’ll have to wait until GMC officially reveals the full details before we’ll know for sure. With the reveal less than a week away, we shouldn’t have to wait very long. This content is imported from poll. 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 OpenWeb. 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. More

Sony and Honda are following up on their earlier announcement of an electric-vehicle partnership, saying the first EV from this deal will go on sale in the U.S. first and then in Japan.The two companies have now officially established Sony Honda Mobility, which has a stated mission to “move people through the pursuit of innovation with diverse inspirations.”U.S. customers will be able to order the cars online in early 2025 for spring 2026 delivery.Honda’s big electric-vehicle news week continues with a buzzword-filled announcement that the automaker and electronics giant Sony have officially established Sony Honda Mobility Inc. (SHM), which will become a software-oriented mobility tech company, to sell a new electric vehicle in the U.S. and Japan in the coming years. As Reuters pointed out, it’s very likely that some features will be subscription based, meaning owners will pay monthly fees to get some of the entertainment or tech choices available on the EV.SHM, which claims its purpose is to “move people through the pursuit of innovation with diverse inspirations,” will start taking pre-orders for its EV in the first half of 2025. The EV will go on sale by the end of that year, with a focus on online transactions. The first deliveries of SHM’s EV will take place in the U.S. in the spring of 2026 and in Japan in the second half of the year.Both companies are moving separately toward building EVs. Honda is fresh from showing off its latest zero-emission concept, the 2024 Prologue. Sony revealed a new EV concept called the Vision-S 02 at CES in January (that’s its interior in the photo above). Honda and Sony publicly joined forces in an EV effort in March 2022 with a memorandum of understanding that they would create a 50/50 strategic alliance for mobility. In June 2022, the companies signed a joint venture agreement that they would establish SHM. The new announcement said SHM will be “actively building partnerships with other companies” as it works on its new EV. Seeking Honda LoyalistsHonda has previously said it will rely on its loyal fans to stick with it as it shifts to electric vehicles. SHM said its target audience for the new EV will be similarly connected to the brand, even if they don’t own the car. Sony Honda Mobility did not provide any technical or design details about its first EV, but did say that the concept would be defined by 3 As, which are Autonomy, Augmentation, and Affinity. SHM chairman and CEO Yasuhide Mizuno told reporters the future EV would be priced at “a reasonable amount.”Understanding the FutureAdding some sort of autonomous technology to an EV launching in 2025 seems like table stakes at this point. To that end, SHM will develop Level 3 automated driving tech that works under “limited conditions” and will use Level 2+ driver-assistance features in situations, like urban driving, where the L3 tech can’t operate. SHM plans to use a system on a chip that’s capable of more than 800 tera operations per second (TOPS) to process these self-driving features. SHM is introducing something new when it comes to the augmentation and affinity aspects of this new EV. The early augmentation features build on tech available today, including cloud-based personalized information that will offer “entertainment beyond driving” that takes place in an “emotional space.” Again, details are sparse, but SHM is already talking about using “digital innovations such as the metaverse” as it adds augmentation to its electric vehicles. Finally, the affinity aspect expands the emotional side of the new SHM EV. Sony Honda Mobility said it wants to move not just your physical body, but your emotions, as well. The upcoming electric vehicle could one day use digital tools to bridge the driving experience with the metaverse, whatever that means.Potentially tying the SHM announcement to Honda’s big electric-vehicle plans in Ohio this week, SHM said it plans to manufacture its EV at a Honda factory in North America. Honda currently operates 12 vehicle and component plants in the U.S. and this week announced it is building a new production EV facility in Ohio with LG Energy Solution. The EV plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2024. This content is imported from poll. 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. Sebastian Blanco has been writing about electric vehicles, hybrids, and hydrogen cars since 2006. His articles and car reviews have appeared in the New York Times, Automotive News, Reuters, SAE, Autoblog, InsideEVs, Trucks.com, Car Talk, and other outlets. His first green-car media event was the launch of the Tesla Roadster, and since then he has been tracking the shift away from gasoline-powered vehicles and discovering the new technology’s importance not just for the auto industry, but for the world as a whole. Throw in the recent shift to autonomous vehicles, and there are more interesting changes happening now than most people can wrap their heads around. You can find him on Twitter or, on good days, behind the wheel of a new EV. This content is imported from OpenWeb. 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. More