+++ AUDI Sport GmbH, formerly known as Quattro GmbH, will have a lot of work to do as it recently confirmed that there will be 5 new series production models by the end of the decade. Audi Sport initially planned to introduce 11 series production models by 2020, but with the appointment of a new technical development chief, the high performance division is setting its sights higher. By 2020, Audi Sport will aim to deliver 16 models. The new number isn’t surprising considering that Stephan Reil (Audi Sport’s former technical development chief) revealed earlier this year the division’s development strategy. He then told in an interview that in the past, an Audi vehicle would have its high-performance version late in its life cycle. Now, the development of Audi’s new vehicles and Audi Sport’s high-performance counterpart is done in parallel. As for how Audi Sport plans to diversify its upcoming products, the high-performance division hasn’t released any details yet. Right now, crossovers and SUVs are the hottest thing in the auto industry, and Audi is definitely cashing in on its premium crossovers (Audi Q family). Creating high-performance versions of these Q models would be a logical thing. With Audi’s deep vehicle lineup (including all vehicle types) Audi Sport has a lot of models to choose from to transform into its next high-performance vehicle. This upcoming product campaign will be led by Audi Sport’s new Head of Technical Development, Oliver Hoffmann. He took over the role formerly held by Reil on October 1, 2017. Reil, who has been with Audi Sport since 1999, has been instrumental in the development of all vehicle projects since the first Audi RS 4 Avant. Reil has been named to an undisclosed position within Audi after a long career at Audi Sport. Hoffmann, meanwhile, was most recently part of powertrain development at Audi. Having studied mechanical engineering, Hoffman was involved in the development of the V10 engines found in the Audi R8 and was part of quality management at Automobili Lamborghini. Stephan Winkelmann, chief executive of Audi Sport GmbH, called Hoffman as a highly qualified manager for the Technical Development division. Winkelmann added Hoffman’s experience and skills would help realize the expansion of the Audi Sport brand. The task ahead for Hoffman could be tough, but given Audi Sport’s current development strategy, having 16 series production models by the end of the decade is achievable. Sure enough, Audi Sport has already come up with plans on how to achieve this expansion goal. +++
+++ BMW is looking into a business venture with Chinese manufacturer Great Wall to produce electric vehicles, according to a new report. 2 unnamed sources “familiar with the matter” told that BMW is “in discussions” with Great Wall regarding the production of vehicles in the Chinese province of Changshu. According to the report, one of the sources is an unidentified BMW executive, who declined to be named as they were unauthorised to speak on the topic. The second person interviewed said if the partnership happens, it would not involve petrol- or diesel-powered vehicles; hinting at a focus on electric vehicles (EV). BMW is China’s second-largest premium brand, behind Audi. According to Reuters, the company’s sales in China grew by 11.3 per cent last year. Analysts from US finance firm Bernstein believe the venture between BMW and Great Wall would have to exclusively sell EVs due to China’s crackdown on emissions and new combustion vehicle businesses. “If an agreement were to be reached, we’d expect an arrangement like Denza (Mercedes-BYD), or VW-JAC, Ford-Zotye to be the most plausible outcome, whereby a new brand is used to sell EVs”, they told, also suggesting new models could be sold under the Mini brand. BMW already has a joint venture in China with local manufacturer, Brilliance China Automotive Holdings. The company produces a number of models at 2 facilities in Shenyang, including the China-only 1 Series sedan and long-wheelbase X1. Regardless of whether the deal with Great Wall is successful, BMW’s partnership with Brilliance is expected to continue. For those unfamiliar with the market, foreign carmakers are required to team up with local partners in China. It’s also reported that Great Wall recently secured a deal for supplies of lithium, a key mineral in the production of battery packs in electric vehicles. Additionally, rumours regarding Great Wall’s interest in the Jeep brand have been circulating of late, though parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has already played down that idea. +++
+++ FIAT CHRYSLER CEO, Sergio Marchionne, is still sceptical about the economic viability of Tesla, and the short-term profitability of production electric vehicles. Speaking at an event in New York, Marchionne said he was “unconvinced” as to whether Elon Musk would be able to bring Tesla to profit with his current model. “We still don’t have a viable model for delivering an electric car”, Marchionne told press. “As much as I like Elon Musk, and he’s a good friend, and actually he’s done a phenomenal job of marketing Tesla, I remain unconvinced of the economic viability of the model that he’s pitching. So I think we need to be careful, because when we embrace electrification, and I made comments on the fact we lose money on every Fiat 500, the electric, that we sell in the US. If I were to do it again, I would certainly reduce the amount of the loss, but I would not make any money. And you can’t run economic entities on losses”. Indeed, Marchionne has said in the past that he hopes people “don’t buy” the electric 500. Rather than banking on pure electric power, Marchionne said Fiat Chrysler would focus on combining electric motors and internal combustion to meet CO2 regulations. “We are investing without making a lot of noise on electrification”, he said. “We will combine it with combustion to yield the right level of CO2. But we’re not betting the bank on going fully electric in the next decade. It won’t happen”. This isn’t the first time Marchionne has cast doubt on Tesla’s business model. Speaking to reporters in 2015, he suggested Elon Musk wouldn’t be able to make money on the Model 3, but said he would “copy the formula, add the Italian design flair and get it to the market within 12 months” if the car proved profitable. +++
+++ FORD and ride-sharing service Lyft have announced a new partnership that will aim to make autonomous cars affordable and accessible to the public. The collaborative agreement will explore several key areas, including how to create a technology platform that can allow the effective dispatch of a driverless vehicle to a customer, which cities are suitable for such a service based on shared data, along with the kind of infrastructure necessary to facilitate and maintain a fleet of autonomous cars. Both companies say there will be a high priority placed on the safety and dependability of the service in order to build customer trust in driverless vehicles, though Ford will initially deploy a fleet of human-driven vehicles to customers on Lyft’s ride-sharing network to test the new interface and compatibility with the Lyft smartphone app. At the same time, however, Ford will test driverless vehicles on Lyft’s network (though not with customers) in order to develop the technology. The aim is to have self-driving cars work alongside human-driven cars in the future to satisfy customer demand while also ensuring transportation is “timely and affordable”. Part of the development will also be based around the Blue Oval’s own Mondeo autonomous prototype and Argo AI’s virtual driver system. The announcement comes after Ford revealed its plans last year to deploy a driverless taxi fleet by 2021, although the company’s new CEO has since backed away from that aggressive schedule. +++
+++ Just last year, Cruise Automation was acquired by GENERAL MOTORS , and today, it is the self-driving startup that is gobbling up companies on its own. General Motors is stepping their game up once more. To make things easier for them when it comes to the development of autonomous cars, they decided to acquire California-based Strobe. Not a lot of you may have heard of this company, but Strobe specializes in LiDAR technology, and that is a huge step forward for companies who are into autonomous systems for automobiles. After the acquisition, Strobe engineers will become part of the automaker’s Cruise Automation team. Julie Schoenfeld, Founder and CEO of Strobe, Inc., said in a statement that the successful deployment of self-driving vehicles will have to depend on the availability of LiDAR sensors. Furthermore, GM and Cruise will benefit from Strobe’s deep engineering talent and technology backed by a number of patents. And hopefully, the automaker brings these autonomous vehicles sooner than we would think. LiDAR is different from radar systems because the former uses laser pulses to “see” an area, whereas the latter relies on radar systems to do the same thing. And the LiDAR, as we know, is much more detailed as it creates a better picture of its surroundings, which translates to a more accurate processing of information. In other words, the LiDAR system can see a more realistic picture of what’s around it – from cars, pedestrians, and the road. Therefore, the LiDAR systems will play a pivotal role in the current and future development of autonomous cars. However, radars and LiDARs can complement each other to create a more robust and fault-tolerant sensing suite, operating in a wide range of environmental and lighting conditions. Just last month, we saw from the Cruise Automation team what they refer to as the world’s first autonomous car. It comes with the necessary safety and redundancy systems that are needed for the vehicle to operate even without a human driver. This may not be ground-breaking, but GM says that the car will be mass produced. So hopefully, in the near future, we will be living in a world with driverless cars on the road. Kyle Vogt, Founder and CEO of Cruise Automation, said that with both companies working together, costs and capabilities of its vehicles will be improved so that automakers can soon accomplish their mission to deploy driverless vehicles. By successfully reducing the LiDAR array down to a single chip, production costs are reduced to nearly 100 percent. This would help speed up the manufacturing and deployment of self-driving cars to suburban and rural areas where ride sharing is not as common. GM also announced last week that they plan to release a fleet of new electric vehicles by 2023. +++
+++ Luxury car buyers value exclusivity higher than almost anything else, with ROLLS-ROYCE CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös confirming the company is looking to build both low-run coachbuilt specials, but also to dramatically expand the extent to which its cars can be customized by the factory. The one-off Rolls-Royce ‘Sweptail’ proved there is a market for ultra-limited models, with Müller-Ötvös saying the problem is now finding the resource to build other versions. “That was a very successful experiment”, he told at the launch of the new Phantom in Switzerland, “but it took us 4 years”. “You need to meet homologation, there are so many legal requirements you need to make. But after we launched it I immediately had a couple of calls saying ‘I want to be involved in the next one please’. The market potential is not the problem, the challenge is to make it happen and ultimately to have the right capacity for these kind of projects”. Rolls-Royce’s new aluminium spaceframe platform, officially known as the “Architecture of Luxury” gives much more flexibility for constructing limited run models, with the ability to make substantial changes to key dimensions. “We have done some 3D printing and I think that our long term goal is to print bigger parts”, Müller-Ötvös said, “maybe even bodies are possible. I think it is a very fair question, for me the future of luxury is that you have to get more and more bespoke. People in this segment really want to have something extremely special, something significantly different from what your friend has”. +++
+++ The director of autonomous integration at General Motors says claims by TESLA of its cars being able to conduct full level five SAE-certified autonomous driving are entirely false. Speaking to media in Detroit, Scott Miller, GM’s director of autonomous vehicle integration, said Elon Musk is “full of crap” when it comes to claims of the level 5 capability of current and upcoming Tesla vehicles. “To think you can see everything you need for a level 5 autonomous car with cameras and radar, I don’t know how you do that”, Miller said. Miller went on to say that you can do a coast to coast (Los Angeles to New York City) highway drive with current level 2 or level 3 technology, so claims by Tesla that it can achieve such a feat with its vehicles doesn’t necessarily mean it has level 5 technology according to the SAE. According to Tesla’s own website, all vehicles produced in their factory “have the hardware needed for full self-driving capability”. That appears to include at least 8 cameras, one radar, and other sensors. “To be what an SAE level five full autonomous system is, I don’t think he has the content to do that”, Miller stated. According to Miller, General Motors will have the ability to produce level 4 autonomous driving vehicles “within quarters”, however, this technology will be used in a ride-sharing system before it becomes available to the general public. “Level 5 SAE? I mean is there a test for what that is? I mean Audi is saying they are level 3 right now, who says that they are not? We could say we are level 5 right now with hands-off, but we are not. We put the customer in the middle of everything. The level of technology and knowing what it takes to do the mission, to say you can be a full level 5 with just cameras and radars is not physically possible. I think you need the right sensors and right computing package to do it. Think about it, we have LIDAR, radar and cameras on this. The reason we have that type of sensor package is that we think you need not be deeply integrated in to be level 5, you should have redundancy. Do you really want to trust just one sensor measuring the speed of the car coming out of an intersection before you pull out? I think you need some confirmation. So, radar and LIDAR do a good job at measuring object speed, cameras do a great job at identifying objects. So, you can use the right sensor images to give you confidence in what you’re seeing, which I think is important if you’re going to put this technology out for general consumption. Could you do it with less and be less robust? Probably. But could you do it with what’s in a current Tesla Model S? I don’t think so”. General Motors expects to have fully autonomous vehicles in showrooms within the next 15 years. For now it has just launched its SuperCruise system on the Cadillac CT6 that allows level 2 autonomous driving on the highway. +++