+++ AUDI said in a statement that the models had been included in a voluntary recall of 850,000 diesel vehicles with V6 and V8 TDI engines announced in July. “The engine control software for the vehicles in question will be completely revised, tested and submitted to the KBA for approval”, Audi said in its statement. It did not confirm more details of KBA’s request. Road transport authority KBA had told Audi to respond by Feb. 2 on how it plans to update vehicle software controlling emissions, making sure the cars are unable to illegally manipulate emission controls. Audi said it has been examining its diesel-fuelled cars for potential irregularities for months in close cooperation with the KBA. “As part of this systematic and detailed assessment, the KBA has now also issued a notice regarding Audi models with V6 TDI engines”, the carmaker added. In November, Audi announced a recall of 5,000 cars in Europe for a software fix after discovering they emitted too much nitrogen oxide, the polluting gas that parent Volkswagen concealed from U.S. regulators in its devastating dieselgate scandal. Volkswagen was found in 2015 to have illegally manipulated engine software so that vehicles would meet nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions standards in laboratory testing but not in real-world conditions, where they could emit up to 40 times the permitted levels. Several Audi models were affected and Audi has been accused in media reports of having devised the so-called defeat devices years earlier but not to have installed them in its vehicles at that time. Audi and Volkswagen have never commented on the matter. +++
+++ When the inevitable finally happens, and the Nannies in Charge decree that humans are too stupid and/or dangerous to be allowed on roads and that computers should drive, the scariest thing won’t be worrying over whether your AUTONOMOUS car can keep you safe, it will be the fear that it might one day decide you need to die. Car companies and coders have been quietly wrestling with the moral dilemma of what decisions a self-driving car would make when faced with a choice between saving one life (i.e. yours) and, potentially, saving many by killing its customer (which is going to be terrible for brand loyalty). The “school-bus problem” is the mosts infamous example given as illustration. Your autonomous car detects that a packed school bus heading towards you on a narrow bridge is sliding out of control and must decide whether to swerve and brake in one direction, saving you but nudging the bus and all those kids into the abyss. Or if it should jink the other way and drive you off the bridge to your fiery death, thus saving the kids. Programming the software to make these decisions is not the kind of job anyone would relish, not even a nerd as soulless as Steve Jobs, God rest his … whatever. But it’s one that must be done. Fortunately, a clever bunch of scientists from the University of Bologna in Italy have come up with a truly fascinating device called an “ethical knob”, which would allow owners of autonomous cars to choose their vehicle’s level of altruism. So, if you were a Mother Theresa type, or perhaps just too old to care about living anymore, you could set the software to sacrifice you to save others. Perhaps your car could give off a kind of beatific white glow to let people know how lovely you are. Or, you could set it to always save you, and screw everyone else. Obviously your car would be given an angry-orange halo of light, roughly the colour of Donald Trump’s skin. Better yet, the “ethical knob” (personally, the name makes me think of my old journalism lecturer), has a dial that runs from “full altruist” to “full egoist (it may be no coincidence that Bologna is very close to where Lamborghinis are made ; they already come with an ‘ego’ setting), with an impartial setting in the middle. Frankly, having an impartial setting seems to defy logic, as it would only inspire your car to suffer paralysing inertia in a school-bus situation, dithering away like a Woody Allen character and never making a decision at all. They could call it the Turnbull setting. “We wanted to explore what would happen if the control and the responsibility for a car’s actions were given back to the driver”, Giuseppe Contissa, one of the scientists on the project, told. “The knob tells an autonomous car the value that the driver gives to his or her life, relative to the lives of others. The car would use this information to calculate the actions it will execute, taking into account the probability that the passengers or other parties suffer harm as a consequence of the car’s decision”. Hang on, “the value that the drive gives to his life”? Surely we’d all price that fairly bloody highly, wouldn’t we? I know mine has been rated “priceless”, and not in the MasterCard advertisement way. Still, it is truly fascinating, and slightly scary, to ponder how humans would use this ethical knob, were it available. Would usage differ between different countries, and what would it reveal about their citizens? I have some theories about how German and Japanese drivers would set their ethical knobs, but I’d love to see them proven true. And what about religions? Would we find out how altruistic they are by comparing the settings in Roman Catholic Italy with mostly Buddhist Thailand? What a fantastic social experiment, not to mention the relative settings adopted by drivers of different wealth levels. Presumably, Rolls-Royces would be shipped from the factory with only one setting: “Crush Those Damnable Proles”. The really interesting question, though, is to ask yourself, where would you push the switch to? I’d like to think I’d be altruistic, particularly if I was driving on my own. But if my children were in the car, I’d probably switch it immediately to “Screw Everyone Else”. Think of it as a more extreme version of those annoyingly pointless Baby On Board stickers. Unlike those stupid signs, your ethics knob could actually make a difference to your safety on the road. Helpfully, scientists have already been asking people how they feel about the idea in theory, with one 2015 study finding that most people think driverless cars should be utilitarian, and take whatever actions are necessary to minimise overall harm (which could very well mean sacrificing their own occupants in some situations). Interestingly, though, while people agreed with this idea in principle, they were also quite firm in stating that they would never get in a car that they knew was prepared to kill them. Unfortunately, I can see a day, in our lifetimes, when choices like that might well be taken away from us. Unless the Italians actually get everyone to adopt their ethics knob. Still, even this invention is not the perfect answer. Edmond Awad, who works at MIT and is a lead researcher on the Moral Machine project, says the knob seems like a good idea, but it’s difficult to say if it would work. “If people have too much control over the relative risks the car makes, we could have a Tragedy of the Commons type scenario, in which everyone chooses the maximal self-protective mode”, Awad says. Equally likely is that people would feel paralysed by the decision and unwilling to take responsibility, or look bad, so everyone would end up choosing the impartial option, and thus render the whole knob idea redundant. What is clear is that the future really is a foreign country, where they do things differently. And that we’ve now got another reason to hope the autonomous revolution takes a very long time indeed. +++
+++ Michigan may well be home to the ‘Big Three’ US brands, but the North American International Auto Show held in DETROIT this week had a strangely contrarian element. The 3 most interesting concept cars (the lifeblood of any self-respecting motor show) were produced by brands with Japanese roots: the Infiniti Q Inspiration, Lexus LF-1 Limitless and Nissan Xmotion. In fairness, the Americans didn’t exactly go all radio-silence: Fiat Chrysler was busy revealing the overhauled Ram 1500 pick-up and the facelifted Jeep Cherokee; Ford showed the US version of the Ranger and the Mustang Bullitt, and discussed its plans for electric vehicles; and General Motors premiered the vital new Chevrolet Silverado. But the interesting concept metal came from brands either based in the Land of the Rising Sun, or reporting to them (Infiniti is a Nissan subsidiary based in Hong Kong). Part of this is just down to the nature of the design cycle, plus the changing role of motor shows in the industry, as tech events such as Las Vegas’ CES steal much of the thunder and attention. But there’s clearly an angle here, and it’s one that reinforces the idea that Japan’s auto industry is recovering. +++
+++ It might be classed as a compact SUV, but weighing in at nearly 1.9 tonnes, the new JAGUAR E-Pace is up to 380 kg heftier than its closest rivals, which include Audi’s ageing Q3, BMW’s X1, Mercedes-Benz GLA and the Volvo XC40. And that’s comparing apples with apples, as all 4 vehicles are powered by 2.0-litre turbo fours, in petrol and diesel forms. Remarkably, the E-Pace is even heavier than its larger F-Pace sibling, which tips the scales at around 1.770 kg, give or take. I spoke exclusively with Jaguar’s Vehicle Line Director Alan Volkaerts, who agrees the car was heavier than they would have liked. Volkaerts doesn’t see it as any sort of drawback to the capability of the brand’s second SUV, though. “Would we like it to be lighter? Of course, but I guess when we started this project 4 years ago, we wanted to get this vehicle to market as quickly as possible, because naturally, we were really keen for a small SUV, as a cheaper entry point for the customer”, he says. “We didn’t want to take it off the aluminium architecture of the larger F-Pace, because that would have put it in the wrong price bracket for us, so we chose to go with that from the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Discovery Sport models. That meant it was an inherently steel platform, at least to begin with”. But, in order to counter the overweight chassis, Jaguar’s engineers have essentially transformed it into hybrid architecture, using lightweight aluminium for the bonnet, roof and tailgate. There’s also Jaguar Land Rover’s Ingenium engine, which is also made of the lightweight metal. “From the very beginning of E-Pace’s development, we had 3 key objectives: get the right entry price for the vehicle, get it to market quickly, and make sure it has proper Jaguar dynamics. To that end, we’ve dropped in the rear axle in out of the F-Pace, which is heavier than the current Evoque axle, but it delivered the integral multilink, which in turn delivered the dynamics we wanted, including the GKN Active Driveline technology, a 4 wheeldrive system similar to that which you’ll find on the Ford Focus RS. We’re really pleased with the entry price, the driving dynamics, and to get it to market quickly, we couldn’t reinvent a new architecture from scratch. So, yes, we’ve sacrificed a little bit of weight to launch a vehicle off our current architecture, but have included all the right technology to deliver the right level of driving dynamics”, Volkaerts says. +++
+++ LEXUS is well aware of how polarising its styling has become; the man who led the design process on two of the brand’s most arresting concept cars says that’s kind of the point. Kevin Hunter is the president of Toyota’s Calty Design Research studios, located in California and Michigan, that created the LF-LC concept (which morphed into the LC flagship coupe) and the just-released LF-1 Limitless crossover concept. I mentioned to Hunter that many of my readers often commented unfavourably towards Lexus’ design, and asked him if this divisive approach was really the right one. Note, Hunter doesn’t work strictly for Lexus, but is a Toyota executive. “The front end has been polarising, there’s no doubt. We hear people who love it, and people who don’t”, he said. “We’re ok with that, polarisation is ok for us. We went down the path a long time ago where we were trying to satisfy everyone, did a lot of conservative design, and it didn’t get people excited. They were good products but lacking emotional impact”. In other words, they were boring. “We didn’t want to do that any more”, Hunter went on the say. “Part of taking chances, stepping out and being more bold is you’re going to offend a few, and some will love what you’re doing”. Probably the most controversial elements of modern Lexus products is the so-called Spindle grille shape. Hunter says it’s here to stay. “Spindle is our brand identity, it’s our aim to make it attractive of course, and the LF-1 is the next step in its evolution. We call it ‘architectural spindle’. You notice as the perimeter shape transitions up, it turns into into a pretty distinctive hood shape that has a channel, that runs all the way though the belt-line, and even the DRL runs the perimeter of the hood shape. Everything is integrated into one architectural piece”. Contrasting this, Hunter admitted some spindle grille applications delivered on mid-cycle updates of existing models developed with more toned-down noses weren’t overly resolved. “I like to think if we can integrate the spindle beautifully into the overall design… to get away from the feeling of the grille being just applied, but instead be part of the entire construction of the overall body”, he said. +++
+++ MAZDA confirms return of rotary engine. It will serve as a range extender on an electric autonomous vehicle. Mazda’s novel rotary engine is making a comeback, though perhaps not in the way sports car enthusiasts hope. Instead of high-powered, turbocharged mills, the new rotary will serve a range extenders to a fleet of self-driving that Mazda and Toyota are co-developing. News of the rotary’s return comes straight from the president of Mazda North American Operations Masahiro Moro. “This is a very suitable engine to run a generator because it’s compact and lightweight, with no noise or vibration, and it has very good fuel economy”, he said. With fewer parts than traditional engines and a compact footprint, the rotary will rotary engine will allow for customizable options for Toyota’s e-Palette autonomous vehicle. Co-developed with Toyota, Mazda, Denso and Amazon, they can serve as everything from mobile stores to hotels to delivery trucks. Mazda has not produced a rotary engine since its RX-8 sports car ended production in 2012. While the new application isn’t the return that aficionados of Mazda’s long line of RX sports cars have been waiting for, this at least provides some hope that the technology Mazda developed 50 years ago will continue in some form. +++
+++ For a business that has spent 20 years doing things with Volvos that it will probably never do again, POLESTAR , Gothenburg’s new ‘electric performance brand’, carries a remarkable aura of freshness and new endeavour about it. Perhaps it’s the sky-gazing nature of the name that does it, or the recent complete rethink of its partnership with Volvo, a company which itself has managed to stand outside the money-driven, horsepower-crazy, German-centric melee that forms the arena for mainland Europe’s other premium manufacturers. It also helps that, for the past 6 months, Polestar’s fortunes have been guided by an ambitious new CEO, Thomas Ingenlath, who as Volvo’s chief of design has spent the past 5 years making Gothenburg’s latest models beautiful and relevant. Designers don’t always make good business managers but Ingenlath intends to be an exception. Whatever the key reasons for Polestar’s eye-catching nature, this former producer of hot Swedish saloons and winning WTCC racers, bought out of private ownership by Volvo in mid-2015, has a fascinating future ahead, a neat mixture of surprises and logic. To better understand the strategy, I took a trip to Ingenlath’s design lair inside Volvo’s mighty Gothenburg factory, where the Polestar 1 has now reached production readiness (and awaits completion of its Chinese manufacturing plant for a 2019 launch) and the Polestar 2 and 3 are almost finished. Preparations are under way to meet the marketing challenge: Polestar wants to meet its customers mostly online; providing them with chances to see cars in 3 dimensions but avoiding the usual plodding showroom experience. The Polestar 1 began life as Volvo’s Concept Coupé from late 2013, a beautiful 2+2 created to demonstrate the flexibility of the SPA (Scalable Product Architecture) that underpins today’s larger Volvo models. It was well received, but it had a problem. The management knew it was never going to fly as a normal Volvo: too much cost versus too little volume. And yet… “It has taken almost 2 years to get where we are”, says Ingenlath. “When Polestar 1 was still the Concept Coupé, it attracted lots of attention. Everyone wanted to know if we were going to build it, but it was always clear it wouldn’t work in the normal Volvo way, and not just because of the business case. It also had design features that stretched Volvo too far, yet we felt its proportions ideally fitted the GT category”. The Concept Coupé became a spur for a whole Polestar enterprise, helping to grow the idea for a Volvo electric performance brand. The name was fresh, worked in many languages and was associated only with Volvo but needed a better-defined mission. Gothenburg bought the company, whose owners obligingly rebranded themselves. Then work began to re-engineer the Concept Coupé with a much more exotic carbonfibre body (lighter and stiffer than steel). At the same time, the hybrid powertrain was developed to a new, higher level. In launch guise, the Polestar 1 will have to settle for the description ‘electrified’ when it hits the market in 2019, whereas its successors will be purely battery-electric cars. It has a 600 hp powertrain (a 380 hp 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged petrol four driving the front wheels, plus a pair of 110 hp electric motors on the rear axle) and there’s an under-floor traction battery big enough to give a 150 kilometres electric-only range. It is the first car to make use of Ohlins’ continuously controlled electronic suspension in production and is advanced in most areas, which is just as well because Ingenlath’s business plan calls for hand-manufacture of just 500 units a year, priced at about 160,000 euro a copy in The Netherlands. “Polestar 1 is very much a halo product”, says Ingenlath. “We’re going to need those for the future, just as we’ll need lower-priced models to bring flair and feeling to a much broader audience”. Which is why the Polestar 2 and 3 will be considerably lower priced and less exotic than the Polestar 1, defining the other extremity of the marque’s target area by making use of existing manufacturing and utilising existing Volvo running gear. The Polestar 2 is tipped to be a mid-sized battery-electric hatchback; intended for production in 2019 to challenge Tesla’s eagerly awaited Model 3. The Polestar 3 is a larger SUV, based on the third generation Volvo XC90, which arrives in 2021. Ingenlath won’t yet spell out exactly what the second and third models will be like, except to say that they won’t share the profile of existing Volvo models (in case of the Polestar 2: the Volvo V40 successsor) but will use Volvo interior designs. They’ll have “special Polestar shapes”, he says, and he agrees readily that a modern iteration of the old 1800ES ‘breadvan’ coupé would make a great contemporary Polestar model. Ingenlath says he has “nothing to hide” when it comes to using suitable Volvo components for his new designs, citing this as the only economic way of helping Polestar achieve its aims. “This is a family”, he says, “so we have some common values. Our products will share a certain quality of build and a certain degree of usability. And there’s the safety. We’ll never compromise on safety in a Polestar car”. As times goes on, the real skill, says Ingenlath, will be in making wise decisions about where to invest Polestar’s limited development funds. Ingenlath wants the Polestar operation to achieve a global volume of “around 50,000-plus units” in 5 years’ time, based on a 3 model line-up that by then should be on the point of further expansion. Although no Polestar model will share its body-in-white with a Volvo, he reserves the right to keep doing Polestar-modified Volvos. “We like those”, he says, “but they’re still Volvos”. Other similarities? Both marques will continue to use the successful principles of the current ‘Thor’s hammer’ headlight design. The way that shape develops will be quite different from one to the next, but we will always be able to see a relationship, Ingenlath promises. My interview time is up. Ingenlath nowadays has 2 demanding jobs‚ and clearly he needs to get on with one or the other. Even so, he comfortably bats away my concerns for his ability to sleep at night. “In a place like this, you never do your job on your own”, he says, easily. “We have many good people here, and they are the reason it works”. +++
+++ In today’s world, it is not unusual to have smart phones or other electronics that could recognize their owner’s faces. Actually, in the near future, it will likely be a standard feature in all personal gadgets. Having said that, even the automotive industry is looking into this technology. How cool is that? I applaud VOLKSWAGEN for developing this idea and eventually offering it in its vehicles. We could certainly all benefit from using sophisticated forms of autonomous technology on the road. In fact, VW has recently announced a new partnership with Nvidia. At the 2018 CES, the automaker talked about the next-generation technology on the upcoming I.D. Buzz concept. The automaker believes that this van is the perfect model for showcasing the technologies it has been working on. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said during the announcement of the partnership that after a few years, most, if not all, vehicles will have AI assistants for voice, gesture, and facial recognition, along with augmented reality. He then said that by working with Volkswagen, they are beginning to create a generation of safer and more enjoyable vehicles that will soon be accessible to everyone, something that they have not seen before. Because the partnership between Volkswagen and Nvidia is still young, they currently do not have an actual demonstration of the said technology yet. Though they do have a name for it, which is Intelligent Co-Pilot. One of the interesting features this technology has to offer is that it can recognize the owner and automatically unlock the doors. It can also track a person’s gaze to see where he is looking. Moreover, the company promises that as development goes deeper, the AI will be able to assess situations as well as analyze the behaviour of other drivers. Over time, the system will be able to learn new features via software updates. A lot of people have been waiting for the Buzz, a retro classic Type 2 bus to come to the market, but we will have to wait a little longer before it arrives in 2022. The Buzz is expected to share VW’s EV focused MEB platform, though the concept that we saw used an electric motor at each axle, which was able to carry out as much as 369 hp. Its 111 kWh battery is also capable of reaching an estimated 430 kilometres when it was going through tests. Following its launch in 2022, we could expect a rear wheel drive version with slightly lower output of 268 hp (200 kilowatts) as well as a smaller 83 kWh battery pack. +++