Featured Threads

CR on Driver Assist Systems

Source: CR Rates Active Driving Assistance Systems - Consumer Reports

It’s equal parts eerie and amazing to experience Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving feature, as it takes over your car’s steering, braking, and acceleration while you travel down the highway.

The eerie part is watching the steering wheel turn back and forth on its own, making micro-adjustments to keep the car in the center of its lane, while the system also slows down or speeds up to maintain a safe distance from the vehicle ahead. The amazement soon follows: With your hands off the wheel and relaxing on the armrests as the automated systems take charge, you might start to believe that the age of the self-driving car is finally upon us.

But while BlueCruise’s capabilities are impressive and can make driving more relaxing, cars...

bwilson4web Jan 26, 2023 Read More Replies: 101

Aptera EV Update

An update to the thread created in 2020. Aptera announced they hope to start production by the end of 2023. So the first units will be the Aptera Launch Edition. The 700W solar panels hope to give the car about 40 miles of range per day and claims a range of 400 miles. The 3 wheel drive 2 seater has 32.5 cubic feet of storage and can reach 60 mph in about 4 seconds. Aptera has 40,000 reservations and needs an additional $50 Million in funding to start production. They expect to build 10,000 a year and then switch to 20,000. At that rate it'll take 2 1/2 years to clear their reservations. It is a sharp looking vehicle. Sorry @Mendel Leisk and @bisco, no spare. :unsure:

Aptera attempting a come back. | PriusChat

Aptera EV Is A Solar-Powered Car...

drash Jan 25, 2023 Read More Replies: 57

Toyota Stays Modest about EVs as It Relaunches bZ4X after Recall

Toyota likes to emphasize its strong hybrid sales instead. The company sold over 500,000 electrified vehicles in 2022, the vast majority of which were hybrids and plug-in hybrids (the fuel-cell Mirai is also included in this number, but only made up just over 2000 units of that total). Toyota has been clear about how it plans to prioritize hybrid production over EVs as a way of managing the finite amount of raw materials, particularly for batteries, that go into building an electrified vehicle. With the same amount of materials needed for a single bZ4X, Toyota says it can build 90 Prius hybrids or 60 plug-in-hybrid RAV4 Primes. The company believes that maximizing hybrid sales is a better play for reducing carbon emissions, at least given current market conditions.
Click to expand...

Toyota...

Tideland Prius Jan 24, 2023 Read More Replies: 52