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The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles will debut a 1971 Land Rover Defender painted by popular artist Keith Haring.

The Petersen Automotive Museum got its hands on a Keith Haring for a while, and it’s about to show it off to the car and art loving public. A 1971 Land Rover Defender painted by Haring, the influential urban and New York pop art figure, will debut at the museum tomorrow before remaining on display this autumn.

Haring painted the classic Defender in 1983, and the curators at the Petersen made the temporary acquisition to further the museum’s effort to features not just art cars, but cars as art. The classic British off-roader is adjourned in Haring’s signature, unmistakable graffiti drawings — creating an almost tribal display of shapes examining ” birth, death, sexuality and war.”

Haring tragically died of AIDS in 1990, but not before becoming a modern street art legend. His world famous Crack Is Wack mural at an uptown handball court was painted without city permission — but it’s now protected as a graffiti masterpiece.

As for the Defender, it’s a classic and a candidate for Britain’s automotive Mount Rushmore – if there could be such a thing. It debuted after WWII in 1947 as the original “Rover,” quickly gaining popularity with rural civilians, the military, explorers and anyone looking for a more rugged, all-purpose vehicle capable of taking on any environment. Recognized early on as a groundbreaking design for what would become SUVs, the Defender was known for its avoidance of unsprung weight by positioning wheels as close to the vehicle’s corners as possible.

The Haring Land Rover will remain on duty in the lobby of the Petersen until the end of the year.

Read more at http://www.craveonline.com/design/1014359-petersen-automotive-museum-debut-keith-haring-land-rover-defender

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Image Credit: Google 2016 could go down in history as the year the autonomous vehicle onslaught went full tilt. While the history of self-driving cars goes back decades Carnegie Mellon University Navigation Laboratory was developing autonomous vehicle technology in the 1980s and one of the first real-world tests of driverless car technology resulted in a Mercedes traversing 1000km in 1994 weve seen a concerted push recently by tech companies and car brands looking to grab their piece of the pie. This week Chinas tech titan Alibaba and SAIC Motor Corp the countrys biggest carmaker announced a connected car that will lead to new autonomous car technology. Youll quickly see driverless car technology resulting from this platform said Alibabas chief technology officer Wang Jian. On the same day South Koreas LG Electronics revealed a tie-up with Volkswagen for a new connected car platform that will enable vehicles to communicate with various devices including home security systems home lighting systems and more. But this could also be viewed as one of the enabling components upon which driverless car technology will be built self-driving cars need to liaise with the outside world. And this leads us to another big trend weve seen in recent years: traditional car brands relying on the smarts of cutting-edge tech companies and vice versa. A brief recap of some of the partnerships and self-driving car initiatives that have sprung up this year involves a Whos Who of some of the biggest names in the industry. BMW announced a partnership with Intel and Mobileye to produce fully autonomous cars by 2021. General Motors (GM) revealed plans for autonomous vehicles when it invested $500 million in Lyft.Toyota set up a 50-person research lab to investigate ways to create autonomous vehicles andplaced a strategic investment in Uber a company that has started testing out its own autonomous vehicles on roads. And Chinese internet giant Baidu launched a new Silicon Valley arm dedicated to self-driving cars shortly after partnering with BMW on a number of self-driving car initiatives in China. The Google factor Google has been working on self-driving car technology for years and is arguably at the most advanced stage out of all the players. Though Google has built its own self-driving car prototype the company has largely relied on partnerships with carmakers and has provided technology for the Toyota Prius Audi TT and Lexus RX450h. Earlier this year Google and Fiat Chrysler teamed up to get dozens more self-driving cars onto roads. During the partnership announcement Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said that Google and other tech companies are not my enemy; these are people who will help us shape the next phase of the automotive industry. And last year Google self-driving car chief Chris Urmson said: Making cars is really hard and the car companies are quite good at it. So in my mind the solution is to find a partnership. But partnerships and alliances are likely only a short-term solution while technology and automotive companies figure out how to become experts in all the fields necessary to launch a self-driving car safely onto highways. To use another example Google has traditionally partnered with handset makers to push out its own brand of Android Nexus phones. But reports suggest that it willbegin building its own phones soon. That makes sense and its an approach that has served Apple well across mobile phones and computers having a single company build the software and hardware can create a smooth experience for users. Google has indicated in the past that it doesnt intend to sell or market its own cars and the prototypes it has built devoid of manual brakes steering wheels or accelerators are part of a learning process. Speaking about these prototypes at the California Public Utilities Commission last year Sarah Hunter head of policy for Google X said: Were making a few hundred of them. Were making them to enable our team to learn how to actually build a self-driving vehicle from the ground up. Google has its own car-making arm Google Auto LLC and its actually this company thats named as the manufacturer of all of the modified autonomous Lexus cars registered in California. Make no mistake about it Google ultimately wants to have full control over its self-driving car initiatives and that will mean building and selling its own cars. Of course thats not to say it wont also work with third-party carmakers to outfit their vehicles with the latest autonomous smarts consumers appreciate choice after all. Read More Here:http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/09/self-driving-cars-where-the-technology-and-automotive-industries-will-converge/ Contact us anytime for a cash for cars quote The post Self-driving cars: where the technology and automotive industries will converge appeared first on http://dublin.cashforcarsireland.com/ via Cash For Cars - Locations http://dublin.cashforcarsireland.com/self-driving-cars-where-the-technology-and-automotive-industries-will-converge/

Not much that is truly groundbreaking in this world was created by committee.

Innovation simply doesn’t work that way.

But in the automotive realm, we have one giant exception, and it is Jeep — a vehicle forged in the crucible of war that grew into one of the world’s most recognized brands, automotive or otherwise.

Jeep is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the brand this week. The birth of Jeep is a complicated story that is subject to many interpretations. But on July 16, 1941, Willys-Overland Motor Co., of Toledo, Ohio, received the first contract to produce the Willys MB for use by the American military.

A public celebration will follow next month, but this weekend, thousands of Fiat Chrysler workers in Toledo will gather for a private company picnic to commemorate the beginnings of the brand.

Jeep’s early history is legendary. Its role in helping defeat the Axis powers during World War II is undeniable.

On the battlefield, the Jeep was fast, nimble and tough. It could handle nearly any terrain, and when it did get stuck, it was light enough for soldier to lift free. It towed anti-tank weapons that could be deployed quickly, and it could mount a machine gun for fighting infantry.

The Jeep also served as an ambulance on the battlefield. It forded rivers and traversed lakes, it came ashore on D-Day, and it carried the Allies all the way to Berlin and onto Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima and, eventually, onto the mainland shores of a defeated Japan.

But Jeep’s postwar life has been a decadeslong trail of both rousing successes — and abject failures.

One weak corporate owner after another failed, yet Jeep has soldiered on. Today, Jeep carries Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as the automaker struggles to compete with more powerful, profitable global competitors.

Jeep had a complicated birth, and much controversy remains about its origin. But some facts are undisputed.

As World War II began to ravage Europe and Asia, the War Department realized the armed forces needed a small reconnaissance vehicle. It put out requests for proposals to U.S. automakers on an extremely aggressive timetable.

Initially, only two poorly financed small-car specialists responded: American Bantam Car Co., of Butler, Pa., and Willys-Overland, of Toledo, Ohio.

The first prototype military Jeep was developed by Bantam. Designed in 18 hours by Karl Probst, a freelance auto designer from Detroit, the 1,840-pound Bantam exceeded the Army’s expectations during initial testing in September 1940.

The War Department, however, had concerns about Bantam’s ability to meet the military’s capacity needs. As a result, it invited Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Co. to bid on the reconnaissance vehicle contract, this time using Probst’s design as a guidepost and allowing engineers from the two automakers to inspect and measure the Bantam.

Each automaker crafted a vehicle that was intended to meet the War Department’s specifications — but with varying success. The Willys Quad had the most powerful engine — the 60-hp Go Devil four-cylinder, which gave it a significant power advantage. The Ford Pygmy had superior craftsmanship, and it featured a flat hood and flat fenders that the War Department judged as useful improvements. The Bantam, now updated from its original design, was the lightest and most fuel-efficient.

After conducting rigorous testing in Maryland, the War Department sought final bids and awarded the first production contract to Willys-Overland. A second production contract for the same design later was awarded to Ford to meet demand.

More than 637,000 Jeeps were built by Willys and Ford during World War II, while Bantam was awarded a contract to build quarter-ton trailers that were pulled behind the MB. Even today, remnants of Jeep’s birth by committee exist on the MB’s descendent, the Jeep Wrangler. For example, the “T” latches still used to hold down the hood were a Ford innovation, as was the single-piece, stamped slotted grille with round headlights that Jeep also uses as a logo.

Civilian Jeeps

Jeep’s wartime history is well-documented, but the transition to civilian life is less so.

As World War II began to wind down, Willys executives began thinking about the Jeep’s postwar existence. It didn’t have to look far for a design. Willys took the MB and modified it, improving the headlights and seats and giving it a tailgate. The production version became the Willys CJ-2A. It also introduced other innovative vehicles, including the 1946 Willys Station Wagon — the first such station wagon to be built completely of steel — and the 1947 Jeep pickup.

The company had two secret weapons, argues Patrick Foster, author of four books on Jeep, including 2014’sJeep: The History of America’s Greatest Vehicle.

“Willys-Overland had always had a policy to sell at least 15 percent of its production for overseas sales, even way back into the 1920s,” Foster said last month. “But the other thing that helped was that, what Willys did was really the ultimate free sample: When World War II ended, the Army left Jeeps all over the world.”

In the decades following World War II, Jeep retained a small but loyal civilian following and remained largely reliant on its military contracts for volume and profitability.

It continued to develop innovative civilian designs — such as the 1957 FC-170 (for Forward Control), the 1963 Wagoneer SUV and 1963 Gladiator pickup — while further developing its line of Jeep military vehicles.

However, Jeep’s ownership structure wasn’t stable. Willys-Overland was purchased by Kaiser Manufacturing Co. in 1953. In 1963, the company dropped the Willys name, becoming Kaiser-Jeep Corp. Six years later, in 1969, the company was acquired by American Motors.

AMC was not in strong financial shape when it acquired Jeep. In 1978, French automaker Renault purchased 25 percent of the struggling domestic automaker.

Jeep sales were a strong point in the AMC lineup, and it was under AMC’s ownership that one of the most innovative and popular Jeep vehicles, the XJ Cherokee, was developed. Designed by Roy Lunn and Bob Nixon, the XJ Cherokee that debuted for the 1984 model year was a unibody SUV, something no other automaker had ever done. The XJ’s simple, boxy shape drew classic styling cues from Jeep’s heritage, but its design was elegant, and its off-road capabilities were unmatched by anything short of a Jeep CJ.

Though modifications were made over its long production life, the XJ Cherokee’s production ran for 18 years — through two subsequent ownership changes — until 2001 and totaled over 2.7 million vehicles.

That next ownership change came in 1987, when AMC was acquired by a newly resilient Chrysler Corp. and its boss, Lee Iacocca.

“Jeep Curse’

Jeep’s string of owners tended to struggle, giving rise to an unflattering explanation for their collective failures: the “Jeep Curse.” From Bantam to Willys to Kaiser to AMC, each corporate entity that had acquired Jeep had subsequently failed — more often than not for reasons that had little to do with Jeep.

Yet Iacocca coveted Jeep. He recognized that the off-road brand complemented Chrysler’s offerings. “We aren’t just combining our strengths. We’re increasing them,” the former Chrysler chairman declared when Chrysler purchased AMC for $1.5 billion.

Former Delphi CEO Steve Miller negotiated Chrysler’s deal to buy AMC from Renault in 1987. In his 2008 book, The Turnaround Kid, Miller recalled the reaction at Chrysler after it had acquired Jeep.

“Sixty days after we acquired the company, almost every executive at Chrysler had replaced his car with a Jeep,” Miller wrote. “The parking lot outside our office looked like a Jeep dealership.”

In most respects, Iacocca was right: The addition of Jeep — along with key executive additions such as Francois Castaing — made Chrysler a more valuable company. Chrysler used its resources to improve existing products such as the XJ Cherokee, and in 1992, introduced the ZJ Grand Cherokee by driving it through a plate-glass window at the Detroit auto show.

And as Jeep’s popularity grew, so did Chrysler’s profitability. The No. 3 U.S. automaker had become a potent global player with the addition of Jeep and consumers’ nearly limitless demand for SUVs.

Ultimately, Chrysler drew interest from Daimler AG, which, in 1998, combined with Chrysler in a $38 billion “merger of equals.”

The DaimlerChrysler era saw some of the best-ever Jeep decisions, including new, modern assembly plants as well as the addition of two rear doors to the Wrangler to create the Wrangler Unlimited.

But it also witnessed some of the worst, including development of the carlike, Jeep-in-name-only Compass and Patriot, which featured front-wheel drive and continuously variable transmissions.

Less than a decade later, Daimler paid $675 million to Cerberus Capital Management to take Chrysler — and Jeep — off its hands. And two years after that, Chrysler — including Jeep — sought bankruptcy protection and had to be rescued by the government.

The curse, it seems, had struck again.

And again.

Jeep world

Yet Chrysler was able to emerge from its 2009 bankruptcy in large part because Fiat S.p.A. CEO Sergio Marchionne recognized the value of Jeep as well as its global potential.

Marchionne first set out to fix problems in Jeep’s lineup. He improved the Compass and Patriot and invested in the Grand Cherokee, improving its interior, electrical architecture and powertrain. He killed the Jeep Commander — which he once described as “unfit for human consumption” — and greenlighted replacement of the unloved Liberty with the revived Jeep Cherokee, the first Jeep built on a Fiat platform.

Under Fiat, Jeep has added a subcompact to its lineup, the Renegade, and looks to expand Wrangler into a family of derivatives, including a pickup. The brand also is bringing back its Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer names to once again compete against luxury SUV makers.

The results speak for themselves. In each of the last four consecutive years, Jeep has set a record for global shipments.

In 2012, the brand topped its previous best-ever year from 1999 by posting 701,626 shipments. In 2015, the brand finished with 1,237,583 shipments.

And Jeep brand head Mike Manley said last month that the brand was on track for a fifth consecutive record in 2016.

Read More: http://www.autonews.com/article/20160711/OEM/307119939/jeeps-heroic-75-year-campaign

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Intel CEO Brian Krzanich BMW CEO Harald Krueger and Mobileye CTO Amnon Shashua recently announced a collaboration to bring solutions for fully automated driving into series production by 2021. A version of this essay was originally published at Tech.pinions a website dedicated to informed opinions insight and perspective on the tech industry. And so it has begun. With the announcement late last week by BMW Intel and Mobileye of a new reference platform for autonomous cars expected to be available in model year 2021 vehicles the battle lines are being drawn for what promises to be one of the most interesting tech industry developments in the next several years. Automakers are extremely concerned about how the partnerships they need to match these new requirements could lead to a loss of control or at least a major decline in customer influence. On the one side you have tech giants Apple and Google which also happen to be the two most valuable companies in the world. Either openly or in secret theyre working to create automotive platforms and possibly even cars themselves leveraging their software and user experience expertise. On the other you have the automakers several of whom used to be among the list of the worlds largest companies. As a group they are painfully aware of how critical technology has become in the car purchasing process yet they are extremely concerned about how the partnerships they need to match these new requirements could lead to a loss of control or at least a major decline in customer influence. In the middle you have a range of the most important and/or most innovative semiconductor companies names like Intel Nvidia Qualcomm and ARM hungry for a new growth market and eager to cash in on what many expect to be one of the strongest segments of the tech hardware economy for the next decade. Topping off this tasty automotive tech sandwich are some of the first widespread deployments of cutting-edge technologies like deep learning neural networks artificial intelligence and advanced connectivity technologies (think 5G) all of which are necessary to make the promise of truly autonomous cars a reality. Toss in the disruptive business model innovations of ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft and things start to get even more interesting. Add in the political and regulatory intrigue bound to impact the market as a result of the unfortunate first accidental death of a driver using an autonomous driving feature on a Tesla Model S and its not hard to imagine the screenplay of a movie thriller nearly writing itself. From a platform and technology perspective this battle will have several different fronts. The two main campaigns will likely focus on a cars infotainment system and its autonomous driving capabilities. The truth is cars have grown into enormously complex devices (see this recent column I wrote for USA Today for more) but these two separate systems are seen as the crown jewels of automotive tech. The two main campaigns will likely focus on a cars infotainment system and its autonomous driving capabilities. While infotainment used to essentially mean the car radio and navigation system it has blossomed into the cars entire interface. Everything from the cars internal app platform to heads-up displays interactive gauges comfort controls driving assistance features and more is shown to the cars occupants through the various displays and components that make up todays advanced infotainment systems. At the moment Apples CarPlay and Googles Android Auto are staking out a portion of the infotainment software experience although not all of its expanded reach. For obvious reasons carmakers have been reluctant to give over the entire user experience to the tech giants. Underneath the hood of the infotainment system companies like Nvidia Qualcomm and Intel and ARM licensees such as Renesas STMicro and TI have all provided semiconductor components that are driving the infotainment experience. Given the increasingly visual nature of these elements expect to see a lot more discussion around car-based graphics. The autonomous driving capabilities are being handled through a combination of different elements some of which are on the car and some of which are expected to be delivered via the cloud. Last weeks BMW/Intel/Mobileye announcement for example leverages the sensor fusion and machine vision experience from Mobileye on the car while also using local Intel CPUs and a connection to an Intel-driven cloud computing resource running deep learning and neural network applications. Read More:http://www.recode.net/2016/7/7/12107608/car-wars-automous-automotive-tech-intel-mobileye Contact us anytime for a cash for cars quote The post Car wars: The battle for automotive tech appeared first on http://limerick.cashforcarsireland.com/ via Cash For Cars - Locations http://limerick.cashforcarsireland.com/car-wars-the-battle-for-automotive-tech/

Facing increased scrutiny recently about the safety of the Autopilot feature on his company’s cars, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk over the weekend hinted at a coming announcement about a “Top Secret Tesla Masterplan, Part 2.”

Tesla Motors’ original master plan was detailed by Musk in a 2006 blog post describing his goal to “help expedite the move from a mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy towards a solar electric economy.” In a tweet yesterday morning, Musk said he hoped to publish an update to the plan “later this week.”

Earlier this month, news emerged that a 2015 Tesla Model S was linked to the first known fatal crash involving self-driving car technology, prompting some calls for Tesla to disable the feature. And a Tesla proposal announced last month to acquire the solar energy company SolarCity, co-founded by two of Musk’s cousins and chaired by Musk, has also been criticized in light of Tesla’s and SolarCity’s huge debts.

Musk, who also leads the space transport company SpaceX, has a reputation as a technology visionary. However, he has also been criticized for overpromising and under-delivering, especially on his pledge to produce an affordable, mass-market electric car. Tesla has yet to do so, and its role in last month’s fatal crash of an Ohio man has raised new questions about the safety of its technology.

Customers as ‘Guinea Pigs’

Following news of the May 7 death of Tesla owner Joshua D. Brown, 40, in a collision with a truck in Florida, the advocacy organization Consumer Watchdog published an open letter to Musk calling on his company to disable the self-driving Autopilot feature on its cars immediately until it can be shown to meet highway safety standards.

“One of the most troubling aspects of Tesla’s deployment of autopilot is the decision to make the feature available in so-called Beta mode,” according to the letter. “That’s an admission it’s not ready for prime time. Beta installations can make sense with software such as an email service; they are unconscionable with systems that can prove fatal when something goes wrong. You are in effect using your customers as human guinea pigs.”

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is investigating the accident involving Brown’s 2015 Tesla Model S, which was reportedly using the Autopilot feature when it drove under an 18-wheel semi-trailer truck that had passed in front of it. The agency is also looking into a July 1 incident in which a Tesla Model X drove into a concrete median barrier in Pennsylvania.

A spokesperson for the NHTSA told us today that the agency’s Office of Defects Investigation is opening up a preliminary evaluation of the design and performance of automated driving systems in the Tesla Model S. She said the agency is also collecting information from the Pennsylvania State Police, Tesla and the driver of the vehicle involved in the July 1 crash to determine whether the Autopilot feature was activated at the time.

“The opening of the Preliminary Evaluation should not be construed as a finding that the Office of Defects Investigation believes there is either a presence or absence of a defect in the subject vehicles,” the spokesperson added.

Autopilot Finger-Pointing

Released Thursday, the Consumer Watchdog’s letter also took Tesla to task for an “emerging pattern of blaming victims” involved in crashes of its vehicles. It pointed to a June 30 blog post on Tesla’s Web site that described Autopilot as “as assist feature that requires you to keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times.”

The Consumer Watchdog letter also pointed to Tesla’s response to the non-fatal July 1 crash that stated: “Based on the information we have now, we have no reason to believe that Autopilot had anything to do with this accident.” Such statements show that Tesla is not willing to assume responsibility when Autopilot fails, according to the watchdog group.

In addition to its investigations of the two recent Tesla crashes, the NHTSA is also looking into 20 complaints from owners of 2016 Tesla Model S and 2016 Tesla Model X vehicles. They include several reports expressing concern about the safety of the Autopilot feature, along with complaints about stalling, unintended acceleration and battery problems.

Read More: http://www.toptechnews.com/article/index.php?story_id=030000XSE5BO

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CARMEL, Calif. — The redesigned 2017 E-class sedan is a snapshot into the future of driving. Or, rather, not driving.

Its driver-assistance technology can practically take over the vehicle in a traffic jam. It can steer, change lanes and stop on its own. It allows up to a minute of hands-free driving.

While it has limitations — a driver still must be ready to take the wheel at a moment’s notice — the semiautonomous features are the most advanced in a production vehicle from Mercedes-Benz, a leader in self-driving car developments. The advances pioneered in the 2017 E class, the 10th generation of the vehicle, will trickle down to lower cost Mercedes models and tick up to the flagship S-class sedan. Mercedes executives expect the advances to influence vehicles by other automakers, too.

“Every generation of the E class has had something in common in that it has contributed something significant not just to the brand but to the entire industry,” said Bart Herring, general manager of product management for Mercedes-Benz USA, at a media event here. “That doesn’t change here. What’s new with the E class? Everything, all the way down to the key design.”

But it’s the suite of advanced driver-assistance technology that is the game changer in the E class, Herring said. For the first time, the brand has a 360-degree sensor array around the car using both radar and forward-facing cameras.

“All these things work together, and, in a sense, they’re eyes and ears supplementing the eyes and ears of the driver,” he said. “It’s some really great technology to not only keep you safe but to keep you comfortable — because what we’ve found is a stress-free driver is actually a better driver.”

Next-generation assistance and safety systems that are standard in the 2017 E class include:

• Pre-Safe Sound: If a potential collision is detected, the car emits an interference signal through the sound system that triggers a protective human reflex in the inner ear called the stapedius reflex. It protects the occupants’ hearing by preparing their ears for the sound of the accident.

• Active Brake Assist: It recognizes pedestrians, warns the driver of impending crashes, boosts braking power during an emergency and can even apply brakes automatically, if necessary.

Optional technologies include:

• Drive Pilot: This package includes an advanced adaptive cruise control that can, for the first time, follow traffic in front at speeds up to 130 mph. Steering Pilot helps the vehicle steer when it’s in this mode. Active Lane-Change Assist is available for the first time. It will move the vehicle into an unoccupied lane on multilane roads once a driver has signaled a turn for at least 2 seconds. The lane-change feature is available at launch in the U.S., a change from what was said at the vehicle’s reveal in January, when executives expected it to arrive sometime after the initial on-sale date.

• Active Brake Assist with cross-traffic function:This has been improved to make it possible to completely avoid accidents at speeds up to 43 mph or substantially reduce the severity at higher speeds.

• Evasive Steering Assist: This adds steering torque to help a driver performing an evasive maneuver avoid the accident and straighten the car back out safely.

• Pre-Safe Impulse Side: When an imminent side-impact crash is detected, this inflates an air chamber in the side bolster of the front seat to push front-seat occupants toward the center of the vehicle and away from the impact.

• New features in use in other markets but not available immediately in the U.S. include:

• Car-to-X communication: This will come later to the 2017 model in the U.S., hopefully 60 days after launch, executives say. It will allow the E class to exchange information with vehicles far beyond the E-class driver’s line of vision, meaning earlier warnings in dangerous situations.

• Remote Parking Pilot: This allows the vehicle to be moved in and out of garages and parking spaces remotely using a smartphone app. Even though the hardware is already on the car, the feature is being held up by the regulatory environment in the U.S.

“We’re hoping maybe by next model year,” Herring said. “It’s new. We’re not getting a no. We’re getting a “We’re not sure yet.’ That’s almost tougher because they’re seeing it for the first time and then, like a lot of technology, our regulatory bodies are still saying, “Let’s think a little more about that.'”

TOKYO — Mitsubishi is dangling a new “high-end SUV coupe” concept to showcase a new direction in design and product.

The Ground Tourer Concept will debut at this autumn’s Paris auto show. A teaser photo of the coupe-styled utility vehicle shows a low-riding body with a narrow greenhouse, muscular fender molding and a steeply raked, sporty fastback rear end.

Mitsubishi said the Ground Tourer Concept will be equipped with the company’s plug-in hybrid electric drivetrain.

Mitsubishi touts the concept as the latest expression of its push to become a pure SUV player, as the Japanese carmaker tries to build a comeback around its traditional strength in utility vehicles such as the Pajero and Outlander.

The arrival of a top-end SUV could help freshen a U.S. lineup that has withered since Mitsubishi dropped the Galant sedan and Eclipse coupe

SEATTLE — Carbon-fiber body panels or trim pieces on a breathtakingly expensive supercar like a Lamborghini are old hat.

But carbon-fiber connecting rods in the engine? Now that’s exotic.

Such an advance is one of several carbon-based technologies Lamborghini is exploring at its new Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory here. The 8,000-square-foot shop opened last month, with Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali on hand for the ribbon cutting.

“These materials, this research represents the future of our automotive vision,” Domenicali told the gathered crowd.

That vision includes using carbon connectors rather than steel, cutting their weight between 40 and 50 percent. Using them in a V-12 engine would have many benefits, including noticeably improved power and acceleration.

Lamborghini’s goal is to have the world’s first production car with carbon connectors, the automaker’s head of r&d, Maurizio Reggiani, toldAutomotive News.

“I [hope] that in one, one-and-a-half years, we are able to finish development and say this can be a part that can be in the future in the engine,” Reggiani said. “I hope that we are able to have something in production soon.”

Such a feature would be viable in the Aventador’s successor, Reggiani confirmed. That car will be introduced in 2020 or 2021, Domenicali toldAutomotive News.

The rods themselves are made from forged composite, a cornerstone of Lamborghini’s Seattle outfit.

This technique moves beyond the traditional methods of using resin-reinforced, or “prepreg,” carbon-fiber cloth hand-pressed into molds and baked, or resin transfer molding, which injects the resin into the mold under high pressure, as McLaren uses for the tubs of its supercars.

Instead, forged composites simply take a premixed lump of carbon fibers and resin, drop it into a steel mold and apply gobs of heat and pressure. Three minutes later, a piece ready for finishing, a drastic reduction from the 12-hour and 3-hour cycle times of prepreg and resin transfer molding, respectively.

It was this construction method that Lamborghini used on 80 percent of its wild Sesto Elemento supercar in 2010.

While the bulk of Lamborghini’s r&d is done back at home base in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy, its nimble, six-person Seattle operation is there to “intercept new ideas and concepts,” said Paolo Feraboli, director of the lab.

“What’s unique about this facility is we go from making to testing to designing quickly,” Feraboli said. “It’s what we call a shrunk-down version of a company like Boeing.”

Charles01 / WikipediaChryslerJeep Cherokee Think this impossible? Last year Wired wrote about a couple of hackers remotely disabling a Chrysler Jeep Cherokee while it was heading down a freeway at 70 miles per hour. The hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek revealed more details in a subsequent presentation at Black Hat USA 2015 a month later. It turns out that their first point of entry into the Jeeps control system was via the Wi-Fi service of the vehicles multimedia system. Sadly cracking its security wasnt that hard: they used a 2014 Jeep Cherokee that was equipped with a Harman-Kardon head unit that controls the central display and entertainment system. Initially they hacked this unit through Wi-Fi (the unit provides a Wi-Fi hotspot for passengers to use) but soon were able to tap into it through its cellular connection which goes over Sprints wireless network. The hackers then connected from the head unit to the cars CAN bus (the command and control system used in many modern vehicles) via a another device a V850 processor which was only configured to only listen to CAN bus traffic. This however didnt stop the hackers because the processor wasnt configured to be secure so they were able to reflash its operating system so that the processor could then both send and receive CAN bus messages thus they: had full access to the cars CAN bus and thus could manipulate almost everythinglocks brakes transmission even take control of steering at low speeds. The subsequent paper by Miller and Valasek Remote Exploitation of an Unaltered Passenger Vehicle goes into to even more detail on how the hack was engineered and they note: The Harman Uconnect system is not limited to the Jeep Cherokee and is quite common in the ChryslerFiat line of automobiles and even looks to make an appearance in the Ferrari California! This means that while the cyber physical aspects of this paper are limited to a 2014 Jeep Cherokee the Uconnect vulnerabilities and information is relevant to any vehicle that includes the system. Therefore the amount of vulnerable vehicles on the road increases dramatically. After the Wired article Fiat Chrysler engineered a patch for the system and Sprint blocked cellular IP access but the Wi-Fi access vulnerability still remained in roughly 1.4 million Fiat Chrysler vehicle. The affected models were: 2013-2015 MY Dodge Viper specialty vehicles 2013-2015 Ram 1500 2500 and 3500 pickups 2013-2015 Ram 3500 4500 5500 Chassis Cabs 2014-2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Cherokee SUVs 2014-2015 Dodge Durango SUVs 2015 MY Chrysler 200 Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger sedans 2015 Dodge Challenger Sports coupes Despite Fiat Chrysler issuing a recall last year there are still millions of cars on the road that havent been patched and while no immediate threats have identified or exploits seen in the wild the vulnerability should still be a serious concern to car owners. Read More:http://www.networkworld.com/article/3091126/security/automotive-cybersecurity-what-we-dont-hack-will-probably-be-used-to-kill-us.html Feel free to contact us via our cash for carswebsite if you are interested in getting a quote The post Automotive cybersecurity appeared first on http://galway.cashforcarsireland.com/ via Cash For Cars - Locations http://galway.cashforcarsireland.com/automotive-cybersecurity/