Will Ford Have a Self-Driving Car?

Ford does not have an autonomous vehicle yet but is working on it. Ford is offering driver-assist systems (ADAS) in 2021 and 2022. The Ford driver assist is not an auto-pilot. Ford’s long-term plan is to produce driverless vehicles that focus on safety. Ford’s Co-Pilot 360 program differs from Tesla’s Autopilot in that it uses a driver-facing camera to …

Intel Announces 2022 IPO for its Self-Driving Car, Mobileye

On March 7, 2022, Intel’s Mobileye announced that it started preparing for an initial public offering of its self-driving car, Mobileye. Intel did not disclose the price range o number of shares in the IPO, which is under review by the SEC. Mobileye is sold today at several dealers across the country, including a few …

Tesla Pays Penalty for Violating the Clean Air Act

This week Tesla admitted that it violated the federal Clean Air Act while mixing the car coating chemicals and managing the storage tanks in its Fremont, CA facility. The EPA announced that Tesla will pay $ 275,000 in penalties. To avoid future penalties, Tesla will follow EPA standards that minimize hazardous pollutants leaking from its …

Ferrari’s Digital Transformation with Snapdragon/Qualcomm

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon logo made its debut on Ferrari’s single-seater F1-175 racing model on February 17, 2022. Earlier in February, both companies announced their partnership to bring a high-tech driving experience through the Snapdragon Digital Chassis which will connect Ferrari to the 5G technology. Ferrari’s new CEO Benedetto Vigna said that working with the Snapdragon processor will …

Electric Truck Brands Are Surprisingly Numerous

More people drive cars than trucks, but there are a lot of new truck manufacturers. Why is that? Here are some possible reasons: There are more small businesses than in the past It is stylish to drive a pickup Men like the macho aura Trucks don’t require the fancy trim that cars do

2022 Tesla, Mercedes Benz Start Marketing Level 2 Self-Driving Cars

In the United States, only Level 2 semi-automated cars are approved so far. Tesla and Mercedes now offer full Level 2 semi-automated cars with driver assist. Tesla’s price does not include the Level 2 option; however, if customers want cars with semi-automated features, Tesla offers the option to add full level-2 driver-assist software for an …

First Steps for Driverless Vehicles

For at least the last two decades people (almost always male) have been tinkering with a wide variety of designs of self-driving cars that they have been dreaming of starting at least two decades earlier. Tinkering continues to be a very challenging pursuit. Finally, in early 2020 there was a modest step forward, in the form of an autonomous …

MINI Cooper S. Owner’s Manual

We love our MINI Cooper S. But we don’t love their documentation. The main OWNER’S MANUAL was bad enough. And it took us many months just to get the supplement to its OWNER’S MANUAL, NAVIGATION, ENTERTAINMENT, COMMUNICATION. (Finally, a kind woman at the Santa Clara CA MINI dealer got a copy and sent it to …

Electric Cars are Revolutionizing the Automobile Industry

Although there has been some form of electric cars for several decades, recently the quest for lower-cost transportation and—for environmentalists—the pursuit of alternatives to fossil fuel has led to the growing popularity of electric cars. The leader today is Tesla, and its founder Elon Musk, who has just campaigned using the medium of “Battery Day”. He …

Our Unsuccessful Attempt to Buy an Electric Mini Cooper

Electric cars have been around since 1902 when the Studebaker Brothers started production of their Studebaker Electric. More than 100 years later, we were impressed with the Tesla electric car. We love our Mini Cooper S. When we bought it in 2019, we wanted to buy one that was powered by electricity instead of gasoline, …