Honda and Toyota Execs Concerned By EPA Regulatory Relaxation

The Environmental Protection Agency seems set to relax fuel economy standards, and high-ranking Honda and Toyota executives have reacted unexpectedly critically of the measure. Robert Bienenfield, a VP at American Honda Motors, complained that this was not what the automakers’ had asked for, and that the route the EPA was trying to take wasn’t sensible. Jim Lentz, chief executive of Toyota’s America branch, said state regulations stricter than the federal regulations could pose a “logistical nightmare.” The Obama-era target set all trucks and cars to achieve an average fuel economy of over 50 MPG, which automakers at the time argued was near impossible, due to the market’s appetite for SUVs and trucks.   A top executive at the Honda Motor Company says the expected relaxation of fuel efficiency standards by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not the "sensible" plan automakers requested. “We didn’t ask for that. The position we outlined was sensible," said Robert Bienenfeld, an assistant vice president at American Honda Motor, when asked by The New York Times about the new standards. The EPA is expected to declare within days that the fuel efficiency regulations on cars in the U.S. are too strict, and offer revisions for standards on greenhouse gas emissions enforced by the Department of Transportation. The EPA sent a draft of the 16-page revised plan to the White House for approval this week, according to The New York Times. Click Here to Continue Reading

Honda and Toyota Execs Concerned By EPA Regulatory Relaxation See more on: www.autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/honda-and-toyota-execs-concerned-by-epa-regulatory-relaxation/

2019 Subaru Forester Offers Facial Recognition Safety Software

It’s not just in your smartphone anymore; Subaru has announced it’s 2019 Forester will offer the “DriverFocus” facial recognition system, which will provide a number of different functions. The technology will be able to bind vehicle settings to up to five different drivers, which will likely include things like mirror angles and driver seat-pedal distance. Even more ambitiously, DriverFocus can also engage the EyeSight Driver Assist Technology, which can detect when the driver is feeling fatigue or distraction, and engage more safety suites like pre-collision braking and lane assist when appropriate.   Subaru’s newest vehicle offers an innovative new safety feature: Facial recognition.Facial Recognition Delivers Subaru SUV's Big New Safety Feature   The 2019 Subaru Forester uses the biometric technology to automatically look for signs of fatigue or distraction in the driver’s face. When such signs are identified by the ‘DriverFocus’ system, the car’s software can engage its EyeSight Driver Assist Technology, enabling things like adaptive cruise control, pre-collision breaking, lane assist, and so on, in addition to warning the driver of the danger. The biometric technology can also be used to automatically adjust vehicle settings, personalizing them for up to five different drivers of a given vehicle. This is a vehicular application of biometric technology that multiple firms have been exploring, though of course fatigue alert systems could ultimately prove more impactful for drivers and passengers alike. Click Here to Continue Reading

2019 Subaru Forester Offers Facial Recognition Safety Software was originally seen on autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/2019-subaru-forester-offers-facial-recognition-safety-software/

Thief Steals ‘00 Honda Civic With Forklift, Then Burns It

When Hawaii resident David Rose decided to work on a 2000 Honda Civic with his son as a project car, out of all the things that could go wrong, he probably didn’t count on a forklift thief lifting his car out of a parking lot. Friday afternoon, in less than a minute, an unidentified thief did exactly that. The villain didn’t stop with just a grand theft auto, but arson too; the car was later found stripped of parts and burned. Rose was devastated, saying that burning his car made it personal for him. Here’s hoping someone finds the thief and brings them to justice, Hawaii style.   The 2000 Honda Civic was a good if unsexy car, coming out in the model’s late middle years. Famously reliable, a lot of 2000 Honda Civics are still puttering around, too, like this one in Kalaeloa, Hawaii, that was viciously stolen Friday via a forklift. The car was a project car for David Rose and his son, Rose told KHON. It was taken in less than a minute. There’s a surprising amount of things going on in the surveillance video before a forklift enters the screen from the right around the 0:55 mark: Click Here to Continue Reading

Thief Steals ‘00 Honda Civic With Forklift, Then Burns It See more on: autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/thief-steals-00-honda-civic-with-forklift-then-burns-it/

Trump’s EPA Likely Rolling Back Fuel Economy Targets For Automakers

The Trump presidency has focused heavily on de-regulation of businesses, and it seems he’s keeping this philosophy in practice with the EPA. The agency looks set to roll back the Obama-era fuel economy and emissions target numbers that have set automakers on edge for years. While opposition was light at first, the target of a 54.5 MPG average fuel economy by 2025 slowly grew frustration, as the US auto market trended toward SUVs and trucks, which are notoriously heavy gas consumers. Agency chief Scott Pruitt is expected to reveal the replacement plan Tuesday.   This shouldn’t surprise anyone who has followed the Environmental Protection Agency under President Trump and agency chief Scott Pruitt, but it looks like a rollback of the aggressive Obama-era fuel economy and emissions targets are finally coming next week. The New York Times reports the plan is expected to be unveiled on Tuesday, and we don’t yet know the specifics of what Pruitt’s plan will entail, but it should address the requirement for automakers to basically double the average fuel economy of trucks and cars to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.   While automakers initially accepted these rules in the wake of the bailouts, they eventually balked at them, claiming they’d be nearly impossible to meet—especially in the current market that trends heavily toward SUVs and trucks. The rules also would have put the United States, historically a laggard in fuel economy regulations, at the forefront worldwide in the manufacture of electric and highly fuel efficient vehicles. Click Here to Continue Reading

Trump’s EPA Likely Rolling Back Fuel Economy Targets For Automakers Read more on: autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/trumps-epa-likely-rolling-back-fuel-economy-targets-for-automakers/

Volkswagen “Dieselgate” Cars Gathering Dust in Desert Lots

Volkswagen’s woes never seem to end after their disastrous brush with corruption; thousands of Volkswagen diesel cars implicated in the testing fiasco, bought back by Volkswagen as one option for their settlement with owners, are sitting in lots where they wait for the automaker to decide what to do with them. Volkswagen has a total of about 37 facilities in the United States where they are storing the diesel vehicles, including empty stretches of desert and a defunct paper mill.   Volkswagen's dieselgate fiasco has been one of the most infamous automotive scandals in modern times. After the German automaker was discovered to be using an emission defeat device with diesel cars sold around the world, it was hit with costs totaling more than $25 billion worldwide. Of that money, more than $7 billion has been spent buying back affected cars from the public; but where have they all gone? As part of the dieselgate settlement, owners could choose from three options to remedy their woes: Allow Volkswagen to modify the vehicle to become compliant with emission laws, terminate the lease on a leased vehicle, or simply sell the car back to Volkswagen for an agreed upon amount. The third option is what many owners and prospective entrepreneurs chose to do, earning back thousands of dollars due to the value of the affected vehicles plummeting for private sale. Click Here to Continue Reading

Volkswagen “Dieselgate” Cars Gathering Dust in Desert Lots Find more on: www.autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/volkswagen-dieselgate-cars-gathering-dust-in-desert-lots/

GM Self-Driving Car Gets A Traffic Ticket in California

General Motors got a nasty surprise when a San Francisco cop wrote the self-driving Cruise a ticket for getting too close to a pedestrian for comfort. The Cruise team claims that their car’s data shows the pedestrian was 10.8 feet from the car while the car was driving, and there was no indication that a safe-driving law was broken. This ticket comes one day after a Uber self-driving car fatally crashed in Tempe, Arizona.   A car from GM's self-driving car unit, Cruise, received a traffic ticket last week from a San Francisco police officer who said that a Cruise car drove uncomfortably close to a pedestrian. Cruise disputes the officer's accusation, saying that the vehicle stayed more than 10 feet away from the pedestrian.   The incident was first reported Tuesday by Jackie Ward, a reporter for the local CBS station in San Francisco. She was tipped off by a viewer, Kevin O’Connor, who snapped the above picture of the car being pulled over just a day after a fatal Uber self-driving car crash in Tempe, Arizona. "According to data collected by Cruise, the pedestrian was 10.8 feet away from the car," Ward says. The car was in self-driving mode and "it began to continue down Harrison at 14th St. Shortly after the car accelerated, the officer pulled it over." Click Here to Continue Ke image via KPIX/Kevin O'Connor

The featured blog post GM Self-Driving Car Gets A Traffic Ticket in California is courtesy of www.autonews.cardaddy.com

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/gm-self-driving-car-gets-a-traffic-ticket-in-california/

Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid Arrives In America After Wowing Europe

It’s not an exaggeration when Mitsubishi calls their Outlander the best-selling crossover vehicle in the world: they’ve sold over 100,000 units in Europe alone, have dominated that market in the plug-in hybrid niche, and has sold better than the Tesla Model X and any Chinese competitors. It has the longest electric range, has an all-wheel drive, and offers Level 3 fast charge. And it just dropped in America in March 2018. Time will tell if it will make the same impact on the American market as it did abroad.   Mitsubishi’s technology flagship, the Outlander plug-in hybrid, has arrived in the United States nearly five years after it was originally due. The vehicle itself might look rather dated (as does the rest of the Outlander lineup), but the technology within is most definitely not. As a testament to how far ahead of its time the Outlander PHEV was a half-decade ago, it remains the plug-in SUV with the longest electric range, the only plug-in hybrid from a nonluxury brand with all-wheel drive, and the only plug-in-hybrid model of any kind to offer Level 3 fast charging. So why hasn’t the Outlander PHEV been offered in America if it’s such hot stuff? Partly because Mitsubishi is a struggling carmaker trying to capitalize on a successful model. To paraphrase a former company spokesman, somewhat exasperated over several years of it’s-coming-next-year delays: Why sell them here when Mitsubishi is selling every one it can build, in Europe, at full price, where the company can get 10 grand more than it could in the U.S.? Click Here to Continue Reading

The featured blog post Mitsubishi Outlander Hybrid Arrives In America After Wowing Europe is available on CarDaddy

source https://autonews.cardaddy.com/mitsubishi-outlander-hybrid-arrives-in-america-after-wowing-europe/