A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
High speed chase involves drive-thru
This week’s dumb criminal story takes us to Arizona, where a white Chevy pickup is being pursued by the Phoenix police department. They’ve spotted the driver, realized he has outstanding warrants, and have dispatched undercover cars to tail him.
However, the alleged miscreant has wised to the cops’ tactics, and is dropping the hammer. He flees out of the city and up the valley, with the police sending a helicopter into the air to assist in the chase. Could he escape?
Turns out the suspect couldn’t outrun his taste for the sweet, sweet hamburgers from the In-N-Out chain. Pulling into the drive-thru mid-chase, the suspect was caught on camera by the helicopter as he ordered and drove up to the window.
Panic, however, seems to have overcome hunger pangs at the last minute, and the fugitive ended up speeding off before his food arrived. He ditched the truck, attempted to flee on foot, and eventually surrendered to police. In-N-Out is pretty good, by the way, but I’m not sure it’s worth risking prison for.
Underdog Maverick shows some heart
The annual aftermarket parts bonanza known as SEMA is hitting Las Vegas this week, showing off all kinds of modifications, many of them questionable at best. Giant rims, unreasonable exhaust systems, towering lift-kits for trucks that will never see so much as a gravel road: it’s all here, and a lot of it kinda sucks.
Amongst all the fakery, however, is something real. Fast & Furious star Sung Kang has brought along the Underdog Project, a souped-up Ford Maverick. It’s part of a Shell and Pennzoil-funded custom build that highlights the dreams of three teenage boys: Alexis Hernandez, Christian Quiroz, and Tony Chen.
The Maverick is not what you’d call an obvious choice for a build. Intended as a smaller Mustang, it soldiered through the 1970s with reasonable sales, but never quite lit anyone’s imagination on fire. Still, it was built around the world (including here in Canada), and there are clubs with a soft spot for the little warrior.
In short, the Maverick is an underdog, and that’s the point of the project. The three young techs have swapped in a 2.3-litre Ford Ecoboost four-cylinder and tuned the Maverick to run with the SEMA big-budget builds. The car will be auctioned off after the show, and the funds will go to help pay for the boys’ vocational training.
It’s a feel-good story for the ages, and the kind of thing that shows there’s a future for automotive enthusiasm in the coming generations.
Tesla unveils solar roof tiles
From restoring the old ways to showing a new path forward, Tesla showed off their new solar-panel roof concept last weekend. The tiles, which look essentially identical to a conventional roof, are made of textured glass, and are capable of harnessing the sun’s energy to charge your home.
Being from North Vancouver, I needed to do some research. Turns out this “Sun” is a large, fiery ball of gas that you can occasionally see in the sky when it isn’t raining out. In some parts of the world, so it is said, the rain periodically stops. Yes, I know – I find it hard to believe myself.
Anyway, Tesla’s idea is to combine their roof with their new battery packs (now up to 14 kilowatt hours in size), to allow their owners to operate completely off the grid, charging their new Model3s right in the garage without paying a dime for electricity. It sounds like the total package, always assuming everything comes together without technical glitches.
As to cost, Elon Musk dropped the usual optimistic claim plus giant asterisk. “Installed cost is less than a normal roof,” he said, “and the cost of electricity.” This is something Tesla does on their website already: if you try to calculate your lease payment on a Model S, it gives you a payment based on “after gas savings.”
So, figure it’ll cost more than a roof, but potentially save you money on your hydro bill, certainly so in sunny California. In North Vancouver, where we’ve all grown gills, the benefits might have to wait until Tesla Solar Roof 2.0 or whatever.
Comma One abruptly cancels add-on
After receiving a letter from U.S.A.’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asking some fairly reasonable questions about their planned device, Comma One’s CEO George Hotz has elected to scrap the entire project and run off to China. It’s an unexpected twist in the development of what might have become the aftermarket’s first answer to the self-driving question.
Comma One is a device about the size of a paperback book (a normal one, not a George R.R. Martin doorstop). It has a screen on one side and two cameras on the back, and it can tie in to a Honda or Acura that’s equipped with the Honda Sensing package.
The idea was to create a plug and play semi-autonomous system that operates at the level of Tesla’s Autopilot system, capable of completing a drive without any input from the driver. If you’ve ever experienced traffic in and around Los Angeles, you can see why Comma One’s idea is pretty great: buy a new Civic, install device, turn your hellish commute into a productive or relaxing time.
The NHTSA, however, had some safety concerns about the Comma One, principally that people might not use the product as suggested – you’re supposed to still pay attention in case the device makes an error, or shuts off. Rather than respond to the regulators, Hotz announced cancellation of the Comma One via Twitter, and is now working on some undisclosed further project. He signed off indicating he was in China already.
So, no budget-grade Tesla for buyers yet. However, given the way SEMA continues to grow, don’t be surprised if Comma Two shows up in a couple of years.
Watch this space for all the best and worst of automotive news, or submit your own auto oddities to [email protected].
