A biweekly roundup of automotive news, good, bad and just plain weird:
Man dies while using Tesla’s Autopilot
The first death while using a fully autonomous car ... has yet to happen. Tesla’s so-called Autopilot feature isn’t fully autonomous at all: it’s just a driver’s assistance system that’s relatively advanced. It’s not fully realized yet, and Tesla themselves claim that it’s still in beta testing mode.
Sadly, one Tesla owner appears to have pushed the technology just a little too far. While some details can’t be confirmed, it would appear that Joshua Brown, a Tesla fan and early adopter, was killed when both he and his Model S’s driving systems failed to detect a tractor trailer turning in front of him. There is some evidence to suggest Mr. Brown was watching a video on a portable DVD player at the time of the collision. A brightly lit sky was blamed for the Tesla’s camera-based systems not seeing the trailer.
Anything involving Tesla makes for good headlines, and ditto autonomous cars. The thought that the two might have combined together to have killed someone was enough to send the automotive press into a frenzy.
Me? I was just sad. Mr. Brown likely wasn’t paying enough attention, something that’ll cause any number of deaths on our own roads this year, in regular old analogue cars. He’s not the first driver killed by overconfidence in his car, and he won’t be the last. He left a family behind, and he didn’t deserve to die.
Secondly, Tesla’s response to the accident was this embarrassingly over-defensive press release that spent four paragraphs talking about how dangerous regular driving is and how great the Model S normally is and how Brown would have had to check a dialogue box in order to activate Autopilot in the first place. Really? Do you carefully read every terms and conditions page?
They spent one brief, final paragraph acknowledging his family’s loss. In my opinion, it’s the only paragraph they should have released.
Many crossovers have poor headlights
From new technology to one of the oldest crash avoidance features in the world: the headlight. And, as it turns out, manufacturers aren’t any good at them either.
A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety rounded up 21 crossovers and tested their ability to cut through the night. One of the hottest market segments, crossovers like these are often a family choice, with many touting their crash-test ratings as proof of safety.
Using a test track at night, the IIHS set up sensor equipment to evaluate how much light is being outputted on straightaways and curves. Of the 21 tested, not a single one rated “good.”
Trucklets like the Ford Escape, Honda CR-V, and Tucson all rated acceptable, with the best performing being the Mazda CX-3 (specifically, the Touring trim). The Honda HR-V received the worst rating.
Being able to see things at night means you won’t run into them. This seems obvious, but it’s the position of the IIHS that manufacturers are skimping on the basics here, spending money on styling instead of function. Good news then that some car makers are already moving to improve the performance of their headlights. For instance, safety-conscious Subaru now offers curve-following adaptive headlights in high-trim models of their mainstay Forester.
2017 Hyundai Elantra comes gunning for VW
It seems bizarre to say it out loud, but I’m actually looking forward to driving this new version of the Hyundai Elantra, more so maybe than the next Audi or Mercedes. The Elantra compact sedan is a very capable little car, albeit one with an engine relentlessly tuned for economy first.
Now, the Koreans have gone all turbo-happy on it. Goody.
The Elantra Sport gets a 200 horsepower 1.6-litre turbocharged engine, suspension tuning, and your choice of either a genuine six-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed dual-clutch with paddle shifters. As the regular car’s chassis was already pretty good last time I zipped around some back roads in Sooke, this is pretty exciting news.
Exciting news about sporty Hyundais! Who’d have thought? The one question is whether or not they’ll have figured out the electric steering, which was more than a bit numb on the old car.
Chris Evans quits Top Gear
And on that bombshell, it’s time to rebuild the transmission. After a hit and miss season in which Matt LeBlanc turned out to be a surprisingly good host, the rebooted Top Gear franchise is losing its main presenter.
Presumably jumping before he was pushed, the abrasive Evans never quite gelled with audiences. His exit was a class act, however, wishing his co-hosts well, and calling his time on the show an honour and a privilege.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world waits for the other shoe to drop, with Clarkson, Hammond, and May’s new show, The Grand Tour, about to debut. Top Gear’s appeal was always more about mates mucking about than cars anyway. Next season will show who comes out on top.
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