With the entire Top Gear kerfuffle, arguably the best thing to come out of it was journalist and online video personality Chris Harris. Well, it seems that the heads at BBC see Harris’ appeal and have moved his show from the internet to cable television, at least in America.
BBC America has announced that Chris Harris on Cars will be coming to television this July, and will focus heavily on supercars.
In a press release, BBC America’s president, Sarah Barnett, stated that “Chris Harris on Cars is mischievous, insightful and downright entertaining; we think BBCA viewers will love it.” Harris also added “If wanton tire destruction, powerslides and continuous drooling over the world’s fastest and most expensive road racers like the Porsche 911 GT3RS or the Aston Martin GT12 is your thing — you could do considerably worse than watch me put them through their respective paces on track and road on BBC America.”
While exciting for fans that have wanted to see more of Harris behind the camera, the timing is a bit odd. The new rebooted Top Gear already features Harris. Not only does he do spots on Top Gear proper, but appears as host for the new spinoff, Top Gear: Extra. Considering that new host Chris Evans has decided to leave Top Gear after just one season, BBC could be trying to rear Harris up as the shows new poster boy.
Even more odd is the fact that this show is only coming to BBC America. It may be BBC wanting to test the waters with a considerably smaller American audience, or possibly not wanting to step on the toes of Top Gear.
Chris Harris on Cars is set to premiere this Monday, July 11, at 9PM EST and will go on for seven episodes.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.