No one likes potholes, and with infrastructure spending still a low priority, they’re only likely to become more numerous. Now Jaguar Land Rover is experimenting with tech that could make potholes less painful.
The British company is looking into using connected-car hardware to allow individual cars to detect potholes, broken drains, and manhole covers, and then pass that information along to other vehicles and those responsible for road maintenance.
If drivers are warned of potholes by other vehicles, they have a chance to slow down and prepare to avoid them. Future vehicles could even adjust their suspension settings in anticipation of a bump, Jaguar Land Rover suggests.
The prototype system builds on sensors used for the MagneRide active suspension in the Land Rover Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport. These sensors monitor motion and suspension-height changes to asses the state of a given surface, and adjust suspension firmness accordingly.
The next stage, Jaguar Land Rover says, involves installing additional equipment in a test vehicle. that includes a forward-facing stereo camera, to help scan the road ahead.
This ability represents a milestone on the road to a fully-autonomous car, Jaguar Land Rover connected-car czar Dr. Mike Bell said. However, the ability to communicate with other vehicles also represents a step toward the “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) systems that have won favor with some safety advocates, including the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Jaguar Land Rover will also work with the Coventry (U.K.) City Council to determine how data collected by individual cars could be shared with and utilized by road authorities.
The company believes its prototype camera could take pictures of potholes and send them to officials with GPS tags, potentially helping to alert them of problems and prioritize repairs.
It’ll also save drivers the trouble of writing an angry e-mail to their local government official after smashing a wheel or blowing out a tire on a particularly nasty pothole.
Volkswagen’s newest EVs in China are making its American and European models look unusually conservative.
With Xpeng’s help, VW has introduced 800-volt charging and advanced urban driving assistance. The new VEGA technology package brings its locally developed vehicle platforms and CEA electronic architecture under one umbrella. Bloomberg reports that Volkswagen intends to update VEGA every three months. Western buyers can find pieces of that package, but not the whole thing in a Volkswagen.
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?