It looks like Formula 1 underdogs Marussia have pulled themselves together in time to join the grid for this season’s opener in Australia.
In a report posted on the official F1 website, the team will start the season with an interim machine, something cobbled together primarily to meet FIA regulations. This at least gets them on the track and participating while they work on a more competitive car that they’ll introduce as the season progresses.
With this in place, the FIA formally approved their application to compete, something that looked nearly impossible a couple months ago when the company was in bankruptcy administration and begun to liquidate team assets. A principal investor, now revealed to be Ovo Energy founder Stephen Fitzpatrick, pulled the team from the brink.
Fitzpatrick allowed Marussia to avoid the fate of Caterham F1, a team which suffered similar financial issues, but failed to find rescue.
Despite all this official officialness, Marussia isn’t listed on the F1’s page of participating teams as either Marussia or their new name, Manor F1. As of yet, only one driver for the team has been announced, former reserve driver Will Stevens.
We’re glad to see things come together for the team, albeit hastily, in time for things to kick off at the Melbourne Gran Prix on March 15th and will be intrigued to see what the outcome of this off-season drama will be. Heck, as long as they’re pulling miracles of their hat, they might surprise us by scoring more than a couple points this season.
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.