Original Nintendo and Oldsmobile can be very nostalgic for very different reasons to very different people. One is an 8-bit legend, perhaps the most important gaming console of all time, while the other produced memorable vehicles like the Cutlass, 88, and Curved Dash Runabout over its 107-year tenure.
Today, we bring you a rare case of when these two titans combined, resulting in an odd mixture of retro-futurism and automotive ingenuity.
At Chicago Auto Show in January 1990, Oldsmobile debuted the Expression concept, a six-seat ‘sport sedan’ with a fiberglass body straight out of The Jetsons.
With its long rear overhang and extremely smooth lines, the Expression was a quite the sight to behold, but that’s just the beginning. Mounted in the vehicle’s swinging tailgate was an original Nintendo system (NES), along with two controllers, integrated mounting ports, and an onboard display.
Two rear-facing jump seats provided the theater for endless hours of road trip fun, but the tech offerings didn’t stop there. The Expression also featured a VCR, CD player, Navicar navigation system, CRT color monitor, Head-Up Display, hot/cold storage, vacuum cleaner, and something called a ‘hands-off cellular telephone.’
As Cars That Never Made It reports, Oldsmobile’s innovative concept unfortunately never saw production. That’s a real shame, because the Expression’s forward-thinking attitude wasn’t just relegated to infotainment technology. The car also equipped automatic rain-sensing wipers, four-wheel steering, a leather interior, and a 2.3-liter supercharged ‘Quad 4’ that produced 230 horsepower.
Oldsmobile may be gone now (its last model was produced in 2004), but the automaker’s quirkiness lives on in vehicles like this. So whether your walls were decorated with Legend of Zelda posters or Oldsmobile ‘Rocket’ ads as a kid, this eccentric concept has something for everybody.
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.