UK firms join to develop ‘world-leading’ EV powertrain

A new British consortium aims to design and develop a global-use, world-leading fully electric powertrain with funding from the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).  Led by GKN Automotive, a tier one electric vehicle driveline supplier, has joined up with Drive System Design and the University of Nottingham as part of the £8m project – doubled by… Continue reading UK firms join to develop ‘world-leading’ EV powertrain

Car industry: “Car.Software”: VW wants to bundle and expand software development

Electric car ID.3 from VW VW wants to bundle and expand software development. (Photo: AFP) DusseldorfVolkswagen wants to bundle and expand its software competences. In the new unit “Car.Software” more than 5000 digital experts should be summarized by 2025, announced VW on Tuesday. In the course of the increasing software share in the vehicles, by… Continue reading Car industry: “Car.Software”: VW wants to bundle and expand software development

Volkswagen aims to boost in-house software development to 60% by 2025

FILE PHOTO: The logo of Volkswagen carmaker is seen at the entrance of a showroom in Nice, France, April 8, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard/File Photo BERLIN (Reuters) – Volkswagen said on Tuesday it would put 5,000 digital experts into a new unit called “Car.Software” by 2025 as the German carmaker aims to develop at least 60%… Continue reading Volkswagen aims to boost in-house software development to 60% by 2025

Cars: Until the VW robot car it takes “a few more days”

Volkswagen has created a new board position: the software board. He sees the autonomous driving still in the distance. June 18, 2019, 7:45 am, Andreas Donath Volkswagen does not expect a quick break in autonomous driving (Image: Pexels /CC0 1.0) Tesla boss Elon Musk thinks autonomous driving is still in to be able to offer… Continue reading Cars: Until the VW robot car it takes “a few more days”

Why it did not work between Aurora and VW

Why did the startup Aurora and the manufacturer Volkswagen separate? Aurora In recent years, the media attention has often surfaced, mainly because of the many cooperation agreements. Autonomous parking of VW. Source: VW Aurora was founded by former professionals of Google (Chris Urmson), Tesla and Over founded and focuses on the provision of autonomous driving… Continue reading Why it did not work between Aurora and VW

Innoviz extends funding round to $170 million to bring its lidar tech to self-driving cars – TechCrunch

Just a few months ago, Innoviz became one of the better capitalized lidar startups when it announced it had raised $132 million in a Series C funding round. But that wouldn’t be the end of it. The company kept the funding doors propped open and ultimately captured another $38 million from investors. The round has… Continue reading Innoviz extends funding round to $170 million to bring its lidar tech to self-driving cars – TechCrunch

Volkswagen funds office in Germany for combating antisemitism – Jewish News

Volkswagen is joining with the Anti-Defamation League to fund a Berlin-based office that will research and combat antisemitism in Europe. “The initiative will focus on assessing the root causes of antisemitism, extremism, and bigotry in society and develop programs to counter it through advocacy and education,” ADL said in a release Tuesday. A spokesman for… Continue reading Volkswagen funds office in Germany for combating antisemitism – Jewish News

Byton M-Byte electric SUV: More interior photos, US timeline confirmed

While the upstart electric vehicle maker Byton hasn’t yet said much about how its $45,000 M-Byte electric SUV will be sold or serviced in the U.S. it’s confirmed that this vehicle, due next summer, will come with a standout feature atop its dash: a wider screen than you might have in your living room.

The huge 48-inch Shared Experience Display spans the width of its M-Byte’s dashboard and incorporates gesture controls plus individual zones for the driver and passenger, a companion touchscreen tablet built into the steering wheel, and facial recognition and directional microphones to help cater functions to each occupant.

Although that might sound more like the pipe-dream domain of concept cars, the interface will be included even in the base M-Byte costing around $45k. And last week, with the official opening of its Shanghai Design Studio, the company released a few more up-close images that confirm a series of standout details making it into the production version.

Byton concept, 2018 Consumer Electronics Show

Some of the pragmatic concessions—like climate control vents and some hard buttons―that Byton added to its prototype version of the M-Byte for its most recent showing, this January, carry through to the production version.

Byton notes that the front seats, which can rotate inward up to 12 degrees, have made it from the M-Byte Concept all the way through to the production model—although we would assume the rotation is for when you’re parked. In all, Byton claims that 90 percent of the concept car’s design was retained.

The pictures confirm that although climate controls are in a smaller screen at the front of the center console, physical buttons for the front and rear defroster/defogger are higher up in the middle of the dash, as are the shift buttons.

Headquarters of Byton electric-car company, Santa Clara, California

Byton has its headquarters in Nanjing, China, with offices in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. It retains an R&D center in Silicon Valley and its primary design and concept center in Munich, Germany.

When the Nanjing, China–built M-Byte shows up in the U.S., in mid-2020, according to the company, with a sales-and-service plan yet unannounced, it could slot into a compelling niche, costing tens of thousands less than alternatives from Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Jaguar but a whole size larger than the Tesla Model Y.

Byton M-Byte concept

Byton told Green Car Reports last week that “the current tariff situation has not impacted Byton’s production and delivery timeline.” In addition to the North American rollout in 2020, it plans to sell the M-Byte in China starting late this year and in Europe in late 2020, and a full reveal is likely this fall.

Audi strives for the patronage

‘,e.appendChild(e.resizeSensor),e.resizeSensor.offsetParent!==e&&(e.style.position=”relative”);var r,s,d,a,l=e.resizeSensor.childNodes[0],c=l.childNodes[0],u=e.resizeSensor.childNodes[1],h=e.offsetWidth,f=e.offsetHeight,m=function(){c.style.width=”100000px”,c.style.height=”100000px”,l.scrollLeft=1e5,l.scrollTop=1e5,u.scrollLeft=1e5,u.scrollTop=1e5};m();var p=function(){s=0,r&&(h=d,f=a,e.resizedAttached&&e.resizedAttached.call())},v=function(){d=e.offsetWidth,a=e.offsetHeight,(r=d!=h||a!=f)&&!s&&(s=t(p)),m()},y=function(e,t,n){e.attachEvent?e.attachEvent(“on”+t,n):e.addEventListener(t,n)};y(l,”scroll”,v),y(u,”scroll”,v)}}(e,o)}),this.detach=function(e){n.detach(i,e)}};return n.detach=function(t,n){e(t,function(e){e&&(e.resizedAttached&&”function”==typeof n&&(e.resizedAttached.remove(n),e.resizedAttached.length())||e.resizeSensor&&(e.contains(e.resizeSensor)&&e.removeChild(e.resizeSensor),delete e.resizeSensor,delete e.resizedAttached))})},n}),function(e,t){“function”==typeof define&&define.amd?define([“./ResizeSensor.js”],t):”object”==typeof exports?module.exports=t(require(“./ResizeSensor.js”)):(e.ElementQueries=t(e.ResizeSensor),e.ElementQueries.listen())}(“undefined”!=typeof window?window:this,function(e){var t=function(){function n(e){e||(e=document.documentElement);var t=window.getComputedStyle(e,null).fontSize;return parseFloat(t)||16}function i(e,t){var i=t.split(/d/),o=i[i.length-1];switch(t=parseFloat(t),o){case”px”:return t;case”em”:return t*n(e);case”rem”:return t*n();case”vw”:return t*document.documentElement.clientWidth/100;case”vh”:return t*document.documentElement.clientHeight/100;case”vmin”:case”vmax”:var r=document.documentElement.clientWidth/100,s=document.documentElement.clientHeight/100;return t*(0,Math[“vmin”===o?”min”:”max”])(r,s);default:return t}}function o(t,n){t.elementQueriesSetupInformation?t.elementQueriesSetupInformation.addOption(n):(t.elementQueriesSetupInformation=new function(e){this.element=e,this.options={};var t,n,o,r,s,d,a,l=0,c=0;this.addOption=function(e){var t=[e.mode,e.property,e.value].join(“,”);this.options[t]=e};var u=[“min-width”,”min-height”,”max-width”,”max-height”];this.call=function(){for(t in l=this.element.offsetWidth,c=this.element.offsetHeight,s={},this.options)this.options.hasOwnProperty(t)&&(n=this.options[t],o=i(this.element,n.value),r=”width”==n.property?l:c,a=n.mode+”-“+n.property,d=””,”min”!=n.mode||o>r||(d+=n.value),”max”!=n.mode||r>o||(d+=n.value),s[a]||(s[a]=””),d&&-1===(” “+s[a]+” “).indexOf(” “+d+” “)&&(s[a]+=” “+d));for(var e in u)u.hasOwnProperty(e)&&(s[u[e]]?this.element.setAttribute(u[e],s[u[e]].substr(1)):this.element.removeAttribute(u[e]))}}(t),t.elementQueriesSetupInformation.addOption(n),t.elementQueriesSensor=new e(t,function(){t.elementQueriesSetupInformation.call()})),t.elementQueriesSetupInformation.call(),l&&c.indexOf(t)o[e].minWidth&&(n=e);if(n||(n=s),d!=n)if(a[n])i[d].style.display=”none”,i[n].style.display=”block”,d=n;else{var l=new Image;l.onload=function(){i[n].src=r[n],i[d].style.display=”none”,i[n].style.display=”block”,a[n]=!0,d=n},l.src=r[n]}else i[n].src=r[n]}var i=[],o=[],r=[],s=0,d=-1,a=[];for(var u in t.children)if(t.children.hasOwnProperty(u)&&t.children[u].tagName&&”img”===t.children[u].tagName.toLowerCase()){i.push(t.children[u]);var h=t.children[u].getAttribute(“min-width”)||t.children[u].getAttribute(“data-min-width”),f=t.children[u].getAttribute(“data-src”)||t.children[u].getAttribute(“url”);r.push(f);var m={minWidth:h};o.push(m),h?t.children[u].style.display=”none”:(s=i.length-1,t.children[u].style.display=”block”)}d=s,t.resizeSensor=new e(t,n),n(),l&&c.push(t)}function d(e){var t,n,i,o,r,s;for(e=e.replace(/’/g,’”‘);null!==(t=h.exec(e));)for(n=t[1]+t[3],attrs=t[2];null!==(attrMatch=f.exec(attrs));)i=n,o=attrMatch[1],r=attrMatch[2],s=attrMatch[3],void 0===u[o]&&(u[o]={}),void 0===u[o][r]&&(u[o][r]={}),void 0===u[o][r][s]?u[o][r][s]=i:u[o][r][s]+=”,”+i}function… Continue reading Audi strives for the patronage

Algerian partner of Germany’s VW questioned in corruption case: State TV

Mourad Eulmi is the head of the Algerian family-owned firm SOVAC which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen AG. ALGIERS: Mourad Eulmi, the head of the Algerian family-owned firm SOVAC which runs an assembly plant with Germany’s Volkswagen AG, was questioned in court about corruption accusations on Sunday, state TV reported. Eulmi was arrested… Continue reading Algerian partner of Germany’s VW questioned in corruption case: State TV