Automotive Industry

critic points on new cars:

• Hiding critical/often-used buttons behind touchscreens for the sake of minimalism (and cost?)
• On that note, poor physical layout in general (genuinely thinking that you can rate cars’ on a “hazard-light-button-placement index”)
• YOUR LED LIGHTS ARE TOO BRIGHT GODDAMIT
• Cars are getting too big; why are manufacturers pushing “crossovers” and SUVs on consumers and why are consumers buying them? I could write pages on this point alone.
• Combine the two previous points for peak blindness
• “Low profile” rims/tyres/wheels/whatever: cost a fortune and more prone to getting scratched
• Subscription style plans trying to creep their way in
• ALL the privacy violations you could think of
• Rubbish software and UI all round: it’s 2024 and I dread it every time I need to pair my phone to a car
• That weird glossy pastel paintwork that’s so popular all of a sudden (I’m allowed one subjective point on here, OK?)

from: https://petargyurov.com/2024-01-14/cars-suck-man

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The world's biggest auto market also became the top auto exporter for the first time in 2023, with the CPCA announcing at a press conference that exports of cars jumped 62% to a record 3.83 million vehicles. Japanese customs data showed passenger car exports at 3.5 million for the first 11 months of the year, excluding second-hand vehicles.

Level 3 highly automated driving, which allows drivers to take their hands off the steering wheel and temporarily divert their attention away from the road, will soon be available in the new BMW 7 Series. BMW Personal Pilot L3 is the name of the new function that relieves the person at the wheel of the task of driving in certain situations and controls the car’s speed, distance to the vehicle ahead and lane positioning for them. This new option can be ordered for the new BMW 7 Series (excluding the i7 eDrive50 and i7 M70 xDrive)* from December to be fitted in vehicles from next March.

This new organization will offer a holistic truck and special vehicle portfolio out of one hand:

• Sensors and Electronics, incl. High Performance Computers
• Telematics units, Domain-Controllers, Electrification, Display-Technologies, ADAS Sensors and Systems and connected services
• Tachographs for serial and aftermarket needs
• Compliance and fleet management services

Lower-priced versions of the ID3, ID4 and ID5 are now available in France, Belgium, Norway and other European countries, as Volkswagen seeks to compete better with Tesla and other EV makers.

China’s BYD is poised to overtake Tesla as the world’s biggest electric vehicle seller. When it does – most likely in the current quarter – it will be yet another another sign of China’s growing clout in the automotive industry. Chinese automakers have long dominated the huge domestic market, but the country now rivals Japan as the world’s biggest car exporter, having overtaken Germany, South Korea, and the U.S. in recent years.

The brand, best known for manufacturing small passenger cars, has stopped output at all four of its Japanese factories as of Tuesday, including one at its headquarters in Osaka, a spokesperson told CNN.

The plant in the southern city of Szeged will produce EVs and plug-in hybrids for the European market and create thousands of jobs, BYD said Friday

End of 2026 instead of Jan 1.

Instead, the strategic focus and allocation of funds will shift to providing engineering services to customers and further developing the building blocks needed to advance autonomous driving. Existing partnerships and projects relating to the GRT shuttle will be continued as well as ZF Aftermarket activities.

The SAE J3400 North American Charging Standard (NACS) Electric Vehicle Coupler Technical Information Report’ was released less than six months after SAE announced that it would standardise the Tesla connector, finalising the standardisation process. The DoT commented that this happened with “unprecedented speed”.