Short torque

Tesla hastens toward hands-free

Elon Musk wants to put cars on an accelerated path to autonomous driving, equipping each new Tesla Motors model with the hardware needed for full self-driving capability. Every Tesla, including the upcoming Model 3 sedan, will ship with eight cameras and a dozen sensors to give them 360-degree visibility.

Drivers won't be able to let go of the steering wheel yet, but should be able to do so after a series of software refinements Tesla plans to make over time. Tesla plans to do a Los Angeles-to-New York drive "without the need for a single touch" by the end of 2017.

VW labor talks make progress

Volkswagen said management and labor representatives made significant progress toward an agreement to reduce costs and boost efficiency at its namesake passenger-car brand, but final details still need to be ironed out.

Both sides agree that the VW marque must "reinvent itself" to be competitive in the long run, the carmaker's management and works council said on Wednesday in a joint internal memo distributed to employees.

California self-drive rules opposed

Alphabet 's Google unit and automakers have objected to Californian proposals to set new, mandatory rules for testing autonomous driving cars in the state. Industry officials said the rules could hobble their efforts in self-driving vehicle testing and development.

Automakers and Google raised a litany of concerns about California's proposal at a hearing in Sacramento. They expressed opposition to the state proposal to require compliance with guidelines that federal regulators issued last month, but made voluntary.

They objected to a proposal they said would force a 12-month delay between testing a vehicle and deploying it on public roads.

LeEco's new car launch stalls

Chinese technology company LeEco on Wednesday made an inauspicious entry into the race to develop self-driving electric cars when its prototype car could not make it down the runway at an event.

Le Holdings's Chairman Jia Yueting said the misfire was caused by a delay getting the LeSee car prototype from London, where it is being used in the film Transformers 5, to San Francisco.

LeEco planned to unveil its self-driving car prototype as part of a splashy US launch for an array of technology products and services, including phones, televisions and entertainment production.

SAIC Volkswagen unveils Phideon

SAIC Volkswagen launched its full-size sedan Phideon on Friday.

Developed on the Audi A6 L platform, the car sports a 3-liter engine, which has a maximum output of 220 kilowatts, and finishes the sprint from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour in 6.3 seconds.

It measures 5,074 millimeters in length, 1,893 mm in width and 1,463 mm in height, with its wheelbase reaching 3,090 mm.

Its second-row seats feature electric heating, ventilation and massage functions.

Phideon brings many technological configurations to this segment for the first time, for example its night view system and adaptive air suspension.

Besides, 93 noise reduction and sound insulation measures, working with the nearly 5 mm-thick laminated glass, ensure a tranquil environment inside, so both the driver and passengers can fully enjoy the Dynaudio system.

Takata airbag causes 11th US death

The rupture of a recalled airbag made by the Japanese company Takata has been linked to an 11th US death, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Thursday.

The federal agency confirmed that a crash fatality in Riverside county, California, on September 30 was the latest of nearly a dozen US fatalities connected to the recalled airbags.

The woman was driving a 2001 Honda Civic, which the NHTSA said was included in the group of Honda and Acura vehicles the agency had identified as posing "substantially higher risk" - especially in hot and humid regions.

Tokyo-based Takata - which represents 20 percent of the global market for seatbelts and airbags - has been hammered by a defect in its airbag inflators linked to at least 15 deaths and scores of injuries worldwide.

About 100 million Takata airbags have been recalled, some 70 million in the US.

Motoring-Agencies

(China Daily 10/24/2016 page18)