2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Shelby-badged Ford Mustang, the 1965 GT350. With an all-new Mustang having hit the streets last fall, 50 years after the original, the first true GT350 since the 1960s is now in the final stages of development and it promises to be truer to the spirit of that first model than any of the cars to wear that badge since.
Since Sunday’s announcement in Shanghai of the Cadillac CT6 plug-in hybrid, there has been some interesting discussion and speculation about how far the car will go on a full charge of its battery and what sort of energy efficiency it will achieve. Cadillac and GM officials have declined to get specific about technical details beyond the limited information in the U.S. press release. However, the release on GM’s Chinese media site lists 37 miles. Let’s take a look at where the EPA estimate will likely end up.
As we saw so clearly at this year’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit, any brand that wants to stay competitive in the premium vehicle segments needs to aggressively adopt electrified powertrains. At the Shanghai Motor Show today, Cadillac joined the crowd that already includes Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. GM’s top brand already revealed the full-size CT6 luxury sedan with conventional gasoline powertrains a few weeks ago at its new hometown show in New York. In China, Cadillac president Johan de Nysschen is highlighting a new plug-in hybrid powertrain that will in all likelihood find a home throughout most of the brand’s lineup.
For those like that are enthusiastic about automobiles and driving, we are truly in a golden age right now. From hot hatches like the VW GTI and Ford Fiesta ST although up to the current crop of supercars, there is something for everyone including the classic muscle car. But unlike the original muscle cars of the 1960s that could barely traverse a frost heave without getting all sideways, today’s breed like the 2015 Dodge Charger R/T have better performance while being absolutely liveable as daily drivers.
It goes without saying that the current-generation Chevrolet Malibu has been something of a disappointment. Almost as soon as the Malibu hit the streets in late 2011, Chevrolet engineers began work on an all-new next-generation model that goes on sale this fall. While full details of the Chevy’s new midsize sedan will have to wait until next week’s New York Auto Show, I can now tell you about the all-new hybrid powertrain that will be available.
Over the last couple of days I’ve been having some further discussions with people about what sort of car Apple might create if indeed they are developing one. As I said in my first post on the topic the other day, if Apple is going to build a vehicle, it will almost certainly be a premium EV in direct competition with the Tesla Model S and Model X. For any company getting into building cars for the first time today, this is probably the only rational course.
A major component of the investment in developing a vehicle is the powertrain and for internal combustion engines, that is a huge differentiator with different manufacturers having decidedly different characters. In its existing businesses, Apple contracts with other companies like Foxconn and Samsung to do all the actual production and they likely would for a car which I’ll come back to. For most of the important parts that are actual product differentiators like processors and fingerprint sensors, Apple does the design work in-house and only them manufactured to their specifications. They generally don’t like to licence these components.
In recent days, the speculation that Apple, Inc. has embarked on an effort to develop and produce cars has blown up all over the internet. If indeed Apple is doing this, they come at this market segment as the industry may be entering the most transformational period in its near 130 year history. I believe Apple can do some very interesting things in this field in the near term, but it’s not at all clear if the company behind the Mac and iPhone has the traits to succeed in the long run. Even if Apple does succeed in the near-term, Tesla is likely to be the first automaker to feel the pain.
The auto industry is scrambling right now to develop future cars capable of driving themselves, taking the humans completely out of the loop. As I’ve discussed previously, there are still a great many technical issues to resolve before we can turn over full control of our mobility needs to sensors, actuators and algorithms. It may in fact be decades before we have fully autonomous general purpose vehicles that can go anywhere.The era of personal vehicle ownership may be coming to an end
“Boss” the autonomous Chevrolet Tahoe developed by General Motors and Carnegie Mellon University that won the 2007 DARPA Urban Challange
Over the course of the past 30 years, I’ve come to know and respect many engineers and noticed an interesting dichotomy among many of those that work in the field of transportation. They can be at once among the most optimistic and pessimistic people I’ve known. Engineering is all about applying science and technology to develop creative solutions to the problems we face on a daily basis.
Throughout most of human history, mobility often has been fraught with peril. Most of that time we have had to move on foot and while humans have some unique physical advantages such opposable thumbs and our ability to verbalize, we are sadly lacking in speed, strength and endurance compared to many other species. Despite that, we have used our ingenuity to develop tools and devices that enable us to get around more effectively.
Mockup of Google’s prototype low-speed autonomous car
Over the last several years, Google has made a lot of noise about its progress in developing self-driving cars. However, throughout that time one thing has remained absolutely consistent in all of their progress reports – the sun is always shining and the roads are clear and dry. Unlike the automakers based here in Michigan, Google exists in a seemingly magical environment that is rarely subject to the vagaries of weather. As I pumped some gas and cleaned the salt crust off my headlights the other day, I began to think about the autonomous vehicle prototypes I’ve seen recently.
Tech companies like Google are often accused of living in a bubble where they aren’t subject to the issues that we mere humans have to deal with on a daily basis. Rarely has this been more true than with autonomous vehicles, which Google thinks will be on the road in the next few years. I say fat chance.
I got my first hands-on experience in a vehicle with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Hyundai had a couple of new Sonatas equipped with a new Display Audio touchscreen head unit updated with the latest software to support the in-vehicle interfaces from Apple and Google. Recognizing that drivers increasingly rely on smartphones for entertainment and navigation, the Display Audio unit lacks both embedded navigation and a CD player, something that will likely become the norm in coming years.
The upcoming launch of Android Auto and CarPlay marks the most promising advance in infotainment systems since the January 2007 debut of Ford SYNC. Apple, Google and Microsoft have made tremendous progress in improving mobile device interfaces and capabilities since the reveal of the iPhone which came just two days after SYNC. Unfortunately, for the most part, automakers are still doing a pretty miserable job of designing the interfaces of their built-in infotainment systems but Google and Apple are hoping to fix that.
From the perspective of the automakers, both CarPlay and Android Auto actually function in a pretty similar fashion. In the case of Hyundai, when an Android or iPhone are plugged into the USB port, a corresponding icon appears on the center screen. Tapping this icon, brings up the CarPlay or Android interface. In order for this to happen, automaker engineers have to add some code to their head unit that acts kind of like device drivers on a computer. The software translates the respective control inputs available in that vehicle into standard signals for the respective mobile operating system.
Whether the car has a capacitive or resistive touchscreen or a remote control device with a non-touch screen, this abstraction layer of software translates the hardware signals and sends the the same messages to the phone. This way, the mobile device doesn’t really have know anything about the vehicle hardware and app developers only have to deal with the Apple or Android extensions once instead of coding for every automotive brand. Voice inputs are also redirected to the phone for interpretation by Siri or Google voice actions rather than whatever is built into the vehicle.
Once the mobile interface is activated, the phone and the cloud actually handle all of the hard work. The interface is generated by the phone and projected to the car display which is why both systems need to be connected via USB instead of Bluetooth.
For iPhone users
CarPlay produces a simplified version of the traditional iPhone interface with each page containing a grid of eight large icons on a black background and a visual representation of the home button that can be used to trigger Siri. Most of the currently available apps are default Apple apps including music, podcasts, Apple maps and messages although the usual suspect third-parties like Pandora and iHeartRadio are on hand as well. Switching apps or making a call requires a tap of the home button, just like the phone. A long press on the home button triggers Siri and whatever you say is sent directly to the phone via the built-in microphone in the car.
Overall the interface worked smoothly although the iPhone that was connected in the Sonata seemed to struggle to get a good data connection from the Hyundai stand which was centrally located in Cobo Center. That made it difficult for Siri to process queries and maps would only half load. Songs that were locally stored on the phone had no trouble playing.
For Robot fans
Android Auto brings up a Google Now style card interface that will be instantly familiar to Android users. The car screen gets the same stylized background images that appear on the phone’s Now screen. A persistent strip along the bottom of the screen includes icons that take you directly to Google Maps, home, phone, messaging apps and audio apps. Tapping the directions icon triggers navigation via the maps available through the phone. The headphone icon brings up a list of cards with links to each of the approved audio apps which includes Google Play Music, PocketCasts and more. Acceptable messaging apps will read out incoming messages and allow replies by voice input.
Like CarPlay, Android Auto ran smoothly powered by a year-old Nexus 5 phone. The Nexus had no connectivity issues and the engineer I sat with was able to to demo the sort of contextual voice search Google showed at last year’s I/O developer conference. While sitting in a car in downtown Detroit, he asked Google how the weather was in San Diego. After the response he asked “what are the hours of the zoo?” without specifying a location. Rather than giving the hours of the nearby Detroit Zoo, Android Auto read out the hours of the San Diego zoo and provided a link to directions.
Beyond just having a clean responsive interface, this ability to anticipate what information will need next based on what has been said, where the vehicle is or what time of day it is, can enable Android Auto to dramatically reduce the mental workload on the driver and minimize distraction on the road. Currently, Google is only supporting third-party apps for audio and messaging although additional categories such as other navigation apps are likely to be included at some future date.
Hyundai did acknowledge that automakers will have some influence over what apps are allowed to appear in the two competing car interfaces. Google was not yet ready to announce exactly what the process would be for these approvals although it will presumably happen through the Open Automotive Alliance which was announced at the 2014 International CES. Apple has not responded to any request for comment on the topic but they will likely maintain tight control over the app approval process just as they do on mobile devices.
Both Apple and Google had hoped to get their systems into vehicles by the end of 2014 but the process of testing and validating software in vehicles and making sure it meets all of the regulatory requirements is far more stringent than for phones. Most major automakers have publicly announced plans to support both platforms and Hyundai said they should launch later this summer on the 2016 Sonata and other vehicles. Some 2015 models will also be able to get a software update to provide support.
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