Autos
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Hyundai TIGER X-1 UMV Is the Ultimate Walking, Wheeled Delivery Drone
Hyundai made waves in 2019 with its CES showing of the Elevate concept—an “Ultimate Mobility Vehicle” that featured motorized wheels attached to five-jointed “legs” that enabled it to walk and climb, as well as drive. The best-known walking vehicles in our collective consciousness are those wielded by the evil Empire in the Star Wars movies, so think of this one as a much smaller, nimbler, more agile, friendlier version of an All-Terrain Armored Transport “Walker”—but the “feet” are swapped for electrically powered wheels. Hyundai has continued working on the Elevate concept and recently gave us a progress report. See all 6 photos CRADLE to New Horizons The Elevate UMV (pictured above) was born in Hyundai’s Center for Robotic-Augmented ...
Cylinder-Deactivation Tech Is Coming to Electric Motors (Really!)
This concept, developed by Tula Technologies and which we covered in depth a few years back, intriguingly can be applied to electric motors—which use neither spark plugs nor valves—and could unlock the potential of cheaper, more sustainable rare-earth-free motors. The concept for both DFM and Tula’s new Dynamic Motor Drive is that whenever a powertrain operates at lower overall efficiency (say, eight cylinders doing the work of two while loafing along), you’re better off making two cylinders work harder and giving the rest a break. With two cylinders at wide-open throttle and the rest bouncing along as air springs, the engine needn’t struggle to suck two cylinders’ worth of air past a closed throttle plate, and it also loses less energy to the exhaust and coolant. S...
Ford Bronco Sport’s Accessory Packs Optimize the SUV for Biking, Camping, Boating, and More
A catalog of hundreds of Ford Bronco accessories recently leaked its way onto the internet courtesy of a Bronco enthusiast forum. Now, news of accessory packs for the smaller Bronco Sport has made its way onto the web, too—but this time the announcement comes from Ford itself, all official-like. The five new dealer-installed Bronco Sport accessory packs make heading off the beaten path, storing stuff, or looking cool more convenient. Okay, so the accessories for maximizing storage space and livability aren’t cool in the same sense as, say, stuff designed to bolster the Bronco Sport’s off-road prowess. That said, organization gets some folks going, and these Ford accessories are here for those people. There is the “Bike” accessory pack that’s for, wel...
The Perfect Kia Soul? We Combine the Best Bits from Every Trim Level
Kia Soul Full Overview Kia offers no less than six trims in the Soul lineup, most with their own unique exterior styling themes, and some are bolder than others. After a recent browsing of all the variations on Kia’s build site—spanning the entry-level LX, S, GT-Line, X-Line, EX, and GT Turbo—I started daydreaming about swiping bits and pieces from the other five trims in an attempt to achieve a custom look for the mid-range, straight-shooter Soul EX. Even though I rather like the styling of the Soul EX—and have even suggested it sort of looks like a mini Range Rover—it’s still fun to imagine the Soul I could mold by combining parts from other trims. This is where the mind wanders when there are so few complaints about the Soul, which remains one of our top-ranked subcompact SU...
2023 Ferrari Purosangue: Everything We Know About the SUV
When Will the Ferrari SUV Come Out? The Purosangue, or “thoroughbred” if you will, is due to break cover in the first half of 2022. If auto shows ever make a comeback, the Purosangue will likely make its debut at the Geneva show, which is typically scheduled for the middle of March. There are plenty of spy shots of mules running around Ferrari’s global HQ in Maranello, Italy, as well as in frosty climates for cold-weather testing. We know relatively little about what the Purosangue will look like, but according to a report by the British publication Autocar, the SUV’s design has already been finalized by Ferrari. Mules of the Purosangue that have been captured in spy shots appear to be Maserati Levantes concealing Ferrari running gear. That said, these Pur...
EV Maker Tesla Buys in Big on Carbon-Intensive Bitcoin
Tesla has made a big investment in Bitcoin (after, perhaps ironically, its CEO Elon Musk pumped Dogecoin to a notable high with a series of tweets), AP News reports. And we do mean big: $1.5 billion. Nor is it a symbolic gesture, since the carmaker will also accept Bitcoin as payment. Bitcoin values soared on the news, and is up about 15 percent at the time of this writing. Bitcoin is the most prominent of a number of virtual currencies out there, and like Tesla itself, it has had a bit of a rollercoaster ride since its debut. In 2017, it hit a high of roughly $19,000, then tumbled the following year to the mid-$3,000s. Starting late last year, the currency (along with the stock market as a whole) has gained serious traction. Values were hovering in the $11,000 range as recently as October...
Honda Civic Type R Crate Engine Now Available “Complete” With ECU, Wiring Harness
Nothing in Honda’s present four-cylinder engine lineup comes close to outshining the Honda Civic Type R’s mighty turbocharged K20C1 engine, which makes it the perfect candidate for an engine swap by amateur and entry-level professional race teams looking to wring more performance out of the their Hondas. And now Honda Performance Development (HPD) has made it even easier for those teams to do just that thanks to the addition of a more complete Civic Type R crate engine package that includes the ECU, wiring setup, and more. HPD first announced the availability of the Type R crate engine back in 2017 and even displayed an example in the Honda booth during that year’s SEMA show week. The difference now is the addition of the HPD Controls Package that will make the proce...
Watch Every Car Commercial From Super Bowl LV, 2021’s Big Game
Let’s put our differences aside for a minute because whether you’re rooting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LV, we can all come together to appreciate a quality Super Bowl commercial. Especially if it includes cars. That’s why we’ve gathered every automotive ad from 2021’s Big Game for your viewing pleasure and put them right here in one place—we’ll continually update this post with the latest as they’re released, too. Enjoy! Cadillac | “ScissorHandsFree” To highlight its upcoming semi-autonomous features—and the new Lyriq electric SUV—Cadillac has brought back Edward Scissorhands. Well, it is actually Mr. Scissorhands’ son, Edgar, who is played here by Timotheé Chalamet; Winona Ryder...
Ford Cuts F-150 Production Due to Semiconductor Chip Shortage
Ford is forced to temporarily cut production at two plants in the United States that make the profitable 2021 Ford F-150 full-size pickup because of the global shortage of semiconductor chips. We will be watching to see if General Motors, which is keeping its truck and full-size SUV plants going while cutting production elsewhere to weather a shortage that began impacting the industry late last year, can gain a truck sales lead—even temporarily. Ford’s F-Series has been the best-selling truck in the U.S. for the past 44 years. GM has been able to claim supremacy when it combines sales of the Chevrolet Silverado and the GMC Sierra, but Chevy alone has not been able to take the crown. Also in the hunt is the Ram 1500. Bragging rights aside, the F-150 pickup truck is Ford’s bread ...
Wonder Wagons: 2021 Audi RS6 vs. 2021 Porsche Panamera Turbo S
Porsche Panamera Full Overview Back when we first started doing our Best Driver’s Car competition, we needed a mission statement, a way to explain what made the whole thing worth doing as elaborately as we do and why it wasn’t a simple comparison of objective test results and lap times. International bureau chief Angus MacKenzie, then editor-in-chief, laid it out succinctly: If numbers are all that matter, we could just test a Formula 1 car and shut down the magazine. How cars drive, how they feel, how they inspire confidence in the driver—or don’t—matters. On paper, the 2021 Audi RS6 Avant and 2021 Porsche Panamera Turbo S Sport Turismo look nearly evenly matched, but the difference in how they drive is obvious from the first corner. Let’s start with the paper so y...
As Quick as a WRX? The Subaru Outback Is the Quickest SUV in Its Class, for Now
Subaru Outback Full Overview Aside from the WRX and WRX STI, Subarus simply aren’t known for speed—but that changes with the turbocharged Outback XT models. The XT badge means a 260-hp turbo-four propels the lifted wagon to the top of the midsize SUV class in MotorTrend-tested acceleration. We’re talking WRX speed here. And in the 2020 Subaru Outback Onyx XT we’re driving for a year, we’ve come to appreciate the Outback’s class-leading quickness, even if it does come with a couple asterisks. How Quick Is the Subaru Outback? Most 2020 and 2021 Subaru Outbacks are powered by a 2.5-liter flat-four making 182 hp that delivers adequate responses, though you do need to plan highway passes a little farther in advance. Acceleration to 60 mph takes a MotorTrend-tested ...
Yep, This Photo of the 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor Leaving Orbit Is Real
Send it! Ford went big on this F-150 Raptor jump—real big. So big, in fact, that a screenshot of the red 2021 Ford F-150 Raptor at the height of its skyward trajectory looks fake. Ridiculously photoshopped. It’s not, though. It’s for real. We grabbed some screenshots of the action, too, but you can see the video all over Instagram, where it’s been shared around after being deleted by the original poster. We’ve watched it a thousand times and still can’t believe our eyes. Forget the usual debut—we think Ford should have led with this clip when unveiling the all-new Raptor this week (not to say we weren’t fervently absorbing all of the new Raptor’s details anyway, but still … ). The dirt approach transitions into a soft, sand-dune launch, ...
