Mazda recently put out a press release discussing its plans for electrification over the next few years. It gave some more specifics to its plans, but was generally pretty dry, with one strange exception. Among the accompanying photos were two renderings of something simply referred to as the Vision Study Model, and it’s an incredibly pretty sports car design that we haven’t seen from Mazda before.
Bizarrely, there isn’t even a hint of information about the design. There’s nothing about a more specific name, what could power it, or if it’s a preview of anything for the future. It sure is pretty, though.
The design looks like a blend of ND Miata and FD RX-7. The overall size is very Miata, as is the front grille and some of the more crisp lines. But the coupe shape, smooth, organic body panels and especially those pop-up or psuedo-pop-up headlights are totally RX-7.
With no other information, we’re left to speculate what could power it, and with Mazda’s slow adoption of full EVs, that leaves options pretty wide open. It could hypothetically be powered by a variant of the Miata four-cylinder or one of the recent turbo engines. It could use the rotary-range-extended electric platform that Mazda of Europe’s version of the release noted is still slated for 2023 in the MX-30. Or maybe it could be a fully electric car.
All we know is that it’s pretty, and we want it. Please tell us more, Mazda, and please build it.
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LONDON — Laid off tech industry workers in Britain could find a new home at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), as the 100-year-old luxury carmaker looks to hire hundreds of engineers to help develop electric car technology.
The carmaker, which wants to become an “electric-first” business from 2025, on Friday announced a jobs portal for displaced tech workers to fill 800 roles spanning self-driving, electrification, machine learning and data science.
The company said it believed workers leaving big tech groups like Amazon were most likely to have the required skills to fill new roles in Britain, Ireland, the United States, India, China and Hungary.
The majority of the jobs will be in Britain.
The hiring drive comes after thousands of layoffs in recent weeks at U.S. tech firms including Twitter, Meta and Amazon, some of which have offices in London and Dublin, Ireland.
“Our digital transformation journey is well underway but being able to recruit highly skilled digital workers is an important next step,” Chief Information Officer Anthony Battle said in a statement.
JLR last year announced an electrification strategy under which all Jaguar cars would be fully electric by 2024 and an electric option would be offered across its entire portfolio including Land Rover.
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Black Friday will be here before you know it, to start the holiday shopping season in earnest. If you’re hoping to save on some cellphone holders, then check out this list below with some of the best early deals we could find for the occasion. We’ll be keeping this list updated prior to and throughout Black Friday, so check back often!
This Qifutan phone holder sets itself apart thanks to its bendable aluminum gooseneck, which allows drivers more options for phone placement than more traditional mounts. Although the photo above shows the holder attached to the windshield, there’s also an option to attach it straight to the dashboard. There’s even a helpful video that gives users step-by-step instructions on how to set it up. This mount even includes an anti-shake stabilizer, despite its unique design. Last but not least, like many others, it also includes a 360° rotating ball joint. The Qifutan is currently the best-selling dash-mounted holder on Amazon, with over 13,000 reviews and a 4.4 out of 5 rating.
This Cindro option is another vent-mounted phone holder, but it’s made of hollow silicone rubber, intended to hold your phone more tightly than other silicone arm clips. It also has a 360° rotating ball joint, allowing drivers to adjust the position phone to their liking. With over 3,000 Amazon reviews, it’s sitting at 4.4 out of 5 stars. A word of caution about the Cindro, though, this one can only be used on a traditional style horizontal air vent and can’t be used on vertical or round vents.
This Suuson phone holder is great if you’re the kind of person who likes options. This one can be mounted to your vent, windshield or dashboard. It employs a strong adhesive that won’t leave residue and also uses a 1-step locking mechanism for ease of use. The material used can even withstand temperatures from -4°F to 203°F! Like the others, this phone holder includes a 360° ball joint, but unlike many others it also has a telescopic arm which extends from 4.43-inches to 7.31-inches, allowing for more maneuverability. The Suuson is also covered with a thick layer of silica gel to help prevent potential scratches to your phone, even during bumpy rides. It’s the highest-rated mount on our list with a score of 4.6 out of 5 stars after 4,300 Amazon reviews.
This Vanva isn’t discounted per se, but it’s still a pretty great deal even at full price. It clips right onto your vent, making it one of the easiest-to-use styles of phone holder out there. The manufacturer claims to have used “sturdy aviation-grade materials” in its design making the holder “more resistant to abrasion and corrosion.” Don’t worry if your car provides a bit of a bumpy ride, thanks to a mechanical lock design, this mount is made to hold your phone securely to the vent, even during bumps and sharp turns. It also features a 360-degree swivel head, anti-slip rubber pads and a 24-month warranty. Currently, it has over 6,000 reviews on Amazon with a 4.4 out of 5 star rating.
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Over the last 50 years, Wiseway has been slowly growing a fleet of pickups, light and medium-duty trucks and freightliners.
They first reached out to T-Mobile for Business to equip their vehicles with telematics devices that could provide evidence in the case of collision events – but what started as a one-off task soon grew into an ongoing cascade of high-impact benefits.
Learn how Wiseway and T-Mobile’s fleet management from Geotab were able to:
Reduce idling time by 44%
Reduce speeding by nearly 40%
Provide on-the-fly alerts for driver and vehicle safety
Execute data-driven decisions at crucial times Implement robust safety management
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — Who among us hasn’t imagined what it would be like to drive a car from the future? And we’re not talking about a 2028 Honda Prelude or whatever, interesting as that may be. No, we’re talking decades, maybe even centuries beyond what we have now, where even quaint notions like circular tires are reimagined. Something akin to a spinner from “Blade Runner” or one of those light cycles from “Tron.” So color us stunned when Mercedes-Benz actually offered us some seat time behind the wheel of their Vision AVTR concept.
Mercedes unveiled the AVTR at CES in 2020 as a tie-in to the upcoming movie “Avatar: Way of the Water,” which will hit theaters December 16.The car and the motion picture have the same name, though Mercedes says that AVTR stands for Advanced Vehicle TRansformation. To understand what that means, we have to catch up on the fantasy world writer/director James Cameron created.
“Way of the Water” is a sequel to 2009’s “Avatar,” which imagined a future in which humans have depleted most of Earth’s natural resources. To keep civilization going in the year 2154 they need to mine other planets, including the Earth-like moon Pandora. Unfortunately for the humans, a sentient race of blue-skinned humanoids resides on Pandora, keeping us from harvesting a compound named, literally, unobtainium. These Na’vi live in harmony with nature, hunting with bows and arrows, wearing loincloths, and generally wishing not to be exterminated by a heavily militarized space mining corporation.
The film was groundbreaking in its use of special effects. Cameron — of “Titanic,” “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” fame — said that he wanted to make the movie in the 1990s but had to wait a decade for technology to catch up. We say this only in an attempt to explain just how much of a visual feast the natural beauty of Pandora was. Cameron painted a world awash with bioluminescence, lush vegetation and spectacular landscapes.
Mercedes’ designers wanted to make the AVTR look as if it belonged in this world. As such, the car is imbued with design so organic it makes a 1996 Ford Taurus look like a Volvo 240. In profile, its lines are fluid and unbroken as a river pebble’s, with no angles or corners to denote a traditional three-box shape. An ultra-low roofline melts into a glass bubble cabin nestled more between the wheels than above them. Speaking of the wheels, they’re urethane-skin spheres instead of traditional discs.
The most animal-esque feature of the car can be found on the back, where an array of 33 bionic flaps open and close independently of one another. Each moves on carbon fiber hinges that accordion like pieces of origami. Their lightness allows for extremely quick actuation, and they can be programmed to flicker in a wave-like pattern like a bird fluffing its feathers. The honeycomb of holes radiates blue light, but if you were to stop suddenly, the flaps would go vertical like air brakes while the openings glow red. It’s an undeniably neat effect, but you probably shouldn’t stare at them too long if you suffer from trypophobia.
To be clear, the car never actually appears in “Avatar: Way of the Water.” In the movie, machines are the enemy, destroyers of the natives’ lifestyle. Also, the Na’vi civilization is pre-agrarian, and it would be rather difficult to drive a car in a land where no paved roads exist.
It would’ve been easy — expected, even — for Mercedes to stop there. Many show cars aren’t drivable, but it went ahead and built an actual running concept and let ham-fisted journalists go for a spin.
Approach the car and it comes to life with a dazzling array of lighting animations that pulse and ebb like the glowing flora of Pandora. It’s almost as if the car is breathing, a sensation amplified by the twitching of the back flaps. Gander at the illuminated front end graphic and you’ll see where the EQS and EQS SUV got their noses. LEDs streak down the lower shelf beneath the taillight like comets. Even the wheels have throbbing light patterns that form the “spokes.” Mercedes chief of design Gorden Wagener says they were inspired by the wood sprites from the film.
Glass scissor doors swing open on massive chrome hinges to allow access to the cabin. Points of light swirl and trace the edges of nearly every interior surface, adding to the sense that the car is somehow alive. Settling in gracefully requires you to back your posterior onto the thin, leaf-like seats, then swing your legs into the car.
The AVTR is so low that you don’t sit so much as you do recline. The first thing you notice is that there’s no steering wheel, no screen, no controls of any kind before you. The dash is simply one sweeping blank curve. All movement of the car is done through a mushroom cap-like joystick in the center console. Its location means either driver or passenger can operate it.
Push the pad forward for Drive, push it backwards for Reverse. Roll it to the left or right to turn in that direction.The AVTR has rear-wheel steering, so the front and rear wheels can angle in opposite directions for a tightened turning radius. Rotate the pad to the left or right and the wheels will angle in the same direction for a diagonal crabwalk. And no, the wheels don’t actually spin in three dimensions like Will Smith’s Audi in “I, Robot.” The spherical shape looks cool, and only the band at the “equator” ever touches the ground. That’s how the lighting on the tires remains undamaged.
We were able to test these functions in a short drive around a parking lot, but it wasn’t as intuitive as it sounds. To my brain, it would’ve been more natural to rotate to turn and roll to crabwalk. It was also a tad difficult to finesse the pad slowly while the car was in motion, as the car has almost no suspension and minor bumps would transmit through my arm to unintentionally jolt the controller. It’s not the fault of the technology per se. This is just a concept and not designed to be driven at more than a few miles per hour. It also admittedly may have been easier if I were using my dominant hand.
The absence of a steering wheel lets the entire expanse of the curved dash become a screen of sorts. An overhead projector beams a map onto the surface, and as a nod to the movie, Pandora is one of the selectable locations. Changes to the menu are made via gesture. Simply raise your hand to a spot above the console and you’ll see icons projected onto your palm. Then you flick your hand to the left or right to make selections. Like a touchscreen, it takes considerable focus, so such a system would only be prudent when the car is in autonomous mode.
Because environmental consciousness is a major theme of the “Avatar” movies, Mercedes says that the 110-kWh battery is organic and compostable thanks to the use of graphene and no rare earth metals. Total system horsepower is 469, and power comes from four motors, one at each wheel.
It’s a fascinating thought exercise to imagine how a car from 2154 — or perhaps more accurately, a car not born on planet Earth — might differ from our current machines. Mercedes engineers assured me that I’d get used to it with more practice, but perhaps it was too big of an evolutionary leap for this particular human.
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Vertu Motors has revealed that it is engaged in “advanced discussions” over the potential acquisition of £627 million turnover premium car retailer Helston Garages Group.
The PLC announced that it could be about to complete the largest acquisition in its history, and its second acquisition in less than a month, in a statement issued via the London Stock Exchange this morning (November 9).
However, reports suggest that the Helston Garages business could be divided up, with Rybrook and Yeomans also making additions from the 40-site operation.
Commenting on its move for Vertu’s fellow AM100 car retail group, Cornwall-based Helston Garages, Vertu’s statement said: “Vertu Motors confirms that it is in advanced discussions regarding the potential acquisition of Helston Garages Group Limited, a privately owned predominantly premium manufacturer automotive retail group based in the Southwest of England.
“These discussions may or may not lead to a transaction. Funding for the transaction, were it to occur, would be from re-financed and new debt facilities, including long-term mortgage funding.
“Further announcements will be made in due course as necessary.”
Helston Garages – the AM100’s 29th-placed retail group by turnover in 2021 – operates 40 car dealership locations, retailing vehicles from franchised partners Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, Peugeot, Porsche, Skoda, Volkswagen and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
It also operates a Carrs Select used car retail operation.
Vertu highlighted its acquisitive strategy in a recent H1 trading update.
But it also asserted that “high sector earnings over the last 18 months will be disregarded” in any acquisition negotiations as it continues to drive value from its growth.
In an interview on the day of the results’ publication, Forrester told AM that businesses looking to sell “have a choice”, adding: “We have to make sure that the cash that is spent in an acquisition will give us an appropriate return. The amount of goodwill is central to that.
“In my opinion profits were going to be down this year by around 50% this year, and I still don’t think that I’m far out with that, so we have to acquire with that in mind.”
Forrester said that acquisitions were in the pipeline but would give no indication as to where it was looking to add locations or which brands, adding that locations could be added “anywhere at any time”.
Tom Hartley buys and sells classic cars at his private estate and showroom in northern England.
He started out on the grey market and now finds cars through wealthy owners.
His estate offers a resort-like experience, with a private spa and cinema available for visitors.
In 1992, Tom Hartley was in a traffic jam on the edge of Hyde Park in London when a classic Bentley caught his eye. He immediately rolled down his window and struck up a conversation with the man in the back seat, who was being driven by a chauffeur.
“I bought the car off him in the traffic jam. We pulled over, he got out, I did an invoice, and we picked up the car from his address that day,” he told Insider. “And, of course, we sold it a few days later.”
This is typical for Hartley, who spends his days brokering deals for supercars and classic cars, focusing on manufacturers like Ferrari and Lamborghini. “I’ve bought cars in saunas, in swimming pools, on airplanes — you can’t name where I haven’t bought a car,” he said.
Hartley, now 60, runs an eponymous showroom on a 48-acre family estate in Derbyshire. He said his team sells between 40 and 50 vehicles per month, and past clients of his include Elton John, Rod Stewart, Nicolas Cage, and Rory McIlroy. The average sales price of his vehicles is £250,000, or around $286,000 — but a rare Ferrari could fetch $30 million.
He shared with Insider how he got into the trade and what his job entails.
He learned the art of selling from hanging out in his father’s store
Growing up, Hartley’s father owned a carpet business, and Hartley said he spent most of his time at the shop watching deals being made. He itched to follow in his dad’s sales footsteps, and as he watched his family change cars every few months, it seemed like the perfect industry to get into.
His first deal was brokering the sale of a luxury Range Rover between two of his father’s acquaintances when he was a teen. “I made myself 150 quid on that car, which was a lot of money then,” he said. “By the age of 12, I had the experience of an 18-year-old.”
After selling the Range Rover, he stumbled onto what’s now known as the grey market, where barely-used luxury goods can be traded at a premium on the secondary market. If you could source an in-demand car like a Range Rover, Hartley’s theory was, there was easy profit in reselling it to a buyer unable to find one.
Hartley. Courtesy of Tom Hartley
He began buying cars from manufacturers like BMW, Mercedes, and Porsche, which were mostly based in Germany, directly and imported them to the UK to resell to hungry buyers.
When car brands began cracking down on nonauthorized dealers, he quickly pivoted to buying up supply from car owners.
Soon after, he saw a man pull up outside a luxury hotel in London driving a brand-new Jaguar Daimler XJ40, a particular model launched on the market just days earlier, and offered to buy it for £3,000 over asking price. Within days, he said, he’d sold it to a C-suite executive who’d been unable to secure one from the manufacturer for £42,000, a profit of just over 16% in a few days.
Customers can come via appointment only and enjoy resort-level amenities
Hartley in his showroom. Courtesy of Tom Hartley
Hartley started out primarily in the supercar market, but he added classic cars to his roster in the wake of the Great Recession, when he saw wealthy clients turning to assets rather than keeping money in cash or stocks.
“It was an addition to what we were doing, but we didn’t change our method of buying and selling,” he said. “We wanted cars with great history, low mileage, and real rarities.” He handles all his sales from his family estate in northern England, a property he bought in 1981 to serve as both a home and a showroom.
At any one time, he said, there are 75 cars worth more than $150 million onsite. The key difference between his assortment and that of conventional dealers, he added, is that he stocks different brands like Mercedes and Ferrari in one place — a move aimed at his ideal customer. “Back in the 1970s, a successful guy would have one car, maybe two. A lot of buyers mix and match now and might have anything from six to 10 cars,” he said.
Hartley in front of his estate. Courtesy of Tom Hartley
Hartley said he gets about five customers a day and takes visitors by appointment only. Despite the car world being mostly dominated by men, Hartley said around 20% of his clients are women.
Those that stop by his showroom can expect more than just a selection of unique cars: Customers can enjoy the estate’s private spa and cinema, as well as a full restaurant. Sometimes, they’re even invited to stay overnight in one of the estate’s four bedrooms. “I wanted to create an experience around buying a secondhand car,” he said. There’s a helipad for those that travel by air, but Hartley can also send a chauffeur to collect someone from a nearby private airstrip.
The cinema at the estate. Courtesy of Tom Hartley
Despite being around expensive cars 24/7, he’s never owned one himself. “It’s a personal statement that I can’t get attached to them,” he said.”I always say when you walk on the Hartley estate, everything has a price, except my wife.”
Notwithstanding the annoyances of switching between standard time and daylight saving time that affect our sleeping habits — spring ahead, fall back, all that — there are more serious consequences to the semi-annual transition: A new study says the time change contributes to 37,000 vehicle collisions with deer on U.S. roads.
The report, published this week in the journal Current Biology, says that year-round daylight saving time would reduce the time that evening rush-hour traffic occurs in darkness each year, preventing 33 human deaths, 2,000 injuries, and saving about $1.2 billion in repair costs stemming from accidents.
“The numbers are surprisingly large,” reported Laura Prugh, an associate professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington and an author of the study. “It’s just noticeable that a seemingly simple change — not changing the clock back in the fall, not falling back — would lead to such a marked reduction in collisions throughout the country.”
“If you drive two hours after dark, you’re 14 times more likely to hit a deer than if you drive before dark,” said Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral researcher at UW and co-author of the study.
Switching to permanent standard time, meanwhile, would cost an additional 66 human lives per year and $2 billion in damage from an additional 74,000 collisions.
To understand the effect of seasonal time changes, researchers gathered wildlife and vehicle collision data from more than 1 million crashes in 23 states to estimate impacts. Deer are most active on both sides of dawn and dusk, and the data showed that drivers are far more likely to hit deer when the evening commute is done in the dark.
Some 2.1 million deer-vehicle collisions occur in the United States each year, causing more than $10 billion in economic losses — with 59,000 human injuries and 440 deaths.
Washington is one of 19 states where the legislatures have approved permanent daylight saving time, but they require congressional action to put it into effect. In March, the Senate weighed in, unanimously voting in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent year-round for all states but Hawaii and most of Arizona. Those two states would continue to observe year-round standard time. But the bill has stalled in the House.
Until the House acts, we’re stuck with the current system — so take note that clocks nationwide will “fall back” by one hour at 2 a.m. this coming Sunday morning, Nov. 6.
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The 119th State of the Fleet Industry video produced by Automotive Fleet offers insights into the state of the fleet market as presented by AF Editor Mike Antich.
🎙Today’s topics include:
Altogether automakers — globally — plan to double their EV spending to $1.2 trillion to build 54 million battery-electric vehicles by 2030.
Today’s current transition to EVs dwarfs the cost of the Apollo space program. In fact, today’s transition to electrification will invest $1 trillion more than what it cost to put 12 people on the moon.
Globally, automakers are forecasting that half of their total worldwide vehicle production will be EVs by 2030. And it will take $1.2 trillion to achieve this goal.
A new tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act is anticipated that will be that provides a $7,500 tax credit for commercial EVs with no restrictions on battery sourcing or manufacturing.
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The 2023 Subaru Outback and two sister vehicles recently snagged Top Safety Pick+ awards.
Photo: IIHS
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has recognized three Subaru vehicles with its highest safety accolade. The 2022 WRX, 2023 Legacy, and the 2023 Outback, all recently rolled away with Top Safety Pick+ awards.
The WRX, a small car, and the Legacy and Outback, both midsize cars, mastered six crashworthiness tests — capturing good scores in each evaluation. These included the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, original side, roof strength, and head restraint tests.
But the rigorous criterion for garnering “plus” status doesn’t end there. Vehicles must also be available with a front crash prevention system that earns advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations. Moreover, good or acceptable headlights must be standard across all trims.
The trio of Subarus met IIHS’ exacting standards.
The redesigned WRX offers an optional front crash prevention system that earns superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and daytime vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations. The updated Legacy and Outback do even better — both come with standard front crash prevention systems that earn superior ratings in the two required tests.
As for headlights, the WRX’s Limited and GT trims come with curve-adaptive LED projector headlights that earn a good rating, while the static LED projectors that come with the Base and Premium trims are rated acceptable. IIHS notes that this marks an improvement over the 2021 model, which was passed over for the “plus” because lower trims were equipped with poor-rated halogens.
Finally, both the updated Legacy and Outback earned good-rated headlights across all trim, giving Subaru everything it needed to score a triple win for the most coveted safety award in the industry.
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