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Toyota GT86 engineers explored shooting brake and sedan variants, are they still in the cards?

According to the Toyota UK blog, engineers for the automaker were so excited developing the GT86 coupe that they investigated producing a whole family of models based on the rear-wheel drive sports car. And at least one engineer - product chief Tetsuya Tada - still hopes it can happen, even if not everyone at Toyota is onboard. Tada: "Actually we tried to do this secretly but the executives found us out. They said: 'What are you doing? Will you please focus on the coupe.'"
Those mooted variants included both a four-door sedan and a shooting brake. Why? Aside from the pure excellence of a lightweight, brilliantly handling hatchback, Toyota was keenly aware of the fact that it may need to spread the cost of development out across several models. Tada says that's part of the reason why it was so easy to create the convertible. The company knew from the outset that a softtop version was in the cards, and built the machine's structure to accommodate having the roof sliced off.
Tada also made mention of the already-announced collaboration between Toyota and BMW. The engineer said that the GT86 was particularly helpful because it demonstrated just how successful a product conceived and designed by two different companies can be. While he didn't say exactly what Toyota and BMW are up to, it's clear the two are looking into a number of possibilities. It's an interesting read with a lot of

Automakers want to stop the EPA's fuel economy rules change, and why that's a shortsighted move

With a Trump Administration looming, the EPA moved quickly after the election to propose finalizing future fuel economy rules last week. The auto industry doesn't like that (surprise), and has started making moves to stop the EPA. Ford CEO Mark Fields said he wanted to lobby Trump to lower the standards, and now the Auto Alliance, a manufacturer group, is saying it will join the fight against cleaner cars. The Alliance represents 12 automakers: BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, GM, Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Toyota, VW, and Volvo. Gloria Bergquist, a spokesperson for the Alliance, told Automotive News that the "EPA's sudden and controversial move to propose auto regulations eight months early - even after Congress warned agencies about taking such steps while political appointees were packing their bags - calls out for congressional action to pause this rulemaking until a thoughtful policy review can occur." The EPA was going to consider public comments through April 2017, but then said it would move the deadline to the end of December. That means that it can finalize the rules before President Obama leaves office. The director of public affairs for the Consumer Federation of America, Jack Gillis, said on a conference call with reporters last week when the EPA originally announced its decision that it is unlikely that President Trump will be able to roll back these changes. Gillis also said on the same call that any attempt by the automakers to prevent these changes would be history repeating itself. "These are the same companies that fought airbags, and now promoting the fact that every car has multiple airbags," he said. "These are the same companies that fought the crash-test program, and now are promoting the crash-test ratings published by the government. So, it's clear that they're misperceiving the needs of the American consumer." There are more reasons the Allliance's pushback is flawed. Carol Lee Rawn, the transportation program director for Ceres, said on that call that the automotive industry is a global one, and many automakers are moving to global platforms to help them meet strict fuel economy rules around the world.

What's up with this thought-controlled BMW i3?

Autonomous driving? A car being controlled by just verbal commands? One pilot program is going way beyond that this year with a car that can theoretically be mind-controlled. UK-based insurance-services company MoneySuperMarket is promoting something called "Epic Mind Drive." The project involves a BMW i3 electric vehicle (nice and futuristic) being rigged up with an autonomous driving system. Only instead of the system watching the road, it involves a person sitting in a seat outside of the car with an electroencephalography (EEG) neuro headset connected to the vehicle. In fact, that headset records brain activity and translates it into instructions. Those instructions are converted to radio frequency that's sent to the car to instruct it to perform various speed and turning duties. Apparently, yes, the car will be mind-controlled. Somehow. If this were intended for real-world use, it would go far beyond the autonomous-driving programs that have been in the works for the past couple of years. Nissan has been real active in that area, with chief Carlos Ghosn saying earlier this year that a "hands-free" car for heavy stop-and-go traffic may be available within the next couple of years. And last year, Google unveiled its autonomous car prototype (though it wasn't nearly as cool-looking as the Bimmer i3) while Tesla Motors has been making noise in that area as well. Besides the i3, MoneySuperMarket has developed the Epic Mind Drive mobile game that uses face-tracking technology to control a car on the screen. The idea with these two whiz-bang ideas is to get drivers to realize that they should think as they drive, it seems. As for the telepathic i3, we're as interested in details as the next website, so we checked out the two videos that are supposed to hype the project. While there is some groovy jazzy-electro music involved, the details of how this works are pretty much nonexistent (16 sensors, think to turn the wheel, and that's about it), so we look forward to hearing more about the project once it's underway. You can check out the videos above and below. News Source: Daily Mail, MoneySuperMarket Green BMW mind control