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Some dealers asking $100,000-plus for Daytona-edition Dodge Charger SRT Hellcats

If you thought the name of the 2020 Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition was a lot to swallow, then you're definitely going to choke on what some dealers are asking for the privilege of owning one. The $4,495 package is commanding as much as $25,000 in "market adjustments" from stores looking to capitalize on the rarity of this extremely limited-edition model.  The folks over at Moparinsiders.com reported Friday that some dealers are asking Demon-level prices for their limited allocations of the commemorative package. Their assessment? Not worth it. We're inclined to agree.  The Daytona 50th Anniversary Edition package is, fundamentally at least, little more than a set of stickers, a dash plaque and a tiny bump in horsepower. What you really get for your money is exclusivity. Only 501 were built (to commemorate the number of production units required to homologate the original Charger Daytona for NASCAR racing); just 451 went to U.S. dealers. The other 50 were reserved for Canada.  To be fair, no variant of the 2020 Charger SRT Hellcat Widebody even approaches the definition of "inexpensive." Just to get behind the wheel of the newest edition to the Charger lineup will set you back at least $71,000. The Widebody package is more than just a set of custom fenders. The Hellcat also gets another 1.6 inches of track width and some extra rubber on the road. SRT engineers also increased the Hellcat’s front spring rate by 32% and beefed up its sway bars (from 19 mm to 21.7 mm in the front and from 32 mm to 34 mm in the rear). The adaptive suspension was firmed up a little bit across the board too for crisper response over road imperfections. Plus, you know, there's that 707-horsepower, supercharged, 6.2-liter engine. The Daytona gets an extra 10 ponies, right? Well, sort of, anyway. SRT rated its output at a slightly higher engine speed. Between us, it's the same thing.  So, there's a silver lining: You don't have to spend $100,000 for a 2020 Charger Widebody Hellcat if you don't want to, but somebody probably will.  Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.    

Could self-driving cars stop terrorist attacks?

Terrorists have taken to using a weapon that's easy to obtain and can do a lot of damage: ordinary vehicles, driven into crowds. A Department of Homeland Security-FBI bulletin from 2012 warned that "vehicle-ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience." CNN recently listed nine vehicle-based terrorist attacks that have occurred within the past year, and in just in the past three months incidents in New York, Edmonton and Barcelona have claimed more than 20 lives and injured dozens after ISIS-affiliated drivers plowed into pedestrians. The deadliest so far was a Bastille Day attack in Nice, France that killed 86 people after a terrorist drove a truck into a crowd following a fireworks display. CNN also reported that "Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch encouraged its recruits in the West to use trucks as weapons," and noted that a 2010 article in the terrorist group's webzine called for deploying a truck as a "mowing machine, not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah." Such attacks have been more common in Europe and other places where guns are harder to get, making vehicles violent and readily available weapons. But it's not only ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists that have turned cars into weapons. A man with white nationalist ties drove a Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protesters at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in August, killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring dozens more. Some believe that autonomous vehicle technology could help stop these tragedies. "Terrorist attacks like the one in New York are a good example of why we need AVs more quickly," Caleb Watney, technology policy associate at the R Street Institute, a D.C.-based think tank, recently told the website Inverse. Dr. Junfeng Jiao, director of the Urban Information Lab at the University of Texas, told Inverse that "these tragedies may be taken into account by the makers such as Tesla and Google" when developing autonomous technology. "This is a huge opportunity for the next generation to de-weaponize cars," he added. Many vehicles already have forward collision warning with emergency autonomous braking, and a few combine it with pedestrian detection, although the latter technology typically works at speeds below 20 mph.

Big rig gets blown over on Wyoming freeway, flattens police cruiser

A big rig navigating a stretch of windy Wyoming highway last week was blown over by high winds and landed on a Wyoming Highway Patrol cruiser. According to CBS News, three Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers responded to an accident along Interstate 80 near Elk Mountain on February 7. While the troopers were out of their cars assisting the crash victims, a white Volvo semi-truck lumbered up I-80 toward them. Wind gusts in that part of Wyoming were clocked in at up to 90 miles per hour on Tuesday, and one of them caught the semi as it neared the parked cruisers. Video from one of the cruiser's onboard cameras showed the big rig drift to the right as a big gust hit the trailer. Slowly, the whole rig tipped over and flattened one of the parked cruisers. The truck then slid a few feet on its side and came to a stop just aft of the cruiser. None of the troopers were injured in the incident, and two people in the truck came out of it unhurt as well. Patrol Lieutenant David Wagener told KGWN that that stretch of I-80 was closed on Tuesday to lightweight, high-profile vehicles. The truck driver was cited for the incident. High winds are no joke, and vehicles getting blown around or even clean off the road is a pretty common phenomenon. Way back in 2011, a truck got blown over in Utah. Then there was a train that got blown off a bridge in Louisiana in 2015. Related Video: News Source: CBS News, KGWN Auto News Dodge Volvo Driving Safety Truck Commercial Vehicles Police/Emergency Sedan semi truck rollover wyoming