2019 Honda Odyssey Ex-l on 2040-cars

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Honda patent predicts the future of window shades

You may not think of window shades as a particularly high-tech item. Honda is apparently thinking about changing that notion. A patent filed by Honda shows a rather interesting idea: rather than employing a tinted film that goes in place permanently or stowable fabric shades, the patent shows windows with some type of surface that can adjust the amount of light it lets in. Imagine something like Transitions lenses for glasses, or the Smart Glass sunroof on the Mercedes-Maybach S600, which you can see demonstrated at the bottom of this post. What takes the idea a step further is touch controls and adjustability. The patent drawing illustrates how a passenger could decide how much of the window needs shading by simply dragging a finger along the glass to the desired point. This would be very useful on any side window in the car to give passengers, and even the driver, some shielding from the sun when not driving straight into it. The one downside we can see is the accumulation of finger prints and smudges on the interior glass (which would be especially bad on the windshield). But the benefits could outweigh that annoyance. Or perhaps this would be a good feature to use gesture controls on. Related Video: News Source: United States Patent & Trademark OfficeImage Credit: Honda / United States Patent & Trademark Office Auto News Honda Technology Emerging Technologies Gadgets patent

Acura models no longer produced or sold in China

SHANGHAI — Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automobile Group said on Monday its joint venture with Honda Motor is no longer producing or selling products under the Japanese firm's premium Acura brand. GAC will continue to provide after-sales services to Acura customers in China through the joint venture's network, it said in a statement to Reuters. The joint venture will continue to produce other Honda brands. Acura is the second foreign car brand to exit China, the world's largest auto market, in recent months. In October GAC said it was closing its joint venture with Stellantis, which made Jeep vehicles, following a sharp decline in Jeep sales in China over the past four years. GAC-Honda, which started producing Acura cars in 2016 in China, only sold 6,554 of them in the country in 2021, down 45% from the previous year. Related video: 2022 Acura NSX Type S track footage

Next Honda Ridgeline to eschew weird visuals, go mainstream?

Last year, Honda gave us the first furtive glance at the next-generation Ridgeline with a shadowy photo of it in profile (above), and it promised that the pickup would "come to market in less than two years." That would have put the truck on track for a 2015 debut, but the automaker hasn't said anything more officially about the new model since then.
A new report from USA Today might shed some new light on the mysterious model. It claims that the next Ridgeline has more conventional pickup styling than the original model in a bid to conquest some buyers. You can get that feeling from the sketch, which appears to showing something far more traditional than the unorthodox original Ridgeline, whose odd tapering bedsides terminated in a double-hinged tailgate.
USA Today goes on to claim that the new Ridgeline will go on sale around late 2015 or early 2016. That's a bit later than expected, but fits with an earlier rumor.