2013 Hyundai Sonata Gls Sedan 4-door 2.4l With Warranty on 2040-cars

Auto blog

New autonomous testing ground in Michigan will help battle bad weather

If one of the big weaknesses of autonomous vehicles is their ability to navigate in the snow, consider this a trial by fire. The American Center for Mobility says it has opened its $110 million driverless car testing facility on the site of a former General Motors assembly plant in Michigan, with Toyota and auto supplier Visteon the first to begin testing this week. The ACM proving ground is a 500-acre site at historic Willow Run in Ypsilanti Township, near Ann Arbor. It's one of 10 sites designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation as pilot proving ground sites to test AV technologies. It features a variety of simulated environments to test driverless cars, including a 2.5-mile highway loop, two double overpasses, intersections, roundabouts and a 700-foot curved tunnel. It also opens just as the region experiences a series of snowstorms and the first frigid temperatures of the season. That ability to test autonomous vehicles in a wide variety of weather conditions is important, as autonomous vehicle sensors have struggled to handle cold, wet and snowy conditions. Google parent Alphabet in October said its Waymo division was expanding its winter testing operations to Michigan, making it the sixth state where it's testing its driverless car systems. In a Medium blog post, Waymo CEO John Krafcik wrote that "This type of testing will give us the opportunity to assess the way our sensors perform in wet, cold conditions. And it will also build on the advanced driving skills we've developed over the last eight years by teaching our cars how to handle things like skidding on icy, unplowed roads." Waymo also opened a development center in suburban Detroit in 2016, working with Fiat Chrysler to integrate its autonomous technology into Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans. Visteon began testing and validating its DriveCore autonomous driving platform to evaluate algorithms, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology and other systems. Toyota used the facility Wednesday to begin orientation and driver training. ACM has so far secured $110 million to construct the first two phases from founders Ford, Hyundai America Technical Center, Toyota and Visteon, and says it expects to announce more investment soon.

Hyundai previews Intrado fuel-cell crossover concept

We may still be several months off from the 2014 Geneva Motor Show, but it's apparently not too early for Hyundai to give us a glimpse at what to expect when the Palexpo's doors open in March.
Called Intrado, Hyundai's new concept car takes the form of a high-riding crossover with styling that takes its cues from the Korean automaker's Fluidic Sculpture 2.0 design language. Designed and engineered in Germany, the concept bears the codename HED-9, a giveaway that it's the ninth concept from Hyundai Europe Design. Inspiration is said to have been drawn from aircraft, with a lightweight form and a name borrowed from the underside of an airplane's wing.
Hyundai isn't saying much more, revealing only the teaser rendering above. But it has indicated that the Intrado concept packs a new hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain that's both smaller and lighter than the one powering the existing ix35 Fuel Cell, which (last we heard) Hyundai was hoping to bring Stateside as part of its Tuscon lineup by 2015.

Hyundai CEO touts new EV platform with mention of a pickup

A couple of years ago, one of the prominent concerns about a saturated EV auto-scape was how carmakers would accentuate brand differences among vehicles converging on a frightening sameness. The cars wouldn't make any noise, they would all emphasize aerodynamics, and they would all basically ride on a battery pancake. So far, the fears have been avoided; a Volvo XC40 Recharge won't be confused for a Ford Mustang Mach-E, for instance, and the Ford won't be confused for a Tesla Model Y. Not only that, but automakers are developing platform strategies that heighten the sameness among vehicle architectures because the architecture is where the expenditure and the profit are greatest. Hyundai's the latest to outline its plans for investors. And part of Hyundai's plan could include adding a full-size electric pickup to the range. The mid- to long-term roadmap is called the Hyundai Motor Way, recently revised with higher targets thanks to the swift uptick in EV sales globally. Business Korea wrote Hyundai Motor Group (HMG includes Kia and Genesis) sold 510,000 battery-electric vehicles in 2022. The conglomerate says it now plans to sell two million EVs annually by 2030, up from a previous estimate of 1.87 million.      The platform that will help make this possible is called eM, an evolution of the current Electric Global Modular Platform (e-GMP) platform under HMG's current EVs. The eM architecture's been rumored to launch under a Kia sedan that might be a spiritual successor to the Stinger. So far, eM is planned for 13 models across the HMG portfolio, using the Integrated Modular Architecture (IMA) that can plug-and-play with more than 80 common modules serving different vehicle segments and sizes. HMG president and CEO Jaehoon Chang said, "In the second-generation platform, the scope of vehicle development extends beyond the mid-sized SUVs covered by the current E-GMP system. It encompasses nearly all vehicle classes, ranging from small and large SUVs to pickup trucks, along with the flagship models of the Genesis brand." Sure, Chang could have been merely noting the eM's potential use cases when he mentioned "pickup trucks." That's not how observers are reading the line. At Kia's investor day last year, the brand said it planned two electric pickups. There have already been reports that Kia's working on a body-on-frame pickup for the Australian market, perhaps called Tasman, utilizing gas and electric powertrains.