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Weekly Recap: Toyota wants cars to be your 'close friends' around 2020

Toyota confirmed plans this week to launch autonomous technology in its production cars around 2020. The automaker's version is called Highway Teammate, and it's one element of a broader mobility strategy that includes vehicles communicating with each other and the grid. "Toyota believes that interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose, sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out," the company said in a statement. That sounds utopian, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but it's an acknowledgment that autonomous driving requires more than technology developed in a vacuum. Toyota is looking at its research in a broader context, and dubs its overall strategy the Mobility Teammate Concept. Highway Teammate is the first step. Its test vehicle is a modified Lexus GS, which uses road-mapping data and external sensors to merge or exit highways, change lanes, and maintain safe distances during driving. It's operated on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. Toyota has been working on autonomous tech since the 1990s, with the goal of providing mobility for older people and the disabled, as well as lowering the frequency of traffic accidents. Toyota's push comes as an early adopter, Nissan, is hedging on its own deadline to implement the autonomous tech by 2020 due to a lack of firm laws governing self-driving cars around the world. Conversely, Volvo took the landmark step of being the first automaker to accept liability for when its cars will operate in autonomous mode, and urged the US government to set federal guidelines to regulate the technology. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW M4 GTS: Your water-injected, turbo-boosted demon BMW is unleashing its most powerful M4 ever, a 493-horsepower special edition that's road legal yet bred for the track. The company is making 700 copies for sale around the world, and 300 of them will come to the United States. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder revs to 7,600 rpm and uses a water-injection technology to cool the intake air and lower the compression temperature. BMW says this allows it to wring more power out of the inline six. The car also uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the roof, hood, engine compartment strut brace, drive shaft, and rear spoiler to reduce weight. The M4 features BMW's organic light-emitting diode taillights, which are said to be an industry first.

McLaren BC-03 hypercar looks to be a production Ultimate Vision GranTurismo

McLaren revealed the Ultimate Vision Gran Turismo concept October 17, 2017. On October 14, 2018, Instagram user and known exotic car collector dan_am_i posted a slide from a private presentation McLaren gave to some special clientele. The slide read, "MSO - Bespoke Commission BC-03, Customer Review, October 12, 2018," and was rumored to refer to a production version of the Gran Turismo concept. It's said that MSO showed those in attendance a sketch of what's to come. The Supercar Blog broke the story, and McLaren MSO just confirmed to UK car blog Pistonheads that the " BC-03 is a bespoke customer commission being created by McLaren Special Operations." It wouldn't divulge anything more "because the specifics of the project are confidential between MSO and its client." We have only circumstantial evidence and hearsay at the moment, but two days after dan_am_i posted the slide, he returned to Instagram to post a side shot of the McLaren Ultimate VGT concept with #BC03 as one of the hashtags. The McLaren Life forum chimed in, saying MSO is making just five examples, and three have already been claimed. One goes to the aforementioned dan_i_am, the others to fellow seven-figure-car buyers x_marc_the_spot and mannykhoshbin. The BC-03, according to the forum post, is "inspired by" the Playstation concept and will "use new cutting-edge technologies, and a special type of carbon fiber." How much inspiration will make it to reality, that's the question. The Vision GT car was a track-only single-seater with 1,134 horsepower and 940 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers came from a combination of the brand's 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 powering the rear wheels, and two high-output electric motors powering the fronts. It weighed 2,204 virtual pounds. If the real thing comes close to those numbers, the BC-03 would be lighter than the Senna, with just as much if not more power than the Speedtail. We have yet to see if it will be a track-only car, but that wouldn't surprise us if so. We're confident that one aspect that won't make production is the prone, "motorcycle-like" driving position. The rumored price: $3 million, which — considering what's happening in the segment — isn't bad. The BC-03 probably won't possess the same monumental old-time Formula 1 engine note as the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, but it should provide some good competition should any of the five owners care to risk the BC-03 on the curbs. And if Le Mans really does create a hypercar LMP1 class ...

McLaren 720S Track Pack priced at $28,000

UPDATE: McLaren has released official U.S. pricing for the McLaren 720S Track Pack. The package costs $28,000, and the cost of a complete car with the package is $332,770. The original text has been updated with the official pricing. Two years ago, McLaren Automotive permitted owners to sharpen the 570S coupe with a new Track Pack, which brought the added benefit of lopping 55 pounds off the already svelte two-door. The carmaker says 10 percent of buyers choose it. Earlier this year, the Track Pack migrated to the droptop 570S, eliminating 73 pounds of performance-blunting mass. With the 720S GT3 customer race car testing throughout Europe as you read this, McLaren has announced a Track Pack Specification for the 720S road car. McLaren made the announcement in the UK, but the circuit bundle is certain to make its way here, following the previous two. When it does, you can also expect it to cost roughly the same as a decently powered track car. That's because to get to the Track Pack, you first need to option the Performance Pack, which appends hood and rear fender intakes, carbon fiber exterior mirror caps, and ambient lighting in the engine bay. Outside, the Track Pack combines the so-called "MSO Defined Gloss Finish Visual Carbon Fiber Active Rear Spoiler" with a sports exhaust and "super-lightweight" forged 10-spoke wheels. Inside, a pretzeled titanium bar spanning the cabin secures six-point harnesses for the driver and passenger lightweight carbon fiber racing seats. The driver grips an Alcantara-rimmed steering wheel, and the bespoke division puts its 18th-century-novel naming scheme to work again with the "MSO Defined Satin Visual Carbon Fiber Extended Gearshift Paddles." No changes are made to the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8. Nevertheless, when it's time to win the track-day trophy, the properly equipped 720S driver can make best use of that engine with the McLaren Track Telemetry (MTT) system, which marries data-logging software to three video cameras around the car. When it's all assembled, adding equals subtracting: the $28,000 package price is less than the price of optioning Track Pack components individually, and returns a 53-pound drop in curb weight. Total cost for a Track Pack-equipped 720S is $332,770. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery McLaren 720S Track Pack View 12 Photos McLaren Coupe Luxury Performance Supercars mclaren 720s