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Mercedes-Benz concept car takes driverless vehicles into the future

A new Mercedes-Benz concept car is looking to give Google a driverless run for their money. Unlike the cars we drive today, the Mercedes-Benz F015 will drive us -- acting as a personal chauffeur so passengers can relax or worry about important things like work, while the automated vehicle worries about the roads. We have to admit, it looks significantly more comfortable than Google's experimental driverless cars. Keeping up with their luxury brand, the car is more of a lounge. Front seats can rotate so passengers can face each other, a touch screen coffee table extends into the middle of the space with just a tap, and touch screen monitors are built into the doors. In case you want to drive the old fashioned way, just swivel around and use the steering wheel and fold away pedals. On the outside, the vehicle communicates with pedestrians and other drivers using lights and vocal cues. If a pedestrian crosses the street in front of the car, a laser will project a crosswalk and a voice will let them know it's safe to cross. The F015 is really just a concept car and will likely never be sold on a car lot, but it may force Google to step up their game. Their current driverless car prototypes look like something out of a retro cartoon, whereas Mercedes' looks like it's straight out of the future. Weird Car News Mercedes-Benz driverless car

Aston Martin Vantage vs. Mercedes-AMG GT C Review | Translating German into English

GROssBRITANNIEN — No car matches the new Aston Martin Vantage as closely as the Mercedes-AMG GT, the two sharing both their 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and electrical architecture while competing for the same market niche. So, of the many challenges Aston Martin faced when developing it, ensuring that the Vantage had a unique identity must have weighed more heavily than any other. The added spice to this confrontation is the GT's status as halo model for AMG. Meanwhile, Aston Martin's brand identity, built on the sharp-suited machismo embodied by a certain big-screen spy, is a make-or-break issue for the company. The identity problem has fascinated me since the AMG deal was first announce in 2013. So exploring the Vantage on British roads with the GT literally filling the mirrors is a big deal. Now, finally, we have directly competing products with which to explore the theory. And there's much to like in both, not least of which is that common powerhouse of an engine. While they don't share a platform, both use the classic front-engine, rear-drive, transaxle layout, with traditional driving manners to match. Some quick number-crunching as an appetizer: The AMG GT C you see here has the dry-sumped M178 derivative of the V8, with 550 horsepower and 501 pound-feet of torque, driving the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and fully active electronic locking differential. It's 179 inches long, weighs 3,748 pounds and will clear 0-60 mph in 3.6 seconds en route to 197 mph. The Vantage has the wet-sumped M177 version of the same engine, as featured in countless AMGs and shared with the DB11 V8. It makes 503 hp, 505 lb-ft and drives the rear wheels through a transaxle-mounted, eight-speed automatic gearbox and fully active electronic locking differential. Sounding familiar? It's comparable in overall length but a couple of inches longer in wheelbase, and weighs pretty much the same as the GT C, give or take a few pounds. It hits 60 in 3.5 seconds and tops out at 195 mph. Both have adaptive dampers and a variety of driver modes, both are built from aluminum and both are at the sportier end of the GT spectrum. The two U.K.-market cars you see here cost just more than $180,000 with options. Pretty darned close, then. Numbers are one thing.

Recharge Wrap-up: Houston's bus revival, autonomous trucks on the Autobahn

A documentary shows how Houston, Texas significantly improved its outdated bus system. Called High Frequency: Why Houston is Back on the Bus, the short film describes how the city reimagined its bus system to become more efficient, more useful and more popular. Despite some opposition, the change has proven to be effective, with bus ridership up eight percent in three months, and light rail ridership up due to complementary bus routes. See the video above, and read more at CityLab. Automakers sent autonomous semi trucks on the German Autobahn as part of the European Truck Platooning Challenge of 2016. Mercedes-Benz, Volvo and Scania, among other groups, sent platoons of trucks between Stuttgart, Germany, and Rotterdam, Holland. In Mercedes's platoon of three trucks, the lead truck was fitted with lasers and other sensors to guide the convoy down the road. The two following trucks relied on vehicle-to-vehicle communication to trail 50 feet behind the lead, making room for cars to come between them and closing the gaps when able. The close following distance provides fuel economy gains of up to 10 percent in the rearward trucks on account of the reduction in drag. Read more at Hybrid Cars. Renault has reduced NOx emissions in its Euro 6b diesel vehicles in real world driving conditions. By improving its exhaust gas recirculation systems and NOx traps, nitrogen oxide emissions are cut in half on average, under certain driving conditions. The improvements will be included in vehicles leaving the factory beginning in July of 2016. Beginning in October, owners of Renault Euro 6b diesels can have the modifications added to their cars for free. Read more from Renault. Tata Technologies is creating an innovation lab in California to partner with EV technology companies. Having a tech center in California allows Tata to work on technologies that will largely be deployed in the company's main market of Asia. "Today, we are partnering with companies and startups who have aspirations to sell in China, but a lot of what they do is in California," says Samir Yajnik of Tata Technologies. Read more from The Economic Times. BMW's i Ventures is investing in mobility-as-a-service software provider RideCell. RideCell provides technology for services such as carsharing, ridesharing and other transit services. "The convergence of transportation trends in cities is of key importance to BMW," says Ulrich Quay, head of BMW i Ventures.