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VW V-Charge is clever automated EV parking, charging tech

Automated parking is another niche that Volkswagen wants to rule, so the German carmaker has teamed up with five technology partners to develop its V-Charge system. In short, V-Charge allows an owner to use a smartphone app to send his car to find a parking space and return when requested. If it's an electric car, it will search for an open inductive charging spot, and when fully charged it won't squat over the charger, but will move to find a conventional parking spot. Valet Charge uses four wide-angle cameras, three stereo cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, and car-to-infrastructure protocols to avoid obstacles as it finds its way around, including areas like parking garages where GPS won't work. VW says it's been careful to use off-the-shelf sensors and technologies that are already installed in current cars, since it has an eye on near-term implementation of V-Charge. It's impossible to know what "near-term" means, but the sooner we can avoid the valet and trust our car to fetch a spot and come back to us like a faithful pet, the better. The video above shows it at work, the press release below has all the details. 'V-Charge': Volkswagen pushes development of automated parking and charging of electric vehicles - Parking spaces driven to fully automatically - Electric vehicles charged automatically - V-Charge places only minor demands on car park infrastructure - Intelligent form of valet parking Volkswagen aspires to holding the leading position in the field of automated parking. A look into the near future of automated parking is given by 'V-Charge', an EU research project, in which six national and international partners are jointly developing new technologies. Its focus is on automating the search for a parking space and on the charging of electric vehicles. The best part about it is that the vehicle not only automatically looks for an empty parking space, but that it finds an empty space with charging infrastructure and inductively charges its battery. Once the charging process is finished, it automatically frees up the charging bay for another electric vehicle and looks for a conventional parking space. 'V-Charge' stands for Valet Charge and is pointing the way to the future of automated parking. Wolfsburg, 14 July 2015 - In the USA especially, convenient valet parking is a big hit: you pull up in your car right outside your destination, valet service personnel park it for you and have it brought around again as and when you need it.

VW beams in Star Trek stars to promote e-Golf EV

Volkswagen just set its e-mobility commercial phasers on stunning. The German automaker has cast Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame (i.e., actors William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy) in a new advertisement for its growing stable of electric vehicles. Even though it's in German, we think you can get the idea. VW went Hollywood and cast the two veteran actors in a futuristic-themed 45-second ad, which sees Shatner cruise up in the e-Golf (with a toothy Trek-fan kid in tow) while Nimoy rocks the XL1 and the Trek theme blares in the background. Forget for a moment that the kid in the commercial wasn't even born when Shatner started pitching for Priceline, let alone the original Trek series and just enjoy the wholesome good humor of Shatner saying that the electric powertrain is just like the one in a spaceship. If you've got any familiarity with Spock, you should be able to understand his punch line, too. Of course, if you'd rather your German vehicle advertisements were set in the Star Wars universe, we recommend clicking here. VW will bring the e-Golf to the states in November at a price of $35,445, about $6,500 higher than the Nissan Leaf's starting pricetag. You can see the new ad and a number of related behind-the-scenes videos (in English) below. Our Quick Spin of the E-up! are available here. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Audi's CEO might not have known of VW emissions scheme

There's been no shortage of finger-pointing when it comes to finding people to blame for the Volkswagen diesel-emissions scandal that broke last September. One rather powerful executive, however, appears to have escaped blame. That would be Audi CEO Rupert Stadler, whose company sold about 85,000 diesel vehicles with emissions-cheating software, Reuters says, citing people familiar with the process. US law firm Jones Day questioned executives at both VW and its Audi unit and has found no evidence that Stadler was complicit with the plan, which involved programming Volkswagen-made diesel engines to produce artificially low emissions when the vehicle was being smog-tested. In Audi's case, the engine type in question was the 3.0-liter V6 diesel. Officials with both VW and its Audi unit declined to comment, according to Reuters. That engine was used for the Audi A6, A7, A8, Q5, and Q7 since the 2009 model year, in addition to the VW Touareg and Porsche Cayenne. Audi also sold the VW Group 2.0-liter four-cylinder in the A3 from 2010 to 2013 and 2015. VW has reached an agreement with US regulators concerning that engine, which is also not connected to Stadler. Last month, German newspaper Bild am Sonntag published specifics on how the 3.0-liter diesel cheated the emissions-testing process, including records that the motor was programmed to shut of its emissions-control equipment after 22 minutes of running, or about two minutes longer than typical emissions-compliance testing. Audi said last November that it would work on a software update for the V6's emissions-control system that would be submitted to both the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the VW unit hasn't reached any settlement with US regulators implying that a solution was agreed upon. Volkswagen's settlement with the EPA will cost Europe's largest automaker as much as $15 billion in the form of buybacks, lease buyouts, vehicle repairs, and investments in zero-emissions technology. VW sold about a half-million vehicles in the US that contained the so-called "cheat" software. Related Video: News Source: Reuters Government/Legal Green Audi Volkswagen Diesel Vehicles vw diesel scandal scandal Rupert Stadler