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The Audi Q7 doesn't want me to speed and I'm not totally okay with that

I'm a big fan of adaptive cruise control. My commute is 50 miles each way, almost all on freeways here in Michigan. If everyone drove at the same speed there'd be little need for smart cruise, but I live in reality where people camp out in the left lane and practice going from the gas to the brake for no apparent reason. Radar cruise systems let me set my max speed and just worry about steering. But Audi has gone a step further with its adaptive cruise system. And it's a step I'm not sure I'm comfortable with. Audi's system, as featured on the new Q7, has a feature that uses the forward-facing camera to read speed-limit signs, something that's becoming common in Europe and is now making its way here in the continent's luxury cars. That part's fine; it's useful information and gets nicely integrated into Audi's Virtual Cockpit screen and on the head-up display. What the car then does with that info, however, is the issue: If your set cruise speed is higher than the speed on a sign you pass, the car will drop the cruise speed down to the limit. But it's not perfect. On one stretch of highway, the Q7 picked up the speed limit posted on the parallel service road, dropping me down from a little above the limit to 30 mph. It didn't slam on the brakes, but it did confuse me at first and require intervention before the car slowed down to a crawl. This feature isn't ready for primetime. Luckily, it can be turned off or switched to a mode where it gives you a warning that the speed limit has changed (or at least that the car thinks it has) and lets you react before the set cruise speed is changed automatically. When activated, it's a safety issue. A more serious one, in my opinion, than driving a little over the speed limit, especially when it means interrupting the flow of traffic. There's nothing predictable about a car trundling along in the fast lane and then completely letting off the gas. It's not predictable for the driver behind you, and it's not something a driver expects of their own vehicle. Yes, this feature was obviously developed for people driving on the Autobahn, where speeds can drop down from unlimited to a slow crawl pretty quickly when entering a construction zone or approaching a built-up area. German roads also have more consistent signage, so the false-positive scenario I experienced might not have come up there.

Audi S5 spied

We only recently saw the next-gen Audi A5 testing for the first time with its sleeker design covered in camouflage. Now, here's a well-concealed glimpse at of the higher-performance S5 for comparison against the standard coupe. With so much swirling camouflage picking out the differences between the two models isn't easy, but there are a few tweaks to notice. The intakes on the front fascia are just a little bigger, hinting at the increase in power. The brakes also appear to be larger, especially when comparing them at the rear. Of course, the most obvious changes are the dual exhausts poking out each corner of the speculative S5. While more power is assured for the S5 over the A5, the exact powerplant isn't officially known yet. Rumors suggest Audi using a tuned version of the supercharged 3.0-liter V6 making between 340 horsepower and 350 hp, at least for the S4. The switch to the MLB Evo platform means less weight to haul around no matter what's under the hood, though. The next-gen A4 should provide some more hints about the future of the lineup when it launches at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September, and the coupes are expected to join the lineup later.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.