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2015 Lexus RC 350

Luxury coupes like this new, 2015 Lexus RC 350 have got, to my mind, a more challenging mission than their all-out-performance variants; in this case, the recently reviewed RC F.
That's not to say that I think actual owners and shoppers of cars like the RC F, BMW M4 and Cadillac CTS-V Coupe only care about output figures and lap times. In fact I'd say that those are outliers in terms of how they get used most often. But the story that we reviewers tell - and that shoppers in the ego-boosted segment tell themselves before they pull the trigger - have a lot to do with what the car is capable of on the edge of its envelope.
Mainstream coupes can't rely on that kind of irrational pull, however, at least outside of the emotional world of styling persuasion. For a buyer to drop more than $40,000 on the RC 350, he or she will want tons of features, comfort, good looks, and, yes, a dash of sportiness to spice of the pot. Reason and desire seem a lot more balanced here. That's great news for Lexus, with its history of creating sensible luxury cars and a pretty composed luxury coupe in this new RC.

Here's your chance to get a near-new 1st-gen Lexus LS400

The original Lexus LS400 was the automotive equivalent of a batter approaching the plate, pointing to the right-field bleachers and smacking the first pitch out of the ballpark. With the engineering excellence of Toyota fueled by the bountiful resources of the Japanese bubble economy, the first LS perfectly executed its mission. It also set a benchmark in quality and has earned a stellar reputation for durability. Most of the examples that today turn up in the used-car market have racked up mileage well into the six figures, and although they're often amazingly well preserved, that very longevity makes the idea of a near-new first-gen LS400 all the more compelling. With just 34k miles on the clock, this 1993 LS400 available now on Bring a Trailer is the freshest we've seen in a long time. This LS400 is said to have remained with its original owner until being acquired by a dealer in New Jersey. Like seemingly all LS400s of its era, the car is champagne gold with a tan leather interior. It also has chrome wheels and gold badging — but then we did say it was a New Jersey car. A just-completed $1,200 service included a new timing belt, water pump, and distributor caps and rotors (there are two, one per cylinder bank). That should start the winning bidder off on a course of several hundred thousand miles of trouble-free ownership. At this writing, bidding has already reached $10,000, with six days to go.

Rebooted Apple program gets permit to test autonomous vehicles in California

For a while, Apple has been pursuing autonomous vehicle technology, but has more or less tried to keep the specifics of those ambitions under wraps. We did learn last fall that the company was killing off plans to build its own car, and clues about its program to develop a self-driving system popped up since. Today, though, we have more concrete information, as the California DMV has issued Apple a permit to test self-driving cars in the state, as TechCrunch reports. In a document released by the DMV, the tech company joins a number of others in California with approval to test autonomous vehicles. Apple will test its systems on three cars, each a 2015 Lexus RX540h, with six approved drivers. Presumably, those cars will be on the road quite a bit, as gathering lots of data is crucial to developing a working system. Per California rules, the company will have to provide accident reports, as well as a log of every instance that a human driver has to take over driving duties from the autonomous system in what the DMV calls a "disengagement report." Those reports will be made public, so we'll be able to glean a little more information about Apple's progress once they're available. Related Video: News Source: TechCrunchImage Credit: GABRIELLE LURIE/AFP/Getty Images Green Lexus Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles California