2002 Mercedes-benz Clk320 Base Coupe 2-door 3.2l on 2040-cars

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Paul di Resta returns to DTM with Mercedes

Some drivers manage to make the transition from one form of motor racing into another, and some run into trouble. Take Paul di Resta, for example. The promising young Scottish driver dominated Formula 3 racing in Europe in 2006, then moved over to Germany's hugely competitive DTM touring car series where he finished second in 2008, third in 2009 and first in 2010. But things didn't go as smoothly for Paul - cousin to retired Indy champion Dario Franchitti - when he moved in to Formula One with the Force India team.
In three years on the grid, he failed to score a single podium finish. Little surprise, then, that Force India opted not to renew his contract for this season. Left without a ride, di Resta is now going back to DTM with longtime supporter Mercedes-Benz, testing the new C-Class touring car today in Portugal. It's good news for Mercedes, which is celebrating 120 years in motor racing this season and, with 2005 champion Gary Paffett also on board, can now count two former champions on its DTM roster.
We wouldn't count Paul out of F1 for good, though. When he won the DTM title four years ago, he was also moonlighting as Force India's test driver, and we wouldn't be surprised to see him pull similar double-duty with the Mercedes F1 team (or another Benz-powered outfit) this year before spring-boarding back into grand prix racing in the future. At 27 years old, he may not have been the youngest driver on the grid this year, but he's still got a good few years ahead of him.

Major Alexa deal will bring Amazon services into more cars

Amazon and its personal assistance service Alexa are partnering with HERE Technologies to create a new connected mobility service powerhouse. Alexa will integrate with HERE's navigation and location services to offer what the two companies are calling a "true voice-first-navigation experience." Alexa will come pre-integrated with HERE navigation on-demand, which the automakers can then enable, which should help cut down on development time. One of the biggest features from this partnership is how directions could be offered and delivered using HERE's Open Location Platform (OLP). Currently, the OLP uses data from several car manufacturers to provide insights into real-time location and traffic. But on Alexa, this could be used to provide directional context. For example, Alexa could say, "Turn right after [such-and-such a building]" rather than just, "Turn right." Amazon has been testing the automotive waters throughout the past decade. Its home-based Alexa-enabled devices are already offered with connections to several manufacturers. To various degrees of integration, it can already pair with Ford, Genesis, Toyota, Lexus, Hyundai and BMW vehicles. At the end of 2018, Amazon took things a step further when it introduced the Echo Auto, a Bluetooth-connected Alexa assistant device that can be physically kept in a car. Currently only available by invitation (its production and distribution have been delayed), the $25 device is essentially a voice service that works together with smartphones and connects to a car's speakers. Users can command it to do a variety of things, including playing music, setting navigation, opening the garage door, finding local stores, making calls, setting reminders, and thousands of other "skills." According to The Verge, nearly 1 million people have already ordered the device. Some (well, probably few) may know HERE Technologies from its maps on Windows Phones. We all know how that turned out, though. Today, HERE has expanded into a multi-function suite that is available in multiple mediums, including many automotive applications. HERE Automotive's connected vehicle services include real-time traffic, parking, weather, fuel prices, hazard warnings, traffic sign integration, and even EV charging stations. These all incorporate and extend the use of HERE's location and tracking programming. HERE is already partnered with BMW, Audi, Daimler, Intel, Mobileye, NVIDIA, and has investments from Bosch, Continental and Pioneer.

Daily Driver: 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600, reviewed by Adam Morath and Greg Migliore. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPTAdam: [00:00:03] Hi, I'm Adam Morath for Autoblog and I busted out the bowtie for today's Daily Driver because we are in a 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600. Now, this is like the S-Class on caviar. They've taken one of the most refined vehicles in the world, dropped a V12 under the hood and added tons of content, but it's also one of the rare examples where the best place for review the car is not from the drivers' seat. I'm going to kick it back to my associate, [00:30:00] Greg Migliore to tell you a little bit more about this car.Greg: All right, well thanks, Adam. It's really great to be rolling around in Birmingham with my footmen... I mean co-worker, Adam. I'm in the back of the S600 here. This Maybach is spectacular in so many ways back here. I'm really up to my elbows, up to my waist in heated leather. Everything here is heated. It's a really, really, bespoke setting. Now, it's almost 3:00. I think, you know, happy hour is near. I could go for a drink. [00:01:00] The Maybach has you covered. Pop this right down, you're going to pull this out right here where my liquor is chilling and there is a nice faster right here in the center console where you can put your goblet down and these prongs stick out and wrap around the stem of the base, so you know, if Adam hits a bump here, hey, I'm cool, it's no problem. Now, while I'm back here, there's so many things I can do. There's a tablet in front of me. [00:01:30] There's a remote control, light very aerodynamic if there is such a thing for a remote. I'm going to tune up the radio here, put on some, I think I'll tune up the symphony hall, because that is what is appropriate in this vehicle. I can also queue up a massage if I would like. All jokes aside though. The Maybach is big business for Mercedes. They brought this name back recently because there's a different sort of value than just a standard S class and that actually allows them to capitalize [00:02:00] on a pretty lucrative market. It starts at about $190 and I can tell you for sure this is not an entry level car, so I'm sure we're looking at over $200, in that range, but you get a lot.