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A spotter's guide to Super Bowl LIV car commercials

Set to kick off on Fox at 6:30 ET on Sunday, February 2, from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida, the big game will feature the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. Throughout Super Bowl LIV, viewers will see about 50 commercials, each of which costs as much as $5.6 million per 30 seconds, according to AdWeek. Originally, there were more than 77 ad slots, so several companies could be paying well more than $10 million for a single, longer commercial. Numerous car companies have already announced their commercials, or their intentions to show commercials, during the game. Here's a roundup of the ones we know about so far. During the game on Sunday, we'll be livestreaming and adding links to the new commercials as they become available, so check back with us for that post.  Audi: E-Tron Sportback Maisie Williams has experience wearing many faces, and in Audi's Super Bowl commercial, she does her best Elsa impression. In the spot, titled "Let It Go," Williams faces the rigorous task of getting through L.A. traffic, but she's alleviated by the comfort of the Audi E-Tron Sportback electric crossover. The commercial is meant to signal the company leaving its gas past behind and moving forward to a sustainable future.  Genesis: GV80 Genesis makes its Super Bowl debut with a commercial that will show its all-new SUV, the GV80, to viewers around the world (many of which will be seeing the vehicle for the first time). The ad features Chrissy Teigen and John Legend as the purveyors of "new luxury," while "old luxury" is left for the birds. GMC: Hummer General Motors is bringing back the Hummer nameplate as a premium electric GMC truck. GM says it will have 1,000 horsepower and will be capable of going zero to 60 mph in three seconds. GM brought in NBA legend and Hummer fanboy LeBron James for the debut commercial. Hyundai: Sonata Hyundai is known for bringing in the big-time celebrities for its commercials, and 2020 is no different. A new advertisement called "Smaht Pahk" features John Krasinski, Chris Evans, and Rachel Dratch, all three of whom are from the Boston area. The trio gets into full character as they discuss the new high-tech parking feature on the redesigned 2020 Hyundai Sonata, and David Ortiz makes a cameo at the end. Even when New England isn't in the Super Bowl, New England is in the Super Bowl.

2022 Volvo C40 Recharge Interior Review | Stylish, spartan and Google tech

The 2022 C40 Recharge is an all-electric, all-or-nothing proposition from those delightfully stylish Swedes over at Volvo, whose designers put their typical minimalistic spin on this crossover-coupe EV. While Zac was a bit more fond of the all-blue interior in our tester than I was (you can also get it in black), I was at least equally as impressed as he was by its new tech suite. The "you can get it any way so long as it's loaded" American-market C40 arrived sporting the latest version of Google’s Android Automotive OS infotainment system (like other Volvos). In what may be the most stereotypical display of Silicon Valley chicanery I've seen so far in 2022, this new infotainment system doesnÂ’t support Apple CarPlay at launch, so it was almost poetic when the iPhone I used to shoot the above video fought me tooth-and-nail when I tried to share it via Google Drive. Relax, iPhoners. Volvo says an OTA update with CarPlay support is coming. But let's face it, when it comes to maps, Google is Google, and since you get it natively here, it works exactly the way you'd expect it to. Google Assistant is there to handle your voice commands too. There's even ample room in the rear for a future Google Bathroom Attendant, should you feel that you're just not getting quite enough Google in your diet.  If you've driven a recent Volvo, the infotainment system will probably look familiar to you. Despite the architectural overhaul and obvious Google ecosystem UI elements, it still feels like a Volvo system. I suppose that could be either good or bad, depending on how you feel about Volvo's user experience, which tends to eschew menu-diving in favor of pretty much putting every possible feature on the screen at the exact same time. That may sound overwhelming, but there's an organizational method to this pixelated madness.  Google's approach uses a simple scroll when you run out of home screen (yes, like a smartphone) and has collapsing drop-downs in the app menu for categories with more icons than will fit in the allotted span. For apps, settings and other such menus, this works a treat. Obviously, you don't want to be scrolling through things like cabin temperature or fan speeds, so you get more conventionally laid-out menus for both, for better or for worse.

Volvo XC40 delayed because it's too big for its own good?

As fuel prices rise and greenhouse gases poke holes in the ozone, big, gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles are becoming less popular as smaller, cleaner vehicles, such as crossovers, gain market share. Volvo is late to the small crossover party, though it wants to build the XC40 crossover to compete with the Land Rover Evoque. The only problem with that, Autocar reports, is that a suitable (read: small enough) platform for it is up to five years away, despite a hopeful photos of it in testing guise.
Volvo is currently developing a new platform, called SPA (Scaleable Platform Architecture), to underpin its next-generation of vehicles, such as the 2014 XC60 pictured above and the S60 sedan, which is likely the smallest vehicle that would be able to use the new platform. Furthermore, there doesn't seem to be a quick fix for the gaping hole in Volvo's lineup, and Geely, the Chinese budget car manufacturer that owns Volvo, is reportedly preparing to launch a mid-market brand that may or may not be sold outside of China.
Can't Swedish car manufacturers catch a break?