On today’s show…a district judge throws the book at one of VW’s engineers…somehow or other, clocks in older Hondas are resetting to zero all on their own…and how HCCI technology breathes new life into the internal combustion engine. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

THE LONG ARM OF JUSTICE
The Volkswagen diesel scandal just took another harsh turn. A U.S. District judge just sentenced one of VW’s engineers to 40 months in prison and hit him with a $200,000 fine. The engineer, James Liang, was a fairly low level VW employee, but the judge said he was part of a “massive and stunning fraud.” Another VW executive, Oliver Schmidt, is expected to get a 7-year prison sentence. Both Liang and Schmidt worked in the U.S. But these two men were clearly not the ones who planned this scam. The plotters and schemers are still in Germany, which does not extradite its citizens. And that means those execs will never again travel to the U.S. or any other country where they could possibly face international arrest warrants.

SAFETY TECH REDUCES ACCIDENTS
Last week the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that lane-departure warnings are helping to reduce car accidents. Now a new study from Toyota shows similar results comparing cars with ADAS technologies to those without it. Cars with Toyota Safety Sense experienced a 50% drop in rear-end collisions and vehicles that also were equipped with Intelligent Clearance Sonar, a technology that helps prevent collisions caused by pedal misapplications, saw rear-end collisions fall by 90%. By the end of next year, Toyota says 90% of the vehicles it sells in Japan will be equipped with Toyota Safety Sense and ICS.

PROBLEMS WITH BOLT BATTERIES
A small number of Chevy Bolts are experiencing an issue with the battery. Reuters reports that some models incorrectly report remaining range at low states of charge due to lower battery voltage, which causes the car to stop. GM says less than 1% of the 10,000 Bolts its sold are impacted. The company is currently arranging a fix for the affected models, but it shows that EVs still have teething problems.

What the heck is going on with the clocks in older Hondas? That’s coming up next.

HONDA CLOCKS GO CRAZY
When anxiously awaiting something, someone might say that time is standing still. And for some Honda owners time has literally stopped. Digital clocks in 2003 to 2005 Pilots with the nav system and 2000 to 2003 Odysseys have inexplicably reset themselves to zero. The problem cropped up on August 17th and so far, no one knows why. So far, Honda cannot come up with a fix or even figure out the root cause. Some wonder if it could be related to Y2K programming going back to the year 2000, but so far this is a complete mystery.

ROYAL MAIL TESTS EV TRUCKS
The U.K.’s national postal service, the Royal Mail has already tested a fleet of EVs from Peugeot, but now it’s getting set to test a number of electric delivery trucks. The vehicles, made by a company called Arrival, look similar to a number of autonomous buses that have come out recently and will come in varying sizes and payloads with ranges up to 100-miles. The Royal Mail will test the delivery trucks for the next several months to see how they handle demand from some of the U.K.’s larger cities.

SONATA GETS SIGNIFICANT REFRESH
The mid-size sedan segment in the American market is shrinking, but sales will hit 1.8 million cars this year. So there’s plenty of opportunity for car companies with something new to offer to consumers. That’s why we’re seeing Toyota completely redesign the Camry and Honda do the same with the Accord. And it’s why Hyundai just did a significant refresh of the Sonata. Pay attention to the new grille design on the new Sonata. It’s going to start showing up on all Hyundai models. To offer more value, Hyundai is making Blind Spot Detection and Rear Cross Traffic Alert standard equipment. A base SE model with a 2.4 liter engine and 6 speed automatic now starts at $23,000, while the top-of-the-line Limited with a 2-liter turbo and 8-speed automatic starts at $33,335. By the way, that 8-speed offers a gear ratio spread of 7.4 to 1, which is quite good. Thanks to chassis and suspension improvements the 2018 Sonata is quieter, has a firmer ride and feels much more solid. The steering has better on-center feel, and the car corners better. Sales of the Sonata are off sharply this year, but these changes could start bringing more people into the showrooms.  

Coming up next, HCCI technology breathes new life into piston engines.

HCCI ENGINE BREAKTHROUGH?
On last week’s Autoline After Hours we were joined by Matthew Riley, the CEO of Nautilus, a company that says it’s cracked the code for HCCI engines. And in the following clip he explains what makes its engine unique from other HCCI engines developed in the past.

(The AAH preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

For a deeper dive into Nautilus’s HCCI engine you can watch that entire discussion right now on our website, Autoline.tv or just look for it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and making Autoline Daily a part of your day.