On today’s show… the IIHS introduces another new crash test… Intel and Mobileye created a mathematical formula to help regulators write rules for autonomous cars… and Lear develops a smart seat for ride-sharing. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

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

CAR2GO MORE UPSCALE
When it comes to car sharing, do hipster millennials in mega cities really want to run around in dinky little smart cars? No, they don’t. A lot of them would prefer to drive up in a shiny new Mercedes sedan or SUV. Car2go is the ride sharing service run by Daimler. And it was able to double its customer base in cities where it added 4-door Mercedes-Benz CLAs and GLAs to its fleet, not just 2-door smart cars. Car sharing services look like they’re really starting to catch on. Car2go has 2.8 million users globally and nearly a million in North America. But the service is not yet profitable. Bloomberg reports that Car2go lost money in 2015, the last year that Daimler said anything about its finances. Even so, BMW is talking about merging its car sharing service with Car2go. And Car2go says it’s open to collaborating with other car sharing services like Zipcar and Peugeot’s Free2move.

SHELL PUTS A CHARGE INTO GAS STATIONS
As we talked about yesterday, the days of the internal combustion engine could be numbered. Many cities and countries around the world have announced plans to ban cars powered by internal combustion engines in the next couple of decades. And currently, no automaker has plans to develop an all-new piston engine beyond 2021. And now even oil companies are preparing for the shift to electrics. Bloomberg reports that Shell opened its first rapid charging point for electric vehicles at three gas stations in the U.K. By the end of the year the charging stations will expand to seven locations. Gas stations are already falling out of favor in Britain. There’s currently more than 8,000 but they’re closing at a rate of 100 per year and by 2035 the number could drop to 6,000. At the same time Bloomberg analysts say by 2030, EV sales could account for 1 out of every 12 sales in the U.K. That’s up from 1 out of 200 today.

And we’ll be back with more right after this.

MATH FORMULA FOR VALIDATING ROBO CARS
Regulators and legislators need to figure out how to write rules and regulations for autonomous cars. Intel and Mobileye say they’ve come up with a mathematical formula that can help. They say it provides a methodology and standard for validating the safety of autonomous systems. By setting up rules to evaluate an accident involving an autonomous car, investigators can quickly determine who’s at fault. For example, if an autonomous car is surrounded by other cars and one of them cuts off the autonomous car, then clearly the autonomous car was not at fault. This is a simple example, but the formula also takes into account much more complex situations. And if you’d like to read a more in depth report, check out the link in today’s transcript at our website or look for it in the description box.

INTELLIGENT SEATING FOR RIDE-SHARING
The other day we showed you how Lear’s Intu Intelligent Seating can improve comfort and the driving experience, but it goes beyond customizing a seat for a personal vehicle. The supplier is showing how it can also be applied to ride-sharing, rentals or even taxis. When someone books a ride, their personal preferences, like seat recline, heating or cooling and massage settings will be sent to the vehicle. As will physical data. And the seat can be adjusted to best fit that person before the vehicle ever picks them up. Then once the ride begins, the seat can continue to measure biometrics to make sure the passenger is calm and comfortable. If someone else is tagging along for the ride, the personal sound zone will make sure calls or music doesn’t disturb the other passenger. I think it’s a cool concept that even if someone who is much taller or shorter than you was in the vehicle previously, you won’t have to spend time adjusting the seat for yourself.

Coming up next, Chevy adds new touches to the Colorado ZR2.

SMALL OVERLAP TEST MOVES TO PASSENGER SIDE
Back in 2012, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety introduced the driver-side small overlap test, where it crashes a vehicle into a barrier at 40MPH with just 25% of its front-end hitting the barrier. It’s designed to mimic when the front-end hits a portion of another car or an obstacle like a tree or telephone pole. At first most automakers struggled with the test but among 2017 models, two-thirds earn a good rating. And now the IIHS is applying that test to the passenger side of the vehicle. And this time automakers were better prepared for it. Researchers looked at 13 mid-size sedans that previously earned good ratings for the driver side and 10 earned a good rating, one an acceptable and two received a marginal rating. While there weren’t any major issues with the structure of the vehicles, the IIHS did find that automakers need to optimize airbags and seat belts to provide better head protection in that type of crash. Going forward, to earn the IIHS’s Top Safety Pick Plus award, automakers will now need to get a good or acceptable rating in the passenger-side small overlap test.

COLORADO ZR2 LATE NIGHT & EARLY MORNING EDITIONS
The Chevy Colorado ZR2 is already a pretty tricked out truck, but those wanting a little more uniqueness can now opt for the Midnight or Dusk Editions. As you might guess, the Midnight Edition is all blacked out, including the Chevy bowtie and 17-inch wheels. There’s also a black roll bar in the bed with LED lighting attached to the top and ZR2 logos cut out on the side. The Dusk features all the same upgrades, but it can be had in any body color that the ZR2 is offered in. The two mid-size trucks will make their debut at the SEMA show later this month.

And don’t forget to join us this afternoon for Autoline After Hours. Our guest for the show is Swamy Kotagiri, the Chief Technology Officer from Magna. The giant supplier is getting into all kinds of new technology like autonomous cars. And it’s the only Tier 1 supplier in the world that assembles vehicles for automakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Jaguar. That’s today at 3PM eastern time on Autoline.tv.

But that wraps up today’s show, thanks for making Autoline Daily a part of your day.