AD #2476 – ACC Grows in Popularity, Hyundai’s Steel Advantage, Ethics of Programming an Autonomous Car

On today’s show…we’ll tell you by how much Tesla just raised its prices…and talk about the ethics of programming an autonomous car…and explain why Hyundai has an advantage in running its own steel mills. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

TESLA RAISES BASE PRICE OF MODEL S AND X
Elon Musk recently said Tesla would simplify the option packages for the Model S and X. Well they did that, and raised the prices. The base Model S and X 75D now cost a thousand dollars more. The S starts at $78,000 while the X starts at $84,000. However, pricing for the 100D models dropped by $500. As for the change in options, the Model S no longer offers its rear facing jump seats and panoramic sunroof. And the Model X no longer has the optional center console in the six-passenger version.

GM EXPANDS MARKETPLACE SERVICE
GM’s Marketplace service is where people are able to purchase things, like food and gas, from the infotainment screen in their car. And it’s about to get a major update. About 3 million GM vehicles already offer the service, which GM says translates to hundreds of thousands of users. Or more importantly for advertisers, 10% of people actually click into the app’s merchants. Thinking it may have an advantage by being one of the first in this space, GM is adding additional services and will come out with a new version of the platform soon.

WEEKEND RACING RESULTS
In racing news over the weekend, Lewis Hamilton powered his Mercedes to victory at the Grand Prix of Brazil. The win fell into his lap when the leader Max Verstappen crashed his Renault-powered Red Bull with a backmarker. Verstappen still managed to finish second. Kyle Busch won the NASCAR cup race at the Texas Motor Speedway in his Toyota Camry. That brings the championship contenders down to the final four drivers: Busch, Harvick, Logano and Truex, which puts two Toyotas against two Fords, to determine who wins the championship at the last race next weekend. And history was made at the NHRA finals in Pomona, California, when the champions in each category–Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle–all won their final races of the season.

What are the ethics of how to program an autonomous car? That’s coming up next.

ACC GROWS IN POPULARITY
Jaguar was the first to market with adaptive cruise control in 1999. The radar was so expensive that the joke was, “Buy a radar unit and get a Jaguar for free.” But today it’s so popular that one out of three cars sold in the U.S. has adaptive cruise. But that’s the average. 91% of new Toyota’s already come with ACC. Ward’s Intelligence reports that 83% of all new vehicles will have it by 2025.

ETHICS OF PROGRAMMING AN AUTONOMOUS CAR
What should an autonomous vehicle do when there’s no avoiding an accident? MIT helped conduct a survey that forced more than 2 million online participants from over 200 countries to pick between one of two or more potentially fatal options. It found that people agreed on three things: autonomous cars should spare the lives of humans over animals; they should spare the lives of many humans rather than a few; and they should save young people rather than old ones. The survey also showed that people cared more for the lives of law abiding citizens rather than law breaking pedestrians, like jaywalkers. And researchers say it’s information like this that could be used to inform the way software is written to control autonomous vehicles.

ISUZU STILL ALIVE IN THE U.S.
Most of us would think that NPR stands for National Public Radio. But it’s also the name of the truck that Isuzu sells in the American market. What, you say? Isuzu is still in the American market? Yes it is. And in fact, the NPR is also re-badged as the Chevrolet LCF, which stands for Low Cab Forward. The trucks are made in both Japan and the U.S. Sales are not that big. They’ll sell about 4,300 trucks in the U.S. market this year. And we mention this because Autoline is dedicated to helping you understand all aspects of the automotive industry.

Coming up next, Hyundai explains why it has an advantage over its competitors by owning its own steel operations.

HYUNDAI’S STEEL ADVANTAGE
Hyundai is a huge industrial conglomerate, which gives it an advantage over most of its competition. On last week’s Autoline After Hours, Mike O’Brien, the head of Product Planning at Hyundai Motor America, explained how making steel in-house helps it improve the rigidity of its platforms.

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

You can watch that entire show right now on our website or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and please join us again tomorrow.