AD #3388 – Tesla Demands A Legal Hearing; Lincoln Model L100 Aimed at Celestiq; Acura Shows Off Electric Concept

This is Autoline Daily, the show dedicated to enthusiasts of the global automotive industry.

TESLA DEMANDS A LEGAL HEARING
Tesla has been under attack over the safety of its Autopilot and Full Self Driving technology, and the company is not taking it sitting down. As you know, last month the California Department of Motor Vehicles filed a complaint against Tesla, accusing the automaker of falsely advertising the capabilities of its Autopilot and Full Self Driving systems. It said Tesla overstated how well the technology works. Well, Tesla is demanding that it get a hearing to present its defense. That’s all the details we have for now but earlier this week Tesla won a legal battle in Germany over a similar complaint and the court said it can continue to advertise Autopilot as an autonomous driving system.

NHTSA WANTS TESLA DATA
But that’s not the end of Tesla’s legal problems. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told the company to hand over details about its in-car camera driver monitoring system. It’s part of NHTSA’s investigation into why a dozen Tesla vehicles have crashed into stopped emergency vehicles while Autopilot was engaged. NHTSA wants to know if the monitoring system provides enough warning to the driver to pay attention.

GM TO BUILD 4TH BATTERY PLANT IN U.S.
GM is ramping up its ambitious EV strategy. General Motors and LG Energy Solution are looking into building a fourth battery plant in the U.S. They confirmed they’re considering a site in Indiana and will likely invest $2 billion to build it. The new plant is expected to be similar in size to their other ones. GM’s and LG’s plant in Ohio will begin producing Ultium batteries later this month. Next year, they’ll complete construction of a battery plant in Tennessee, and then in late 2024, they’ll open another battery plant in Lansing, Michigan. That will give GM four battery plants just for the North American market.

LINCOLN MODEL L100 AIMED AT CADILLAC CELESTIQ
When Cadillac announced it would make the Celestiq, a hand-made, enormous, ultra-luxury sedan, you just knew that Lincoln would be forced to respond in some way. And so, meet the Lincoln Model L100, which is also an enormous, ultra-luxury sedan. But while the Celestiq is going into production, the Model L100 is still just a concept. Everything we’re showing you here looks to be computer generated but the physical concept was unveiled at the Pebble Beach Concours last night. Lincoln envisions this as an electric, autonomous car that uses a next generation battery cell and pack, which Lincoln claims will have game-changing energy density. It also says it will provide structural integration by treating the entire vehicle as a system. Sure sounds like Doug Field, the EV guru that Ford hired away from Apple, is already having an influence to get Ford into systems engineering. Note how the glass roof and rear hinge doors open up to create a massive entry way. And note that there’s no steering wheel. Instead there’s a crystal-like model of the car on the center console that operates like a joystick. Now the question is, will Lincoln ever make a car like this, or is this just a design exercise? The Cadillac Celstiq will go on sale in 2024 with a price we believe will start around $375,000. So will Lincoln dare to follow suit? Let us know what you think.

ACURA SHOWS OFF ELECTRIC CONCEPT
Lincoln is not the only one showing off a concept car at Pebble. Take a look at the all-electric and semi-autonomous crossover that Acura calls the Precision. The production version is supposed to debut in 2024, which strongly suggests this will be based on GM’s Ultium platform and assembled by General Motors. Acura says the steering wheel will retract into the dashboard which might also hint that it will come with GM’s Ultra Cruise hands-free driving, the next step up from Super Cruise. The Precision represents the new design theme at Acura, especially the front end. Here’s the design-speak that Acura uses to describe it, a “Diamond Pentagon grille, with Chicane DRL signature and new “Particle Glitch” lighting. That’s a mouthful, but it is eye-grabbing. DRL, of course, refers to daytime running lights. And so a chicane DRL refers to the kind of zig-zag line which kind of emulates a chicane at a race track.

ACURA CONCEPT LIKELY CALLED ZDX
And it sure sounds like the production name of the Precision will be the Acura ZDX. There’s also going to be a variant called the ZDX Type S that will offer more performance. Acura announced that the all-electric Acura ZDX will debut in 2024 and will be built in GM’s Ultium platform. But it didn’t reveal any photos or renderings. That’s why we’re thinking the Precision is actually a concept for the ZDX. In 2026 Acura will start selling other EVs built on Honda’s new EV platform called e:Architecture.

BUICK WILDCAT CONCEPT FEATURED IN TV ADS
There sure is a lot of emphasis on concept cars right now. We already talked about the Lincoln Model L100 and the Acura Precision. Now Buick is using the beautiful Wildcat concept car in its new television advertising campaign. And it hired actor Reese Witherspoon to narrate it. The ad shows the Wildcat autonomously emerging from the owner’s garage. As she gets in the steering wheel retracts for autonomous driving. It also shows her swiping icons floating in front of the windshield, and crab-walking into a tight parking spot. This is all really cool stuff, but none of it is available right now. This ad will really get the public interested in the Buick brand, but a lot of them are going to be very disappointed when they discover they can’t buy a Wildcat.

GENEVA AUTO SHOW CANCELED AGAIN
It’s still a tough environment out there for auto shows. For the fourth year in a row, the Geneva auto show is being canceled. It was supposed to take place next February but organizers canceled it due to “uncertainties in the global economy and geopolitics, as well as the risks related to the development of the pandemic.” Let me translate. That means they couldn’t get enough car companies to exhibit at the show. Instead, the organizers are going to move the show to Doha, Qatar in November 2023. In one of the most bizarre promotions we’ve seen, they’re going to call it the Geneva auto show, even though it’s going to be in Doha.

And on that note, we wrap up the week’s worth of Autoline Daily’s. Thanks for watching, have a great weekend, and please join us again here on Monday.