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Continue reading 2025 GMC Terrain is redesigned with bolder style and big tech
2025 GMC Terrain is redesigned with bolder style and big tech originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Some automotive brands have remained at the top of predicted reliability rankings for years, and while new vehicles have become far more durable than they were even a few years ago, many of those top-ranked brands continue to dominate. iSeeCars recently studied the vehicles and brands most likely to reach 250,000+ miles, but many of the top brands won’t come as any surprise.
Toyota was the top-ranked brand, with a 17 percent overall chance of having vehicles reach 250,000 miles. The top seven brands:
The average vehicle on America’s roads has an 8.6 percent chance of lasting a quarter-million miles or more, so those vehicles outperform the rest of the crop by notable margins. Looking at the list, it might be a little odd seeing Ram, GMC, Chevy, and Ford mixed in with brands like Honda and Toyota, but there’s a good reason for their success. The Big Three American brands sell a ton of trucks, which scored favorably in iSeeCars’ analysis. It’s worth noting that this ranking doesn’t include heavy-duty models, which show a strong ability to stand the test of time.
The Ram 3500 had a 42.6 percent chance of lasting 250,000 miles, followed by the Toyota Tundra, Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, GMC Sierra 2500HD, and Chevrolet Silverado 3500HD. Beyond the fact that heavy-duty trucks are built for abuse, some of those pickups’ longevity is likely due to fleet management and regular maintenance that commercial owners tend to follow.
Breaking out other vehicle categories shows that SUVs hold 16 of the 30 top spots. The list also holds eight pickup trucks and four sedans. iSeeCars used data from more than 402 million vehicles for this study. It analyzed odometer data at each yearly age and used a proprietary model based on those mileage numbers to estimate the longevity of vehicles and brands.
I live in Maine, which means that I often have to brave Boston traffic to do “big city stuff.” The Massachusetts metropolis’ age and dense population make it one of the most miserable places to drive in the country, worse than Los Angeles in many areas. The city is attempting to address the problem through a new partnership with Google’s Project Green Light, which leans on artificial intelligence to alter traffic light patterns in hopes of reducing congestion.
Boston’s chief of streets, Jascha Franklin-Hodge, told WCVB that the system “provides our traffic engineers with important data to tweak a signal by seconds, which can help reduce congestion along a corridor.” The city also said the tech should smooth stop-and-go traffic and cut emissions.
The partnership has so far been successful in limited early testing. Officials said, “At the intersections of Huntington Avenue and Opera Place, and at Armory Street and Green Street, stop-and-go traffic has been reduced by over 50%. Cities around the world that use Project Green Light have experienced a 10% average reduction in emissions.”
Boston consistently ranks among the worst cities in the U.S. for traffic. Earlier this year, CNBC noted that drivers lost an average of 42 hours sitting in traffic in 2023, so any improvement in commute times is a benefit everyone can get behind.
Google product manager Matheus Vervloet said, “Through Project Green Light, we are using AI to improve the lives of people in cities around the globe by reducing traffic and emissions. The success of Green Light is only possible thanks to the partnership we have with cities like Boston. We’re encouraged by the initial results we’ve seen in Boston and look forward to working closely with the city to scale this technology to more intersections.”
Project Green Light is still a new effort, with Seattle the only other U.S. city in its testing program. Google said that the project is live in over 70 intersections globally, impacting 30 million car rides every month. The company plans to expand to “hundreds of cities and tens of thousands of intersections in the next few years.”
There are a lot of quirky issues that car buyers can sweep under the rug for the right vehicle, but an uncomfortable seat isn’t one of them. As the single point of contact between the driver’s rear and the vehicle, seats are some of the most thought-out and scrutinized components. J.D. Power’s 2024 Seat Quality and Satisfaction Study found that automakers have made significant strides in seat comfort, but buyers remain frustrated with the quality of their vehicles’ headrests.
The organization rates vehicles on the number of problems per 100 units they experience, or PP100. Owners reporting headrest issues found several other issues with the seats, reporting 6.7 PP100 for seat problems, compared to people who liked their headrests. Their responses indicated 1.0 PP100, showing far better overall satisfaction with the seats.
Ashley Edgar, senior director of automotive benchmarking, said, “Headrest adjustability needs to be prioritized by seat manufacturers as it does have an effect on overall seat experience. As much as manufacturers can address many of the other aspects of seat quality, overall comfort is lost without a proper headrest.”
J.D. Power’s seat rankings are broken down by segment. Winners include:
The study included seat manufacturers, which in all but one case were third-party companies separate from the automakers. Adient made the seats for the Kia K5 and Toyota Camry, while Lear Corporation manufactured the seats for the Chevy Equinox, Ford Explorer, both Chevy trucks, and all models in the Premium Car segment.
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Government/Legal,Buick,Cadillac,Chevrolet,GM,GMC,Hummer
Texas sues GM, saying it tricked customers into sharing driving data sold to insurers originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Aug 2024 08:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Those of us willing to bite the bullet and pay today’s new-car prices want to make sure that the vehicle we’re buying will stand the test of time. New models are generally more reliable than ever before, but a few names stand out as the most likely to last at least 250,000 miles. A new study from iSeeCars found that the 10 longest-lasting vehicles come mostly from one global automaker, and that company likely won’t surprise you.
The firm looked at data from more than 402 million vehicles, calculating the average odometer reading to help judge longevity. Toyota and Lexus dominated the list of projected longest-lasting vehicles, taking seven of the top 10 spots.
iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer said, “Modern vehicles are getting more durable, with 30 models offering between a 12 and 26 percent chance of reaching a quarter-million miles. Many consumers still consider a car’s usable lifespan to end at 100,000 miles. But our latest longest-lasting study confirms that even 200,000 miles isn’t the end of the line for many cars. The top nine cars on the list have a better than 20 percent chance of hitting 250,000 miles.
Pickup trucks are featured heavily on the list of longest-lasting vehicles, but breaking the category out and adding heavy-duty trucks shows that the workhorse models might be some of the most durable vehicles around. The Ram 3500 had a 42.6 percent chance of reaching 250,000 miles, followed by the Tundra. The Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD was third at 29.6%, and the GMC Sierra 2500HD was just behind it at 29.1 percent.
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Green,Plants/Manufacturing,Podcasts,Ford,GM,GMC,Hummer,Lexus,Mercedes-Benz,Volkswagen,Truck,Convertible,Crossover,SUV,Electric,Hybrid,Luxury,Off-Road Vehicles,Racing Vehicles,Performance,Sedan,Rivian,Infrastructure
Plus, Formula 1 is back, and the VW ID.Buzz gets a price
Continue reading We drive the Bronco Sport Sasquatch, Hummer EV SUV and more | Autoblog Podcast #846
We drive the Bronco Sport Sasquatch, Hummer EV SUV and more | Autoblog Podcast #846 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Aug 2024 10:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
DETROIT — Three times in the past four months, William Stein, a technology analyst at Truist Securities, has taken Elon Musk up on his invitation to try the latest versions of Tesla’s vaunted “Full Self-Driving” system.
A Tesla equipped with the technology, the company says, can travel from point to point with little human intervention. Yet each time Stein drove one of the cars, he said, the vehicle made unsafe or illegal maneuvers. His most recent test-drive earlier this month, Stein said, left his 16-year-old son, who accompanied him, “terrified.”
Stein’s experiences, along with a Seattle-area Tesla crash involving Full Self-Driving that killed a motorcyclist in April, have drawn the attention of federal regulators. They have already been investigating Tesla’s automated driving systems for more than two years because of dozens of crashes that raised safety concerns.
The problems have led people who monitor autonomous vehicles to become more skeptical that Tesla’s automated system will ever be able to operate safely on a widespread scale. Stein says he doubts Tesla is even close to deploying a fleet of autonomous robotaxis by next year as Musk has predicted it will.
The latest incidents come at a pivotal time for Tesla. Musk has told investors it’s possible that Full Self-Driving will be able to operate more safely than human drivers by the end of this year, if not next year.
And in less than two months, the company is scheduled to unveil a vehicle built expressly to be a robotaxi. For Tesla to put robotaxis on the road, Musk has said the company will show regulators that the system can drive more safely than humans. Under federal rules, the Teslas would have to meet national standards for vehicle safety.
Musk has released data showing miles driven per crash, but only for Tesla’s less-sophisticated Autopilot system. Safety experts say the data is invalid because it counts only serious crashes with air bag deployment and doesn’t show how often human drivers had to take over to avoid a collision.
Full Self-Driving is being used on public roads by roughly 500,000 Tesla owners — slightly more than one in five Teslas in use today. Most of them paid $8,000 or more for the optional system.
The company has cautioned that cars equipped with the system cannot actually drive themselves and that motorists must be ready at all times to intervene if necessary. Tesla also says it tracks each driver’s behavior and will suspend their ability to use Full Self-Driving if they don’t properly monitor the system. Recently, the company began calling the system “Full Self-Driving” (Supervised).
Musk, who has acknowledged that his past predictions for the use of autonomous driving proved too optimistic, in 2019 promised a fleet of autonomous vehicles by the end of 2020. Five years later, many who follow the technology say they doubt it can work across the U.S. as promised.
“It’s not even close, and it’s not going to be next year,” said Michael Brooks, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety.
The car that Stein drove was a Tesla Model 3, which he picked up at a Tesla showroom in Westchester County, north of New York City. The car, Tesla’s lowest-price vehicle, was equipped with the latest Full Self-Driving software. Musk says the software now uses artificial intelligence to help control steering and pedals.
During his ride, Stein said, the Tesla felt smooth and more human-like than past versions did. But in a trip of less than 10 miles, he said the car made a left turn from a through lane while running a red light.
“That was stunning,” Stein said.
He said he didn’t take control of the car because there was little traffic and, at the time, the maneuver didn’t seem dangerous. Later, though, the car drove down the middle of a parkway, straddling two lanes that carry traffic in the same direction. This time, Stein said, he intervened.
The latest version of Full Self-Driving, Stein wrote to investors, does not “solve autonomy” as Musk has predicted. Nor does it “appear to approach robotaxi capabilities.” During two earlier test drives he took, in April and July, Stein said Tesla vehicles also surprised him with unsafe moves.
Tesla has not responded to messages seeking a comment.
Stein said that while he thinks Tesla will eventually make money off its driving technology, he doesn’t foresee a robotaxi with no driver and a passenger in the back seat in the near future. He predicted it will be significantly delayed or limited in where it can travel.
There’s often a significant gap, Stein pointed out, between what Musk says and what is likely to happen.
To be sure, many Tesla fans have posted videos on social media showing their cars driving themselves without humans taking control. Videos, of course, don’t show how the system performs over time. Others have posted videos showing dangerous behavior.
Alain Kornhauser, who heads autonomous vehicle studies at Princeton University, said he drove a Tesla borrowed from a friend for two weeks and found that it consistently spotted pedestrians and detected other drivers.
Yet while it performs well most of the time, Kornhauser said he had to take control when the Tesla has made moves that scared him. He warns that Full Self-Driving isn’t ready to be left without human supervision in all locations.
“This thing,” he said, “is not at a point where it can go anywhere.”
Kornhauser said he does think the system could work autonomously in smaller areas of a city where detailed maps help guide the vehicles. He wonders why Musk doesn’t start by offering rides on a smaller scale.
“People could really use the mobility that this could provide,” he said.
For years, experts have warned that Tesla’s system of cameras and computers isn’t always able to spot objects and determine what they are. Cameras can’t always see in bad weather and darkness. Most other autonomous robotaxi companies, such as Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and General Motors‘ Cruise, combine cameras with radar and laser sensors.
“If you can’t see the world correctly, you can’t plan and move and actuate to the world correctly,” said Missy Cummings, a professor of engineering and computing at George Mason University. “Cars can’t do it with vision only,” she said.
Even those with laser and radar, Cummings said, can’t always drive reliably yet, raising safety questions about Waymo and Cruise. (Representatives for Waymo and Cruise declined to comment.)
Phil Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University who studies autonomous vehicle safety, said it will be many years before autonomous vehicles that operate solely on artificial intelligence will be able to handle all real-world situations.
“Machine learning has no common sense and learns narrowly from a huge number of examples,” Koopman said. “If the computer driver gets into a situation it has not been taught about, it is prone to crashing.”
Last April in Snohomish County, Washington, near Seattle, a Tesla using Full Self-Driving hit and killed a motorcyclist, authorities said. The Tesla driver, who has not yet been charged, told authorities that he was using Full Self-Driving while looking at his phone when the car rear-ended the motorcyclist. The motorcyclist was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities reported.
The agency said it’s evaluating information on the fatal crash from Tesla and law enforcement officials. It also says it’s aware of Stein’s experience with Full Self-Driving.
NHTSA also noted that it’s investigating whether a Tesla recall earlier this year, which was intended to bolster its automated vehicle driver monitoring system, actually succeeded. It also pushed Tesla to recall Full Self-Driving in 2023 because, in “certain rare circumstances,” the agency said, it can disobey some traffic laws, raising the risk of a crash. (The agency declined to say if it has finished evaluating whether the recall accomplished its mission.)
As Tesla electric vehicle sales have faltered for the past several months despite price cuts, Musk has told investors that they should view the company more as a robotics and artificial intelligence business than a car company. Yet Tesla has been working on Full Self-Driving since at least 2015.
“I recommend anyone who doesn’t believe that Tesla will solve vehicle autonomy should not hold Tesla stock,” he said during an earnings conference call last month.
Stein told investors, though, they should determine for themselves whether Full Self-Driving, Tesla’s artificial intelligence project “with the most history, that’s generating current revenue, and is being used in the real world already, actually works.”
If you’re one of those “I’ll get gas in the morning” types of people, pay close attention. MarketWatch Guides recently released a study outlining the vehicles that offer the shortest driving distances after the fuel light comes on, so don’t ignore the warnings if you own one of the vehicles on the list.
The Hyundai Kona 2.0 Essential was the vehicle offering the shortest low-fuel driving distance, at 36.97 miles. Other vehicles on the list include:
MarketWatch calculated those numbers by looking at each vehicle’s maximum fuel tank capacity. It divided the total by ten to determine a ten percent low-fuel marker and then used each model’s fuel economy ratings to calculate a driving range. It’s worth noting that a number of factors can impact gas mileage, including the weather, driving style and road conditions.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Toyota RAV4 offers more than 73 miles of driving range, followed closely by the Ford F-150. Some of the models MarketWatch listed aren’t sold here, such as the RAV4 Icon FWD, but the vehicles are close enough to U.S. configurations to give a decent approximation of low-fuel driving distances.
Most experts recommend against regular driving with a low fuel light on. Doing so can damage the fuel pump, filter and other engine components. If the tank is almost empty, the fuel pump can pick up debris and sediment off the bottom of the tank, which may clog the fuel filter or overheat the pump.
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GMC,SUV,Luxury,Off-Road Vehicles
Continue reading 2025 GMC Yukon refreshed with a fresh look, more tech and lots more luxury
2025 GMC Yukon refreshed with a fresh look, more tech and lots more luxury originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 19 Aug 2024 10:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.