ROAD TRIP
Elon Musk has revealed that the Tesla Cybertruck will attempt a cross-country trip later this year—potentially highlighting the Cybertruck’s road-tripping capabilities. The trip was announced after Michael Hodges stated the East Coast also needed to see the truck—since the vehicle has mainly been showcased in the West Coast.
This road trip will allow the truck to visit areas such as Texas, often referred to as “pickup truck country,” which is where analysts predict the truck would be most likely to sell.
In terms of designs and specs the truck is well made for road trips. The top Cybertruck has a range of roughly 500 miles, which makes it second only to Tesla’s Roadster.
RAMPING UP
Fiat has begun to produce the new electric 500—at the same factory the original car was built 63 years ago.
The third generation model will be purely electric. The 500 will come with a 42 kWh battery that is said to have a range of up to 199 miles and can be charged at a rate of up to 85 kW/h..
The car will also feature adaptive cruise control, intelligent speed assist and 360-degree parking camera.
TAKING ON TESLA
The Ford electric Mustang Mach-E model may be getting a hands-free driving system later this year as Ford attempts to keep up with high-tech in the industry.
The system will not be operational until the second half of 2021, but Mach-E models coming out later this year, will allow owners to enable the hardware once its officially released. However the Active Drive Assist feature must be purchased separately from the vehicle.
Ford has claimed their technology is more advanced as it uses multiple infrared cameras aimed at the driver to monitor eye movement—meaning drivers must keep an eye on the road even when using the system.
The technology should be able to work on more than 100,000 miles of highways in the U.S. as well as Canada
AV READINESS
Canada has earned a 12th place ranking on KPMG 2020 Autonomous Vehicles Readiness Index (AVRI)— the same rank it got the year prior.
The AVRI is a tool used to measure the level of preparedness for autonomous vehicles. The competition involved 30 countries and jurisdictions.
The top of this year’s list was Singapore, followed by the Netherlands, Norway, the United States and Sweden.
‘VERY CLOSE’
At the virtual World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, Elon Musk said that Tesla is “very close” to achieving level 5 autonomous driving technology.
The company’s CEO also said that he is very confident that complete autonomy will happen, very quickly. He also said Tesla will have the basic functionality for level 5 autonomy complete this year.
Other industry leaders have said that this technology will take time as well as extra time for the public to become comfortable with autonomous vehicles.
