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New Honda smart cruise control predicts other motorists' future idiocy

It's not quite "Open the pod bay doors, Hal," but we're getting there: Honda is offering a predictive cruise control system on the Exectuve Grade Honda CR-V in Europe starting this year. Advancing the capabilities of the present adaptive cruise control, the Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control (i-ACC) will be able to foresee and automatically react to other vehicles cutting in ahead of you up to five seconds ahead of it happening. A research team developed the system after studying European driving patterns for years. The i-ACC keeps track of surrounding cars with a camera and radar, "evaluating relations between multiple vehicles" and running the data through an algorithm to figure out who's going to do what. If it detects another car about to move into your lane, the CR-V brakes softly and a dash light illuminates to let the driver know what's about to happen, then it brakes a little more firmly to keep the proper distance after the other car moves in. Honda says it works in the UK and on The Continent because it knows which side of the road you're driving on. That means it could work here, but our guess is that it will take a while for that happen, our driving patterns being a little more erratic - and that's putting it kindly - than those of our Euro brethren. There's a press release below with more information. Honda to Introduce World's First Predictive Safety Cruise Control System 08.01.2015 - Honda is to introduce the world's first predictive cruise control system known as Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control (i-ACC), capable of foreseeing and automatically reacting to other vehicles 'cutting-in' to the equipped vehicle's lane. Based on extensive real-world research of typical European driving styles, Honda's Intelligent Adaptive Cruise Control (i-ACC) uses a camera and radar to sense the position of other vehicles on the road. It then applies an algorithm to predict the likelihood of vehicles in neighbouring lanes cutting-in by evaluating relations between multiple vehicles, enabling the equipped vehicle to react quickly, safely and comfortably. i-ACC will make its debut this year on the new European CR-V*, building upon the traditional Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC) system. Traditional ACC systems keep a preselected longitudinal velocity, which is only reduced for maintaining a safe distance to a car in front. However, if a vehicle cuts-in from a neighboring lane, the traditional ACC system reacts later thus requiring stronger braking.

McLaren working on P15 supercar to slot between 650S and P1

McLaren has been busy these past few years. It launched the MP4-12C in 2011, the 12C Spider in 2012, the P1 in 2013 and (most recently) the 650S in 2014. But it's not about to stop there. It's got an "entry-level" model in the works, set to take on the Porsche 911, and - according to information reported by Car and Driver and confirmed by McLaren in correspondence with Autoblog - a new flagship model, too.
The project is internally codenamed P15, and it calls for a new flagship that will cap the company's lineup once the P1 finishes its limited production run, but carry a price tag in the neighborhood of $500k to slot in between the P1 and the new 650S.
Just how, you wonder, can McLaren possibly develop another supercar each year? Simple: underneath, they're all essentially the same. (Only we're sure it's anything but simple.) That is to say they're all based on the same carbon monocoque structure and powered by the same 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the rear wheels. What differentiates them is what the engineers in Woking build around that monocoque and how they tune the engine: +/- 600 horsepower in the 12C (depending on the year it was built), 640 hp in the 650S, or 727 hp in the P1 (with another 177 from the electric assist). The 911 fighter would likely develop in the 500hp range, and the P15 will probably land in the upper 600 (or lower 700) range.

Honda boss says Chinese drivers don't want green cars

According to The Wall Street Journal, Honda CEO Takanobu Ito believes that China's nascent car-buying demographic isn't all that interested in hybrid cars - at least not yet. The emissions story doesn't resonate with them, and certainly not for the higher purchase premium such models usually carry. What they really want, Ito believes, is reliable, affordable cars that fit their needs. When it comes to Honda sales, the numbers would appear to jibe with his thoughts: Honda sold 598,577 vehicles in China last year through its two joint ventures, yet just 542 of them were hybrids - not even a tenth of a percent. However, Toyota sold 840,500 cars in China last year, and two percent of that total, 17,300 units, were hybrids, which is closer to the still-piddling three-percent ratio of sales that Toyota posted in the US last year.
Honda offers the Insight, Fit Hybrid and CR-Z in China and plans to make components for its Integrated Motor Assist hybrid system there from next year, the hope being it will reduce the cost of hybrid cars for local buyers. That was one part of the plan Honda laid out last year to popularize its IMA system in China. Other initiatives include the introduction of a new hybrid system for mid-sized and large vehicles and a plug-in hybrid. Among the four new vehicles Honda showed during this weekend's press day for the Shanghai Motor Show (including the Concept M minivan pictured above) there was not a single hybrid among them.