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Cargo ship carrying 1,200 Jaguars and Land Rovers deliberately run aground [w/video]

A cargo ship carrying a load of new cars out of Southampton has run aground in the English Channel in between England and the Isle of Wight. The vessel apparently suffered some sort of failure just 45 minutes after leaving port that caused it to list heavily to the starboard side before the crew deliberately beached it on Bramble Bank to prevent the ship from capsizing altogether. The vessel, called the Hoegh Osaka, is a 590-foot car carrier weighing some 57,000 tons and registered in Singapore. Although several automakers (including Honda and Bentley) were reportedly looking into whether they had cars on board, the vessel is said to have been filled to approximately one-third its capacity, with 1,400 vehicles on board – including 1,200 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles, 65 Mini models and one Rolls-Royce Wraith. 70 to 80 pieces of construction equipment were also said to be on board. The Hoegh Osaka was en route from the southern British port of Southampton to Bremerhaven, Germany. Fortunately, no major injuries have been reported. The crew was mostly airlifted by helicopter off of the beached ship, with two crew members evacuated by lifeboat. One crew member reportedly jumped over 25 feet off the ship into the water before being immediately retrieved by rescue workers. According to the Daily Mail, two crew members were treated for non-life-threatening injuries, including a broken leg. It may take several days, if not longer, to extract the vessel from the sand bank and ascertain the damage to the ship and its cargo. An early attempt to free the ship with tugboats failed, meaning that the Maritime and Coastguard Agency may have to wait until more favorable high tides to try again before towing the ship back into the port. Bramble Bank, where the vessel was run aground, is a well-known obstacle to maritime navigators. The Queen Elizabeth 2 ran aground there in November 2008 with 1,700 passengers on board, but was quickly freed by four tugboats and was able to continue on its way. Two local yacht clubs also play a cricket match there every year at low tide. The vessel's operator, Hoegh Autoliners, praised the skill and quick thinking of the crew in acting to prevent the ship's capsizing by running her aground on the soft, sandy shoal. Watch the clip below for aerial footage of the beached ship, courtesy of the BBC. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.

Jaguar Land Rover develops 'transparent' A-pillar and ghost car [w/video]

Jaguar and Land Rover are known for making highly covetable luxury, performance and off-road vehicles, but the British automakers are on a bit of a technology bent lately. Keen to show that it can not only keep up but lead the way when it comes to safety and convenience features, JLR has come out with two more systems to show the way forward. JLR's new 360 Virtual Urban Windscreen system, showcased on an XJ sedan, adopts two novel approaches to getting around town. First up is the Transparent Pillar system, which uses a combination of cameras and display screens embedded in the A, B and C-pillars to make them virtually disappear. Instead of acting as blind spots limiting the driver's visibility, the system uses the roof pillars to display what's going on around the car. If there's an obstacle hidden by the A-pillars, the system shows you the potential hazard as if the pillars weren't there, and brings the obstacle to the driver's attention. If the driver turns his or her head to see a vehicle passing alongside, it projects the vehicle on the inside of the B- or C-pillar. The second technology integrated in the next-generation head-up display is the Follow-Me Ghost Car Navigation system, which takes a page out of the video-game playbook by projecting a "ghost car" on the windscreen that the driver can then "follow" instead of listening to turn-by-turn directions or looking at a map in the dashboard display. The system is similar to what Jaguar recently showcased on an F-Type for track use, but applied for more practical use on city streets and highways. The release of these systems also follows the integrated smart navigation and infotainment system displayed on the Range Rover Sport and the Transparent Bonnet showcased on the Discovery Vision concept. Though these new technologies might not be quite ready for production applications, their impressive sum total goes to show that Jaguar Land Rover is ahead of the curve when it comes to reducing driver distraction and increasing the driver's visibility. Scope out the latest systems in the press release and video below for a closer look of what the future holds for British-style luxury motoring. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.