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Weekly Recap: Toyota wants cars to be your 'close friends' around 2020

Toyota confirmed plans this week to launch autonomous technology in its production cars around 2020. The automaker's version is called Highway Teammate, and it's one element of a broader mobility strategy that includes vehicles communicating with each other and the grid. "Toyota believes that interactions between drivers and cars should mirror those between close friends who share a common purpose, sometimes watching over each other and sometimes helping each other out," the company said in a statement. That sounds utopian, and perhaps a bit cheesy, but it's an acknowledgment that autonomous driving requires more than technology developed in a vacuum. Toyota is looking at its research in a broader context, and dubs its overall strategy the Mobility Teammate Concept. Highway Teammate is the first step. Its test vehicle is a modified Lexus GS, which uses road-mapping data and external sensors to merge or exit highways, change lanes, and maintain safe distances during driving. It's operated on the Shuto Expressway in Tokyo. Toyota has been working on autonomous tech since the 1990s, with the goal of providing mobility for older people and the disabled, as well as lowering the frequency of traffic accidents. Toyota's push comes as an early adopter, Nissan, is hedging on its own deadline to implement the autonomous tech by 2020 due to a lack of firm laws governing self-driving cars around the world. Conversely, Volvo took the landmark step of being the first automaker to accept liability for when its cars will operate in autonomous mode, and urged the US government to set federal guidelines to regulate the technology. OTHER NEWS & NOTES 2016 BMW M4 GTS: Your water-injected, turbo-boosted demon BMW is unleashing its most powerful M4 ever, a 493-horsepower special edition that's road legal yet bred for the track. The company is making 700 copies for sale around the world, and 300 of them will come to the United States. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter six-cylinder revs to 7,600 rpm and uses a water-injection technology to cool the intake air and lower the compression temperature. BMW says this allows it to wring more power out of the inline six. The car also uses carbon-fiber reinforced plastic for the roof, hood, engine compartment strut brace, drive shaft, and rear spoiler to reduce weight. The M4 features BMW's organic light-emitting diode taillights, which are said to be an industry first.

McLaren Sports Series promises at least seven variants

Just how many different supercars can McLaren offer? The answer may yet surprise us even more than we anticipated. The British racing outfit is building a growing range of models around the same basic architecture that has already bred five different variants across two families: the Super Series (with the 625C, 650S and new 675LT) and the Ultimate Series (P1 and P1 GTR). That's already impressive as it is, but the addition of the upcoming new Sports Series promises to expand Woking's model line even further. Much further. According to the latest from Car and Driver, which sat down with McLaren's affable chief executive Mike Flewitt at the Geneva Motor Show last week, the new Sports Series will come in enough flavors to put an ice cream parlor to shame. We've known for some time that the company's upcoming entry-level range would come in at least three body styles, if not four. There'll be a coupe, a convertible and an unconventional GT version. But there will also be a number of engine specs available. The base model will wear the letter C, like the pared-down Asian market 625C. The next step up will be distinguished by the letter S, like the 650S. Both will be offered right from launch. But a third version could follow to serve as a baby brother to the new 675LT. Even if the latter is only offered in one body style, that means the Sports Series will come in seven different versions – giving potential buyers a similar array of choices they'd find if they went for a Porsche 911 or Audi R8. Pricing is similarly expected to target the upper end of the 911 range, landing somewhere between the 911 Turbo and 911 Turbo S, which sell for $152k and $184k, respectively, in the US. Even at the upper end of that range, that's still substantially less than the $265k starting price for the 650S. To make up the difference, the Sports Series will do without active aero and suspension, but will still employ a similar carbon monocoque chassis and 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission – albeit de-tuned from upwards of 600 horsepower to somewhere in the 500-horse range. We'll have to sit tight and wait for more details, but the wait won't be long now as the McLaren Sports Series is set to debut at the New York Auto Show next month. News Source: Car and DriverImage Credit: McLaren New York Auto Show McLaren Convertible Coupe Supercars mclaren sports series

McLaren F1 GTR Longtail sells at Gooding for $5.28 million

Last month we reported on a very rare McLaren being put up for auction under the auspices of Gooding & Company. One of only 106 examples of the McLaren F1 ever made, one of only 28 made in GTR competition spec, and one of just ten longtail versions, chassis number 021R won FIA GT Championship races in Germany and Finland, making it one of the most successful F1 GTRs ever campaigned and earning its place in the pantheon of McLaren lore. With original livery in immaculate condition, this rare McLaren F1 GTR Longtail sold this weekend in Scottsdale, Arizona, for $5.28 million. Which may seem like a lot of money – and by any account, it surely is – but comes in at the low end of the pre-sale estimates that placed its value at between $5 and $7 million. To put that into proper McLaren perspective, consider that the same amount could buy you a full grid of ten 12C Can-Ams, five examples of the new McLaren P1, or probably get McLaren to build you your own custom creation like the X1. Check out the live images from the scene in the gallery above. Featured Gallery 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Longtail View 28 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2014 Drew Phillips / AOL McLaren Auctions Coupe Racing Vehicles mclaren f1 gtr