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Weekly Recap: Autonomous driving goes commercial in Nevada

Nevada granted Daimler Trucks North America the first license to run an autonomous commercial vehicle on public roads in the United States Tuesday, marking another milestone in the technology's rapid advancement. Gov. Brian Sandoval and Daimler truck chief Wolfgang Bernhard promptly used the license to lap Highway 15 near Las Vegas in a newly revealed Freightliner Inspiration Truck. It was a clear signal that autonomous driving is big-rig reality, though it's still a long way from widespread use. Nevada certified two of Daimler's Freightliner Inspiration Trucks, which use the company's Highway Pilot system with a stereo camera, radar, and lane-keeping collision-prevention features to regulate the brakes and steering. The radar component has a long-range sensor that can cover 820 feet at an 18-degree angle and a shorter-range unit that stretches 230 feet at a 130-degree angle. The Inspiration trucks are based on the existing Freightliner Cascadia Evolution model used on US roads. In addition to the autonomous technologies, it also has futuristic design cues, including blue lighting in the front and a new hood and grille. While there are only two Freightliner Inspiration trucks in existence, Daimler expects to bring the Highway Pilot system into mass-produced big rigs by 2025, in time to capitalize on the market's predicted growth. The German truckmaker predicts the global hauling market will triple by 2050, and the United States will be a key part of that growth. Trucks carry 69.1 percent the nation's domestic freight tonnage and hauled 9.7 billion tons of freight in 2013, according to the American Trucking Association. Daimler expects autonomous driving to augment this growth, and perhaps evolve the role of the truck driver. Still, the company points out autonomous tech is not meant to replace drivers, but to assist them and relieve fatigue and monotony on long hauls. The driver has to stay in control for passing, in city traffic, and when hooking up the trailer. The company said autonomous driving also offers the potential for improved fuel economy – tests showed a five-percent gain – and lower maintenance costs. Daimler also said the technology could reduce congestion on the road. Much of this is attributable to the constant flow of traffic, which is aided by autonomous driving. While the benefits are becoming increasingly apparent, autonomous technology is still met with skepticism.

McLaren 675LT is already sold out

You wouldn't associate McLaren with doing things slowly, but we didn't anticipate how fast it would sell out of the 675LT. The British racing team turned exotic automaker revealed the 675LT as a longer, more hardcore version of the 650S at the Geneva Motor Show this past March. At the time it announced that only 500 examples would be made. Now just two months later, McLaren spokesman Wayne Bruce confirmed to Autoblog that the entire production run has already sold out. "Around half the buyers" who placed their orders for the 675LT, Bruce tells us, "are new to the brand." The other half, by extension, are existing McLaren customers who already own (or have owned) a 12C, 650S or P1. The 675LT sits in the company's new Super Series alongside the aforementioned 650S and the more accessible Asian-market 625C. With 666 horsepower on tap from McLaren's signature 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8, the Longtail will rocket to 62 in under three seconds en route to a top speed of 205 miles per hour. It comes exclusively in fixed-roof-coupe form and retails for GBP259,500. That's equivalent to about $400,000 at current exchange rates, and comes out to about the same (in either currency) as what Lamborghini charges for an Aventador. Related Video:

Touring the Boulevard at the McLaren Technology Centre

Ask anyone where the supercar capital of the world is and they'll likely point you towards Italy. But that's not the only place where supercars are born. Nor is it – despite the best efforts of Ferrari – home to the bulk of grand prix victories and world championships. Those bragging rights belong to a section of England we call Carbon Fiber Valley. It's where you'll find the majority of Formula One teams and suppliers, and at its heart lies the sleepy town of Woking. With a little over 60,000 inhabitants, Woking wouldn't register on most radars. But it blips big on ours thanks to the McLaren Technology Centre, home to one of the most successful teams in F1 history and a supercar manufacturer to rival Italy's best. It's one of the great gearhead meccas of the world. So on our last visit to the UK we took a stroll along the boulevard of McLaren history. Hidden on more than a hundred green acres at the outskirts of Woking lies a space-age complex designed by Norman Foster, one of Britain's preeminent architects. Both inside and out, it could double as a super-villain's lair in most any fantastical action movie. The McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) opened in 2003. The campus grew with the addition of the McLaren Production Centre (MPC) in 2011, and other facilities that are in the works. MTC hugs one of four artificial lakes that help cool the building and the adjoining wind tunnel. The entire building is pristine, everything above ground in glass and metal, everything below well-lit and lined with white panels. It's an embodiment of the McLaren ethos and the manifestation of chairman Ron Dennis' notorious obsession with detail. The cafeteria, for example, has lower air pressure than the rest of the building, so that smells don't escape into the hallway. Walking around, you get the feeling the entire structure could at any moment rise from the ground and rocket off into space. The story is just as impressive at the adjacent MPC where technicians assemble the 650S, P1, and the forthcoming Sports Series. If things were any cleaner, less cluttered, or more spotlessly sterile, you'd think you were in an operating room. Unfortunately, photography of the assembly facility is prohibited, but that's just as well, because what we really came to see was the Boulevard. While most F1 teams sell or scrap their used cars, McLaren keeps the vast majority of its own.

McLaren-Honda drops the bling for stealth F1 livery

Watch a Formula One grand prix and you can instantly tell which are the McLarens, visible as they are from a mile away with their reflective chrome livery. But that's all about to change as the British team has dropped the chrome in favor of the more subdued livery you see here. Unveiled in time for this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, the new McLaren livery replaces the bling with a gray so dark that it borders on black. The red accents remain, albeit in a revised pattern. The new livery promises to be less reflective at sunset and flood-lit night races especially, while providing more of a visual break from the Mercedes era now that the team is powered once again by Honda. McLaren first adopted the silver and black livery in 1997 after Marlboro (with its white and red livery) left for Ferrari and the West tobacco brand was brought in instead. The team parted company with West after the ban on tobacco advertising in sports was instituted in Europe in 2005, inserted some red into the livery and replaced the flat silver with chrome. This weekend's race will mark the first time in a decade, then, that McLaren will be racing without the chrome. Featured Gallery 2015 McLaren-Honda MP4-30: Gray Livery News Source: McLaren via Facebook Motorsports Honda McLaren Racing Vehicles F1 livery mclaren-honda

Fernando Alonso drives Senna's McLaren in latest promo clip

McLaren has put a lot of great drivers in the cockpit over the years. Several multiple World Champions in fact, from Ayrton Senna to Fernando Alonso. It may seem only fitting then that the latter should get a chance to sample the former's ride, and that's just what the team has done for this latest promo video. It's actually the trailer for a new clip called Don't Crack Under Pressure, celebrating 30 years of partnership between McLaren and TAG Heuer, filmed at Catalunya (Spain). Which is all well and fine, but the point is: Alonso, in Senna's car, the MP4/4 in which Senna won his first World Championship in 1988. And he's playing cat and mouse, no less, with Jenson Button in the new MP4-30, which is powered once again by Honda. Just like in the Senna days.

McLaren will fight to stay independent

Only one major manufacturer in the competitive set for McLaren cars is independent. The rest - Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche - are owned by mass-market conglomerates. The sole exception is Aston Martin, a small company constantly overcoming the challenges of its independence, now partly with the help of Daimler. McLaren vows to stay solo, though. Its executive director of sales and marketing said that having no one else to answer to helps keep it "very quick to move," with "product development life cycles [that] are very efficient." The company wants to sell 4,000 cars per year by 2017, and it's more than a third of the way there before it's 'volume' model, the 570S, hits dealerships. Last year the company sold 1,648 cars around the world and pegs annual production of the 570S at 2,500 units. The automaking side has done surprisingly well, surprisingly quickly. It only started making cars in 2011 and it turned a profit in 2013. That first car, the MP4-12C, has already morphed into the even better 650S, and McLaren offered 12C buyers a free upgrade. Since then we've been introduced to the P1, the P1 GTR, the 670S, the 675LT, and the 570S, while markets like China get the 650S and the 540C. That's seven vehicles on sale right now, not including race-only options like the 650S GT3, on top of an expanding global dealer network, all done in four years. Having done so well this far, independence would indeed seem to be the only option. Related Video:

Xcar takes the wheel of McLaren's 650S

The list of supercars that Xcar has driven and documented is as long and distinguished as, um, a large yacht. It's done videos on Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis, Porsches, Aston Martins, you name it. And it drove the McLaren MP4-12C nearly two years ago, but for its latest video, it's revisited Woking to sample the newer 650S. An evolution of the 12C that put McLaren Automotive back on the map, the 650S is faster, more powerful, handsomer and better in every way we could think of than the model it replaces. We found out that much when we drove it in Spain upon its launch a year ago, and reviewed it in full a few months later. But don't take our word for it: watch the footage from the cinematographical artisans in the video above.

Road-legal McLaren P1 GTR in the works

When the McLaren F1 won the 24 Hours of Le Mans on its first try, it was the car run by Lanzante Motorsport that took the victory. The English firm has maintained a two-decade relationship with McLaren, often through work on the F1, and it will now turn its attention to the P1 GTR by making the 986-horsepower track-only supercar road-legal for certain customers. What needs to be done for the conversion, how long it takes, and the specs of the finished product will be determined by where in the world the owner plans to use the car, so Lanzante is taking each order "on a case-by-case basis." But the company has said that the finished product will always maintain its positioning compared to the currently road-legal P1, by being more powerful, faster, and having more aggressive aerodynamics. The first donor car should hit the operating lift later this year. McLaren isn't officially involved in the project, but speculation is that the Woking carmaker and its MSO division will be there to assist in order to make sure all goes well.

McLaren unveils the commuter-ready 540C in China

China just said hello to the second and final model in the McLaren Sports Series when the 540 Club, also known as the 540C, was introduced at the Shanghai Motor Show. In becoming the "most attainable McLaren yet" the new coupe cedes a bit to the 570S, getting by with 533 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque from the company-standard 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 instead of 562 hp and 443 lb-ft as found in the 570S. The run from 0-62 miles per hour takes 3.5 seconds, up 0.3 seconds from its sibling, and top speed is 199 mph, down five mph. You get the carbon fiber MonoCell II tub, while the bits around it have been tailored more for daily driving. The dihedral doors enclose a more accommodating portal of entry, the cabin was "created with a focus on space and ergonomics," and the adaptive dampers are tuned for buyers who want to use this as a commuter car. It can be discerned from the more powerful offering by a tweaked nose design and model-specific cast aluminum wheels. Even with losing the carbon fiber brakes of the 570S, the 540C will come in at 2,890 pounds, five pounds lighter than the big brother. The upshot of all of this is that you save some dosh, the 540C expected to sell for as low as $160,000 when deliveries begin early next year, compared to $184,900 for the 570S. Pitting apples against apples, the 570S starts at 143,250 pounds, the 540C will be 126,000 pounds. It's aimed at the Chinese market and the company still hasn't said if it will officially come to the US, but we hear that it can be ordered through dealers anywhere in the world. The press release below has more information. Related Video: THE McLAREN 540C COUPE IS UNVEILED IN SHANGHAI AS THE SECOND MODEL IN THE SPORTS SERIES - 540C Coupe completes the two car line-up in the McLaren Sports Series - Most attainable McLaren yet, introducing the brand to a new audience - Joins the recently launched 570S Coupe in the McLaren Sports Series - A pure sports car bringing McLaren DNA to the segment for the first time - 540PS and 540NM: 0 to 100km/h (62mph) in 3.5 seconds, top speed of 320km/h (199mph) McLaren will launch its second model in the new Sports Series, the McLaren 540C Coupe, at the Shanghai Motor Show, 20-29 April 2015. The most attainable McLaren yet, the 540C Coupe joins the recently revealed 570S Coupe in the Sports Series as the brand brings its race derived DNA to a new audience and segment.

2015 Bahrain F1 Grand Prix puts a dark horse in the desert [spoilers]

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen had said after Malaysia that Ferrari can challenge Mercedes-AMG Petronas purely on pace, beyond the scope of tire wear, in the dry. We didn't see that in China, where Lewis Hamilton easily kept everyone behind and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel only got close to Mercedes' Nico Rosberg when Rosberg slowed down to conserve his tires. But the Iceman's words seemed prescient during qualifying for the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix. At the front, nothing has changed so far this year: four races, four pole positions for Lewis Hamilton. Instead of teammate Rosberg next to him, though, he'll look over to see the scarlet Ferrari of Vettel, who took advantage of Rosberg's cautiousness to snatch second place on the grid. In Q2, Rosberg tried to conserve the tires he'd start the race on and said he couldn't get into a groove in Q3, putting in a time 0.147 seconds slower than Vettel. The second Silver Arrows will share his row with the second Ferrari, Raikkonen – yet again – saying he might have left some time on the table during his hot lap but getting around just one tenth off Rosberg's time. Williams is established as the best of the rest behind two teams this year instead of just one last year, Valtteri Bottas claiming fifth ahead of Felipe Massa. Daniel Ricciardo of Infiniti Red Bull Racing said he wants to fight with the Williams', he'll be helped with a good start off the line for the first time this year. Nico Hulkenberg got Force India into Q3 for the first time since the Italian Grand Prix last year and into eighth on the grid, ahead of Carlos Sainz in the Toro Rosso and Romain Grosjean putting in another excellent day's work for Lotus. Come race time, it turned into Mercedes power against Ferrari strategy. When Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle talks about the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team he often mentions how their engine advantage leads to other advantages throughout the car. Not having to use aerodynamic changes to make up for power unit deficiencies, for instance, means they can run the aero setup they want, which optimizes speed and tire wear throughout a lap. It equates to advantage on top of advantage on top of advantage. That's where Lewis Hamilton is right now, so fundamentally dialed in to his car and his racing that he run the races he wants to run. From the front spot, the Brit ripped off another perfect start and led the field into Turn 1, relinquishing the lead only during pit stops.