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Details about next-gen Toyota Prius emerge

The Toyota Prius is undeniably the king of the hybrid market in the United States, with a 39.4 percent market share in 2013. With the next-generation Prius likely to go on sale in 2015, Toyota is trying to build an even more efficient hybrid to keep its control of the market.
Keeping cost down will be one of the major concerns of the new Prius. The next generation will ride on the new, modular Toyota New Global Architecture platform. The lighter underpinnings will improve efficiency and will reduce production costs by allowing for more shared components among vehicles. Toyota will not reveal how many vehicles will use the new platform. But even with the cheaper platform, price will remain a concern. Toyota is still deciding whether all versions of the next Prius will use lithium-ion batteries or whether some models will stick with the heavier nickel-metal hydride batteries to keep cost down.
Of course, the reason most people buy the Prius is because of its great fuel efficiency. Toyota will aim for at least an 8 percent improvement in fuel economy in the next Prius, which would increase it to 58 miles per gallon city and 52 mpg highway.

Toyota to start production of hydrogen vehicles in December

Toyota's hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will be in showrooms sooner than planned, the Japan Times reporting that production will commence in mid-December with the sedan following "by the end of this year." No reason was given for the new timeline; Toyota has been saying all along that we'd see it in 2015.
The company is said to be "considering" production volume of "dozens of... vehicles per month" at a "likely" price of eight million yen, which is $78,030 US. That is well in line with the numbers thrown around last year, when the target was somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. Then late last year, during our first drive of the FCHV mule, we wrote that "the official quote... [is] that a price of 'less than 10 million yen is ideal.'"
That alleged $78K is a sizable sum to be one of the early adopters on the hydrogen fuel cell wagon train, but with things moving around so much - and with Toyota publicly citing hydrogen fuel cells as the future - there's plenty of reason to be cautious about that number.

Chip maker Nvidia adds Volvo to list of self-driving partners

Chipmaker Nvidia Corp announced on Monday it was partnering with Volvo Cars and Swedish auto supplier Autoliv to develop self-driving car technology for vehicles due to hit the market by 2021. Volvo is owned by China's Geely Automobile Holdings. Silicon Valley-based Nvidia also announced a non-exclusive partnership with German automotive suppliers ZF and Hella for artificial intelligence technology for autonomous driving. Nvidia came to prominence in the gaming industry for designing graphics processing chips, but in recent years has been a key player in the automotive sector for providing the so-called "brain" of the autonomous vehicle. The company, whose many partners already include Tesla, Toyota, Ford, Audi, BMW, and tier one supplier Robert Bosch, announced its latest deals at an automotive electronics show in Ludwigsburg, Germany. Nvidia's Drive PX artificial intelligence platform is used by Tesla in its Models S and X and upcoming Model 3 electric vehicles. Volkswagen AG's Audi is also using the system to reach full autonomous driving by 2020. In a call with reporters, Nvidia's senior automotive director Danny Shapiro said carmakers and their main suppliers are now moving away from the research and development phase of autonomous vehicles and into concrete production plans. The system developed jointly by ZF and Hella, and using Nvidia's Drive PX platform, will combine front cameras with radar and software to create technology meeting the Euro NCAP safety certification for so-called "Level 3" driving, in which some, but not all, driving is performed by the car. Volvo is already using the Drive PX for the self-driving cars in its "Drive Me" autonomous pilot program. Volvo's production vehicles built on Nvidia's platform, as announced on Monday, are planned for sale by 2021.Reporting By Alexandria SageRelated Video: Auto News Green Tesla Toyota Volvo Technology Emerging Technologies Autonomous Vehicles nvidia autoliv