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Honda shows off Civic Tourer ahead of Frankfurt debut

This is the new Honda Civic Tourer that will be appearing at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month and that will go on sale in Europe early next year. Created by Honda's European studio, it tweaks the lines and the glasswork of the five-door Civic to create a more muscular profile below the shoulder.
When it's time to haul, a lower load height allows access to a slightly higher floor, arranged so that it creates a flat surface when the rear seats are folded. Honda says the Civic Tourer offers class-leading interior space, the cargo area able to swallow 624 liters from the floor to the window line with the rear seats up, 1,668 liters with the rear seats down and items piled up to the roof. Extra storage can be had in below-floor spaces, and even the rear seat bolsters can flip up to make space for tall goods. An included tonneau cover hides valuables in the back and can be stored out of the way when not in use.
Under the hood will be either the Earth Dreams 1.6 i-DTEC diesel engine or the 1.8 i-VTEC petrol engine, working through a choice of manual or automatic transmissions. An adaptive damper system aims to provide handling to match the looks, with available comfort, normal and dynamic settings.

Honda profit targets tumble in wake of Takata scandal

Takata's massive airbag inflator recall will likely do some damage to Honda's bottom line this year, according to the Japanese automaker's latest forecasts. The company will allocate 50 billion yen ($425 million) to fulfill costs related to the safety campaigns, Reuters indicates. The decision will reduce estimated operating profit by about 6.5 percent to 720 billion yen ($6.1 billion US) for the fiscal year ending March 31. In addition to lower profits, Honda also cut back its sales estimate for the year to 4.45 million vehicles from the previous 4.62 million, according to Reuters. This was largely due to lower-than-expected demand in Japan. "We are not seeing a big impact on sales in North America from the airbag issue," company vice president Tetsuo Iwamura (pictured above) told Reuters. The decreased forecasts come at the same time as the possibility of another death in a Honda vehicle from the Takata parts. According to Automotive News, a man in Florida died in a crash in his 2002 Accord, but investigators have not yet determined whether the inflator was the cause. However, the vehicle was included in a 2011 recall for the part and was not repaired. The family intends to file a lawsuit alleging the inflator ruptured, spraying metal shrapnel into the driver's neck. Reportedly, the owner was never notified of the recall. While the Takata inflator recall is affecting many companies with alleged links to at least five deaths and 139 injuries worldwide, Honda has it among the worst. Including vehicles covered under the previous regional repair campaign for the issue, the automaker needs to repair roughly 5.4 million vehicles just in the US. Honda has taken action by employing suppliers other than Takata to supply some of its replacement parts for the recall. The business is also reportedly switching airbag suppliers for the next-gen Accord and possibly the 2016 CR-V and Odyssey.

Inside Honda's ghost town for testing autonomous cars

On the edge of the San Francisco suburb of Concord, California sits a ghost town. Dilapidated buildings and cracked roads are framed by overgrowth and slightly askew street signs. The decommissioned five acre portion of the Concord Naval Weapons Station that once housed military personnel and their families is now home to squirrels, jack rabbits, wild turkeys and Honda's mysterious testing lab for autonomous vehicles. This former town within a Naval base – now dubbed "GoMentum Station" – is the perfect testing ground for Honda's self-driving cars. An almost turn-key solution to the problem of finding somewhere to experiment with autonomous vehicle inside an urban area. Thanks to the GoMentum Station, the automaker has access to 20 miles of various road types, intersections and infrastructure exactly like those found in the real world. Just, you know, without all the people getting in the way. While the faded lane markers and cracked asphalt might initially make it difficult for the car to figure out what's going on around it, that's exactly what you want when training a self-driving system. Many roads in the real world are also in dire need of upkeep. Just because autonomous vehicles are hitting the streets doesn't mean the funding needed to fix all the potholes and faded lane markers will magically appear. The real world doesn't work that way and the robot cars that will eventually make our commutes less of a headache will need to be aware of that. Plus, it's tougher to train a car to drive downtown than to barrel down the highway at 80 miles per hour. A company is going to want to get as much practice as possible. While semi-autonomous driving on the everyone-going-the-same-way-at-a-constant-speed freeway is already a reality, navigating in an urban environment is far more complex. If you've driven on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Seattle you know that driving downtown takes far more concentration than cruising down the interstate. With all that in mind, Honda's tricked out Acura RLX did a good job during an (admittedly very controlled) hands-free demo. It didn't hit either of the pedestrians walking across its path. It stopped at stop signs and even maneuvered around a mannequin situated in the middle of the road. The reality is, watching a car drive around the block and safely avoid stuff is boring. Not to metion, Google has been doing this for a while in the real world.