2008 Champaign 4wd Heated Leather Sunroof Nav Dvd Rearcam Bluetooth Tubesteps!! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

IIHS: High numbers of drivers treat partially automated cars as fully self-driving

WASHINGTON — Drivers using advanced driver assistance systems like Tesla Autopilot or General Motors Super Cruise often treat their vehicles as fully self-driving despite warnings, a new study has found. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), an industry funded group that prods automakers to make safer vehicles, said on Tuesday a survey found regular users of Super Cruise, Nissan/Infiniti ProPILOT Assist and Tesla Autopilot "said they were more likely to perform non-driving-related activities like eating or texting while using their partial automation systems than while driving unassisted." The IIHS study of 600 active users found 53% of Super Cruise, 42% of Autopilot and 12% of ProPILOT Assist owners "said that they were comfortable treating their vehicles as fully self-driving." About 40% of users of Autopilot and Super Cruise — two systems with lockout features for failing to pay attention — reported systems had at some point switched off while they were driving and would not reactivate. "The big-picture message here is that the early adopters of these systems still have a poor understanding of the technologyÂ’s limits," said IIHS President David Harkey. The study comes as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is scrutinizing Autopilot crashes. Since 2016, the NHTSA has opened 37 special investigations involving 18 deaths in crashes involving Tesla vehicles and where systems like Autopilot were suspected of use. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Tesla says Autopilot does not make vehicles autonomous and is intended for use with a fully attentive driver who is prepared to take over. GM, which in August said owners could use Super Cruise on 400,000 miles (643,740 km) of North American roads and plans to offer Super Cruise on 22 models by the end of 2023, did not immediately comment. IIHS said advertisements for Super Cruise focus on hands-free capabilities while Autopilot evokes the name used in passenger airplanes and "implies TeslaÂ’s system is more capable than it really is." IIHS in contrast noted ProPILOT Assist "suggests that itÂ’s an assistance feature, rather than a replacement for the driver." NHTSA and automakers say none of the systems make vehicles autonomous. Nissan said its name "is clearly communicating ProPILOT Assist as a system to aid the driver, and it requires hands-on operation.

GMC could have used Jeep's prized grille design on its born-again Hummer

General Motors confirmed it's bringing the Hummer nameplate back on an electric, GMC-badged pickup by publishing a dark photo of its front end. The battery-powered drivetrain under the sheetmetal represents a tectonic shift, but we noticed another flagrant break with tradition: it wears six slot-like inserts instead of seven like on every previous Hummer and countless Jeeps. Adding an extra slot wouldn't have landed GMC in hot water. The seven-slot grille has historically been associated with Jeep, and the company proved it's willing to go to significant lengths to ensure another automaker — especially one it perceives as a rival — doesn't use it. Parent company Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) bitterly sued Mahindra over the Roxor's design, including its five-slot grille, and won in 2019, forcing the Indian firm to unveil a redesigned side-by-side for the 2020 model year. And yet, stylists would have very likely been able to get away with it on the Hummer. While General Motors owns Hummer, the brand traces its ancestry to 1970, when American Motors Corporation (AMC) purchased Jeep from Kaiser and changed the name of its General Products Division to AM General Corp. The division manufactured the rear-wheel drive, CJ-based DJ for the United States Postal Service and began developing the Humvee in 1979. Jeep and AM General went their separate ways when Renault began investing in AMC. Foreign companies weren't allowed to own defense contractors, and AMC had more to gain by gradually selling out to Renault than by keeping AM General, so it divested the division to LTV Corporation in 1983. Humvee production started shortly after, but no one protested its seven-slot grille because there was no risk of it stealing sales from a comparable Jeep model. It was manufactured exclusively for the U.S. Army, and civilian sales weren't planned. H2SUV View 4 Photos The original civilian Hummer released in 1992 must have raised more than a few eyebrows but, here again, it didn't directly compete with one of Jeep's off-roaders, so no one complained. It was huge, correspondingly expensive, and its portal axles made the YJ-generation Wrangler wet its pants. It's the H2 concept (pictured above) unveiled at the 2000 Detroit Auto Show that set off alarm bells in Auburn Hills. DaimlerChrysler's lawyers counted the slots in the chrome-plated insert that dominated its front end and shuddered when they reached seven.

GMC Hummer EV could have had the Chevrolet Avalanche's Midgate

One of the many rumors swirling around the GMC Hummer EV claimed the truck would resurrect the Midgate inaugurated by the original Chevrolet Avalanche. Although we now know there's no way to fully knock down the partition between the cab and the cargo box, the firm revealed the rumor wasn't entirely false. "There was [a Midgate] early on. We opted for the functionality of the drop glass in the back. With the package layout and things like that, it was not advantageous to pursue that one. And, the five-foot bed was kind of the industry standard in regards to price of entry in that segment," explained John Mack, the Hummer's exterior design management, during an interview with Muscle Car & Trucks. The Hummer will go on sale with a five-foot box, and it doesn't sound like a longer bed will be available, so a modern version of the Midgate would have made the model more versatile by giving users the ability to fold down the partition behind the rear seats to carry bulky items, like plywood and ATVs. It's a feature that would have inevitably made the truck more complicated to build, however, because it adds moving parts that need to be sealed. Hinges, seals, and latches in turn add weight, and complexity almost always invites high manufacturing costs. As an electric pickup built with newly-developed components, the Hummer already has enough of each. Motorists who need to carry something that's significantly longer than the cargo box aren't entirely out of luck. As Mack pointed out, the rear window drops into the partition, so owners will have the ability to haul surfboards, lumber, or anything else that's relatively long and reasonably thin by simply pushing a switch. Alternatively, the only thing limiting cargo space when the roof comes off is the sky — or, depending on where you live, bridges. Mack didn't reveal when the Midgate was dropped. GMC launched the Hummer project in April 2019, and it previously released early design sketches that show how the truck transitioned from a sketch to a prototype. As of writing, nothing suggests the Midgate will make a comeback in the near future on any member of the General Motors portfolio. It was introduced in 2001 on the first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, which went on sale in the United States for the 2002 model year. It later spread to Cadillac's luxed-up variant of the truck, the Escalade EXT, and to the short-lived GMC Envoy XUV.