1.8l Cd Front Wheel Drive Power Steering 4-wheel Disc Brakes Heated Mirrors A/c on 2040-cars

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Hyundai, Buick dealer apologize in wake of Chinese baby social media incident

A very strange story out of China today, as Hyundai and a Chinese Buick dealer were forced to face allegations of using allusions to an infamous child murder on a social media site as a way of promoting the safety features of their respective vehicles.
The original sad tale goes something like this: On March 4, a man reported to police that he had left his infant child in a running Toyota RAV4 while he ran into a supermarket briefly. When he came back out, the vehicle and the child were gone. Later in the week a suspect turned himself in to the police; confessing to them that he had stolen a sport-utility vehicle, strangled the infant that was in it, and then buried the child in the snow.
As you might imagine, the gristly incident was covered massively in the Chinese media. (There was huge public outcry as well, as evidenced by the vigil scene, above.) "Changchun baby abduction" was very quickly amongst the highest ranking search teams of the China's Weibo social media site - an equivalent of Twitter in the English-speaking world.

New autonomous testing ground in Michigan will help battle bad weather

If one of the big weaknesses of autonomous vehicles is their ability to navigate in the snow, consider this a trial by fire. The American Center for Mobility says it has opened its $110 million driverless car testing facility on the site of a former General Motors assembly plant in Michigan, with Toyota and auto supplier Visteon the first to begin testing this week. The ACM proving ground is a 500-acre site at historic Willow Run in Ypsilanti Township, near Ann Arbor. It's one of 10 sites designated by the U.S. Department of Transportation as pilot proving ground sites to test AV technologies. It features a variety of simulated environments to test driverless cars, including a 2.5-mile highway loop, two double overpasses, intersections, roundabouts and a 700-foot curved tunnel. It also opens just as the region experiences a series of snowstorms and the first frigid temperatures of the season. That ability to test autonomous vehicles in a wide variety of weather conditions is important, as autonomous vehicle sensors have struggled to handle cold, wet and snowy conditions. Google parent Alphabet in October said its Waymo division was expanding its winter testing operations to Michigan, making it the sixth state where it's testing its driverless car systems. In a Medium blog post, Waymo CEO John Krafcik wrote that "This type of testing will give us the opportunity to assess the way our sensors perform in wet, cold conditions. And it will also build on the advanced driving skills we've developed over the last eight years by teaching our cars how to handle things like skidding on icy, unplowed roads." Waymo also opened a development center in suburban Detroit in 2016, working with Fiat Chrysler to integrate its autonomous technology into Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans. Visteon began testing and validating its DriveCore autonomous driving platform to evaluate algorithms, vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology and other systems. Toyota used the facility Wednesday to begin orientation and driver training. ACM has so far secured $110 million to construct the first two phases from founders Ford, Hyundai America Technical Center, Toyota and Visteon, and says it expects to announce more investment soon.

2018 Hyundai Accent starts at under $16,000

Hyundai has finally announced pricing for its latest Accent subcompact. The cheapest base-level SE trim is equipped with a 6-speed manual transmission and starts at $15,880, and adding a 6-speed automatic bumps that price up $1,000. Moving up to the mid-level SEL will cost at least $18,180, and the top-trim Limited starts at $19,780. Both of these trims are only available with an automatic. All versions come with the same naturally aspirated 1.6-liter four-cylinder making 130 horsepower and 119 pound-feet of torque. The SE trim comes reasonably well equipped for a budget subcompact including air conditioning, power windows, cruise control, and Bluetooth. While one might expect those to be standard on every car now, that's not exactly the case. For example, the base level Kia Rio does not come with power windows, cruise control, or Bluetooth, though the Rio is also expected to cost a bit less than the Accent. Choosing SEL adds a number of more desirable features including four-wheel disc brakes, alloy wheels, a bigger touch screen, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, automatic headlights, heated mirrors and a telescoping steering wheel. The Limited offers even more convenience features such as forward collision avoidance, LED lights, sunroof, bigger alloy wheels, keyless entry, heated seats and automatic climate control. All versions of the Accent should be arriving at dealers soon. Related Video: