While You Were Sleeping: Audi RS3 Sedan, Toyota HiLux Reveal and Cameras Are Everywhere

Looking south of the A4 in Audi’s current range of motors, the hottest vehicle in its North American lineup is the current S3. Those of us west of the Atlantic don’t get to enjoy the turbocharged five-pot RS3 Sportback. Thankfully, Theophilus Chin is on the scene to digitally imagine our Ingolstadt desires with this compromise – the RS3 sedan.

• Audi RS3 Sedan (Theophilus Chin)

  
  

  Our favorite automotive manipulator attaches the fore and aft bumpers of the RS3 to the A3 Clubsport Quattro concept.
• Range Rover Evoque SVR coming (Motoring.com.au)

  
  

  Land Rover is looking to SVR all the things and the Range Rover Evoque is likely the next target.
• Toyota, Mazda in talks on expanding partnership, report says (Automotive News)

  
  

  Since Toyota and Mazda are already working on one ugly car together – the Scion iA/Toyota Yaris Sedan – they may as well work together on another as well. Mazda gets hydrogen and hybrid tech from Toyota. Toyota gets SkyActiv tech from Mazda.
• The first solar bike path is producing more energy than expected (Engadget)

  
  

  230-foot stretch of solar bike path produces 3000 kWh of electricity in six months. Good: more energy than expected, enough to power a single-family home for a year. Bad: expensive, problematic (they’re still working out technical issues with the protective glass), dependent on weather.
• 2016 Toyota HiLux international reveal set for May 21 in Thailand (CarAdvice)

  
  

  Looks like we will officially see the new HiLux at the end of next week.
• Most midsize SUVs fail tough U.S. crash test (Reuters)

  
  

  Midsize SUVs, old and new, are having issues with IIHS small overlap test.
• Illinois State Police gets FAA approval to use drones (Chicago Tribune)

  
  

  Next time you see a drone overhead while driving down an Illinois freeway, there might be an accident ahead. Also: the police don’t want to call them “drones” because that sounds Big Brother-y.
• Hidden Cact-Eye: Paradise Valley installs cameras in cactus (FOX10)

  
  

  But this is definitely Big Brother-y. “The City of Paradise Valley has added cactus with cameras in them over the past few days, but residents have no idea why, and the city doesn’t want to talk about them.”