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The world lost one of its preeminent car designers today, as Marcello Gandini has passed away at the age of 85. Though perhaps best known for the flashy and outrageous Lamborghini Countach, Gandini’s pen was applied to many other Italian, German, French, British, Japanese, and Swedish concepts and production designs. Gandini’s prolific portfolio of work made a permanent mark on automotive design.

Ford has trademarked an interesting name from its back catalog. Oval has filed trademarks for "RS200" and "Ford RS200" within the European Union Intellectual Property Office, according to our sister publication.

Following yesterday’s article about the IIHS suggesting the implementation of driver-monitoring as a way to mitigate lackluster advanced driving systems, many readers asked why automated driving still seemed so far behind in terms of development. After all, we have had companies promising the sale of commercially viable autonomous vehicles for years. But companies are nearly half a decade behind schedule with a public that has almost completely lost faith in the program.

What happened?

For years, the possibility of a hybridized Porsche 911 has been the topic of much discussion among enthusiasts. Some said the move would spoil the recipe, suggesting the brand create an entirely new model for electrification like it did with the Taycan. Others believed the potential performance gains associated with hybridization were too lofty to ignore, often citing the legendary Porsche 918 as proof. Regardless of which camp you happen to occupy, Porsche is indeed building a hybrid 911 and has even confirmed its official debut for this summer.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has cooked up a new ratings program to encourage automakers to implement even more electronic nannies, including the kind that watch your every move behind the wheel, because the current batch have been deemed inadequate.

“We evaluated partial automation systems from BMW, Ford, General Motors, Genesis, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Tesla and Volvo,” IIHS President David Harkey said. “Most of them don’t include adequate measures to prevent misuse and keep drivers from losing focus on what’s happening on the road.”

During last week's State of the Union address, President Joe Biden made a claim that seemed to suggest that his administration, along with the UAW, helped Stellantis resurrect a plant in Belvidere, Illinois. Did it actually happen that way?

The answer is unclear.

It seems only a couple of months ago I reported on my experience traveling from Cincinnati to Nashville to purchase the 2010 BMW Z4, thus satisfying a used convertible car search that lasted for a year and a half. Though that search was much more lengthy than I’d have preferred, I was convinced at this time last year that I selected the right car for my usage case. But does that still ring true, do I still think an old German car was the right choice?

Homeland Security was reportedly involved in stopping a street takeover in Conroe, Texas, after a prior event became violent when the police arrived. The takeover occurred in the wake of the Lone Star Throwdown, a truck-focused automotive meetup, with organizers complaining about the trend in the aftermath.

A recent study published in the Journal of Transport Geography has alleged that “car harm” cannot be undone by the world pivoting to all-electric vehicles. 

However, the paper doesn’t favor everyone running out to buy the largest diesel pickup they can afford. Instead, it adopts the same anti-driving nonsense we’ve seen from the Vision Zero Network and government regulators that have been caught up in its activism web. The issue, as framed in the study, isn’t that EVs still pose a problem. The complaint is that all vehicles are problematic and the paper recommends sweeping policy changes pertaining to how roads are managed to deal with the matter. 

With the 2024 Dodge Charger having finally been previewed, driving enthusiasts have been arguing about whether the all-new model is an improvement from the original or a grotesque misstep. While it looks similar to its predecessor, Stellantis opted to abandon V8 powertrains for a turbocharged I6 or 400-volt electric architecture. The car has also fully embraced all-wheel drive at the expense of rear-drive variants. Considering the above, it should be no shocker that the brand likewise snubbed manual transmissions — with Dodge having just confirmed the decision.

A whistleblower has accused FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem of abusing his authority to influence the results of the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The alleged action was attributed toward influencing the results of the Formula 1 event.

Updated European safety certifications may discourage global automakers from leaning so heavily upon touch controls in the future. While not a formal government regulator, the European New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) is extremely influential in a manner similar to the United States’ Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). These are the entities testing the crash worthiness of modern automobiles, or bench-marking industry safety standards, and Euro NCAP has elected to make distracted driving a major issue moving forward. By 2026, any vehicles sold within the European market will need to include physical controls to be deemed truly safe.

Volvo is introducing a new feature that alerts drivers of accidents reported on the road ahead. With similar services available for free on select phone apps, many of which can be integrated with your vehicle’s infotainment display, Volvo’s offering doesn’t sound incredibly novel on its face. But it’s leveraging real-time data from government-operated traffic management centers via the automobile’s proprietary user interface, technically making the feature the first of its kind within the automotive industry.

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced plans to investigate the potential national security risks being confronted by American automakers and any threats posed by connected vehicle technologies controlled by foreign adversaries — including China.

Chinese automaker BYD has been seeking to build an automotive plant in Mexico, with the company’s regional chief executive confirming the plan on Wednesday. CEO Stella Li has stated that BYD has yet to decide upon a final location. But that plan is for the site to boast a production capacity of 150,000 vehicles annually, with none being slated for export to the United States.