Car FYI

Photo Credit: General Motors 1980s television show Knight Rider gave audiences a likable impression of a vehicle controlled by a computer-based artificial intelligence that had seemed futuristic until recent years. In a new partnership between General Motors and IBM, we really have to wonder if our connected automobiles may evolve into our own personal K.I.T.T. by the end of 2017. Set to be available on two million General Motors automobiles with OnStar 4G LTE connectivity, enhanced driver management and productivity functions inside a vehicle's cabin will be made possible through the Watson cognitive mobility platform. Becoming OnStar Go, the new connected in-car technology will provide users with a greater level of efficiency as the system adjusts to personal preferences. Working alongside other corpororate partners Mastercard, ExxonMobil, iHeartRadio Parkopedia and Glympse, the Watson-aided OnStar Go can provide services to operators at a near instant. Traffic informatio...

Photo Credit: Business Wire Does $750,000 US electric car sound costly or is it worth it for the world's fastest street legal all-electric car? Genovation Cars, a small American company based in the state of Maryland, had spent years creating an electric vehicle for the high-performance market. Converting one of the oldest running nameplates into a green supercar, the seventh generation Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport coupe was transformed into the Genovation GXE, The GXE emerged as record-setter this past July becoming the quickest public road-worthy electric car 205.6-mile per hour (330.881 kilometers per hour) run at Kennedy Space Center in Florida certified by the International Mile Racing Association, On the same week as reports that Audi pulled the plug on its R8 e-tron supercar after a very short construction run, Genovation has started accepting orders for its intended limited production vehicle. At a cost of $750,000 in the currency of Canada's southern neighbo...

Photo Credit: Fisker Inc. The electrified luxury car marketplace has become the new promised land for 21st century motoring. Long-established companies such BMW, Mercedes-Benz and General Motors have offered vehicles that can operate primarily on electrical power for at least a short distance. However, relatively newer production car builders such as McLaren and Tesla Motors found opportunities to claim a piece of the high-end vehicle segment. Halfway in 2017, a new but familiar Fisker Inc. will rejoin the electrified luxury vehicle market in a completely fresh manner. Nine years ago, automotive designer Henrik Fisker founded a company that applied the expertise behind the style of the BMW Z8 and Aston Martin DB9 into a radical sedan. Fisker Automotive set out to create a luxury car based on the plug-in hybrid powertrain, First revealing the elegant Fisker Karma in 2008 , the vehicle transcended the confides of traditional electric car styling seen at the time. The Karma's f...

Photo Credit: Chris Nagy At the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, General Motors' volume-leading division Chevrolet made a bold presentation of a concept representing the notion of the bowtie brand's first serious production vehicle not to be powered by an internal combustion engine. Besides the existence of the all-electric Bolt EV Concept, Chevrolet made a bold-looking pledge of an affordable battery-powered vehicle that can be driven to a range beyond 200 miles (320 kilometers). The original Bolt EV Concept quickly morphed into the production-ready all-electric concept car preserving a surprisingly hefty account of the design features touted on the auto show floor almost two years ago. A subcompact hatchback with a share of economy and technology, the 2017 Chevrolet Bolt EV will soon need to face the test of persuading a mass market to realistically consider an option to gasoline power. As the early 2017 arrival of the all-electric Chevy is being...

Photo Credit: Volkswagen of America 1935 was defined by two milestone events in automotive history. In Germany, the first two prototypes of the 'People's Car" were  constructed with guidance of Ferdinand Porsche. These vehicles quickly emerged as the precursor of the Volkswagen Beetle serving as an influential design ranked alongside the Ford Model T in significance. In the United States on a massive bed of salt in Utah, British speed record setter Sir Malcolm Campbell bettered an effort from a previous outing on Daytona Beach. On September 3rd of 1935, Campbell piloting his Rolls-Royce engined Blue Bird sailed to a 301.129-mile per hour land speed that stood for two years. 80 years after both moments, Volkswagen and the Bonneville Salt Flats combine for a new historic achievement. The stage for land speed records since the early part of the 20th century, the Bonneville Salt Flats, the sight of a yellow compact car exceeding the performance threshold defining most s...

Photo Credit: Mitsubishi Motors North America At noontime eastern time on September 15th, a 1600th and final vehicle in Mitsubishi Motor's performance lineage in North America was sold. For a week, a 303-horsepower 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Final Edition was the focus of a monumental event capping the 11-year history of the car in North America. Through an Ebay charity auction aiding  Feeding America Riverside & San Bernardino Counties and Second Harvest Food Back of Orange Country,  bidding for the last 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution sport sedan resulted in a victory for the party that agreed to pay $76,400 US ($100,412.56 Canadian). Over $30,000 US above the retail sticker assigned to the Lancer Evolution Final Edition, the 60 bids used within the Ebay auction were devoted to a well-dressed Diamond White Pearl coloured car wearing significant US1600 numbering on an interior plaque.  Speaking in regards to the active contest for the last of the la...

Photo Credit: Karma Automotive At the turn of the decade, the prospect for automobiles moving with literally a revised kind of energy was becoming not only a means to reduce gasoline consumption but a future fashion icon. In the late 2000s, inflated fuel prices eventually hurt everyone in the pocketbook as both the working class as well as the wealthier elite. In fact buyers who could afford high-end luxury vehicles, there was a humanizing reality when poor fuel mileage of their heavyweight premium cruisers combined with potentially lower income as a result of a massive global economic recession of 2008. While markets rebounded, fresh memories has led to creative visions of a new luxury car genre attempting to exploit electrified powertrains for an uncompromising road-going performance. In 2007, a start-up auto company seeing an entry position in a premium electrified vehicle category conceiving a plug-in hybrid sedan. Co-founded by Bernhard Koehler Henrik Fisker, an automotive ...