It’s January, but already 2018’s car industry is looking a little Harvey Dent-ish. At Las Vegas’ Consumer Electronic Show, automakers, suppliers, and the developers who love them showed off futuristic visions: electric, connected, autonomous, luxury vehicles that scream, in neon, NEW! But a few days later, those same players were hiding from the cold at Detroit’s North American International Auto Show, reminding us about what’s actually selling here, today, in the US of A. Namely: big trucks and muscle cars. Our own Jack Stewart tackles the split, and decides there’s a future for driving- and fuel-lovers yet.
Plus, I look at Ford’s foray into electrified vehicles (finally!), Eric Adams examines digitally programmable headlights, and Jack takes Nissan’s brain-monitoring car tech for a spin, and learns the Japanese carmaker really wants a peek inside your mind. Let’s get you caught up.
Stories you might have missed from WIRED this week
- I could convince you to read Jack’s roundup of cars from CES and the Detroit auto show, or you could watch his video right here:
- Jack also played guinea pig, allowing Nissan a peek inside his skull via what looks like a brain-poking bike helmet. One day, a “brain-to-vehicle” system like this could sense when a human driver is about to turn, and offer subtle help. But it raises questions, too: ”Think autocorrect, or Google auto-complete, but at 60 mph,” one researcher warned Jack.
- China really wants electric cars, so Ford—which last year sold 1.2 million vehicles in the country—is ponying up. Months after GM, Volvo, and Jaguar Land Rover made electrified commitments, the Detroit carmaker now says it will devote $11 billion to EVs and hybrids by 2023, rolling out 40 models in the process.
- Texas Instruments used CES to hype its new digitally programmable headlights. It sounds a bit technical, but the upside is the lamps will be able keep the brights on but avoid blinding oncoming drivers; spotlight signs or sprinting animals that a driver really needs to pay attention to, stat; or help autonomous vehicles communicate with hesitant pedestrians.
Longtime WIRED subject Bob Maddox, he of the extremely speedy and unusually powered wheeled contraptions, is back. This week on his YouTube show, he's got a pulsejet-powered go-kart. You can watch him build the thing here, or jump right to the riding:
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/1KNGA8hEfz4&feature=youtu.be
News from elsewhere on the internet.
- Reuters breaks out the calculator and finds global automakers are investing a whopping $90 billion in electric cars.
- Please read those car leases before signing. Automakers are now collecting an unprecedented amount of data on their customers' movements, The Washington Post reports—and some won’t say what they’re doing with the info.
- This week in Uber: Bloomberg weaves together the tale of ex-CEO Travis Kalanick’s downfall; Recode has some new details about how Kalanick’s taped argument with a Uber driver reoriented the company's approach to driver relations; and new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi pens a WSJ op-ed arguing the world needs to get over private car ownership.
- On Thursday, Amazon announced the 20 finalist cities vying to host its second headquarters, and the WSJ has a nice rundown of all the improvements these places have offered for a piece of the Prime. Cities are suddenly willing to spend more money on traffic and mass transit.
- MIT Tech Review reviews the self-driving car demos of CES.
- Bienvenue to Peugeot, which announced this week it will reenter the US market and be fully electrified—either fully electric or hybrid—by 2025.
Essential Stories from WIRED’s canon
No matter what city Amazon picks to host HQ2, at least a part of the company will always live on the road. Writer Jessica Bruder drives along with the sifting seniors of Camperforce, Jeff Bezos's itinerant band of RV-traveling workers who help Amazon get ready for the holidays.
