Since the early 20th century, visionaries, investors, and automakers have played with the idea of a flying car. Audi, along with Airbus and several government entities, has signed a letter of intent to start the Urban Air Mobility project in Ingolstadt, Germany. The press release calls out the Pop.Up Next concept displayed earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. That concept worked by building an electric car that could detach from its motorized base and fly around the city via a quadcopter. The motorized base would need full, level 5 autonomous driving technology as the system ...
Following news in March that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) was looking into reports of faulty airbags in cars made by Kia and its affiliate Hyundai, Kia has announced that it’s recalling more than half a million vehicles in the U.S. because of this issue. The NHTSA decided to investigate this matter after learning of six accidents in which four people died and six were injured. In each of the crashes, the airbags failed to deploy because of an apparent electronic glitch. Kia is recalling 507,000 vehicles, including 2010-2013 Kia Fortes, 2011-2013 K...
About a third of the 17 million cars expected to be sold in the U.S. this year are leased. The rest of them are purchased. However, there’s a new option for drivers coming in 2018 – car subscriptions. It is addressed to people that do not want to own a car but want to have access to a range of cars whenever they want. So, by paying a monthly fee to access a variety of vehicles they can change up when they want. The flat fee starts from $400 and gets to as much as $3,700, depending on the company, and most often comes with insurance, maintenance, roadside assistance, pick...
Ford Motor Co. said that it will halt production of its top-selling F-150 and Super Duty pickup trucks at some of its U.S. plants following a fire at a Michigan plant that produces instrument panels. The truck side of Ford’s Kansas City Assembly plant has been suspended due to parts shortage. This means that about 3,600 workers are idled with no date set for reopening the plant. And the Dearborn Truck plant in Michigan is getting closed too. That plant has 4,000 employees. In addition, F-Series Super Duty production is suspended at the Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville. ...
As consumer demand continued to weaken, the most powerful automakers have revealed their car sales for April 2018, and the results weren’t as good as expected. Auto sales have been on a bit of a roller coaster ride this year, with a weak performance in February followed by a jump in sales for some automakers in March.Ford Motor posted a 4.7-percent decline in sales, with retail sales to consumers down 2.6 percent. The No. 2 U.S. automaker said sales of its popular pickup trucks were up 0.9 percent, but SUV and passenger car sales were down 4.6 percent and 15 percent respectively.Nis...