Auto IQ Weekly News Round-up, including Audi, Tesla and Domino's
Smashing Audi e-tron and Tesla Model 3 results, Domino’s takes to two e-wheels, and VW EV goes for a spectacular drive
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It’s been a relatively quiet news week, although that'll change soon with the Frankfurt Motor Show just around the corner.
During the downtime we too the opportunity to download our notebooks of all the future trends in Human-Machine Interaction we've spotted recently. Check them out here:
- Trends in car Human-Machine Interface (HMI) – Part 1
- Trends in car Human-Machine Interface (HMI) – Part 2
Here's some of the other headlines that caught our eye this week:
Audi e-tron plays it safe
Aside from the efficiency benefits, another huge selling point for EVs is their excellent performance in safety tests. Take the Audi e-tron for example, which went on sale in the US earlier this year, and has just thumped its way to a 2019 Top Safety Pick+ rating from the US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
A quick check on the IIHS Twitter feed confirms its team are smashing Tesla Model 3s into walls this very week, so expect that to even eclipse the Audi – it did so in the Euro NCAP tests earlier this year, with Model 3 being noted as the safest car the group has tested this year.
A look at the test videos shows why, with the battery able to absorb huge amounts of energy in side impacts, while the suite of driver assistance systems doing a very impressive job. Viva la revolución.
Domino’s continues to perfect pizza delivery
Domino’s efforts to develop the pizza delivery service of the future have taken us on an interesting journey. First there was the 2017 trial in Michigan, run in partnership with Ford, to study how consumers reacted to having their piping hot pizza delivered by a car, not a human. Then there was the partnership with Nuro in Houston, TX, to drop pizza to your door by one of Nuro’s custom-designed delivery bots.
Now, the firm has partnered with Rad Bikes, the largest e-bike provider in the US, to roll out a custom e-bike to its delivery fleets in Miami, Salt Lake City, Baltimore and Houston later this year. The bikes have a range of 25 to 40 miles, have a top speed of 20mph, and – most importantly – can transport 12 pizzas. Four wheels good, two wheels better? Maybe…
VW set for September spectacular EV record attempt
Volkswagen’s ID.R electric racer is doing a fine job of boosting the buzz around the performance potential of EVs. First setting a new record time up the famous Pike’s Peak hillclimb in Colorado, then scorching up the Goodwood hill in the UK, and setting a new lap record for EVs around the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
The car, now in a new red livery, is currently being shipped via train the 11,000km from Germany to China to take on its next challenge, the 99 corners of the Tianmen Shan Big Gate Road. You may remember this from when Chinese-Dutch racing driver Ho-Pin Tung drove a hybrid Range Rover Sport up the road, then switched to off-road tires to bump up the 999 steps to the Big Gate rock formation at its summit.
For VW’s attempt, as with the other runs, the car will be driven by Romain Dumas, who will take on the road on September 2. No-one has technically set a record run yet, so that’s a given. But what a spectacular spot for a drive.
