Ever heard of Zoox? Here at Motoring Weekly, we hadn’t, mainly because they have been flying under the autonomous vehicle radar for the last four years. Despite having Australian co-founders, like several other ex-pats, they relocated to San Francisco to follow their dream. Their web site is a typical technology one: it tells you very little about what they are up to! If you … [Read more...]
Ford Focus RS Drift Mode
A couple of years ago, Ford in Europe released the Focus RS with a "drift" mode. The Australian media were appalled and interviewed the police over this heinous act of public disorder. They published several articles about how the youth were going to kill themselves (and others) with this car. It didn’t matter that it was much easier to drift a Falcon or Holden Commodore … [Read more...]
A Better Place Far Away
What happened to Better Place, the company that was going to build the charging network across the world that would supercharge the sales of electric cars? When I was producing Motoring Weekly podcasts back in 2008 to 2010, this company was in the news almost weekly. Better Place was founded by Shai Agassi, an Israeli tech developer who like many technology people was in the … [Read more...]
V12 LS1 Engine
When you hear of a V12 engine, most people’s minds drift off to their favourite sports car - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Jaguar or some German motors from BMW or AMG. Well, here’s one from Australia and it’s based on a General Motors LS1 V8! V12LS have developed the motor with a capacity of 9.2 or 9.5 litres and capable of delivering over 640hp. They showed it a year or so ago as … [Read more...]
Try Before You Buy
This is one of those stories that takes you by surprise when you first read it mainly because - for me - I first read about it in WardsAuto, a US based media outlet rather than an Australian publication, which is odd considering that TheCarTest is based in Melbourne! The concept that TheCarTest has brought to the automotive industry down here is a try-before-you-buy system … [Read more...]