Auto Industry News: Tesla Crash Causes More Hiccups, Autonomy Pushes On, & HUGE RAM TRX News

If there’s a theme in this week’s auto industry news, it’s disruption. In Laguna Beach, a Tesla crash in autopilot causes more hiccups for the company. Caterpillar and John Deere supposedly have autonomous testing in motion. RAM looks to convert Raptor loyals with its new TRX. And Martin Truex’s NASCAR win at Pocono Raceway sends a clear message of don’t count him out.

Tesla Crash in Autopilot… with a Police Cruiser  

According to reports, a Tesla Model S collided with a police cruiser over the weekend in Laguna Beach. Thankfully, no officer was inside at the time and the Tesla passenger walked away with “only minor injuries.” While these incidents need careful assessment, it’s surely becoming harder as they accumulate. The recent Tesla crash makes four ongoing investigations, and three of those investigations focus on the company’s Autopilot function. The other two Autopilot incidents involve fires post crash, one of which killed two people in Ft. Lauderdale in March. To add insult to injury, the pressure on Elon Musk seems to have only further delayed production of the Model 3.

Self-Driving Skid Loader

There is a silver lining to autonomous technology and it’s going straight to work. This here is a self-driving skid loader by Built Robotics. Created by former Google employee, Noah Ready-Campbell, the skid is fit for nearly any job. It uses lidar and GPS technology to dig efficiently and symmetrically, and it does so thanks to programming that enables it to collide with dirt. Which is supposed to be a quality atypical of self-driving technology, but I digress. Caterpillar and John Deere supposedly have their own autonomous machines in the works, too. So, while this is exciting for the engineer job field, it may come as a blow in the future to machine operators.

RAM TRX Concept Coming to Life

In harmony with the widespread anticipation of the new Jurassic World film, RAM is cooking up some prehistoric excitement of its own with confrimation of the RAM TRX. The TRX (T-Rex) is a not- so-subtle attempt to dethrone the Ford Raptor, which has continually set the bar for trucks year after year. The Rebel TRX, like many, began as a humble concept in 2016 at the Texas State Fair. But at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles’ five-year-plan presentation last week, the truck began to show its teeth. Production begins soon, and the public can expect to see the vehicle “before 2022.” Though intimate details beyond that are sparse, it’s all but confirmed that the TRX’s roar will come courtesy of a Hellcat 6.2-liter supercharged V-8. Now we’re talkin’!!

Land Rover Developing Off-Road Autonomous Technology

Recent reports have stated that Land Rover is launching a project called Cortex. The goal of the project: Take your bajillion-dollar robot vehicle and make it capable of bombing over rocks and through mud. Because money isn’t real and neither are rules, right? But since the inevitability of self-driving vehicles is upon us, it’s only logical that the market try to capture the hearts of all kinds of enthusiasts. And who better than Land Rover? The automaker says it’s developing “5D” technology, which will employ a combination of acoustic sensors, cameras, lidar, and radar to optimize safety, and of course, performance. Considering the recent and seemingly frequent shortcomings of vehicular autonomy, however, we may not see Cortex’s work come to fruition for some time.

Around the Circuit

You can be sure it’s not much safer on the drag strip than it is in autonomous vehicles. In NHRA, John Force walked away from yet another scary wreck. The crash took place during a qualifying round at the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago. You can view video of the wreck below. Force lost control of his funny car, then collided and slid along the wall for several hundred feet. What added to the fright of the accident was that he was lined up against his daughter Courtney. But Force, being the veteran he is, said of the crash, “I will never give up on it ’till it kills me and that’s the god’s truth.” So, no worries about seeing him slow down any time soon.

NASCAR graced Pocono this weekend, and a familiar face popped in to take home the victory. And no, it wasn’t Kevin Harvick or Kyle Busch. It was in fact Martin Truex who dodged a late caution to win the race. Remember him? The defending champion showed the field that he is very much still a threat in the Cup chase. He now sits 137 points behind leader Kyle Busch and right behind Joey Logano and Kevin Harvick, with a lot of season ahead.

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