On the site this week, we’ve been exploring the links between carmakers and the aircraft industry.
Tie-ups between the two businesses are common, but they’ve been given new impetus in recent years thanks to the advent of eVTOL aircraft and their potential as a longer-term idea for solving ground-based traffic tedium and becoming a new and exciting urban mobility solution. Read our Top 5 round-up here.
Our LiDAR survey is also still up and running. If you haven’t had chance to fill it in yet, we’d be extremely grateful if you could take part. The results will be used to produce a report on the topic, coming later this year.
Here’s some other stories that caught our eye this week:
UPS invests in delivering the future
Not one but two bits of news from the US delivery company UPS. First up, it has acquired a stake in UK firm Arrival via its venture capital arm UPS Ventures.
The firms have been working together since 2016, but now UPS is a minority shareholder, and has placed an order for 10,000 ADAS-equipped EV delivery vans built on Arrival’s skateboard chassis. The stake gives UPS the option to fast-track 10,000 more orders if the new vans are a hit when they take to North American and European roads.
UPS joins Hyundai-Kia as an investor in Arrival, with the Korean firms taking a €100m slice of the firm earlier this year.
UPS has also struck a deal with Waymo to use the latter’s self-driving fleet of Chrysler Pacificas to transport packages from UPS Stores to its logistics centers for processing. The trial will take place in Arizona, with the aim of cutting the time it takes to get packages to their destinations.
Rivian and Lincoln link up
Details are no being firmed up of what Ford will get for its $500m investment in EV startup Rivian. The first vehicle to be confirmed is a new electric vehicle for the Lincoln brand. The car is likely to be an SUV and will be built on Rivian’s EV skateboard chassis. It will join the firm’s increasingly SUV-biased line-up, especially now Lincoln has confirmed the death of its MKZ sedan.
Hummer returns as Hyundai makes ADAS the star
Sunday is Super Bowl day, and that means the US is gearing up for mass consumption of chicken wings, good times and a whole load of expertly crafted commercials. The carmakers have long been in on the act, and the 2020 season finale is no exception.
GM has confirmed the return of the Hummer name, albeit as an electric truck sold under the GMC brand. The vehicle’s game day debut has been previewed already with some preliminary specs – 1000hp, monster amounts of torque and a 0-60mph time of less than three seconds. It’ll be built at the General Motors Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, will be revealed in full on May 20, with deliveries starting in Fall 2021.
Meanwhile, Hyundai has been showing off its Smart Park feature on the 2020 Sonata with the help of a number of famous Bostonians and their unique accents. Great to see an ADAS feature taking center stage in the ad below, especially as nearly 19m people have seen the ad already: