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FERRARI, MASERATI, LAMBORGHINI, Bugatti. The prestigious names embody performance and luxury across the automotive world.
But with the advent of soulless self-driving cars, are they fated to be locked away in the stables like the horses they replaced a century ago?
On display at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week was Mercedes-Benz’s new concept car, the F 015.
Mercedes promises the car will be as much of a “private retreat” as a transportation vehicles, with the seats all turning around so the passengers can sit, chat and relax with each other. Passengers can still take control, but only if the want to.
So does this focus on relaxation mean that the adrenalin pumping sports car is dead?
Not so fast, responds Ferrari. The Italian race car legend, its iconic prancing horse logo idolized by drivers everywhere, is still putting out high-performance cars that need real people at the wheel.
It just introduced its newest supercar, the Sergio, and is working on a car more powerful than any it ever produced, the FXX K. An electric motor will help boost the 860 horsepower of the V12 engine to an astounding 1,050 horses.
Maserati, like Ferrari part of the Fiat Chrysler stable, is promising a new Alfieri coupe in 2016, and the next version of the GranTurismo will be unveiled at the end of 2017.
But will the Italian thoroughbreds and their German counterparts be able to resist the looming turn of the industry toward cars that don’t need drivers at all?
‘Change inevitable’
Karl Brauer, an industry analyst at Kelley Blue Book, says the industry march away from humans controlling cars and toward more technology will not stop. “It is inevitable,” he syas.
That will leave performance sports cars and supercars the province of a small group of wealthy motor speed fans and hobbyists dedicated to having their own hands in control, he said.
Eventually, the sports car could become confined to a small niche of passionate fans, revving their engines and testing their speed on dedicated circuits.
It is up to the top automakers around the world together with tech leaders to produce autonomous, driverless cars for public use, and the day they enter general use is coming soon.
Self-driving cars could make highways safer by eliminating the main cause of road accidents, driver error.
The first driverless cars could hit the market in 2018, according to manufacturers, though the legal and ethical questions are many — for instance, who is to blame if there is an accident?
Road tests of self-driving cars are already well advanced — especially of the Google Car, the pioneer in the market. It has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles on California roads without accident, Google says.
The war on speeding in developed countries; changes in consumer interests, with a new generation more focused on electronic gadgets; and more eco-friendly thinking also pose obstacles for performance sports car fans.
Seeking a balance
One course for the future, according to analysts, will be to achieve a balance between technologies that make the vehicles safer and the sensations of high speed and high performance on the road that fans crave.
“There will be a demand for sports cars that allow individuals to control and drive the vehicle, but the technology that’s being developed around these autonomous vehicles will actually make it more fun and safer for individuals to drive these vehicles,” said Joe Vitale, an industry specialist at consultant Deloitte.
Makers of top-end cars in the sports and luxury segments have to keep coming up with new things, and adopt the most advanced technologies, to keep attracting buyers, said Alan Baum, head of the consultant Baum and Associates.
“When that product starts to age, then the consumer starts to go to the next new thing,” he said.
© – AFP 2015 with reporting from Rónán Duffy
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GREAT IDEA.
Once they’re aware all these projects in Ireland will come in 100% OVER budget and late
And who is going to do the work?
We don’t have enough builders to build desperately needed houses as it is without syphoning off more of them for retrofitting.
I’m not suggesting climate change isn’t real but unfortunately homelessness is a greater crisis at the moment.
All grants for retrofitting should be paused for at least a decade.
@P.J. Nolan: you are on here every day claiming there isn’t builders. I’ve had to set you straight about 5 times now. Also people who are retrofitting insulation will be completely different to the ones building housing, it’s not done by insulation companies it’s done by the dry lining or carpentry crews and the externals by either the brick layers or cladding crews. And even then it’s usually the labourers or apprentices doing it
@Martin Mongan:
And as I have asked you before, if there is no shortage why do SF say it will at least 10 years to sort out the housing crisis?
They are right, it will, at least.
@P.J. Nolan: because it takes time to build something….? Do you think we just click our fingers and houses pop up? Do you understand the processes you have to go through to even just buy the land, nevermind the design and planning stage. Ground works alone can take more then a year depending on the size
@P.J. Nolan: well Intel’s big job is slowly wrapping up so that’ll free up workers
@Martin Mongan: well we have 100k of Ukrainians and at least 12k/ year of IPAS applicants all on the scratcher. Maybe if we trained them they might build a few.
@Thomas Hayes: they’d have to legally allowed work first
They couldn’t give a flying retrofit about the homeless or those with homes for that matter.Those that rely on fossil fuel will continue to be taxed and penalised.
@Patrick Presley: Who is they?
Trust in the EU machine being eroded fast across eu citizens. Changing times indeed.
@Mike 100: Is it? Source? Or just a warm fuzzy feeling in your pants?
How do you retrofit a tent for homeless people who can’t afford a roof over their heads because rental prices are too high or people who look at an empty fridge for the same reason?
The dynamics of society are volatile as ideologues chase conceptual rainbows of climate change modelling and act out solutions that have nothing to do with planetary climate.
The emergence of the maga crowd in the USA is no accident in reaction to an equally vacuous and pretentious group that dominates an educational, cultural and social-political clique.
26 years is plenty of time for this plan to go nowhere, as happens with a lot of these grandiose, long-term schemes. That means, of course, that large sums of money will inevitably change hands in the meantime, with several fortunes no doubt being made. Most of those involved will have long retired or passed away by 2050. Ciarán Cuffe will be 87. There’ll be no one left around to explain how the plan just sort of petered out with very little to show for it. That’s assuming there’s still an EU in 26 years, and I would have some doubts in that regard. Times and attitudes change, and no treaty lasts forever…
The biggest issue is energy generation. Increase the use of nuclear power and close down coal generation. This is the main cause of emissions. Once our energy generation is carbon neutral then run the transport system of it and over half emmisons will dissappear. But no. It will be taxes and restrictions on individuals instead .
better make it 2 trillion cos once it comes to Ireland everything will be 100%+ over budget
Looking forward to learning more about this at the upcoming ZEB Summit
I’ll send them on my address for the retrofit seeing it’s like a half way house here anyway !!
Green building plan .
Held shares in 6 oil companies.
That does not sound like a green plan to me .
Green party are full of bull.
have your say