Hyundai-Genesis: More Key Milestones in 2021

First Up 01/06/22

2022 Will Bring More New Sensors and Assists to Cars

2021 was a tough year for most automakers in a way that no one really saw coming. One of the many secondary effects of the Covid-19 pandemic was substantial disruptions to supply chains, particularly for semiconductors. That challenge is likely to continue well into the second half of 2022 and may even worsen for a time as automakers launch dozens of new electric vehicles and new driver assist capabilities and sensors. According to Forbes, hands-free partially automated highway driving assist systems will become available on many more vehicles in the upcoming year. 2022 will also see the emergence of so-called imaging radar. These higher resolution sensors use a variety of techniques to expand from typical 6 channels on current radars to 192 or more channels. The result is something that looks somewhat like a lidar point cloud. With so many distinct returns, these sensors can be used to distinguish a vehicle ahead from an overpass, a pedestrian and a car parked on the side of the road. For more, including what vehicles will be equipped with this emerging technology, click here.

BMW Unveils Color-Changing iX Flow SUV at CES with E Ink Technology

Tired of the color on your car? A new innovation from BMW will let you change it at the touch of a button. USA Today reports that at CES, the luxury automaker introduced the iX Flow featuring E Ink, a concept that would allow owners to change the exterior color of their car by pressing a button. Click here to watch it in action. BMW said the SUV featuring the iX Flow tech at CES includes a specially developed body wrap stimulated by electrical signals to change the color of the vehicle's exterior. "In the future, digital experiences will not only take place on displays. The real and the virtual will increasingly merge," said Frank Weber, a member of BMW AG's board of management, in a statement. "With the BMW iX Flow, we are bringing the car body to life." The iX Flow can do more than jazz up the look of your car. Stella Clarke, project lead for BMW iX Flow, said the outside of a car could flash different colors if, for example, you're trying to find it in a crowded parking lot. For the full story, click here.

Hyundai-Genesis: More Key Milestones in 2021

Hyundai Motor America set new sales milestones last year, with the Hyundai brand hitting a new retail sales record and the Genesis luxury brand more than tripling deliveries for an all-time peak. According to Automotive News, Hyundai struggled in the fourth quarter because of dwindling inventories, with sales falling 15 percent to 152,446. For the year, deliveries rose 19 percent to 738,081, the company's third-best showing. Retail sales reached an all-time high of 694,349 in 2021, up 23 percent, Hyundai said Tuesday. Genesis, which launched its first two crossovers in the last 14 months, saw a gain of 200 percent in the fourth quarter, with sales of 15,301. For the year, Genesis volume more than tripled to 49,621. "2021 was a highly successful year for the Hyundai brand and our retail partners. We navigated a variety of challenges and sold the most retail units in our history, increasing our retail market share nearly a full point," said Randy Parker, senior vice president of national sales at Hyundai Motor America. For more on Hyundai, click here.

Global Survey: Internal Combustion Favored Over Battery Power

While automakers advance toward an electrified future, consumers wary of electric vehicles’ limitations continue to be drawn toward internal-combustion-powered vehicles, a global survey by the Deloitte consultancy finds. In the U.S. alone, 69 percent of consumers say they expect their next vehicle to have an ICE powertrain. And despite a growing interest in sustainability across the globe, more than half of U.S. consumers (53 percent) are unwilling to pay more than $500 for alternative engine technology.  “While the automotive sector focuses on the road ahead and a return to its pre-pandemic pace of growth, consumer values remain aligned with familiarity and affordability,” Deloitte says in a news release summarizing the report’s findings. According to Wards, that is underscored by general consumer resistance to paying for advanced technologies including autonomous driving, enhanced safety and connectivity. For more survey results, click here.

Volvo to Debut Autonomous Driving Tech in California

Volvo Cars will make what it calls "unsupervised autonomous driving" available first to customers in California before rolling it out in other markets. The official launch of the automaker's so-called Ride Pilot is pending Volvo's internal verification that it is safe as well as approvals for use from local authorities in the different markets, the company said Wednesday. Testing of the technology in California is scheduled to start by the middle of this year, with densely populated areas such as Los Angeles or San Francisco being top candidates, Volvo Chief Product Officer Henrik Green told Automotive News Europe. Volvo is already road-testing autonomous driving features in Sweden as well as collecting for its future system across Europe and the U.S. Ride Pilot will be available as an add-on subscription on the automaker's forthcoming full-electric flagship crossover, that will go into production later this year at Volvo's U.S. factory near Charleston, S.C. For more details, click here.

Around the Web

Honda Clocks Are Stuck 20 Years In The Past And There Isn't A Fix [Jalopnik]

Chrysler Airflow Concept Previews the Brand's All-Electric Future [Auto Blog]

Sony Debuts Electric Cars with Killer Audio and Lip-Reading Tech [FOX News]

Stellantis, Jeep's parent company, is teaming up with Amazon [CNN]

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