AutoComplete: Continental creates a high-tech self-filling tire and more
AutoComplete: Continental creates a high-tech self-filling tire and more
7:03

AutoComplete: Continental creates a high-tech self-filling tire and more

Cars
Welcome to Roadshow's AutoComplete, your weekly roundup of the biggest news in the automotive world. This week we have news on Geely's Lotus Volvo engine deal. Northern California's blackouts and Dyson's EV project. But first, let's start with Continental's self inflating tire concept. Tires may seem like big, dumb round rubber doughnuts, but they're one of the most important parts of your car. Not only that, but they've been the beneficiaries of some pretty serious engineering and technology over the years.That level of tech could be ramping up in a hurry though if continental has anything to say about it. See, the brand unveiled a tyre concept that is packed full of censors and has the ability to maintain it's own pressure accurately at all times, it can even inflate itself without being dismounted from the car. Conti is calling the concept CARE Which stands for connected, autonomous, reliable electrified. Will this thing be hitting the road anytime soon? Probably not. But it's a cool idea. Chinese auto super conglomerate mega Corporation. Geely owns Volvo, it also owns fame re-purchased sports car manufacturer Lotus. It would only make sense that he would help cut cost by sharing tact between the two brands. And it looks like the first big example of that may be an engine sharing agreement where Volvo's twin charged four cylinder engines would start finding their way in the future Lotus models. We are guessing this is will be a huge cost savings for Lotus in particular which has been buying its engines from Toyota for years now. Plus, like maybe Lotus will make the Volvo engine sound cool. Something it desperately needs help with. Light-duty full sized pickups for small efficient diesel engines are rapidly becoming A thing. And that's a trend we can really get behind. We've had all the relevant details on diesels from Ford and Chevrolet. But we've been waiting eagerly for fuel economy data on Ram's new ecodiesel engine. Thankfully, that data is here now and the results are, well, they're pretty good but not quite as good as Chevrolet's oddly frugal Duramax in line six By one mile per gallon now that's not much of a golf and the ramp has tons of other positive features like its massive center screen, and you know generally good looks. So we don't anticipate most buyers really given too much of a crap There was a time where Toyota's RAV4 crossover was just a cute mute for mall walking enthusiasts. But those days are gone but, that's because Toyota is offering TRD pro version of the crossover. While it's definitely not as burly, say you know as the 4Runner it's pretty really. It's apparently inspired by Ryan Millen's Rally RAV4 and that's also really cool. Unfortunately, if you got to have that TRD Pro, you're gonna have to fork over a surprisingly large amount of greenbacks for it. The TRD pro RAV4 is gonna start at $36,300, which is less than a grand under the cost of a base model for runner. Is it worth it. Well, we'll have to drive it to find out. Remember how Dyson was going to take all its vacuum cleaner and hand dryer expertise and channel it into a badass world beaming electric car. Yeah, it turns out that was a bit ambitious and now the company has decided to pull the record on its EV development program. It's citing an inability to make the car commercially viable as the reason for shuttering its plans. The $2.5 billion investment that was slated for the car to get it on the road,is now gonna be funneled into other decidedly non vacuum cleaner a stuff like,artificial intelligence.This seems like a particularly risky move. Because I think we all remember what happened in Terminator 2 when a guy named Dyson got into developing AI. Lexus is getting ready to pull the sheet off of a fancy, new electric Concept at the Tokyo Motor Show later this month. And while we've only seen a teaser image so far, the word around the campfire is that it's going to bare more than a passing resemblance to the LF-SA Concept that we saw way back in 2015. If you don't remember the LFSA, it was a small city car like vehicle that looked a bit like a Gundam and a twisted IQ got frisky, after one too many drinks at a john legend concert. This concept is supposed to be electrified, but whether that means it's purely electric or just some kind of hybrid, remains to be seen. Northern california continues to be served one crap sandwich after another, before it was fires. This time its potential fires and massive blackouts and an attempt to avoid them courtesy of pacific gas and electric. Who you may remember as the principal villain from the award winning film. Erin Brockovich, those blackouts are no joke. But they're proving especially problematic for owners of electric vehicles for reasons that should be obvious. Tesla is working to install power packs at some of its North Cal charging stations. And also plans to implement solar panels. To help provide more clean off the grid Howard to its various charging stations. Ram isn't the only FCA company to get a little of that sweet eco diesel action. The Jeep Wrangler is getting an oil burner too and somewhat unsurprisingly, it's gonna cost a bunch more money than the base model Wrangler. Unfortunately, it will also only be available with an automatic transmission, which is something we're sure we'll get hardcore G7 Fans and offroaders tripping on the internet. Still, having nearly 500 foot pounds of torque on tap could be good for crawling rocks or whatever it is jeepers do. So, you know. BMW's M8 is a real heavyweight cruiser. A boulevard bruiser. And now, BMW has shown off the Ford R Grand coupe version and spoiler alert. It looks great, especially in this purple color that we're dubbing aspirational Arbor Jean around the office. The cool thing is, is that even though the image is a real pricey, the grand coupe version is a couple of grand cheaper than it's less grand more coupe sibling. Virus can get the inmate grand coupe and either regular or competition flavors with the ladder adding 17 horsepower to the base versions 600 ponies the cost for all that a cool $13,000 on top of the $130,000 starting price For the base model. Tesla is seemingly always looking to upset tradition and do things it's own way. Case in point is a new patent application that if filed to make it's seats heated and cooled. To buy a liquid liquid heating is how most internal combustion cars handle the each part of their each fire system taking waste heat from the engine cooling system and forcing it through a little radiator in the car stash. Tesla system would be more akin to hot water powered in floor radiant heating that they love to talk about so much. On this old house. Only instead of sneaking tubes through a floor, it would have intermediate layers like a bag where the fluid would be sent, kind of like a water bed. The liquid cooling in the seats would function much the same way but we can't really imagine that it would be terribly more efficient than the current seat ventilation tech available in cars. Of course, this is just a patent application so there's no telling whether it would ever see production. That's it for autocomplete this week. Don't forget to subscribe and hit the bell icon stay notified of all new videos on road show, and we'll see you again next week.

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