For eight years, the message from Washington to automakers has been clear: Build greener cars. Today, the message changed.
President Trump announced, in a meeting with automakers in Detroit, that he wants the EPA to review its tailpipe emissions standards for model years 2022 through 2025, standards the Obama administration attempted to make permanent just before Trump’s inauguration in January.
But all is not lost. An EPA review of those rules will take months, and changing them will require providing robust evidence that the Obama-era regulation will adversely effect automakers and the US economy, and that reversing it will not adversely effect the environment.
Excellent news for the gas-sipping, headlight-blinking, gossipy autos among us.
Cadillac’s flagship 2017 CTS sedan will talk to other cars. Well, other 2017 Cadillac CTS sedans, but it’s a start. If the government gets its way, all cars will talk to each other one day soon.
Engineers call the technology vehicle to vehicle communication. General Motors and Uncle Sam call it the future of automotive safety in a country where more than 32,000 people died in collisions last year.
Senior editor and "above average driver" Mark Boada recently took a behind the wheel fleet driver training course and has written a delightful piece about how he perceived it. We now think he is an even better driver.
If you ever get writer's block -- and I think most of us can relate -- you will appreciate the solid tips Wendy Eichenbaum gives us in her column "Knock Out Writer's Block."
Shout Outs!
Ricardo Fonzaghi, newly appointed Chief Commercial Officer at Lease Plan USA.
Michael Stafford, in Fortune article "Your Next Company Car Could be a Tesla."
The California Air Resources Board for not bowing to the Trump administration's plan to roll back federal vehicle fuel standards.
And, finally, to my many fleet friends who sent their kind wishes as I recovered from a bout of ill-health. I shall thank you all in person in Tampa in just a few short weeks!
Janice Sutton
Editor in Chief
New internal Uber documents leaked to Recode detail the company’s progress toward realizing its dream of a fleet of vehicles entirely devoid of pesky human drivers.
As those files reveal, Uber’s month-over-month metrics aren’t exactly a steady line of progress, more a jerky sort of stumbling toward its goal of self-driving reliability. And as Uber’s court battle with Google over autonomous car tech begins, that visual is a particularly apt metaphor.
Uber’s self driving fleet, spread across Pennsylvania, California and Arizona, is driving more miles than ever, but its vehicles aren’t improving in a steady way on measurements of rider experience.
Autonomous vehicles are already a common sight on the streets of Silicon Valley, an international hub for self-driving technology.
But this month, California set the stage for the next phase of innovation that could dramatically alter transportation and mobility across the globe.
The state has proposed regulations to allow fully autonomous vehicles to drive on public roads – meaning empty cars with no steering wheels and no backup driver inside.