AD #2275 – Jeep Reveals New Commander, Another Tesla Autopilot Crash, Explorer Investigated Over Carbon Monoxide Leaks

On today’s show…How come Ford isn’t telling anyone that the EcoSport is already on sale in the American market?…Tesla’s latest Autopilot catches the attention of the NTSB…and we get to your questions in You Said It! Coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the voice of the automotive industry.

JEEP REVEALS NEW COMMANDER
We kick off today with the latest product news. After unofficial pictures leaked out, Jeep released these official renderings of the Jeep Commander, which will only be available in China. It’s a 3-row SUV, something very much missing from Jeep’s lineup. But to our eye this looks like a stretched version of the Cherokee, which is already made in the same assembly plant by GAC. Next year Jeep will introduce the Wagoneer, a 3-row, body on frame SUV to go on sale around the world. But we don’t think the Commander is any indication of what the Wagoneer will look like.

LAND ROVER TEASES NEW RANGE ROVER
Land Rover is coming out with a special edition of the Range Rover SE coupe. No word on what this special trim level will cost, but it’s going to be a lot. Only 999 of them will be made. And it makes its debut at the Geneva motor show in March.

FORD ECOSPORT ALREADY ON SALE IN U.S.
Say did you know the Ford EcoSport is already on sales in the U.S. market? You may not know that because Ford is not telling anyone. There’s no advertising, no marketing, no test drives for the media to report on. And yet they’ve been on sale for about a month. According to our local Ford dealer it starts at about $20,000, and according to the EPA it’s rated at 28 miles to the gallon with a turbo 1-liter engine or 25 MPGs with a naturally aspirated 2-liter. Ford says it’s waiting until it has enough EcoSports in inventory before it starts marketing it, but to us it sounds like there’s some sort of disconnect going on.

Today it’s easy to pick out autonomous cars what with all those sensors poking out of them. But the next-gen won’t be so easy to spot. And that’s coming up next.

MAGNETI INTEGRATES AUTONOMOUS SENSORS
Autonomous cars are still in their early stages of development. And they look it. A lot of them still have weird protrusions sticking out of the body for the sensors, with the trunks typically jammed full of computers and wires. But Magneti Marelli, working with the supplier Automotive Lighting, has ideas on how to integrate it all. (0:58) With their system, long range radar gets mounted high on the front grille, while short range radars are mounted down low with the fog lamps. Video cameras and LIDAR are integrated into the headlight housings. At the rear, radar, video cameras and LIDAR are integrated into the taillight housings, and of course there’s a washer system to keep all the sensors clean. It’s a clever idea and suggests that all the technology for autonomous cars will ultimately be integrated in ways that we won’t even notice.

EXPLORER INVESTIGATED OVER CARBON MONOXIDE LEAKS
Ford keeps running into problems with allegations of carbon monoxide leaks in Explorers. NHTSA has been investigating the issue since 2016 and received over 1,300 complaints from drivers who become dizzy and nauseous. Ford says a recall isn’t necessary and that Ford dealers offer “a free service designed to reduce the concern.” But the problem doesn’t seem to be going away.

ANOTHER TESLA AUTOPILOT CRASH
And in other safety news, another Tesla Model S operating on Autopilot crashed into a firetruck in Los Angeles while travelling 65 MPH. No one was hurt. But the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board, is collecting data to decide if a formal investigation is needed.

Coming up next, it’s time for You Said It!

YOU SAID IT!
Lex says, “I have been very frustrated in attempting to locate Klaus Busse’s email address so that I could send him my idea for what the refreshed 2019 Jeep Cherokee front end should look like.  You have my permission to give Mr. Busse my personal email address.”

Well, Klaus is now the head of design for Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Fiat. The guy who heads up Jeep design is Mark Allen. But before you send him your rendering, you ought to look at the redesign of the Cherokee that was unveiled last week at the Detroit auto show.

Fabian heard us report that FCA’s stock shot up sharply this month, prompting us to wonder who’s buying the stock. He points out that the supplier company “GKN plc’s stock went up by around 27%.”

Thanks for pointing that out, Fabian. When a supplier company’s stock jumps so fast in such a short amount of time, you just know that somebody is gobbling up shares with an eye to taking over the company.

Lambo2015 saw our story that FCA bribed UAW officials to get a better union contract but he wants to know, “If the FCA union contracts in question have to be ratified by the members, what good does bribing the UAW officers do? Apparently the contracts were still agreeable to the (majority) of members?”

Well not at first. Remember, 65% of Chrysler workers rejected that contract the first time around. Then the company offered more pay and better job security and they ratified it. That was unusual. The rank and file almost always votes for what their leadership negotiated.

Ukendoit knows that on Autoline After hours tomorrow we’ll be talking about whether CES is killing the Detroit auto show. He makes this observation. “The auto shows used to have great fanciful concept cars to draw people in. In the 90s, the concept cars (mainly Chrysler) actually made it into production just a few years after being shown. That kind of excitement and potential to actually own that cool stuff could get people to attend, but now-a-days we know we won’t see that excitement.”

Good point.

Frederick Schmidt saw our report that the Achates engine in a Ford F-150 pickup could deliver 37 miles to the gallon. He says, “Cheers for the Achates engine design! New methods to achieve better fuel economy is the future of engines. It’s good to see someone is moving forward with technology to balance the electric powering of cars and trucks.”

This could be better than you think. Achates tells us a big North American manufacturer is interested in licensing this engine. We think a big announcement could be coming later this year.

buzzerd sees big problems with data mining of the data generated by cars. “Big data. So if the police want to know if you were in the area of a crime will they be able to download the data to use against you?”

Yes, they will be able to do that. Just like they can right now with the data on your phone. But at least the police have to get a search warrant from a judge before they can go digging into your data.

Kenz300 says, “I am surprised that so many people are buying vehicles from VW. After dieselgate, cheating customers and selling polluting diesels you would think people would have second thoughts about rewarding them with more sales.”

Kenz, the average person never even heard of dieselgate. 

Jeff High says “The Trumpchi / Trump comment was right on! Lol”

In case you missed that we said that GAC was making a big mistake if it thought it could use the Trumpchi brand in the American market because the people who hate Trump will never buy a car with his name on it and the people who love Trump will never buy a Chinese car.

Thanks for all your letters and comments and with that we wrap up today’s show.