AD #2664 – The “World’s Blackest Black” Paint, Levandowski Accused of Stealing Secrets, Mercedes-AMG GLE Coupe

This is Autoline Daily reporting on the global automotive industry.

JAPANESE AUTOMAKERS AVOID U.S. TARIFFS
The U.S. and Japan signed a tentative trade agreement that helps Japan avoid new American tariffs on imported cars. President Trump had threatened to raise passenger car tariffs but says he will not do that, for now. Meanwhile, Toyota and Suzuki are going to take equity positions in each other. But the deal is heavily lopsided in Toyota’s favor. It will buy nearly 5% of Suzuki’s stock, while Suzuki will only buy 0.2% of Toyota’s stock. This has all the inklings of government involvement, getting Toyota to take care of its little brothers. Toyota now holds ownership in Suzuki, Daihatsu, Hino, Subaru, Mazda and Yamaha. That only leaves Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi outside of its orbit. 

LEVANDOWSKI ACCUSED OF STEALING GOOGLE SECRETS
Anthony Levandowski, one of the brilliant pioneers in developing autonomous cars, was just indicted for stealing trade secrets from Google. Levandowski used to work at Google’s AV unit, now called Waymo. He’s accused of downloading thousands of company documents before he quit Google and went to work at Uber. And prosecutors are taking no chances. Reuters reports that bail was set at $300,000 cash, he had to pledge property valued at $2 million as collateral, he had to surrender his U.S. and French passports, and he has to wear an ankle bracelet. Larry Burns, the former head of R&D at General Motors, wrote a book called Autonomy, about the AV pioneers. He says that Levandowski was universally disliked by just about everyone he worked with. If convicted, Levandowski faces up to 10 years in prison.

Be sure to join us for Autoline After Hours later this week. The head of Mopar’s North American operations, Mark Bosanac will be joining us and bringing the latest limited edition Mopar muscle car to the studio. They were going to use a very controversial name on the car, but now they’ve backed off. What’s the backstory on that? You’re going to have to join Gary Vasilash and John this Thursday to find out.

NEW BMW X6 FEATURES “WORLD’S BLACKEST BLACK” PAINT
In 2014, a company by the name of Surrey NanoSystems developed a black paint that is so black it’s able to absorb over 99.9% of all light. It’s so dark that it makes 3-D objects look 2-D and almost like a black hole. Even though automakers wanted it, Surrey wouldn’t sell them the paint, because it felt like it would distract from the design…until now that is. The new BMW X6 will debut at the Frankfurt auto show covered in the coating company’s Vantablack paint finish. The only reason the company agreed to the project is because it developed a new version of Vantablack, called VBx2, which has one-per-cent reflectance and provides “just enough of a hint of shape.” Vantablack is not going to become a common paint finish because it’s not durable enough for daily use, but Surrey NanoSystems says it’s great for laser-based sensors where sunlight can cause performance issues in advanced driver assistance systems.

ROXOR SHARES UPDATE ON NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS
At its first major media event, Autoline learned all about the off-road only Roxor and how it’s being built at Mahindra Automotive North America’s facility in Auburn Hills, Michigan. About half of the components are sent over from India and the other half is sourced in North America. To meet current demand, Mahindra is making roughly 20 Roxors a day on one shift. But those numbers could soon increase. The company has already seen bigger demand than it expected on the commercial side of the business, like from zoos and resorts. But it also got approval from the California EPA in the last few weeks to sell Roxors in the state and it’s come out with a new automatic transmission version. Mahindra thinks it has an advantage over other ATVs and side-by-sides because of its automotive-grade components and steel body panels and we’ll be sharing our full impressions with you soon.

PERFECT GOLF BALL FOR CHEATERS
Here’s the perfect golf ball for golfers who don’t mind bending the rules out on the course. Nissan created a ball which uses its ProPILOT driver assistance technology so it will always end up in the hole every time you putt. An overhead camera detects the position of the ball and cup. When the ball is hit, a monitoring system calculates the correct route based on the ball’s movement and adjusts its trajectory. Combining sensing technology with an internal electric motor, the golf ball stays on course until reaching the cup. Pretty cool stuff. And if you happen to be in Yokohama, Japan tomorrow through September 1st, you can try out the ProPILOT golf ball at the company’s global headquarters.

MERCEDES SHOWS OFF AMG GLE COUPE
Mercedes is showing off the AMG version of the GLE 53 Coupe before it makes its official debut at next month’s Frankfurt auto show. It’s styling remains pretty similar to the outgoing model. It’s powered by a 3.0L inline six-cylinder turbocharged gasoline engine that’s mated to a 9-speed automatic transmission. It also features 48-volt technology and Mercedes’ 4MATIC+ all-wheel-drive system. In Europe, the non-AMG version is powered by new six-cylinder diesel engines and it’s also developing a plug-in hybrid version. Moving to the inside, the AMG model comes with a performance steering wheel and it features the company’s latest MBUX infotainment system with AMG specific displays. The new GLE Coupe goes on sale in Europe next spring. 

LAMBO LAUNCHES LUGGAGE TRANSPORT SERVICE
Some people think the new C8 Corvette doesn’t look as sleek as a Ferrari or Lamborghini. And it’s true. The ‘Vette is designed to carry two golf bags and provide enough luggage space to travel. The Italian exotics aren’t exactly designed to do that. So Lambo came up with a service where Lamborghini staff will transport its customer’s luggage from one destination to another almost anywhere in the world. worldwide. Bloomberg reports there’s a fee for the service, but did not say what the fee is. But it quotes Stefano Domenicali, the CEO of Lamborghini, describing the services as, “an easy option to do for using the car on long road trips.”  

As F. Scott Fitzgerald once said, “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.”

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching and we’ll see you again tomorrow.