Search Results

UPDATED: OFFER HAS BEEN EXTENDED TILL APRIL 30TH, 2020. In an attempt to keep helping our community, and continue the impulse of our local economy we have created the following action plan: It must be an insurance claim, and depending on the final bill amount the gift cart to be rewarded shall apply. Call us for more details!

We went through a very rigorous approval, and bought Subaru approved tools to achieve this excellent title of the Japanese manufacturer. We're now proudly Subaru certified, which means quality will remain the same and we will keep following the manufacturer procedures and guidelines with an extra accreditation and peace of mind. Usage of OEM parts will remain being our #1 goal. Reminder that our shop is FCA (Dodge, Chrysler, FIAT, Ram, SRT, Jeep), Hyundai, Infiniti and Nissan certified. We will continue reaching for excellence.

Hyundai and Kia announced they’ve created something new: a transmission that shifts gears based on predictive information and communication technology. The technology uses mapping data and sensors, and it will be added to future vehicles.Eventually, 5G vehicle-to-infrastructure communications will be integrated into the system. Hyundai and Kia have announced that they have created a transmission that uses mapping data and front-facing sensors to determine when to change gears. The automakers are calling it the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Connected Shift transmission. It selects the gear that works best with upcoming driving conditions instead of just relying on speed and acceleration like a traditional automatic transmission. The automaker says that this technology will allow vehicles to be more fuel-efficient since they’ll be reacting to the road and traffic ahead of the vehicle. The upcoming transmission uses the same sensor technology that powers the vehicle's adaptive cruise control, coupled with 3D high-precision maps so that the vehicle is aware of the elevation, gradient, and curvature of a road. Hyundai explains that the ICT will predict the "optimal shift scenario for real-time driving situations through an artificial-intelligence algorithm" and will then use that information to decide when to shift the gears. During testing on a curvy road, the automaker said, shifts in cornering were reduced by 43 percent. It also noted that braking was reduced by 11 percent thanks to the smarter transmission. The technology is coming to future Kia and Hyundai models, although no word on which ones or when that'll happen. But the automaker did say that at some point it intends to integrate 5G vehicle-to-infrastructure connections to inform the transmission of the best time to shift up or down based on upcoming road conditions its vehicles can't see. Source: Car and Driver

A report released by online insurance marketplace QuoteWizard recently noted the worst states for speedy drivers. After ranking all 50 states on average speed limits and rate of speeding tickets, QuoteWizard found that drivers in states with low-speed limits tend to have a higher rate of speeding tickets, as logic would dictate. Conversely, the report found states with higher speed limits had a lower rate of speeding tickets. Among the survey's noteworthy findings: -Delaware, Hawaii and Vermont worst states for speedy drivers. -Texas, Nevada and Arizona best states for speedy drivers. -The average speed limit in the country is 67.7 mph. To view the full report, visit: https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/worst-states-for-speedy-drivers. Source: Fender Bender

The family of the woman killed by an Uber Technologies self-driving vehicle in Arizona has reached a settlement with the ride services company, quickly ending a potential legal battle over the first pedestrian fatality caused by an autonomous vehicle. The law firm of Bellah Perez in Glendale, Arizona, said the deal had been reached Wednesday night between Uber and the daughter and husband of Elaine Herzberg, 49, who died after being hit by an Uber self-driving SUV in the Phoenix suburb of Tempe earlier this month. Cristina Perez Hesano, an attorney for the relatives of Herzberg, responded Thursday to inquiries by The Associated Press by saying only that the matter "has been resolved." Uber representatives Sarah Abboud and Matthew Wing separately responded to queries about a possible settlement by saying the company was declining to comment. The company previously expressed sympathy for Herzberg's family. A dash-cam video released by police last week shows Uber employee Rafaela Vasquez, 44, behind the wheel of the gray 2017 Volvo XC90 SUV during the March 18 collision. Herzberg, wearing dark clothing, was walking a bicycle across a road at night when she was hit by Vasquez's vehicle, which was going 40 miles per hour in autonomous mode at the time, officials have said. Uber suspended all testing of autonomous vehicles hours after the crash, but federal and local police jurisdictions have yet to close their investigations into the incident. Meanwhile, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey is also being criticized for his office's close relationship with the ridesharing company. The first-term Republican governor's record of aiding Uber's growth in the state has come under scrutiny thanks to a collection of emails first revealed by The Guardian newspaper. The governor's staff has pushed back, however, saying Ducey's embrace of Uber and autonomous vehicles was one of his most public initiatives and that there was no secret testing. Phoenix was one of four locations testing out Uber's approximately 200 self-driving vehicles. Immediately after the crash, Uber voluntarily suspended its autonomous vehicle testing in Arizona, as well as in San Francisco, California, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Toronto, Canada. The company on Tuesday decided not to reapply for the California permit "with the understanding that our self-driving vehicles would not operate in the state in the immediate future." Source: NBC News

Hyundai is the latest automaker to pursue the lofty dream of the flying car. The company's new Urban Air Mobility Division aims to reduce the traffic congestion resulting from what the firm calls "mega-urbanization." To head this initiative, the business hires Dr. Jaiwon Shin, the former leader of the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA. "Having worked on cutting-edge aviation research and development at NASA for 30 years, I am very excited and humbled by the opportunity to now shape urban air mobility strategy at Hyundai Motor Group," Dr. Shin said in Hyundai's announcement of his hiring. "The new team at Hyundai will develop core technologies that will establish the company as a driving force in urban air mobility, a sector that is expected to grow into a market worth USD 1.5 trillion within the next 20 years." The goals of the Hyundai Urban Air Mobility Division seem fairly open at this early stage. It "aims to provide innovative and smart mobility solutions never seen or thought of before," according to the company. With such a broad scope, there's no telling what this new team might create. While Hyundai is the first automaker to bring flying car development in-house with its own division, other firms in the industry are making big investments in this field. For example, Toyota invested $375,000 into a project from a group of employees who have been developing a single-person flying machine. Early tests looked rough, but the group set a goal using the machine to light the Olympic torch at the 2020 games in Tokyo. In addition, Geely, owner of Volvo and Lotus, purchased flying car brand Terrafugia in 2017. The company has successfully taken prototypes airborne. The European aerospace giant Airbus is toying with a novel solution to this problem. It's working on a modular passenger pod that could attach to a quadrocopter to fly and connect to a separate four-wheeled platform for driving. Audi is contributing to the latter part of this initiative. Source: Auto Body News

Participate in our now traditional holiday raffle, this time our drawing will be held on 12/20/2019 @ 3PM. Of course we will notify the winner via text. To fill out one of the entries, you can a) come to the shop or b) fill the online option down below. Winner will get a brand new Apple Watch Series 3 38mm aluminum white, with a sport band. Device compatible with Apple cellphones. Everybody is welcome to participate, the more the merrier!

Ford announced Tuesday that it’s recalling approximately 300,000 North American vehicles over safety concerns. The company says a problem with the vehicles’ driveshaft could result in vibration while driving, loss of motive power or damage to surrounding components like brake and fuel lines. The recall affects 293,558 vehicles in the United States and territories, 22,960 in Canada and 2,744 in Mexico. The vehicles were manufactured between January 2014 and June 2017. Ford says it has not received any reports of accident or injuries resulting from the issue. In February the company announced three recalls that affected over 1.5 million vehicles in total. Source: CNBC

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that requires manufacturers in the state to pay dealers "equal to the franchisee's retail labor rate and retail parts rate" for recall work, per a report by CNET. Before the new bill, the dealer might be paid as little as 60 percent less it would get paid for similar work from a customer. According to the bill, AB-179, "existing law requires a franchisor to fairly compensate for labor and parts used to fulfill warranty obligations." Source: Fender Bender

Volvo has been teasing an electric version of its XC40 SUV for a while, and now it's ready to dribble out some information. The automaker is boasting that its first EV will be "one of the safest cars on the road" due both to its inherent design and new features. The presence of a battery in the floor of the vehicle helps lower the center of gravity and prevent rollovers, but there's also a new battery structure with a safety cage and crumple zone to protect the lithium-ion cells in the event of a collision. Volvo has also reinforced the front and back to both adapt to the lack of a gas engine (a given, really) and to distribute collision forces away from the cabin. There's also some tech that's new to any Volvo -- this is its first car with an Advanced Driver Assistance Systems array of cameras, radars and ultrasonic sensors. The company hasn't gone into detail about how this will work, but it's apparent the electric XC40 will be more aware of its surroundings. You'll have to wait a while if you want more tidbits. Volvo is planning to tease more details in the run-up to a public reveal on October 16th. Even at this stage, though, it's evident that Volvo didn't just slap a battery into the existing XC40. It's treating this as a distinct model, even if there will be some obvious similarities. Source: Engadget

Technology company Amazon is expanding its investments in transportation, a move that could bring it in competition with some of its business partners. Companies that could be affected include United Parcel Service and Uber Technologies. Amazon’s new investments and alliances in the automotive supply chain are part of the reason. For example, Amazon could both send products to customers and provide services to car drivers. Businesses such as Amazon Web Services and Fulfillment by Amazon started as efforts to cut costs and improve customer service. They later expanded to corporate customers. However, some experts say companies working closely with Amazon risk losing business to the online seller as its transportation-related business grows. Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has said little publicly about the company’s goals in transportation-related industries. But the company appears to be using its strengths in logistics, cloud computing and digital services to go into other fields. Reuters news agency spoke with more than 20 people who have knowledge of Amazon’s plans. They said the company wants to use its strengths to get into areas such as robotics and manufacturing. John Ellis is a transportation business advisor formerly with Ford Motor Company. He said some corporate customers of Amazon “should be very scared” of the company’s move to provide services linked to cars. He thinks car buyers will be more interested in digital services used in cars and will not care whether they are “in a Ford or a Chrysler or a Chevrolet or a BMW.” Amazon also has sought to get legal rights to sales, or patents, for technology related to cars and transportation. Reuters studied more than 5,000 patents received by Amazon from December 2016 to May 2019 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The news service found that at least 210 of Amazon’s patents are for transportation-related technologies such as drones and driverless ground vehicles. Amazon’s push to own transportation-related patents has been much larger than efforts by competitors Apple and Google, Reuters reports. Amazon is also quickly expanding its business with car manufacturers. The company is working on two projects using its cloud-computing abilities with carmakers Ford and Volkswagen. Gavin Sherry is chief executive officer of Autonomic, a subsidiary of Ford that provides digital services. He said Ford can learn a lot from Amazon, which is working with Autonomic and Ford to build a cloud-based system. “They have the relationships, credibility and know-how that we will need in order to fulfill our vision,” he told Reuters. Alexa, Amazon’s digital assistant service, is part of the company’s push to get inside cars. Amazon is working with a number of automakers to put Alexa into vehicles. The company has made deals with General Motors, Ford, Volvo and Honda to permit drivers to order products from their cars. Ned Curic used to work for Toyota but came to Amazon to oversee Alexa Auto in 2017. He said the company wants Alexa in “as many vehicles as possible, either through direct integrations with automakers or through automotive accessories with Alexa built in.” Amazon has placed a lot of effort in another area too: cutting the cost of transporting packages. It has mainly done this through the company’s Prime and Prime Air services. Electric vehicles are another part of Amazon’s plans. Stephan Keese is with the international business advisor Roland Berger. He said Amazon is supplying home electrical charging systems for the e-tron electric sports utility vehicle by carmaker Audi. Kleese said the move could be a step toward doing more with vehicles. Source: Learning English