Kiran Upadhyay

  The custom van craze of the 1970s was huge, but relatively few have survived. They were unlikely to be squirreled away by collectors, nor were their original owners the type who only drove them to church on Sundays. All of which makes this 1974 Ford Econoline, with just 873 miles from new, a most unusual time capsule. And it's for sale right now on eBay Motors, offered by Classic Auto Mall. Bought new from Miller McVeigh Ford of State College, Pennsylvania, in November 1974, this Econoline sold new for $6,791.02. The bill of sale shows the original owner as Larry A. Brown, and his Econoline Custom 100 was equipped with a 302-cubic-inch V8, three-on-the-tree, and a high-output heater. Moreover, it was decked out in full-'70s regalia, with an 8-track stereo, Cragar slotted mags, side pipes, and bubble porthole windows. A flame-design stripe encircles the exterior, and there's the must-have mural. In this case, a trippy mountain scene with a dead tree in the foreground. The ...

  BERLIN — Germany will in July have 1 million electric cars on the road, hitting its target six months late, Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told the Tagesspiegel daily on Friday, saying subsidy programs had boosted demand. "We will reach our target of 1 million electric cars by 2020, which everyone thought was unattainable, this July, just six months late," the minister was quoted as saying.   Read More

  With the controversial design of the BMW 4 Series, we've anxiously awaited what the company would do with the 2022 2 Series coupe. The good news is that the über- grille has not reappeared. In addition, the 2 Series packs even more power than before. Although the grille is relatively normal by BMW standards, the 2 Series coupe is still distinctive. It has shark-like headlights and bulging, blistered fenders. The long nose and short deck seem even more prominent than before. And some of that may be a result of the fact that the new 2 is in fact larger than its predecessor. Depending on whether it's a 230i or an M240i, it ranges between 3.5 and 4.3 inches longer overall. And both versions have a 2-inch longer wheelbase and are 2.6 inches wider. Powering the 2 Series is a choice of two engines. The base 230i models will get a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making an extra 7 horsepower and 37 pound-feet of torque for totals of 255 and 295 respectively. The M24...

Tesla has unveiled a new Roadster, the new version of its original sports car. It’s the fastest production car ever made, according to Elon Musk, with speeds of just 1.9 seconds for 0 to 60 4.2 seconds for 0 to 100. It can handle a quarter-mile in 8.9 seconds. “This is the base model,” Musk said, then went on to mention that its top speed is above 250 mph. and it has a 200 kWh battery pack that offers 630 miles of highway driving range. It’s also a 2 by 2 four-seater, and it’s available in 2020 starting at $200,000, with the first 1,000 sold being Founder’s Series models that will retail for $250,000 apiece. Which is a steal for the fastest production car ever. Understandably, the crowd was in awe when Musk revealed the new Roadster, which has a look inside and out that owes a lot to classic sports car design. The car also ripped up the runway at the hangar where the event was held, before pulling to a stop and being flanked by the two new Tesla Semi trucks on either side. ...

We're going to get one thing straight right off the bat: The Dodge Demon is undeniably the star of the 2017 New York Auto Show. It takes guts to unleash an automobile designed for the road that's too fast to use on a dedicated race track, and clearly, FCA's got those guts. That out of the way, here's why the Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk (also from FCA) is actually a more enticing prospect for nearly anyone looking for a brand-new street-legal muscle car. Let's talk performance. Yes, the Dodge Demon does 0-60 in 2.3 seconds, and that's way faster than the 3.5-second estimate of the Trackhawk. But, even putting aside the argument that 0-60 measurements are overrated, the Jeep will still hit 60 miles per hour in about the amount of time it takes you to say "zero to sixty in three-point-five seconds." That's not just impressive; it's quicker than a Chevy Corvette Stingray. You can't talk about performance without also thinking about how e...

The announcement comes a year-and-a-half after Uber hired dozens of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s robotics center to develop the technology. Uber gave a few members of the press a sneak peek Tuesday when a fleet of 14 Ford Fusions equipped with radar, cameras and other sensing equipment pulled up to Uber’s Advanced Technologies Campus (ATC) northeast of downtown Pittsburgh. During my 45-minute ride across the city, it became clear that this is not a bid at launching the first fully formed autonomous cars. Instead, this is a research exercise. Uber wants to learn and refine how self driving cars act in the real world. That includes how the cars react to passengers — and how passengers react to them. “How do drivers in cars next to us react to us? How do passengers who get into the backseat who are experiencing our hardware and software fully experience it for the first time, and what does that really mean?” said Raffi Krikorian, director of Uber ATC. If they a...

West Virginia became at least the fifth state to ban the direct-sales approach practiced by Tesla Motors following Friday's signature by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. The bill was championed by West Virginia's Senate president, Bill Cole, who is an auto dealer in his home state and Kentucky. Tesla denounced the legislation. "Despite a campaign based on pro-business and free market principles, the Senate president's bill prevents competition and protects the car dealer monopoly," Tesla said in a statement. "West Virginians deserve the right to choose how and from whom they purchase their vehicles. We will return next year to fight for consumer choice and free market access." The President of the West Virginia Automobile & Truck Dealers Association, Ruth Lemmon, said the measure was not "anti-Tesla." "Tesla could better serve the consumers, the local communities and their product by becoming a true business partner to all concerned...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk was on stage at Nivdia’s 2015 GPU Technology Conference, chatting with CEO Jen-Hsun Huang about autonomous cars and the hurdles standing in the way of self-driving tech. Musk said that a fully autonomous driving system might actually only be as little as a year away, but noted that regulation will lag several years behind tech that actually makes such a system possible. Still, he said that Tesla wants to be the leader in autonomous cars, even though it’s currently seen as an electric vehicle maker. Musk also said we’ll actually start taking self-driven cars “for granted” much faster than many may realize, and noted that one of the key areas of focus for the company is actually on protecting any future self-driving software from malicious attacks. In addition to physical controls for manual override, Musk says there will be additional levels of security on driving systems, so that even if infotainment software is hacked, vehicle drive systems remain unaffected. ...

Tesla Motors has recently been focused on improvements to its flagship electric vehicle, the Model S, giving it a second motor and Knight Rider-like self-driving capabilities. But Tesla was only able to build the Model S in the first place because of the practical experience it gained from constructing and selling the sedan’s predecessor, the Tesla Roadster. The Lotus-derived Roadster has mostly left the spotlight after its limited production run ended in 2012, but Tesla will be giving a late Christmas present to Roadster owners: existing Roadsters will be upgraded with changes that will boost the car’s range by 40 to 50 percent, up to a maximum of 400 miles on a single charge. The upgrades are described in a post on the Tesla Motors blog and are a combination of an upgraded 70kWh battery pack, a new aerodynamic kit to lower the Roadster’s drag coefficient from 0.36 to 0.31 (still far higher than the Model S’ streamlined 0.24), and new tires to lower the Roadster’s rolling resista...

LG is partnering up with Mercedes-Benz to make the future of driving smarter and less about the drivers themselves. The Korean company announced that the duo are jointly working on “next-generation camera systems” which they said will allow computers and algorithms to handle “some aspects” of the driving experience. LG told The Verge that it will provide the “core components” of self-driving cars from Mercedes-Benz in the future. That joint system will be based on LG’s existing ‘ADAS’ (Advanced Drive Assistance System) products — which include cameras that produce alerts when a vehicle changes lane, read road signs, check the driver’s health status and issue proximity-based warnings for obstacles — by licensing Mercedes-Benz’s fascinating 6D Vision technology to advance LG’s tech. We could be looking at a range of things, from cars that automatically slow based on what is ahead of them — per the video below — right up to fully self-driving vehicles. LG also confirmed that it ...

Tesla isn’t done with its iconic Roadster. The company just took the wraps off the next generation of the sport car. Chief among the updates is a new 400 mile range, which will allow drives from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a single charge. Tesla notes that it expects a 40-50% improvement on driving range between the original Roadster and Roadster 3.0. Tesla plans on demonstrating the Roadster 3.0 in the early weeks of 2015, but pricing and expected release date has yet to be released. The range increase is thanks to a new cell technology that resulted in a battery that provides 70kWh in the same package as the original Roadster’s 53kWh pack. That’s an additional 31% of energy. In addition to the more power-packed battery, Tesla also shaved 15% off the Roadster’s drag coefficient and installed new tires that result in a 20% improvement on the car’s rolling resistance. Elon Musk stated two days ago that the Model S will eventually see a similar battery update, but not anytime...

Tesla showed off its upcoming battery swapping technology for the Model S electric vehicle last year, which would let users change out their battery rather than charging when on the road for a quick fill-up that’s speedier than actually refuelling a standard car’s gas tank. Starting next week, it’s launching the pilot program of that advancement in Harris Ranch, California, at a new facility directly across the street from the Supercharger in that area. The pilot project is just that – an initial demonstration of how the system will work, designed to test the technical aspects of the procedure, and to see if it’s something Tesla drivers actually want. Unlike a recharge of their car’s existing battery pack, the swap won’t be free: instead it will cost “slightly less than a full tank of gasoline for a premium sedan,” according to Tesla’s official blog post on the matter. That could change in the future, but the swap involves labor and facility costs that charging does not. Swaps al...

The only thing better than a new Tesla is a cheap Tesla, and the company reportedly is set to unveil a program to address the sticker shock and it isn’t a cheaper car. It’s used cars. Certified pre-owned vehicles are big business for luxury automakers. Speaking to automotive News, Tesla vice president of communications, Simon Sproule, confirmed that the electric car maker is developing a program to resell Tesla vehicles. Tesla would sell used Model S sedans under the “certified” moniker hoping to lure buyers who want quality at a lower price. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have done this for years, but Tesla’s entrance into this market would be a boon for consumers and the car company itself. Unlike BMW or Mercedes, Tesla owns its dealerships, allowing it to retain much more of the used car’s profit than a traditional auto maker. Elon Musk previously guaranteed the resale value of the Model S. Announced in April 2013, those who financed a Model S are allowed to return the vehicle aft...

Elon Musk has just tweeted about his plans to announce two things next week: one thing called “the D”, and “something else” that is left shrouded in mystery for now. He did this by saying that it was “time to unveil the D”, later claiming to have no idea that the phrase “unveil the D” would make just about anyone who has spent any time on the Internet ever laugh and look nervously around the room and wonder if it’s okay to say out loud and/or write blog posts about. This, from a dude who was bummed he couldn’t name his next car the “Model E” so he could have the Model S, Model E, and Model X. So what is the Tesla D? Tis a mystery, for now — though we are, of course, digging for more details. The teaser image shows a tiny glimpse of a front end with Tesla’s signature headlights. Did they decide to rename the Model 3? Probably not — Tesla seems pretty set on that name. Is this something else entirely? A smaller SUV than their Model X, perhaps? Stay tuned.

Engadget is reporting that Mercedes-Benz might be tinkering with Google Glass for its future navigation systems. The first, big-name wearable tech item of the 21st century, Google Glass has a huge degree of potential in a number of fields, not the least of which is the auto industry. Citing the Silicon Valley Business Journal , Engadget mentions that Mercedes is focusing on producing genuine, door-to-door directions that combine the pedestrian and automotive applications that Google Maps has become known for. President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Johann Jungwirth, mentioned this seamless integration of directions is the division's ultimate goal. The idea is intriguing, but we're probably going to be waiting on it for some time. Google Glass is still quite expensive and is far from being available at the local Best Buy. Until that day comes, it looks like we'll just have to make do with going from our car's navigat...

The iPad has become a valuable tool for the mobile professional. It can be more valuable still, however, when swaddled in leather, partnered with a Mac mini and other Apple goodies and wrapped in a Mercedes-Benz S600, as Mercedes tuner BRABUS shows us with the  iBusiness . The iBusiness is most definitely “the business.” The German-engineered, four-seater luxury sedan is the type of car for people who have drivers, and that’s a very good thing, because there’s no chance you’ll be paying much attention to the road in one of these babies unless you’re being paid to. Each car comes packed to the gills with outstanding multimedia capabilities, including two iPads in the rear seats with matching Bluetooth keyboards for each. The iPads are capable of controlling every aspect of the S600′s COMAND system, including the radio, navigation system and telephone, in addition to BRABUS’ own custom multimedia functions. Don’t think you’ll be limited to offline or 3G use, either, because the ca...