Car and Driver April 2019

BEST OF TIMES I read your magazine every month faithfully. This is my first time writing, because I have a request. In the third paragraph of the review of the BMW M2 Competition [“10Best Cars for 2019,” January 2019], there’s a line that states, “The uprated brakes offer tireless performance.” Awesome! Next time, though, could you please include a photo graph of the M2, or any car, driving and stopping without tires? I’m sure that many of your readers, in addition to myself, would enjoy seeing that! —Jerry WellsPhiladelphia, PA I’m just so tired of puns—Ed. Your choice of the Corvette Grand Sport/Z06 as a 10Best is puzzling; have you heard that Chevrolet released a 2019 ZR1? —Tom FerraraPound Ridge, NY The ZR1’s $124,095 price puts it above our $90,000 cutofffor 2019 10Best competition—Ed. “The Bullitt is…

In the “Show Boats” full-size-pickup comparison [January 2019], the Ram’s payload (990 pounds) is less than 10 percent of its towing capacity (10,600 pounds). Is this correct? How can this be safe? —Aaron Voynar, Berea, KY When towing with a conventional hitch, the trailer tongue should carry between 10 and 15 percent of the total trailer weight. As Voynar alludes, placing 10 percent of the max towing weight (in this case, 1060 pounds) on the receiver will exceed this particular truck’s gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR), the maximum total mass of the vehicle, passengers, and cargo the truck is designed to carry. And that would be unsafe if you were towing with a conventional hitch. But the math changes if you use a weight-distribution hitch. By adding vertical rigidity to the ball…

ESTABLISHED AUTOMAKERS ARE done treating Tesla like a brash arriviste trying to crash a country club. The newcomer’s success has turned the legacy brands’ irritation into imitation, with the Jaguar I-Pace and the Audi e-tron leading the—ahem—charge. That pair will be followed by an onslaught of EVs from around the industry. Polestar is Volvo’s take on a Tesla-style brand, one that will offer a range of electrified cars via direct sales rather than through dealerships. Following the plugin-hybrid Polestar 1, the 2 is the brand’s second offering but its first EV. ▼ EXTERIOR Like many modern designs, the Polestar 2 is an amalgam of SUV and coupe. It’s a hatchback with a fast roofline that gives it unmistakable three-box proportions, but its raised ride height and plastic lower-body cladding suggest today’s un-sedans.…

YEARS AGO, IN THE SALAD DAYS OF AUTO RACING, a well-funded race team would have run separate engines to propel it through qualifying and the race itself. But nowadays, due to regulations and cost controls, top stock and open-wheel series have jettisoned this luxury, forcing their manufacturing partners to produce engines that are as durable as they are powerful. Exactly how durable depends on the series. Toyota Racing Development Monster Energy NASCAR Cup engine — Code name: Phase 11 Specs: pushrod 16-valve 5.9-liter V-8 Output: 425–750 hp Max engine speed: 9800 rpm Durability target: 1500 miles Engines allowed per season: see regulations below Consumables: pistons, bearings, and exhaust-valve seals Regulations: There’s no engine cap, but teams must run at least 13 races with an engine that has been used in a previous race. In those cases, the oil pan, the…

HERE’S SOMETHING YOU don’t often hear: Driverless cars are too obsessed with safety. But Intel and its subsidiary Mobileye [see “Silicon Wadi,” page 072] think automated vehicles (AVs) should relax and take more risks, so they’ve developed a program called Responsibility-Sensitive Safety (RSS) to make AVs act more like human drivers. We know what you’re thinking: Humans are terrible drivers. But Intel says more-assertive AVs will make for safer, freer-flowing traffic. Typical AVs use artificial intelligence (AI) to make decisions, relying on constant calculations to determine the probability of a crash. The problem is, they only like to make movements when that probability is very low, much like an anxious driver who waits too long to make a left turn and misses the gap. This causes a certain amount of AV…

Intel doesn’t claim that RSS is infallible. Crashes could still happen as a result of equipment failures, sensor malfunctions, and, of course, human error. And an RSS-equipped AV won’t avoid one accident if doing so would create another. It is, however, highly vigilant and sometimes more assertive than you’d expect a robot to be. Scenario 1: Traffic is deadlocked, and human drivers won’t let the AV merge. RSS permits the car to assert itself by creeping into the lane, pressuring the car behind to make an opening. If that car refuses to stop, though, the AV will abort this plan and move offto the side until it can safely enter the lane. Scenario 2: A bus shelter blocks the AV’s view of pedestrians waiting at a crosswalk. RSS allows the car to…