Detroit Auto Show 2017: the biggest cars, concepts, and news – The Verge

Why car companies are trying to imitate Uber and Lyft

2017-01-18T11:50:33-05:00

Mark Fields, President and CEO of Ford, speaks about Chariot transit service. | Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

Car companies want to sell as many cars as possible. This is an indisputable fact. But lately they've been trying to speak the language of a post-ownership future. They see Uber and Lyft and the trend of more people moving to cities and abandoning their cars, and they're anxious. They know there is a problem with too many cars on the road and too much traffic and pollution. So they decided to lean into the "mobility" trend and see where it takes them. Ford spun off its own LLC. General Motors launched a car-sharing company. Nearly everyone started overusing terms like "transportation as a service" and "smart cities" without really explaining …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The 2017 Detroit Auto Show in pictures

2017-01-15T13:26:29-05:00

The North American International Auto Show opened to the public this weekend at the Cobo Center in Detroit, Michigan. And while it immediately follows the Consumer Electronics Show, which has increasingly become a place for car companies to flaunt their wildest dreams of the future, Detroit remains a show about cars you're most likely to be driving in the next few years.

Sure, there are concepts among the more than 750 cars at this year's show, like the Nissan Vmotion 2.0 and the autonomous, electric Volkswagen ID Buzz. But for all its pointy edges and its suicide doors, the Nissan looks pedestrian in comparison to the Jetsons vehicles of C …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Why carmakers want to keep Apple and Google at arm’s length

2017-01-13T15:57:17-05:00

The splashiest auto news coming out of CES and the North American International Auto Show has been about new models, self-driving tech, and wild concepts. But in a quieter series of moves, automakers also continued to strengthen their control over what it is we're able to do inside our cars, particularly when it comes to the apps that run on infotainment systems.

Though carmakers have generally embraced Apple's CarPlay and Google's Android Auto, many are hoping to establish an alternative app system that will be almost entirely under their purview. Automakers bill it as a move to create a seamless experience for their customers, but others …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Lexus UX Concept looks like it will chew you up and spit you out

2017-01-13T11:29:07-05:00

Lexus announced the UX Concept SUV at the Paris Motor Show, but the Detroit Auto Show was the first chance for many in the United States to see it up close. And if you're going to the show, you should make time to see it, because it's one of the most outlandish cars on display.

From the side or the rear, the UX Concept looks like a smooth, almost bubbly crossover SUV. Then you start to see it for what it really is: a lavender colored Transformer of a car. For every one of the UX Concept's curves, it has dozens more sharp angles, all tucked into the headlights, the silly interior, the wheels, or the massive front grille.

A lavender transform …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The most important car companies of 2017

2017-01-13T09:57:56-05:00

In the first two weeks of 2017 The Verge has seen 145 displays of automotive-related technology at CES and over 750 show cars up close at the North American International Auto Show. As the dust settles on the two most important auto industry trade shows, we see clear standouts in the competitive race to connectivity, battery powers, and ultimately, the autonomous cars that will drive our future.

General Motors

A decade ago, General Motors was a symbol for all things ancient in autos. But in 2017, General Motors is poised to be a leader in advancing automotive technology. GM is putting its money in more than marketing the lipservice to move …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The worst and weirdest cars at the Detroit Auto Show

2017-01-11T13:14:13-05:00

Rinspeed’s Oasis concept

Here at The Verge, we like to cover cars from a slightly different angle. Also at The Verge, we like to focus on the weird side of internet culture (and just culture) under the banner of TL;DR.

Lucky for us, car shows, like any big press event, are inherently weird. And things are getting increasingly bizarre as the industry continues to push (or claim it's pushing) toward an electric, autonomous, and ride-sharing future - things that were all on display at the 2017 Detroit Auto Show.

So we decided to honor the weirdest, worst, and longest cars we saw at this year's show with the first ever TLDCar awards. Unfortunately for the winners, we …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Why Volkswagen keeps making microbus throwbacks it never intends to sell

2017-01-10T14:40:51-05:00

Volkswagen unveiled another new microbus concept in Detroit - a total blast from the past that probably won't have much of a future.

The I.D. Buzz is an all-electric, fully autonomous vehicle meant to harken back to Volkswagen's glory days of peace signs, bellbottoms, and flower power. If the company actually builds it, the Buzz wouldn't be the fastest electric vehicle out there, with a top speed of only 99 miles per hour. Nor would it be the most powerful or longest ranging EV, with a 200-kilowatt electric motor and a charging range of only 270 miles.

will Volkswagen ever build this thing?

What it does have, though, is an ability to make a …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The most beautiful car at the Detroit Auto Show is covered in dirt and dead bugs

2017-01-10T13:55:40-05:00

The floor of the Detroit Auto Show is littered with beautiful new cars. There's the wild and angular Nissan Vmotion 2.0, the futuristic Volkswagen I.D. Buzz concept, and the new Kia Stinger, a car that I had an immediate personal affinity for when it was unveiled.

But the most beautiful car here is not new. In fact, it's not only two years old, it's also awful dirty and, in some places, even broken.

Something different on the otherwise sterile show floor

I'm talking about the No. 68 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT that won its class at the 2016 24 Hours of Le Mans. Ford has left it as tattered as when it crossed the finish line first last …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Ford GT has a digital instrument cluster to help you drive better at 200 mph

2017-01-10T13:23:41-05:00

Driving at 200 mph is tricky. There's so much happening, so quickly, that the driver needs a superhuman ability to focus on what matters and throw away everything else. To help with that task, Ford developed a digital "glass-cockpit" instrument cluster for the Ford GT supercar that changes based on drive mode to show only the most relevant data for the task at hand. In other words, it turned the instrument cluster into a digital screen.

Ford also plans to bring the GT's digital instrument cluster to its other cars. The company says in a press release that it will come "to other future Ford vehicles" as well, though Ford is certainly not the …

Read the full story at The Verge.

The Kia Stinger is a sports sedan that sizzles in a sea of practical production cars

2017-01-09T18:41:37-05:00

For every auto show rule there is an exception. This year at the North American International Auto Show, the outlier is the Kia Stinger, a rear-wheel drive sports sedan. In a show that skimps on splash and sizzle, Kia is taking aim at the German car market and the svelte BMW 4 Series of the world. It's an intentional strategy by the South Korean automaker to stand out from the pack. Kia is banking on infusing razzle dazzle to its more pedestrian product lineup. And it wants the US market to know its here to tango.

Fluid lines, a long, elegant swoop of a hood, and tight rear quarters are integral to its racy physique. The Kia Stinger has two …

Read the full story at The Verge.