SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016 CHAIRMAN Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Dr. Khalid Al-Shafi ACTING MANAGING EDITOR Mohammed Salim Mohamed ADVERTISING MANAGER Ali Wahba SUPPLEMENT EDITOR Pramod Prabhakaran Advertising Coordinator Muhammad Shammas The Peninsula A bdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. (AAB) sole agent for Toyota vehicles, has their Eid Al-Adha exclusive offer still going on under the theme Celebrate with us and pay in 2017. Te offer started from September 18, 2016 . This is an opportunity for the customers who couldn’t avail the Ramadan Campaign benefits, to purchase their favorite models under this extended Eid Al Adha offer. To assist the customers, AAB has tied-up with Qatar National Bank for offering the best finance terms while purchasing their favorite Toyota models. Qatar National bank is offering finance starting at as 2.07 percent (flat), with grace period of three months. The bank executives are available in the showroom making it more convenient for the customers in their purchases. Trade in facility and internal finance are also available. Toyota has a large line-up of vehicles which includes the popular Corolla, New Era Sedan – Camry, Flagship – Avalon, Fun-gineered RAV4, Prius the car of the future reliable Prado, King of 4-wheel – Land Cruiser. Toyota vehicles which are well known for their quality, durability and reliability are well supported by AAB’s after sales facilities which include a net-work of nine service centers set-up in various parts of the country some of which are open 7 days a week. AAB Showrooms located at the airport road and City Center are open 7 days a week making it more convenient for the customers to visit the showroom at their convenience, the main showroom is open from 8am – 9pm (Sat – Thu) and on Fridays, the showroom is open from 5pm – 9pm. City Center showroom is open from 10am—10pm ( Sat – Thu) and on Fridays, the showroom is open from 5pm – 10pm. This offer is also available through Toyota dealers Al-Tariq Automobiles Trading Co and Al-Tadamon Motors & Trading Co WLL. Buy a Toyota now and pay in 2017 DESIGN Abraham Augusthy PRODUCTION Viswanath Sarma IMAGE PROCESSING Mohd Sajad Sahir
Transcript
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTWEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016
CHAIRMANSheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani
EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDr. Khalid Al-Shafi
ACTING MANAGING EDITORMohammed Salim Mohamed
ADVERTISING MANAGERAli Wahba
SUPPLEMENT EDITORPramod Prabhakaran
Advertising Coordinator Muhammad Shammas
The Peninsula
Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co. (AAB) sole agent for Toyota vehicles, has their Eid Al-Adha exclusive offer still going on under the theme Celebrate with
us and pay in 2017. Te offer started from September 18, 2016 . This is an opportunity
for the customers who couldn’t avail the Ramadan Campaign benefits, to purchase their favorite models under this extended Eid Al Adha offer.
To assist the customers, AAB has tied-up with Qatar National Bank for offering the best finance terms while purchasing their favorite Toyota models. Qatar National bank is offering finance starting at as 2.07 percent (flat), with grace period of three
months. The bank executives are available in the showroom making it more convenient for the customers in their purchases. Trade in facility and internal finance are also available.
Toyota has a large line-up of vehicles which includes the popular Corolla, New Era Sedan – Camry, Flagship – Avalon, Fun-gineered RAV4, Prius the car of the future reliable Prado, King of 4-wheel
– Land Cruiser. Toyota vehicles which are well known for their quality, durability and reliability are well supported by AAB’s after sales facilities which include a net-work of nine service centers set-up in various parts of the country some of which are open 7 days a week.
AAB Showrooms located at the airport road and City Center are open 7 days a week making it more convenient for the customers
to visit the showroom at their convenience, the main showroom is open from 8am – 9pm (Sat – Thu) and on Fridays, the showroom is open from 5pm – 9pm. City Center showroom is open from 10am—10pm ( Sat – Thu) and on Fridays, the showroom is open from 5pm – 10pm.
This offer is also available through Toyota dealers Al-Tariq Automobiles Trading Co and Al-Tadamon Motors & Trading Co WLL.
Buy a Toyota now and pay in 2017
DESIGNAbraham Augusthy
PRODUCTIONViswanath Sarma
IMAGE PROCESSINGMohd Sajad Sahir
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 20162
It all started with an X. This letter was first used as a model designation for a BMW automobile as early as in the mid-1980s to indicate that it featured four-wheel drive technology. The car’s dual symmetry was the ideal allegory for the transmission of drive torque to all four wheels. 16
years ago, the letter X became the symbol of an entirely new vehicle category and, at the same time, of a very special form of driving pleasure. The BMW X5 made its debut as the world’s first Sports Activity Vehicle, soon going on to conquer not only the road but also off-road terrain, whilst attracting additional target groups to the BMW brand.
Once again the German premium automobile man-ufacturer had demonstrated its extraordinary sense for innovative and future-oriented vehicle concepts. The introduction of the BMW X5 in 1999 laid the founda-tion stone for the unique success story of BMW X models on automotive markets all over the world, which cur-rently accounts for more than 50% of BMW sales in the Middle East.
16 years further on, a complete BMW X family has developed from the pioneer of a new vehicle category. The brand’s range now comprises five BMW X models: X6, X5, X4, X3 and the newly launched X1. These are complemented by the two four-wheel drive high-per-formance sports cars of the BMW M GmbH, the BMW X5 M and the BMW X6 M. Each of these models was the first premium vehicle of its kind within its competitive environment.
And the range will continue to expand also in the years ahead. The popularity of BMW X models, which contributed decisively towards BMW becoming one of the world’s most successful producer of premium four-wheel drive automobiles, continues to increase consistently. To this day, more than 3.9 million BMW X models have been sold worldwide. Almost every third newly regis-tered vehicle of the brand is now a BMW X model.
Uncompromising driving pleasure – also in four-wheel drive models.
The BMW X5 made an impressive start with a driving experience that was unique with its high seating position and excellent handling both on the road and on off-road terrain. This was supplemented by the exceptionally spa-cious, variably utilisable and luxuriously equipped interior.
From the beginning, power transmission to all four wheels was deployed by BMW not merely to optimise trac-tion on unpaved roads and in adverse weather conditions, but also to enhance driving dynamics when taking bends. Therefore, in the case of the current models equipped with the intelligent four-wheel drive feature xDrive, and in con-trast to other manufacturers who use four-wheel drive predominantly to compensate for traction losses expe-rienced on front-wheel drive vehicles, BMW consistently adheres to the typical characteristics of the rear-wheel drive concept. In this way, even in normal driving situations most of the torque is transferred to where it is optimally transformed into vehicle dynamics – the rear wheels. As a result, the steering precision that is characteristic of a BMW also remains virtually free from drivetrain influ-ences on four-wheel drive models.
With the transfer of the SAV concept to a further vehi-cle segment in 2004, BMW became a pioneer yet again. With its more compact dimensions versus the BMW X5 and its even more agile handling characteristics, the BMW X3 proved to be an absolute exception and remained the only premium vehicle in its class for many years.
In 2006, production of the second-generation BMW X5 began at the BMW Spartanburg plant. With enhanced spatial comfort, a luxurious ambience, even more supe-rior drive technology as well as innovative suspension and driver assistant systems, the successor to the pioneer of the Sports Activity Vehicle again set new benchmarks within the broadened competitive environment of BMW X models.
In the spring of 2008, BMW presented the world’s first
Sports Activity Coupe. The BMW X6, which from that time on was produced together with the BMW X5 at the BMW Spartanburg plant, underscored the handling dynamics that are typical of BMW X models in a particularly intensive way. Its design combined sporting elegance with a power-ful presence. For an even sportier driving experience, the permanent four-wheel xDrive technology featured on this model was complemented for the first time by Dynamic Performance Control, additionally facilitating variable power distribution between the right and left rear wheels.
Moreover, in the same year of 2009, two remarkable models were added to the range of high performance sports cars from BMW M GmbH. Inspired by the dynamic poten-tial of BMW X models, developers showcased for the first time on four-wheel drive models the high-performance character associated with the letter M. A V8 power unit specially developed for the two exceptional athletes and featuring M TwinPower Turbo technology and an output of 408 kW/555 hp as well as an M-specific xDrive system including Dynamic Performance Control, formed the basis for an unmatched driving experience in BMW X5 M and BMW X6 M models.
Since 2009, the driving pleasure typical of BMW X models can also be experienced in the compact segment. Thanks to the versatility, sportiness, high degree of agility and cutting-edge functionality of the BMW X1, it was pos-sible to venture yet again into a whole new vehicle class.
In 2014, BMW set new impulses in the premium mid-range class with the first Sports Activity Coupe in this vehicle segment: the BMW X4. Encompassing the typical characteristics of a BMW X model with the sportingly ele-gant contours of a coupe of the brand, this model combined driving pleasure, sophistication and modern functional-ity in an inimitable way.
15 years after the premiere of the first edition, the BMW X5 continued the success story of the Sports Activity Vehicle in its third generation. The new model once again set the the benchmark of driving pleasure, efficiency, powerful
design, versatility and luxury within the segment. Follow-ing suite, the second generation of the Sports Activity Coupe BMW X6 presented itself with increased design presence and enhanced sportiness as well as with a luxurious interior ambience and innovative equipment features. Optionally available adaptive suspension packages ensure – as with the BMW X5 – sportiness and made-to-measure comfort.
Earlier this year the all-new BMW X5M and BMW X6M – the ultimate in BMW M performance –arrived in the Middle East. Combining hallmark high performance engi-neering with everyday practicality, these models are set to further strengthen BMW’s X models.
And fans of the BMW X model range across the Mid-dle East have more exciting news to look forward to as the all-new BMW X1 will be launched this month. The second generation of this model takes to the stage with new design features straight out of the BMW X model mould. The inte-rior of the new BMW X1, meanwhile, offers significantly more space for passengers and luggage, a cutting-edge premium ambience and functionality grounded in solid engineering.
Alongside its market-leading dynamics and efficiency, a host of innovative equipment features also help to secure the new BMW X1 its stand-out position in the segment. Among the items on the options list are full-LED headlights, Dynamic Damper Control, the BMW Head-Up Display and the Driving Assistant Plus system.
Unstoppable: 16 years of BMW X models
Fans of the BMW X model range across the Middle East have more exciting news to look forward to as the all-new BMW X1 will be launched this month. The second generation of this model takes to the stage with new design features straight out of the BMW X model mould. The interior of the new BMW X1, meanwhile, offers significantly more space for passengers and luggage, a cutting-edge premium ambience and functionality grounded in solid engineering.
BMW Group recap the success of the X family as the Middle East gears up for the launch of the newest model.
3
By David Cho and Brian Fung The Washington Post
In the wake of a series of Tesla crashes this year, the electric car maker said Sunday it is rolling out an upgrade to its semi-autono-mous Autopilot feature that may help make the feature safer to use.
The company said while its vehicles’ existing software may currently cause a Tesla on Autopilot to scrape against a car that’s partially in its lane, or to ram into an obstacle that another driver ahead has swerved to avoid, a coming update will address both problems - as well as a host of others.
The software update, which will be rolled out around the world in the coming weeks, will give radar technology a more active role in Tesla’s Auto-pilot - a feature drivers can enable to allow the car
to stay within its lane and to keep from hitting other vehicles. Tesla said it will allow the radar system to initiate automatic braking on its own, without requiring its vehicles’ optical cameras to agree the maneuver is needed. In addition, by bouncing radar signals underneath the car ahead, a Tesla will be able to see an additional car-length in front of itself - giving it a better chance of anticipating oncom-ing road hazards, said chief executive Elon Musk.
“I am highly confident this will be quite a sub-stantial improvement,” said Musk told reporters.
More importantly, all Teslas that enable Autopilot will now start using radar to build a three-dimen-sional map of the world. The map will help Tesla understand what’s “normal” - street signs, highway overpasses and so on - and what’s not, such as an unexpected obstacle ahead that requires automatic braking. The use of radar mapping brings Tesla that much closer toward Google’s vision of a robotic car
in that Google uses a mixture of laser-based sen-sors, radar and traditional video cameras to see.
Teslas are not equipped with laser sensors and previously only used radar as a “supplementary” system to back up what its optical cameras could pick up visually. But as some drivers are discover-ing, the cameras themselves can be foiled by poor lighting or road conditions and even extreme tem-peratures. That’s what likely led to a fatal crash involving Autopilot in Florida earlier this year, when a Tesla’s cameras couldn’t distinguish the body of a truck from the bright sky behind it.
By giving radar a big promotion, Tesla believes it can help cut down on errors. But, said Musk, the risk of a crash while Autopilot is enabled will never be zero.
“It’s about minimizing the probability,” he said, “minimizing the probability of death, not the illu-sion of perfect safety.”
Apple is reportedly in talks to buy automaker McLarenBy Hayley Tsukayama
The Washington Post
The auto industry and the tech world may about to get a new power player: Apple reportedly in talks to buy the high-performance car company McLaren, according to the Financial Times.
The two firms have been talking for several months about plans to have Apple make a strategic investment in the McLaren Technol-ogy Group or buy it outright, the article said, citing “three people briefed on the negotiations.”
McLaren Technology Group includes McLaren Automotive, McLaren Racing and McLaren Applied Technologies. Apple declined to comment on the report. McLaren did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rumors and reports about Apple’s oft-reported and never officially confirmed car project, reportedly codenamed Project Titan, have been swirling for years. Speculation that the tech giant would make its own car cooled earlier this year after Apple hired a high-ranking executive from Blackberry’s QNX car software company -- a move that Bloomberg reported indicated that Apple was focusing more on designing car soft-ware. At the time, that report raised the idea that Apple might work with or buy a car manufacturer:
“The initiative is now prioritizing the development of an autonomous driving system, though it’s not abandoning efforts to design its own vehicle. That leaves options open should the company eventually decide to partner with or acquire an established car maker, rather than build a car itself.”
Many Apple watchers have advocated for Apple to buy Tesla, but Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has called such a deal “unlikely.” Musk has also scorned Apple’s car efforts, telling a German newspaper that he refers to Apple as “Tesla graveyard” because the tech firm hires so many engineers that Tesla has let go.
But Apple could be very attractive for McLaren, which has struggled to reach profitability. The British carmaker may be best known for its very high-end luxury supercars and its Formula One team, though it also has made forays into wearable technology, health care and electronics. It took the name McLaren Technology Group in 2015 to reflect its diversification strategy.
The focus on technology could represent a good culture alignment for Apple and McLaren, although McLaren is a much smaller manufac-turer than could serve Apple’s massive customer base. The firm said at the time of its renaming that it produces just more than 1,600 cars per year.
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016
Tesla is using a familiar technology to make its Autopilot safer
By Brian Fung
The Washington Post
An hour before dawn couple of weeks back, Uber hit the green light on a project that many here have seen, but never experienced. Until now.
Some of Uber’s heaviest users woke up to an email inviting them to test out the compa-ny’s new self-driving cars, the centerpiece of
a fully autonomous fleet Uber plans to use in the long run to replace human drivers. The pilot project, which is the first in the United States to include members of the pub-lic, offers a taste of a technological future thousands have only read about.
Do these cars really work? Judging by an early demo that Uber provided to reporters this week, the answer is yes - at least under ideal conditions.
In some ways, Uber’s self-driving car works better than Google’s. Having now tested out both, I can say firsthand that Uber’s car is better at accelerating and braking like a real human being.
This Uber program is only a test; its riders, guinea pigs. Still, when Uber invited me to try the vehicle earlier this week - momentarily even putting me behind the wheel to operate one - mishaps were few and far between. In a word, things felt normal. Mundane, even.
Our route took us through Pittsburgh’s Strip Dis-trict, over a bridge or two, across some faster stretches of highway, back onto slower side streets and finally across some train tracks. It was a dry, sunny day, how-ever, and we didn’t climb any of the city’s big hills or drive on any poorly marked streets. Sitting in the front seats were a pair of Uber “safety drivers,” full-time employees whose sole job is to test what the company’s engineers have produced.
Uber declined to say how many invites will go out. But, the company said, it will start by offering the feature to those with the most Uber trips under their belts. Those customers will have the option to accept the rides, which will be free for now, or they can ignore the program. Those who join will receive an update to their Uber apps that will let them summon a driverless car via UberX.
In order to hail one, the ride’s origin and destination must be within the operating boundaries that Uber has set out for its robotic vehicles. Currently, the cars work in downtown Pittsburgh, across the Allegheny River in the North Shore neighborhood, and eastward past Carnegie Mellon University toward Shadyside.
Once inside the car, users will be greeted by a tablet displaying information about the ride they’re about to take.
When the ride begins, the tablet switches to display information such as the vehicle’s speed, its route, and what the sensors can see around it. In a bit of a gimmick, pas-sengers can also tap a button to take a selfie.
As for the vehicle’s interior, a series of lit icons above the dashboard told us what mode the car was in. A blue
circle meant the car was under manual control. A single green light with a check mark meant the car was ready for autonomous mode. And when both the green light and a white light with an arrow were illuminated, it meant that the autonomous mode was engaged.
To start the autonomous mode, the safety driver behind the wheel pushed a small silver button on the console near the parking brake. From that point on, the car was in con-trol: It eased toward stop signs and came to a full stop. It accelerated out of them very gently. It followed other drivers at a respectful, generous distance, and obeyed the posted speed limit at all times, even when a human driver might have gunned it a little.
At one point, the vehicle came upon some pedestrians
crossing the street. It seemed for a moment as though the car might plow through them, but the driver took over before any automatic braking features could kick in. The safety driver also took control at several moments dur-ing the trip to make, for example, a left turn across traffic and onto a bridge on-ramp. Company executives told me later that Uber will be very conservative about letting the software run on its own, at least at first. As users grow accustomed to the technology, Uber will probably relax somewhat and give the computer more leeway.
There were a few times when the computer automati-cally gave up control to the driver, such as when it believed an oncoming truck called for human intervention. The car didn’t do much to notify the driver a handoff had occurred
other than to provide a soft beep and a change in the indi-cator lights - which means it’ll be incredibly important that the safety driver be ready to take over. During our ride, the safety driver kept his fingers lightly attached to the steering wheel.
Virtually any conscious act is enough to take the car out of self-driving mode, such as pressing either foot pedal or turning the steering wheel past 17 degrees. If all else fails, there’s the big red button on the console that will also hand control back to the driver. Deacti-vating autonomous mode is a lot like taking your car off of cruise control: The car keeps rolling, but the driver is in command.
Uber is working on a number of self-driving vehi-cles. One is a Ford Fusion sedan that’s been modified using aftermarket parts, which explains the bulky cam-era assemblage on its roof. Another is a Volvo SUV. Uber’s direct partnership with the carmaker means that the Volvo will bear a thinner, sleeker sensor package.
Uber executives hinted they were working on a third model of self-driving car that wasn’t ready for display.
“We think of this as the desktop computer,” said Eric Meyhofer, Uber’s lead engineer at the Pittsburgh facility, gesturing to the Ford. “And this” - he turned to the Volvo - “as the laptop computer. The next time you’re here, we’ll show you the smartphone.”
After riding in the back, it was time for a ride in the front. I unstrapped myself from a set of thick seat belts with embedded airbags and swapped places with the safety driver. Public passengers won’t get to do this, but taking the wheel helped shed light on the safety driver’s role and what it feels like to do his or her job.
Each safety driver receives at least two weeks of train-ing with the vehicles, which involves some of the same tasks as you might find on your average driver’s license test - running through different neighborhoods, road types and times of day. The company appears to be recruiting at least some of its full-time safety drivers from the existing pool of Uber drivers that are on the roads; one contractor I spoke to said he’d been invited to apply for the position recently but hadn’t made up his mind.
Even with my fingers lightly on the wheel, it was appar-ent that the car was making many tiny course corrections during the trip. Each modified Ford is equipped with seven laser sensors, radar that can see in 360 degrees and 20 optical cameras that are mounted everywhere. You can even find some beneath the side-view mirrors. All this equipment helps the car build a three-dimensional map, gathering more than 1.4 million data points every second about the world.
This real-time map is constantly being matched against a map that’s been pre-loaded into the car’s brain. Uber col-lects the new, real-time data from its cars twice a day, and it pushes updated maps to its cars once a week. The maps are not only stored locally on the cars themselves, but also in the cloud, where the vehicles can access updates using an over-the-air wireless connection such as WiFi or 4G LTE. (That marks a notable difference from Google’s driv-erless car, which is kept disconnected from the Internet as a safeguard against hackers.)
For turn-by-turn navigation, Uber’s driverless cars use the company’s own proprietary system, not Google Maps or another third party as riders may be accustomed to seeing in typical Uber rides today. To help with the GPS accuracy problems that can frustrate riders and drivers currently, extra hardware from the GPS technology com-pany Garmin has been installed on the Ford Fusions. I’m told this will improve the GPS experience over what we see with smartphones, but the company lacks detailed infor-mation on just how much better it will be.
Uber has yet to see how its vehicles fare in slippery winter conditions, where humans may be even more hard-pressed to relinquish control (or their perception of it) to computer code. Still, the technology as it stands feels pretty solid. Early adopters: Prepare yourself to be thrilled and bored, all at the same time.
Do these cars really work? Judging by an early demo that Uber provided to reporters this week, the answer is yes - at least under ideal conditions.
Uber’s self-driving car: Prepare to be thrilled and bored at the same time
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 20164
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2016 5
According to Mannai Auto Group, the official Cadillac dealers in Qatar, the all-new 2017 Cadillac CT6 is the most anticipated new arrival in terms of customer demand and gen-eral curiosity, with pre-orders and showroom
visit requests increasing significantly since the arrival of the first test vehicles this summer.
The CT6 scripts a new storyline in Cadillac’s ongo-ing evolution which evokes the senses and delivers class leading performance. Through the integration of new tech-nologies, the first-ever Cadillac CT6 creates a new formula and substantially expands the Cadillac portfolio.
In Qatar, the CT6 sedan will be available in two trim levels at launch – Luxury and the range-topping Plati-num trim.
“The CT6 is a new personification of the prestige sedan, combining space and luxury with agile driving dynamics,” said Mahmoud Skhiri, General Sales Manager, Mannai Auto. “A range of trims and price points furthers the competitive edge, and reflects the CT6’s comprehensive package that offers the style, performance and technological advances customers in this segment appreciate and expect from Cadillac.”
The range of options and price points aim to draw new buyers and satisfy existing customers looking to upgrade to the latest from Cadillac.
Customers will initially receive two engine choices – a 3.6L V6 or 3.0L Twin Turbo V6 – both coupled to a state of the art 8-speed transmission, with standard All Wheel Drive and a broad range of high-technology systems.
The Cadillac 3.0L Twin Turbo V-6 engine is rated at 404 horsepower and 400 lb-ft of torque (543 Nm); while the all-new, 3.6L V-6 generates 335-horsepower.
Efficiency is enhanced with the industry’s first applica-tion of cylinder deactivation technology on a turbocharged V-6 engine. Cylinder deactivation temporarily deactivates two of the cylinders in light-load driving conditions to enhance efficiency and seamlessly reactivates them when the driver demands full power.
In parallel, the 3.0L Twin Turbo also comes packed with stop/start technologies to conserve fuel. With the sys-tem, the 3.0L Twin Turbo is shut down in certain driving conditions such as stop-and-go city driving to reduce fuel consumption, automatically restarting when the driver takes his or her foot off the brake pedal.
To further ensure seamless agility, the CT6 is equipped
with Auto Vehicle Hold – a driver-selectable feature that prevents forward/rearward vehicle creep when the driv-er’s foot is off the brake. It reduces fatigue during heavy stop-and-go traffic and improves vehicle control on steep grades.
Cadillac has made in-cabin technological advances as well, including the Rear Camera Mirror, Enhanced Night Vision technology and the pioneering 34-speaker Bose Panaray audio system.
An interesting new addition is high-resolution stream-ing video to the function of a traditional rearview mirror, removing obstructions of passengers, headrests and the vehicle’s roof and rear pillars. The groundbreaking fea-ture comes standard on the 2017 CT6 Sedan.
Cadillac’s innovative new streaming video mirror improves field of vision by an estimated 300 per-cent, or roughly four times greater than a standard rearview mirror. Thanks to a high dynamic range,
the camera’s video feed reduces glare and allows a crisper image in low-light situations, versus a tra-ditional glass electrochromatic, or auto-dimming, rearview mirror.
Researchers and engineers working on this Cadillac innovation have been awarded 10 patents – one for the streaming video mirror and nine for video processing. The patents cover innovations in the wide field of view cam-era image calibration, de-warping, glare reduction and camera hardware design.
If they wish to do away with this convenience, drivers can disable the mirror’s video streaming function. Flip-ping a toggle on the underside of the mirror will revert it to a traditional mirror.
The 2017 CT6 also comes packed with a 360-degree camera view around the vehicle, displayed on the Cadil-lac CUE screen – which helps reduce blind spots around the vehicle.
Cadillac’s highly anticipated CT6 arrives in DohaThoughtful touches in an exciting new package make the CT6 the best new entrant in a competiitve large luxury car segment.
By Pramod Prabhakaran
The Peninsula
Quattroporte from Maserati, which literally means “four doors” in Italian, is a very inter-esting car. It has got almost everything you will wish for in a luxury sedan and at the same time will satisfy the needs of the most
discerning supercar enthusiast, all the while retaining the Italian sense of design and looks.
When you are driving an Italian luxury supercar, you expect certain standards in interiors and comfort level. Quattroporte exceeds those expectation with its hand crafted interiors and functionality. The cabin is really huge in terms of space – a bit like flying first class. There won’t be any complaints about legroom or headroom unless you are VERY very tall.
The space adds a different dimension to your driving, especially when your co-passengers are as relaxed as they could be inside a car. The dashboard panel is easy-to-use and feature-rich. GPS, touch control screen, reversing cam-era, blind spot alert, bluetooth connection for phone are all there and is pretty easy to use.
The leather-finished steering wheel is electrically adjustable for both reach and height, while the pedals are also adjustable, moving towards the driver at the touch of a button mounted at the front of the driver’s seat.
Many of the vehicle’s settings are oriented towards
the driver and are controlled with the buttons alongside the gear shifter, while other on-board settings can be set by the driver via the Maserati Touch Control (MTC) at the centre of the dashboard.
The red leather seats in the car we tried looked fan-tastic and were really comfortable. But then yes, we would not accept anything less than brilliant from an Italian car-maker when it comes to comfort and style.
This brings us to the main part - driving. A car from any of the big players in luxury market will tick most of the boxes when it comes to driving comfort and performance.
Quattroporte stays true to the Maserati roots and deliv-ers an awesome performance. The handling is perfect and even at high speeds you feel perfectly under control. The only issue you will have while driving in Sports mode is to keep it under the speed limits. The car zooms to 100 in a few seconds (its officially 5.6s for 0-100km/h) and you will hardly notice.
The Quattroporte GTS, the Quattroporte S and Quattro-porte are powered by state-of-the-art high performance engines. The direct-injection engine family boasts a 3.8-litre V8 (Quattroporte GTS) and a 3.0-litre V6 (Quattroporte S and Quattroporte), both of which are all new, twin turbo charged, developed by Maserati Powertrain in partnership with Ferrari Powertrain and built by Ferrari in its engine construction facility in Maranello.
The engine of the Quattroporte GTS, the flagship of the range, provides Maserati’s new performance bench-mark, reaching 100km/h in just 4.7 seconds and achieving
a 307km/h top speed. It is 20km/h faster and has up to 200 Nm more torque than its predecessor Quattroporte Sport GT S. The Quattroporte S engine doesn’t lack for performance, either, reaching 100km/h in 5.1 seconds and achieving a 285km/h top speed. Both, the Quattro-porte GTS and the Quattroporte S have a rear-wheel drive configuration.
The GTS model is not only the fastest but also the most powerful and the most economical four-door Maserati which was ever built. To offset its scintillating perform-ance, the Quattroporte GTS has lowered both its fuel consumption and emissions by 20 per cent over the out-going Quattroporte.
The interiors of the Quattroporte not only feature unique styling and valuable materials, but also use light to further enhance the look of the interior and the qual-ity of the occupants’ experience when driving in the dark. The system uses an optical fibre running along the dash-board and the doors and even in the door handle cavities and door pockets, to give the interior a modern, classy look.
The front and rear ceiling lights mount a diffused light-ing lamp and two separate reading lights; along with these, two LEDs concealed in the ceiling light give constant, soft light for the area beneath them; even the foot area is illu-minated. The brightness of the light can be adjusted with a dimmer.
Any car you drive on Qatar roads in summer, the
first thing a friend will ask is how is the cooling sys-tem. Quattroporte has an excellant cooling system as we put it to test under extreme conditions during peak summer.
It cools the large cabin in a jiffy and unlike some other cars leather seats and steering cover were not an issue even after parking the car under hot sun for hours.
The automatic climate control operates on a dual-zone system and delivers huge amounts of air through 11 venti-lation ports. Four of its ventilation ports are in the rear of the car and it balances its output through a sunlight sensor to provide outstanding levels of comfort and the seamless maintenance of the chosen temperature.
There are separate temperature adjustment functions for the driver and the passenger, which can be controlled through the MTC or via a physical control panel under the screen. Delivering 455 cubic metres of air an hour, the sys-tem performs much better than its predecessor, cooling or heating the air far faster than ever before.
The luggage space doest need any mention, if you need more space than what Quattroporte offers, better hire a big truck as not many cars come with more space than this.
Alfardan Sports Motors, the official importer of Maser-ati in Qatar, are having many offers going on now. So its better to pay a visit to their well-fitted showroom and ask those helpful sales people for the price and maybe a test drive.
The cars are basically indistin-guishable unless you home in on the exact stitching of the seats or the fine arrangement of the head-lights. Even then, changes are so minuscule, it’s nearly impossible
to realize one of these vehicles costs $41,000, and the other just $21,700.
British luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover and Chinese carmaker Jiangling will go to court this summer in China to settle their dis-pute over what exactly is fair game in the auto industry. Can Chinese companies continue to get away with “shanzhai” -- a Chinese term for prideful counterfeiting -- of car designs?
Range Rover’s Evoque and Jiangling’s Land-wind X7 are practically the same car to the untrained eye.
It’s a judicial battle that pits Western car companies against the burgeoning Chinese and East Asian market, and one that has cap-tured the attention of economists, auto industry insiders and intellectual property experts.
The Chinese consumer market has grown exponentially since late 1980s economic reform. Some of the largest growth has come from auto companies, both state-owned and for-eign joint-ventures. In 2008, when the market was still in its relative infancy, Chinese buy-ers purchased 9.4 million cars. By 2015, they bought 24.6 million.
And as the industry rapidly expands, Western carmakers, from the United States’ “big three” to German luxury brands to other imports, have rushed to gobble up market share, in the process flooding China and its comparably fledgling car companies with new vehicle models.
The best way Chinese manufacturers could compete was “shanzhai,” reverse engineering foreign products as a way to enter the market without overwhelming research expenditures.
“In the automotive industry, you can copy the look of the the vehicle, but the skills required for the highly complex integrated systems, if you’re a Chinese company, you don’t have engineers with long career histories with that capability,” said Bill Russo, managing director of Shanghai-based Gao Feng Advi-sory Company.
“So you shorten the life cycle by purchas-ing or licensing or reverse engineering. And this is not a Chinese-invented cycle.”
Imitation, as the idiom goes, is the sincer-est form of flattery. But it’s also a great way to make money, something merchants have realized for hundreds of years.
The United States in the 1800s, for exam-ple, lacked authors who could stack up against British literary giants, so American publishers reprinted British works without paying heed to copyright laws, said Mark Bartholomew, a professor of law at the University at Buffalo.
Benjamin Franklin, the Benjamin Franklin, even published pirated works. William Words-worth and Charles Dickens came to America to complain about it. The United States only stiffened its intellectual property laws once its industries, both mechanical and intellec-tual, matured by the end of the century.
“It boils down to economics,” Bartholomew said. “The Chinese economy doesn’t have this same tradition of the manufacturers like Ford or Hyundai or any of the folks who are making these cars. So if you don’t have these copyright laws, why pay if you can get away with it?”
China does have intellectual property laws, though, and it’s a signatory to international intellectual property agreements. But China’s laws are applied inconsistently, and even the international rules aren’t always enforced in China and elsewhere around the world.
Some countries recognize certain kind of intellectual property, but not others. For exam-ple, special door handles on a car: Are those a decorative creative works, or do they have some functionality? Creative works get cop-yrights. Objects with usefulness get patents. And states, not companies, are the arbiters of what objects get what protection.
It leaves multinational companies rush-ing to strategically secure their rights all over the world. In large established markets like the United States and Europe, car companies apply for protection right away. But in a devel-oping market such as China -- its auto market was until recently considered “developing” -- those applications only became priorities over the last decade.
Smaller Chinese companies without strong market presence used past administrative delays as windows of opportunity. If intel-lectual property protection hadn’t been filed domestically, it was convenient to reverse engi-neer the product. And if the protection was filed sloppily, companies reverse engineered cars largely without the risk of prosecution.
Even when U.S. auto makers file their paper-work in the right way, China car companies enjoy remarkable home field advantage in their courts. More mature courts in Beijing or Shanghai might have judges more will-ing to hear out foreign companies, but rural courts or those in factory-heavy districts often show interest to local industry, includ-ing counterfeiters.
And so the copycats started coming. Honda
fought a Chinese carmaker for 12 years for copying the CR-V. The Chery QQ riffed off the Chevrolet Spark in 2005. Shuanghuan’s CEO SUV model copied BMW’s X5 in 2007. Shuanghuan’s Noble copied Mercedes Benz’s Smartcar in 2009. The Lifan 320 copied the Mini Cooper Countryman in 2012.
Hummers and Porsches and Rolls Royces have been copied. Even Ferraris have been copied, and were shipped to Spain where they were seized by police.
“Anything known to mankind can be faked, even a Ferrari,” said Frederick Mostert, past president of the International Trademark
Association and a research fellow at Univer-sity of Oxford and Peking University. To prove a point, he bought one and traveled with it and shows pictures of it at speaking engagements.
Ferraris, though, aren’t the counter-feits major car companies worry about. Any buyer looking for a luxury car is in the mar-ket to spend luxury car kind of money. That’s especially true in China, where consumers are extremely brand conscious, experts say. Nobody who wants a Land Rover is going to be fooled by a Landwind.
“People who buy [the Landwind] can’t afford the Land Rover,” said Russo, the Geo
Feng consultant. “And of course if you’re the company that’s out there, you’re going to be p-- off about it, but nobody is getting confused.
“Get in that Landwind and drive it. I’ve driven many, many cars in China. It’s not the same car.”
As much as the counterfeits are incon-veniences, it may be the lawsuits to stop the practice that may hurt Western automakers more, auto industry experts say. The Chinese public doesn’t like to see its industries get bul-lied. Plus, if one copycat company gets shut down, others pop back up. Western compa-nies end up playing legal whack-a-mole with
money they could use to make newer, better cars, said Kenneth D. Crews, a Los Angeles-based attorney and adjunct professor of law at Columbia University.
That kind of strategy actually trains cus-tomers to look for newer models and not settle on older ones that are more easily counter-feited. More mature Chinese car companies have grown up and away from copying other models. Once they made enough money to invest in research and original design, they did.
“These companies have grown to become more than just copycats,” Russo said. “They’re advanced and they’re innovative.”
iangling Motor's Landwind X7 SUV is displayed at the Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition in April 2015. (Bloomberg photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi)
The 2016 Range Rover Evoque convertible. (Land Rover)
SPOT THE DIFFERENCEThis car company ripped off Land Rover Here’s why it might get away with it
By Brian Fung and Steven Overly The Washington Post
The day when intelligent, automated cars will ferry many of us around is still a long way off. But even partly automated vehicles, such as Tes-la’s Model S, have recently raised
questions about their safety and reliability. And amid mounting scrutiny over this tech-nology, German officials are proposing that all new vehicles equipped with autopilot fea-tures come with a “black box” akin to the flight recorders found on airplanes.
The box would gather key performance data on the moments before a crash so that investigators could determine what went wrong. Although some car makers and insurers rely on driving data to guide some decisions, Germany could soon be among the first to make black boxes an official requirement on automated vehicles.
That’s not the only measure the country has proposed in recent months concerning the future of the auto business. In fact, analysts say that Germany is bent on leading the industry into its next chapter -- one that takes the country’s decades-old reputation for top-notch engineering and adds automation, clean fuels and technology to the list.
Much of this frenzy of activity is driven by rising competition in the United States and Japan, said Joe Lu, an analyst at Kelley Blue Book.
“The earlier you are to market -- the closer you are to [being] first -- the more you become highly associated with that technology,” Lu said.
Companies that successfully claim that mantle may be be in a better position to out-innovate others, particularly as governments clamp down on emissions and shifts in energy technologies force manufacturers to adapt to new circumstances.
Germany’s push enjoys support from the highest ranks of government, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in April vowed to speed up the development of self-driving car technology by loosening regulations and paving the way for public testing. That same month, Merkel’s government established a new set of financial incentives to give consumers thousands of dollars in rebates for purchasing a fully electric car or plug-in hybrid. And some
officials have gone further, calling for an end to the sale of all fossil fuel-based cars by 2030.
Many German automakers, spurred by pressure from rivals such as Tesla, GM and Ford, are setting ambitious goals for themselves. BMW has promised to deliver a fully self-driving vehicle within the next five years, keeping pace with the many other automakers working on similar technology. The company recently announced that it will sell the same batteries from its electric vehicle, the i3, as a standalone home battery pack in a nod to the Powerwall, a competing product from Tesla. Germany’s Daimler, which owns Mercedes-Benz, is also producing home and car batteries, and this
spring announced plans to build a new $543 million battery factory.
German automakers “really weren’t doing enough in this sector, and now they’re playing catch-up,” said Al Bedwell, the director of global powertrain for LCM Automotive, a market research firm.
But no German manufacturer appears to be doing more to reposition itself than Volkswagen, whose scandal last year showing the company was cheating on US emissions tests appears to have jump-started a new phase in its elec-tric vehicle efforts. VW announced plans last month to debut more than 30 new electric vehi-cles by 2025 and to expand its investment in
battery technology, digitalization and self-driving cars.
That target does not offer VW “a whole heck of a lot of time,” Lu said.
Although analysts expect diesel and gaso-line cars to remain the lion’s share of sales for the foreseeable future, VW’s strategy reflects the automaker’s bet that the industry’s future lies in emerging technologies.
“There’s been a clear shift of emphasis in the messages they’re putting out after the VW crisis. I think a lot of the electrification was already in the pipeline before what happened last October, but what we’re hearing now is a lot more on that,” Bedwell said.
Volkswagen’s settlement with the US govern-ment also calls for investing billions of dollars in what many analysts regard as a key tech-nology for the adoption of electric cars: the charging infrastructure that will allow drivers to travel for as long and as far as their coun-terparts who drive gas guzzlers.
“This is what it looks like when a mas-sive corporation whose reputation was built on trust and belief in the integrity of a brand seeks to battle its way back into a changing market,” Timmons Roberts, a nonresident fel-low at the Brookings Institution, wrote in a blog post last month.
Some countries are beginning much further ahead than Germany, at least when it comes to electric-vehicle adoption. In Norway, electric cars accounted for 6.2 percent of all new cars sold in 2013, according to a report by the management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. The Netherlands was close behind at 4.2 percent. Germany ranked seventh, at a paltry 0.2 percent. (By comparison, the same figure for the United States stands at less than 1 percent.)
Other non-European automakers are also leaping into high-tech solutions. Beyond the research on automated vehicles being done by US firms, Japanese companies such as Honda and Toyota have invested resources into fields such as battery technology and robotics.
But as the case of Volkswagen suggests, German automakers feel renewed pressure to lead the industry through its next iteration. Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW hold 15 percent of the global market share for light vehicles, according to LCM Automotive, a position the automakers will be keen to maintain, if not grow, as electric vehicles become more widely adopted. And if history is any indication, Germany’s engineering prowess and industrial fortitude may again work in the industry’s favor.
“The German industry is on the one hand proud of its history, but on the other hand knows exactly why it has been so successful: They reinvented themselves every decade,” said Eckehart Rotter, a spokesman for the Berlin-based German Association of the Automotive Industry.
“This is a real worldwide competition going on, and it’s a matter of speed but it’s also a matter of who is giving the customer the best solution,” Rotter said. “It’s not the question who will be the first one, but who will be the best one.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel visits the stand of the German car manufacturer Volkswagen at the IAA international car show in Frankfurt. (Reuters / File photo)
WEDNESDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 20168
Why the automotive throne of the future may belong to Germany
