Car Tech
1. Audi gives up on Level 3 autonomous driver-assist system in A8
Audi is giving up on its most advanced driver-assist system. The German automaker will no longer add its Traffic Jam Pilot system to the A8 sedan in Europe or anywhere else in the world. It's now too late to add the system to the current-generation A8, as the car is already well into its lifecycle, Hans-Joachim Rothenpieler, Audi head of technical development, said in an interview with the publication. The A8 debuted in 2017 and is scheduled to get a mid-cycle refresh next year.
2. The Koenigsegg Regera's battery pack is made by Rimac
Rimac is best known for the Concept One and C_Two electric supercars, but founder Mate Rimac views his firm as a technology company first, and as an automaker second. So Rimac has farmed out its expertise to other automakers—including Koenigsegg.
3. Deep dive: Here's how Audi's electric turbocharger works
Conventional turbochargers use exhaust gases to spin a turbine, driving more air into the engine. More air means more combustion, and more combustion means more power. That's the good part. The bad part is that exhaust-driven turbos need to reach a certain speed to work effectively. At low engine speeds, the volume of exhaust gases is too low to get the turbos working. As engine speeds rise, the turbos spool up and begin creating boost.
4. Rivian hand-builds R1T prototypes
Rivian on Friday provided a quick glimpse into the development process of its R1T electric pickup truck by releasing a video showing how prototypes are built for testing. The R1T was originally scheduled to start production later this year, but the company now expects the ongoing coronavirus pandemic to cause a delay.
The prototype trucks use components of identical specification to the production versions, but everything is hand assembled at a special shop, rather than on a conventional assembly line. The prototypes are used for testing and, because of their hand-built nature, will likely be crushed after they've performed their jobs. The prototypes are used to test the dynamics, winter temperatures, electronics, software, and driver-assistance systems, among others.
5. Koenigsegg's 3-cylinder engine makes 600 horsepower
The Koenigsegg Gemera is a four-seat hypercar that can do 0-62 mph in a claimed 1.9 seconds, but perhaps the most remarkable thing about this Swedish rocket ship is its 2.0-liter twin-turbocharged inline-3, which makes a staggering 600 horsepower (plus 443 pound-feet of torque).
Jason Fenske at Engineering Explained has the details on how Koenigsegg extracted so much power from such a small engine. It starts with the cylinders. There may not be many of them, but they are pretty big. They're actually larger than the cylinders in Koenigsegg's 5.0-liter V8, Fenske noted.
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