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A Tesla Model 3 crashed on a parked police vehicle in Connecticut. The Model 3 was on Autopilot mode while driver was checking his dog who was sitting in the back, the driver said to the police.

There were two police officers on the scene waiting for a tow truck to pick up a broken-down car which was occupying left center. While they were waiting Tesla model 3 crashed into their vehicle and went ahead to hit the broken-down vehicle, said Connecticut State Police. No one was injured in this incident.

The car was still slowly travelling towards the north until the police intervened. The driver said to the police that his vehicle was on Autopilot and he was checking his dog which was in the back seat before the collision. The driver was issued a misdemeanor summons for reckless driving and reckless endangerment.

This is not the first time a Tesla car is involved in an accident. A Tesla Model X owner died in a car accident in California. Tesla has also admitted this when the company itself released statistics which shows that Autopilot incidents have been increased.

Eco-friendly rocket to take Bloodhound to 800mph 

Maserati has stopped the production of the Gran Turismo, as announced recently by the company on its social media accounts. The on-going generation was introduced in 2007 and after 12 years, the company has intimidated to bring out a second generation as an electric vehicle in 2021.

To mark the end of the production, or rather ‘celebrate’ it in the company’s words; it created a one-off Maserati Gran Turismo with an exclusive paint job, that slowly gradients from blue to black and fades off with white. It’s called the Gran Turismo Zeda, which Maserati says will “drive us towards the future”. It marks the company’s transition into a new era of cleaner, greener electric vehicles, which will start a new journey for the company and its upcoming models.

Over a production period of 12 years, Maserati sold more than 28,000 Gran Turismo cars. Work has begun in Modena plant to upgrade the production line. On its return in 2021, the Gran Turismo will compete with the likes of BMW 8 series and Mercedes S-Class Coupe.

Tesla was officially added to a government list of approved automotive manufacturers, said China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently.

The American electric vehicles manufacturer was granted permission in the form of a certificate which allows it to start the production at Tesla Gigafactory 3 as and when it’s ready. The 9,300,000 sq ft facility’s construction has not been completed yet but targets year end. This will be the company’s first full scale manufacturing plant outside of the US. Tesla already has more than 20 stores operational in China and plans to make it big in this country, whose demand for electric vehicles is the greatest in the world. In 2018, an estimated 1.2 million EVs were sold in China.

The $2 billion factory is expected to produce at least 1000 Model 3 customer cars a week, with later getting into producing the Model Y SUV. Company expects production volume to be around 500,000 cars per year, with a target of 150,000 cars per year in the first phase, starting manufacturing by the end of 2019 as per a report by Reuters. “We aim to start some production in October, but the actual production volume depends on many factors including car orders we received, performance of newly hired workers, supply chain and so on,” a Tesla source told the Reuters.

This facility is Tesla’s wholly owned subsidiary and received important support from the government along the way. Earlier in September this year, Elon Musk managed to exclude Tesla models from a 10% car purchase tax. Authorities in Shanghai have also offered Tesla help to speed up construction of the plant. Tesla is also able to sideline US-China trade war with this deal and avoid heavy imports on American cars.

MG recently unveiled the ZS EV as its second product in the Indian markets, and the first electric SUV from the brand. Rajeev Chaba, president and MD of MG Motor India said, "We truly believe that the future of the automobile is connected and electric. We are taking our first step to launch the vehicle of the future with an entire ecosystem to support this initiative".

MG ZS is the brand’s global EV that combines the practicality of an SUV with low emissions. The SUV features CCS Type 2 European standard connector for public charging stations and also an AC slow charger. Powered by i-Smart 2.0 technology, the ZS combines hardware and software applications to make driving experience smoother and smarter. It gets smart features like voice recognition, Wi-Fi connectivity and CO2 savings monitor and also charging station information. It comes with a sky roof or panoramic sunroof and an inbuilt air purifier along with a massive touch screen system, similar to the Hector.

MG claims it is the first pure electric internet SUV in the country offering connectivity on the go. It gets a 44.5 kwh battery pack which gives up to 340 km of range on single charge. The ZS EV launch is expected in January 2020 at a price of approximately 25 Lakhs INR.

Ford’s long-awaited all-electric crossover will carry the iconic pony emblem and the name Mustang Mach-E. The crossover, which is being labeled as “the latest addition to the Mustang family” by Ford, will be publicly unveiled on November 17 in Los Angeles.

Bookings for the Mustang Mach-E will open right after the unveiling whereas trim levels and customization options will be available next year. Details on this electric crossover’s powertrain are limited at the moment although what’s positive is that the Mustang Mach-E has been developed over an entirely new platform that will eventually spawn a range of sporty electric vehicles.

The current Mustang line-up is fairly comprehensive, starting from the base 4-cylinder EcoBoost version to the extremely powerful Shelby GT500 with no less than 760 horsepower. The addition of an all-electric crossover is definitely a move in the right direction for Ford; however, marketing it as a part of the Mustang range is bound to raise eyebrows among the purists.

Euro NCAP has released the results for its latest round of crash tests and at the bottom of it is the 2019 Jeep Renegade. While most cars tested in 2019 have achieved five-star ratings from Euro NCAP, the Renegade is the only model to receive just three-stars.

According to the test results, the Renegade achieved a decent 82% score in Adult Occupant Protection and 84% in Child Occupant Protection but in all other areas including safety assists and road users’ protection, it performed poorly. In fact, the facelifted Renegade still offers autonomous emergency braking system (AEB) only as an option. It doesn’t get other active safety features like active bonnet or AEB systems designed specifically to detect pedestrians or cyclists, either. Ultimately, the Renegade has become the only car so far this year to achieve a rating of less than four stars.

Michiel van Ratingen, Euro NCAP’s Secretary General, said, “It is good to see manufacturer standardising AEB and keeping safety up-to-date even for older cars, to the benefit of their customers. It’s a pity that not everyone follows this example, and by prioritising looks over substance Jeep ended up at the bottom of the list of this year’s rated cars. The good news is that consumers have more choice than ever to find a safer alternative. ”

SEAT has stepped into the world of two wheelers with the announcement of its ‘eScooter’ concept. The VW Group-owned firm will launch a fully electric scooter that will offer performance levels equivalent to a traditional 125cc motorcycle.

Other than this tidbit, however, SEAT is quiet on specs and details about the electric scooter. That said, the brand is keen to unveil the concept later this month since this new offering would eventually form a part of the VW Group’s mobility solutions for crowded cities. SEAT’s President Luca de Meo has gone on record, stating that “the constant growth of large cities makes achieving efficient mobility one of the main challenges to overcome”.

The escooter, then, will be developed by SEAT in collaboration with an electric motorcycle brand called Silence in Barcelona, given the city’s affinity with two wheelers and the fact that Barcelona has the most motorcycles per capita in Europe.

Introducing a small electric scooter may not sound groundbreaking anymore, especially for a large-scale automaker, however, this new concept represents SEAT’s first stab at exploring more efficient forms of urban mobility. The brand, in fact, aims to be a big player in electric, sustainable mobility despite the challenges involved.

Britain’s contribution towards ‘driverless cars’ has reached an important milestone following the successful completion of trials in the complex urban settings of London without any human input. This new development is courtesy of Oxford-based Driven autonomous project that recently completed its week-long trials round the busy streets of Stratford, London.

The 30-month government supported project, in fact, ended its trials with a week-long demonstration around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in a fleet of driver-less Ford Mondeo prototypes. As things stood, there was a safety driver present in all the prototypes according to the team behind the Driven project, the technology has now reached a stage wherein autonomous vehicles with a safety driver can operate smoothly and safely in certain complex real-world traffic conditions.

The Driven team, which includes people from the authority planning, insurance, cyber-security and data trading, is said to have taken a broad approach to address the challenges of self-driving vehicles in busy cities, going beyond the technical obstacles and examining the driverless ‘ecosystem’. The autonomous project has incurred interest from the Minister of State at the Department for Transport, George Freeman MP who wants to “drive the roll-out of self-driving vehicles and continue to support companies like Driven”. According to Ozgur Tohumcu, CEO of Oxbotica, one of the leading autonomous vehicle software firms, such trials would “further demonstrate to the wider UK public that connected and autonomous vehicles will play an important role in the future of transport”.

In other words, it is safe to say that driverless cars have made a big leap forward towards plying on public roads and besides electrification; autonomous tech is the upcoming foremost trend in the development of vehicles. However, the road infrastructure needs to get up to speed which means there is still some time before driverless cars become the norm.

The European Investment bank will stop financing all fossil fuel projects by the end of 2021 with its new climate strategy and energy leading policy. The board of the European Investment bank voted for this new policy on Thursday which will start investing in pioneering clean energy innovations and renewable energy.

“We will stop financing fossil fuels and we will launch the most ambitious climate investment strategy of any public financial institution anywhere,” said EIB President Werner Hoyer. He added, “EIB will collaborate with EU council of Ministers, European Commission, the European Parliament along with international and financial institution as well as private sector to make European economy carbon neutral by 2050.”

In addition, according to the new revised energy policy, new emission standards of 250g of carbon dioxide for one kilowatt hour energy which will replace 550g CO2 per kilowatt hour. EIB has already funded nearly €65 billion to renewable energy, energy efficiency and energy distribution. The EIB group will set a goal to support €1 trillion of investments in climate action and environmental sustainability in the period of 2021 to 2030. 

This move of EIB will cut €2 billion (£1.7bn) yearly funding to all fossil fuel projects like oil, coal and gas. EIB invested €13.4 billion into fossil fuel projects since 2013.