Dutch students building a ‘Ring beating hybrid racer

By Peter Braun Published July 8, 2014

What is wrong with college kids today? In my day our greatest aspiration was to get through class and maybe meet someone pretty. It certainly wasn’t building a race car that hopes to not only win at Le Mans but also beat the all time lap record at the Nurburgring. But that is exactly what students from the Technical University of Eindhoven and the Fontys University of Applied sciences want to do.

The car dubbed the IM01 is being built for the InMotion motorsport company and as you would expect given the goals it should have some pretty impressive technology.

The crucial piece of the puzzle is a hybrid drivetrain that features four electric motors, one at each wheel, powered by batteries, and charged by a rotary engine. Rotaries have been around for a long time, thanks to inventor Felix Wankel and of course Mazda, but they may have finally found their niche in systems like the one proposed by InMotion.

Run at a fixed rpm and used as a generator, rotaries can generate a lot of power very efficiently thanks to lower resistance and vibration. The InMotion team is shooting for 60 percent efficiency (meaning 60 percent of the potential power of the fuel is converted to useful mechanical energy), which might sound low, but the average efficiency of an internal combustion engine is only around 25 percent.

This hybrid system should not only provide plenty of power it should help with handling thanks to the possibility of torque vectoring using the four electric motors to drive each wheel at the correct speed for cornering.

Predictably aerodynamics feature heavily in the IM01’s design. The result looks a bit like the love child of a Tron light-cycle, a land speed record car, and F16 Fighting Falcon. This will no doubt produce more downforce than produced by the cast of Duck Dynasty. There are also some active touches, for instance hot air from the engine is used in a blown diffuser which actively disrupts the air behind the car to create a smoother slipstream.

All of this sounds impressive, but for now it is firmly in the territory of imagination. A project like this will need money, time, and luck to succeed. Especially as the goal set by the team is to compete at Le Mans in 2017. Still I can’t help but hope they succeed.

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Peter is a freelance contributor to Digital Trends and almost a lawyer. He has loved thinking, writing and talking about cars…

Cars

Audi halts vehicle deliveries to the U.S. as it mulls impact of tariffs

2021 Audi Q5

If you’d been thinking of buying an Audi, now might be the time. The German brand, owned by the Volkswagen Group, has announced it would halt shipments to the U.S. in the wake of President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on all imported vehicles.
Audi is currently holding cars that arrived after the tariffs took effect, on April 3, in U.S. ports. But it still has around 37,000 vehicles in its U.S. inventory, which should be able to meet demand for about two months, according to Reuters.
Automakers on average hold enough cars to meet U.S. demand for about three months, according to Cox Automotive.
Audi should be particularly affected by the tariffs: The Q5, its best-selling model in the U.S., is produced in Mexico, while other models, such as the A3, A4, and A6 are produced in Germany.
Holding shipments is obviously a temporary measure to buy time for Audi and parent company Volkswagen. If tariffs stay in place, vehicle prices would likely have to go up accordingly, unless some production is shifted to the U.S. Volkswagen already has a plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and is planning a new plant in South Carolina. That latter plant, however, isn’t expected to be operational until 2027 and is currently dedicated to building electric vehicles for VW’s Scout Motors brand.
Other global automakers have also taken drastic measures in response to Trump’s tariffs. Jaguar Land Rover on April 5 said it is pausing shipments of its its UK-made cars to the United States this month. The British sports-luxury vehicle maker noted that the U.S. market accounts for nearly a quarter of its global sales, led by the likes of Range Rover Sports, Defenders, and Jaguar F-PACE.
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Cars

Waymo faces questions about its use of onboard cameras for AI training, ads targeting

Two people exit a Waymo taxi.

In an iconic scene from the 2002 sci-fi film Minority Report, on-the-run Agent John Anderton, played by Tom Cruise, struggles to walk through a mall as he’s targeted by a multitude of personalized ads from the likes of Lexus, Guinness and American Express, everytime hidden detectors identify his eyes.
It was clearly meant as a warning about a not-so-desirable dystopian future.
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On X, Wong unveiled an unreleased version of Waymo’s privacy policy that suggests the California-based company is preparing to use data from its robotaxis, including interior cameras, to train generative AI models and to offer targetted ads.
“Waymo may share data to improve and analyze its functionality and to tailor products, services, ads, and offers to your interests,” the Waymo’s unreleased privacy statement reads. “You can opt out of sharing your information with third parties, unless it’s necessary to the functioning of the service.”
Asked for comments about the unreleased app update, Waymo told The Verge that it contained “placeholder text that doesn’t accurately reflect the feature’s purpose”.
Waymo’s AI-models “are not designed to use this data to identify individual people, and there are no plans to use this data for targeted ads,” spokesperson Julia Ilina said.
Waymo’s robotaxis, which are operating on the streets of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin, do contain onboard cameras that monitor riders. But Ilina says these are mainly used to train AI models for safety, finding lost items, check that in-car rules are followed, and to improve the service.
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Cars

Waymo’s driverless cars are about to begin an overseas adventure

Waymo Jaguar I-Pace

Waymo’s autonomous cars are about to appear on streets outside of the U.S. for the first time.

The company on Wednesday announced on social media that its autonomous cars will be driving onto the streets of Tokyo, Japan, “soon,” with some reports suggesting the rollout will begin as early as next week.