Time to rob a bank: Lamborghini is taking orders for an Aventador SV

By Stephen Edelstein Published July 4, 2014

The 2015 Huracán LP610-4 may be getting all of the attention, but don’t think Lamborghini has forgotten the Huracán’s big brother.

Lamborghini dealers in the U.K. are taking orders for a hotter Aventador SV model, AutoEvolution reports.

Headquarters hasn’t confirmed the model yet, but those dealers are still asking around $17,168 per customer to reserve one. At least it’s refundable.

The SV, or Super Veloce, is traditionally the ultimate version of a given Lamborghini model. It’s been that way since the Miura SV of 1971.

However, the SV model is usually introduced at the end of a car’s lifecycle a a sort of last hurrah. The Murcielago SV, for example, was the last version of Lambo’s previous flagship sold.

Yet the Aventador SV will reportedly arrive sometime next year. The timing seems a bit off, but why look a gift horse (or in this case, bull) in the mouth?

When it launched the Aventador a few years ago, Lamborghini said it marked a new emphasis on lightness and handling over raw power, and a still-sportier SV model would seem like the perfect opportunity to put that philosophy in action.

Perhaps the new model won’t be an SV at all.

Lambo built two Superleggera (“super light”) versions of the Gallardo as stripped-down, track-focused answers to the Ferrari 430 Sucderia and Porsche 911 GT3 RS.

Those cars emphasized lightness and handling, and weren’t saved until the end of the Gallardo’s product cycle, so could we be looking at a first-ever Superleggera version of the flagship V12 car?

Another possibility is that Lamborghini simply needs to fight back in the horsepower wars. After all, the current Aventador is outgunned by the 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat. That’s great for Dodge, but not so great for the company selling the much more expensive supercar.

While the exact nature of the new model is unclear, Lamborghini will almost certainly update the Aventador in the near future. To make the most of its long product cycles, the company usually refreshes its models every few years.

So whatever badge it wears, expect the next Aventador to be even better than before.

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Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

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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.
And on April 3, Nissan, the biggest Japanese vehicle exporter to the United States, announced it will stop taking new U.S. orders for two Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs, the QX50 and QX55.

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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.
The new feature is still under development and offers riders an opportunity to opt out of data collection, Ilina says.
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Cars

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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.