ALL-NEW 2018 LEXUS LS SETS A NEW STANDARD FOR LUXURY SEDAN VALUE

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A70TTR

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Autonomous LS500h Spotted

https://lexusenthusiast.com/2019/10/03/spy-shots-autonomous-lexus-ls-500h-spotted-in-new-york/

As many of you know, this is where the majority of Toyota R&D has been as of late: autonomous driving coupled with green energy.

I've been working on some of this stuff on the side, and this is for sure where everything is heading and why co-developments are sure to reach an all time high on anything outside of appliance type vehicles (before we likely see them disappear for the most part).

The future is fast approaching; enjoy the current cars while you can...
 

YungMercureal

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I agree 100%. We've already seen that purpose built sports cars in a semi-affordable price bracket are getting rarer. While I would have loved a MkV fully built by Toyota, I really enjoy the car and I personally don't mind having a collaboration with BMW to make it possible, given the direction the market is heading.

I just wonder how long it is before we see the disappearance of performance divisions altogether, like BMW M, Mercedes AMG, etc. I can only assume they are kept afloat by the big price jump between standard cars and their performance counterparts.
 

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What I still do not understand is why nearly all manufacturers save the few ultra-expensive luxury supercar brands that pretty much only do those kinds of vehicles see almost no room whatsoever but for crossovers, CUVs, SUVs and worse than that, any of those that drive themselves only.

How is it that that type of vehicle is determined to be the only kind of vehicle that anyone is supposed to want?

While I love all the best high performance gasoline drivelines (and yes, manual gearboxes) I both understand the reason for and am excited for the improvement of electric drivelines and especially battery technology.

But if all you get to choose from in order to experience mature EV powertrains and mature battery technology are amorphous blob crossovers, CUVs and SUVs that you are hardly even given the controls to drive... then what's the point?

I guess the draw of autonomous for the manufacturers is the data collection and marketing angle of passenger travel trends, data and in-car marketing. Which is sad. But I know that is poised to be a huge industry all on its own.

I guess here's to the classic car EV conversion market and maverick boutique companies that offer literally anything but the mainstream self-driving pod cars we're all supposed to want in each manufacturer's own unique candy coated wrapping.

An energy infrastructure shift on this scale shouldn't be directly tied to making driving utterly boring or impossible. It should be an opportunity within at least some market space to try new things with powertrain technology and take driving and fun into the future.

Similarly when I read about an autonomous car racing series for public consumption... I honestly am completely perplexed: of what interest does a low-level A.I. autonomous robot car have in racing against another car? Did the individually VIN-plated autonomous car read a car racing magazine one day as a young version of itself and decide it wanted to grow up to be a self-racing car?

No, no it didn't. It's just a car capable of operating itself (after a LOT of training, coding and machine learning about driving) that responds to outside environmental factors. It has no desires. It just does what its core programming tells it to do other than a simple human inputted goal for that driving session.

There is no human endeavor or challenge in watching an autonomous car racing since the individual autonomous car is not truly self aware.

Where A.I. is going in the larger scope of things far beyond mere self-driving cars as to self-awareness and the nature of what A.I. consciousness might be like and whether or not any A.I. even conceives of individualism and expression anything like humans do is a whole other matter... but nonetheless a something we're all going to have to come to grips with at some point in the not so far future.

I would suppose the human fascination with individualism and individual expression is also a big reason why driving enthusiasts are the way they are. And autonomous car technology could not be farther from that.

It's just sad to me. The energy infrastructure change, electric propulsion technology and next generation battery technology are all things that I can get behind excitedly. However if you remove humans, passion, expression, weirdness and human operation from the mix then it becomes a very depressing affair.
 
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A70TTR

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Simple, most people only use vehicles as a necessary appliance and don't enjoy driving let alone anything performance.

The number of people in this category has skyrocketed with the current and next generation.

THE END.



So, what is the solution for those people? Cheaper transportation (hybrid/EV) that drives itself for you.

Eventually I don't think people will even own cars as it will just become another form of mass transit and you will simply rent or lease vehicles.
 

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A70, that is one of the most depressing future forecasts ever.

Quirky cars we can drive are not everything in life but just being able to experience them without being filthy rich as an entry point is something very significant.

I’m sad that this is where the future will go. I am sure it will be *possible* that there will be some hobbyist exceptions to the rule but how difficult and expensive that will become is a real concern at least for people in our apparently minuscule category of driving enthusiasts.

I can live with autonomous cars becoming a mainstay so long as someone has a choice, given that they actually have a car they can drive. Given no choice, however... ugh.
 
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A70TTR

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We will fight it as long as we can, but companies are interested in numbers because numbers = profit.

For now, we can at least get sports cars still, albeit all are going AT. After that though :(
 

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In my opinion, we're a bit ways off from a world of mass autonomous cars. A70TTR would have a much better insight than me about how true that is, but my guess we got about 40-ish years?

I know a few cars have pretty good adaptive cruise control tech, but I don't see them becoming a norm. Most are a bit too hit or miss and can't recognize every road (dirt roads?). Plus laws haven't even caught up to the idea of full autonomous vehicles on the road. How would insurance work around that? If you get into an accident who's at fault? Then there's public perception of safety (marketing cost). Too many costly unknowns.

The test Lexus is doing makes sense, but how many can afford a car close to $100k for semi autonomy? I agree we're on our way, but I don't think it's a big concern in our foreseeable future.
 
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A70TTR

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Fully autonomous with no user input (aka Level 5) is a long ways off, but I'd say more like 15-20 years out. You should see what we are doing on the back end already on this front...

But yeah, most of the issues as you touched upon are centered around safety and legislation. That said, assisted driving (LV 1-2) is obviously in full force deployment with Tesla Auto Pilot, Nissan Pro-Pilot, GM Super Cruise, etc.

Audi is reportedly testing the first LV3 (really just waiting on government to catch up), and Toyota wants to be first to LV4 to market. The safety and legislation issues are still present, more so even, but once the tech is right there and everyone is on board things will start to change fast. For instance, Toyota wants to license this tech to other auto manufacturers, partially for profit but more importantly to accelerate the program exponentially.
 

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https://www.carscoops.com/2020/04/l...0h-v8-powered-hybrid-and-four-cylinder-turbo/

Lexus LS Facelift To Get 600h V8-Powered Hybrid And Four-Cylinder Turbo?

Unlike its predecessor, the fifth generation Lexus LS cannot be had with a V8 engine, but not all is lost, as the eight-banger is rumored to return for the 2021 or 2022 model year, with the facelifted iteration of the car.

The news comes via Japan’s Mag-X, which in its June issue claims that Toyota’s luxury brand is working on a new hybrid V8 to be added to the lineup. If it’s true, then that means that Lexus might revive the LS 600h moniker that was buried with the fourth generation flagship sedan.

No other details are known about the powertrain, but the old LS 600h came with a 5.0-liter V8, with electric assistance, boasting 439 horsepower. Even without any updates, that’s already a big improvement compared to the current LS 500 and LS 500h, which boast 416 and 354 horsepower respectively.

Four-cylinder turbo too?

More surprisingly, the Japanese car magazine says that the LS family could be expanded to include a four-pot turbo option that might fill the empty space left by the demise of the GS. It’s impossible to verify this rumor at this point, but even if the flagship sedan will launch with a four-cylinder engine, it’s not certain that it will be available in North America. For what it’s worth, BMW, Mercedes and Audi do offer 4-cylinder versions of their flagship sedans in some markets.

As for the mid-cycle refresh, it looks like the LS will bring a new front bumper that will continue to incorporate the huge spindle grille. The publication shared an image of a prototype that had the front end covered up. The facelifted LS might also welcome an advanced semi-autonomous driving system.

webLS.jpg
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