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Tag: VW

  • McDonald’s Impacted by Data Breach

    McDonald’s Impacted by Data Breach

    McDonald’s now joins an ever-growing list of major companies impacted by data breaches.

    On the same day that VW announced it was impacted by a data breach, fast-food leader McDonald’s announced it too has suffered a breach. The company says private information was accessed for both employees and customers in South Korea and Taiwan.

    According to CNN Business, McDonald’s says it’s cybersecurity investments were to thank for helping the company identify the breach as fast as it did, preventing additional harm.

    “These tools allowed us to quickly identify and contain recent unauthorized activity on our network,” a spokesperson told CNN Business. “A thorough investigation was conducted, and we worked with experienced third parties to support this investigation.”

    It seems the damage could have been far worse had McDonald’s not contained the breach so fast. According to The Wall Street Journal, the hackers also gained access to some US employees’ business contact information, as well minor logistical information on some US restaurants, such as seating capacity. No sensitive or personal information was leaked for US employees or customers.

  • VW Switching to High-Nickel Batteries

    VW Switching to High-Nickel Batteries

    Volkswagen is set to significantly increase the amount of nickel in its electric vehicle batteries.

    Nickel is an important component in battery manufacturing, and helps increase the storage capacity and energy density of batteries. This, in turn, can lead to lower cost-per-kWh of storage, according to the Nickel Institute.

    VW’s current generation of batteries are comprised of 65% nickel but, according Reuters, the automaker’s “next generation batteries will have 80% nickel, 10% cobalt and 10% manganese.” The increased nickel should help the company significantly improve its electric vehicles’ storage capacity and range.

    Reuters goes on to say that VW plans to produce 3 million electric vehicles by 2025. The company’s new battery tech should go a long way toward ensuring their new vehicles are competitive in an increasingly crowded field.

  • Tesla Electronics Tech Six Years Ahead of Competitors

    Tesla Electronics Tech Six Years Ahead of Competitors

    Tesla may not have nearly the size or market penetration of its more established rivals, but the company is years ahead of them in electronics technology.

    Nikkei Business Publication did a teardown of the Tesla Model 3, giving engineers from competitors the opportunity to examine the electronic components. In particular, the teardown looked at the integrated central control unit, the brains of the car. Tesla created the Full Self-Driving (FSD) Computer, or Hardware 3, after finding there were no existing solutions available.

    According to Nikkei, “one stunned engineer from a major Japanese automaker examined the computer and declared, ‘We cannot do it.’”

    As electric vehicles and self-driving cars become the standard, FSD-type hardware will be in high demand and be one of the single most critical components of such vehicles. As Nikkei highlights, however, industry experts don’t expect the technology to be widely used until 2025, giving Tesla a six-year head start.

    Nikkei’s sources claim companies such as Toyota and VW have the technological ability to roll out similar hardware, but feel indebted to the supply chain they have spent decades building up. That supply chain will be devastated by FSD-style hardware that will greatly simplify the electronic design of vehicles, cutting down the number of components needed.

    Tesla has already been credited with a significant advantage in its battery technology, allowing it to spend roughly $50 per kilowatt hour less than competitors. Now with it having an equally significant advantage in its electronics tech, competitors will have to play catchup on multiple fronts—whether for technical reasons or not.

  • Audi Q1 Compact SUV Set for 2016 Release

    Audi Q1 Compact SUV Set for 2016 Release

    It hasn’t been long since the Italian invasion of the Fiat has breached American shores and displayed the fact that Americans are truly in love with anything that appears miniature. The success of the revamped Fiat 500, along with the continued high volume sales of the Mini Cooper Countryman and surprising success of the Buick Encore, has inspired Audi to launch its own line of micro-SUVs in order to surpass BMW as the world’s number 1 luxury car brand.

    The Audi Q1 will be built around the Modular Transverse Matrix platform, the same platform which is used to construct the Audi A3 and the Volkswagen Golf (VW being Audi’s parent-company). By using the MTM platform, Audi will be able to produce the Q1 at its largest plant, Ingolstadt, in Germany. Peter Mosch, Chairman of the General Works Council, believes that “This is a clear commitment to Ingolstadt as a production site. We will continue to make all efforts to develop the plant even further as the leading technological site of the Audi Group.”

    Being able to continue production at its home site and abroad is a luxury that Audi has been able to afford while other automakers haven’t. The internationalization of Audi, unlike companies such as Ford, GM, and Chrysler, has not led to it having to abandon production in Germany where the costs of supplies and labor are higher.

    As it currently stands, Audi has yet to release information concerning specific details about the Q1’s engine or features. Some are assuming that the engine will reflect the super-compact size of the car, with Audi potentially offering a 1.4 L gasoline engine, following by a 1.6 L diesel TDI engine, while others are postulating that the engine will be more similar to the engine found in the A3 – a 2.0 L turbo-charged engine.

    The decision for Audi was an easy one. The Q-series of vehicles has been one of Audi’s most successful brands, selling 1.5 million vehicles since the line’s induction in 2006. This year alone, SUVs accounted for 28% of Audi’s market-share, a number which is expected to balloon to 35% by the year 2020. Audi hopes that the introduction of the compact Q1 to compete directly with BMW’s Mini Cooper, along with bumping their total number of models offered from 49 to 60, will boost their sales enough to make them the number 1 luxury car brand in the world. We’ll check back in on that progress in 2020. Stay tuned.

    [Image via Audi]

  • Volkswagen’s New (Better Than The Super Bowl) Ad Taps Trololo

    For the Super Bowl, Volkswagen chose to run a fairly innocuous ad that for some reason generated a bunch of controversy. It featured a while guy from Minnesota going around his office speaking in a Jamaican accent, who eventually gets his coworkers to “get happy” by speaking in the same fashion – all because they enjoyed a wonderful ride in a new Volkswagen Beetle.

    That ad, though controversial (still, why?), wasn’t as great as VW Super Bowl offerings of the past. Then again, VW has quite the pedigree. They’re responsible for one of the most-beloved Super Bowl ads of all time – the one featuring that cute kid in the Darth Vader mask.

    Here’s a new ad for the Beetle, and it’s awesome. I mean, it has the Trololo song playing in the background. Check it out:

  • Look At This Creepy Gene Simmons Bug

    Look At This Creepy Gene Simmons Bug

    You too can rock n’ roll all night and party ev-er-y day with this incredibly F-ed up Gene Simmons inspired classic VW. That is, if you live or can travel to Denver, Colorado. That’s where the the car is listed on Craigslist. All it takes is $10,000 and a desire to invest that money in freaking everyone out.

    From the actual listing: “Car will be finished in 40 days (in time for concert) come see it now, buy it as is for less, or put downdeposit to hold it for you and your coolest friends to take to “Comfort Dental Ampitheater” Aug 8th.”

    Driving this around a KISS concert would certainly make you a hit, so some rich dude that loves KISS is sure to buy it.

    (image)

    The car features Gene Simmon’s visage (obviously), but it also sports rope on top for the hair, a new engine, new modified body and many other restorations.

    (image)

    [geekosystem via uproxx]

  • Fiat Photo Bombs VW in Google Street View

    Fiat Photo Bombs VW in Google Street View

    According to Jalopnik, Fiat paid close attention to when the Google street view car would be around to snap photos. On that day, they parked a Fiat 500 in front of Volkswagen’s Swedish operation headquarters in Sodertalje. The Google car drove by snapping pictures as scheduled, and this picture is the result: A photo bomb by Fiat at the VW headquarters.

    From the picture it looks like they had to go to some great lengths to get the Fiat up those stairs without VW workers noticing. But as Jalopnik reports, a driveway leads right up to the front doors.

    Looks like Volkswagen is going to have to deal with it for a while. Google only updates their street view passes about once a year.

    The question is: How did Fiat know that Google was going to be around that day? Do they have someone on the inside? Or did they just happen to see the car driving around that day.

    As Jalopnik notes, “Here in the US, Google uses Prii for their camera cars, but it looks like in Sweden they’re using Opel Astras. So unless Opel and Fiat teamed up to prank VW, the tipoff wasn’t from some direct Fiat-Google relationship.”

    The online car enthusiast magazine is sure that this is an intricate and well thought out prank. Did they ever stop to think that maybe a guy with a Fiat 500 just happened to have business at VW that day?

    [via: adRants]

  • Volkswagon Concept Hover Car Flys Through China

    Volkswagon has been at the forefront of automotive technology for years. Most recently it was the introduction of the fastest production car of all time Bugatti Veyron. Now they have the beginnings of a flying concept car. Not in the sense that it flys through the air like an airplane/car. But that it used electro magnets placed in the road to hover through the streets of a city in China.

    The concept car has a cool feature that need to be pointed out. It has a collision detection system in place to keep people safe when they aren’t paying attention or if they are slow to respond. I imagine the technology is related to the collision system that Mercedes uses wich basically uses small cameras and sophisticated software to detect threats and help you drive safer.

    This is a very early concept and obviously not real, but what it does show is the potential of the new world that is coming quick. The attention to detail is kind of neat in the video, from the simple thing of the aluminum can being pushed out of the way. Even though aluminum isn’t magnetic I still think it is kinda cool.