Aug 02

Land Rover taps Eden Project to test all-electric Defender’s mettle

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DNP Land Rover taps Project Eden to test the allelectric Defender's mettle

Land Rover has been tinkering with all-electric 4x4s for awhile, but now the automaker is finally ready to put its petrol-free prototypes to the test: its Defender EV is going to work. An upgraded version of its all-terrain monster has been tasked with hauling tourist trains around the UK’s biome wonderland, Eden Project.​ Of course, the beast of burden has undergone some changes since the test stages, losing its hard top and gaining an extra battery to even out weight distribution while extending its service range. The 50-mile range / 8-hour usage cycle is still low by consumer standards, but in this specialized setting the £2, 10-hour recharge is almost negligible.

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Via: Autoblog

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Mar 01

Land Rover EV prototypes tread lightly uphill, recharge on the way down

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Land Rover EV prototype treads lightly uphill, recharges on the way down

Instant torque feels delicious on the highway, but it could be an even bigger asset in an offroader. Land Rover has been experimenting with electric versions of its Defender 110 for a while now, and claims its latest prototypes benefit from a reduction in wheel spin due to the single-speed motor, making them more adept at climbing and less likely to churn up the environment. The prototypes don’t necessarily stand out in terms of raw specs: they’re 25 percent heavier than turbodiesel models, with lower horsepower and torque ratings, and with a range of just 50 miles. They try to make up for it in other ways, however, with the ability to deliver up to eight hours of slow, grueling off-road time, where range is secondary to staying upright, and by exploiting Land Rover’s Hill Descent Control feature for faster recharging through regenerative braking. There’s no plan to bring an EV Defender to market any time soon, or to run the Dakar gauntlet like some rivals have, but the prototypes are due to make appearance at the Geneva Motor Show before being tested for painful-sounding “specialist applications” later in the year.

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Via: Autoblog, Forbes

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Sep 20

Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen

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Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to opensource your ride with TizenIt doesn’t take much driving to notice that many in-car infotainment systems are custom-built and locked down tight. The Linux Foundation sees it differently and wants our cars to embrace the same notions of common roots and open code that we’d find in an Ubuntu box. Its newly-formed Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup is transforming Tizen into a reference platform that car designers can use for the center stack, or even the instrument cluster. The promise is to both optimize a Linux variant for cars and provide the same kind of years-long support that we’d expect for the drivetrain. Technology heavy-hitters like Intel, Harman, NVIDIA, Samsung and TI form the core of the group, although there are already automakers who’ve signaled their intentions: Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota are all part of the initial membership. We don’t know how soon we’ll be booting into Tizen on the morning commute, but we’d expect in-car systems to take a step forward — just as long as we don’t have to recompile our car’s OS kernel.

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Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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