Mercedes-Benz shows off self-driving car technology in its new $100,000 S-Class And Aston Martin CC100 marks centenary with crazy one-off racer

Google has been pushing self-driving car technology for much of the last few years, and Audi showed off its own self-driving vehicle at the last CES, and now Mercedes-Benz is throwing its hat into the ring. According to The New York Times, the automaker showed off its "virtual chauffer" technology in its new $100,00 S-Class in Hamburg, Germany — it's a car that Mercedes-Benz says can steer itself in city traffic or keep it in its lane going over 120MPH on a highway, under the right conditions. It can also park itself, brake automatically to avoid hitting pedestrians or other cars, and can even tell when a driver is becoming dangerously fatigued. Mercedes compared it to a plane's autopilot system, in which the plane can perform many of the routine tasks necessary to get it from point A to point B while a human keeps its eye on things to watch out for trouble.

Of course, this is just the beginning — the automaker wants to make the car smart enough to safely change lanes while cruising at Autobahn speeds. While the tech Mercedes-Benz is packing into this vehicle is undoubtably impressive, we're still a long ways from this car actually driving itself. Users will be required by law to keep at least one hand on the wheel at all times, so owners won't exactly be able to just kick back and read the paper on their commute. Still, with major corporations like Google, Audi, and now Mercedes-Benz making autonomous cars a priority, there's a chance that we'll see automakers meet that three- to five-year timeline Google is shooting for.




A new Aston Martin is something worth shouting about, but it’ll take a number of loud (and rich) voices if the one-off CC100 Speedster Concept is to spawn a production version. The pared-back racer, crafted by the British sportscar company to celebrate its centenary, borrows the long, low, lean style of Aston Martin’s 1950s DBR1 racers, but brings the technology up to date with a 6.0-liter V12 engine good for a 0-62mph dash      in “a little over four seconds.”

Top speed is an electrically-restrained 180mph, with the CC100 slamming through a six-speed hydraulically-actuated auto sequential manual gearbox. That’s controlled using paddle-shifters on the wheel in the driver’s pod; accommodation in the Speedster Concept is for two, with each getting a separately-braced area in the carbon-fiber cabin.

Although rain and wind might be an issue – there’s no roof, and no windshield – the CC100′s interior is otherwise relatively luxurious for a racing-oriented concept. As well as carbon-fiber there’s Bridge of Weir leather, glass buttons, and the same glass starter-button as on Aston Martin’s production road cars. The slimline doors – more like safety bars – hinge up and out to allow you to squeeze into the hide-covered racing seats.

Aston Martin CC100:
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In all, it’s nearly 4.5m long and more than 2m wide, though interestingly shares a lot of the underlying chassis technology with the car company’s more mainstream range. Under the lightweight carbon-fiber is Aston Martin’s Vertical Horizontal Platform, a multi-purpose structure which is specially fettled for each car, whether it be the four-door Rapide or tourers like the DB9.

The CC100 made its public debut this weekend, at the ADAC Zurich 24 Hours of Nürburgring race, alongside the same Aston Martin DBR1 that completed the 1959 race. At the wheel of the classic was the same driver who guided it round those 1,000km (621 miles) 54 years ago, racing driver Sir Stirling Moss.
Unfortunately, there are no plans – public, at least – to create a production version of the CC100 Speedster Concept. However, given sufficient demand it’s possible that Aston Martin could relent on that front, and start a small-scale production run in a similar manner to its bespoke One-77 supercar.




From Appy-geek.com