If you’ve driven machinery from various eras, you probably know firsthand how the outward visibility of new cars pales in comparison to that of old cars. We understand this from experience, but it’s been a hard thing to put numbers on until now. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has quantified outward visibility in both new and old cars, and the results aren’t good. Based on this sample, it’s harder to see out of new cars than ever before, and that may play a significant role in making our roads more dangerous.

Pedestrian deaths in America hit an all-time low in 2009 with 4,109 fatalities, but that trend quickly reversed. By 2022, more American pedestrians were dying in collisions than at any point in recorded history, and while 2023 saw a slight decline from 7,522 pedestrian deaths to 7,318 pedestrian deaths, that number is still incredibly high. While mobile phone use has increased since 2009, surely that isn’t the only reason for this worsening trend, right?

Pretty much all new cars produced in the past seven years offer automatic emergency braking, and since we live in a global car market, we also benefit from European crash testing that has included pedestrian tests since 1997. Since many cars sold in North America are structurally identical to their European-market counterparts, maybe there’s more to the alarmingly high number of pedestrian fatalities than just the crossover craze and mobile phone use. That’s why the IIHS turned to technology to actually quantify outward visibility.

The new IIHS method relies on computational software and a portable camera rig that can be positioned in the driver seat at various heights to represent different-sized drivers, no matter where the vehicle is located. The camera rotates to take a 360-degree image of the field of vision around the vehicle. The software then converts that image into a blind zone map that depicts an aerial view of the vehicle and the nearest points on the ground that the driver can see. It also provides a numerical value for the percentage of the area around the vehicle that is visible.

Neat, right? For this test, IIHS researchers honed in on the metric of 180-degree forward visibility within a 10 meter (32.8-foot) radius of the vehicle, rounded up old and new examples of six popular cars – the Chevrolet Suburban, Ford F-150, Honda Accord, Honda CR-V, Jeep Grand Cherokee, and Toyota Camry – and put its rig in the driver’s seat. You can probably guess what the non-profit found.

Let’s start with the worst of the worst. If you’ve driven a first-generation (1995 – 2000) Honda CR-V, you know just how expansive the view out is. According to this IIHS test, first-gen CR-V drivers can see 68 percent of everything 10 meters ahead. Once the rig was put into a 2023 CR-V, however, a stark contrast appeared. Shockingly, drivers of the new model are only able to see 28 percent of the area out to 10 meters ahead of them.

The 2000 Chevrolet Suburban is in a similar place, even if it started out worse. Drivers of the old example were able to see 56 percent of the area 10 meters in front of them, but with the 2023 model, that figure plummets to a shocking 28 percent. Since the Suburban is essentially a half-ton pickup truck with a wagon body, you’d expect to see a similarly precipitous decline for the Ford F-150.

Drivers of the jellybean 1997 F-150 could only see 43 percent of the forward space within a 10-meter radius, notably worse than the 2000 Suburban, and things only get more interesting from there. Since the 2015 F-150 and the current model use the same cab, the IIHS used a 2015 model and found that it let drivers see 36 percent of forward area within 10 meters of the vehicle. Still not a good number by any means, but a huge improvement over the new Suburban.

Unsurprisingly, sedans fared better than SUVs and trucks, though things aren’t trending in the right direction. Visibility from within the 2023 Honda Accord came in at 60 percent, versus 65 percent for the 2003 model year. Drivers of the 2023 Camry can see 57 percent of the forward area within 10 meters of the vehicle, compared to 61 percent in the 2007 model.

So what have we learned, other than a 2000 Chevrolet Suburban has nearly as good forward visibility as a brand new Toyota Camry? Well, new cars are harder to see out of than ever before, and once you combine the increased crossover utility vehicle sales mix with the serious decline in visibility for crossovers and SUVs over the past 25 years or so, a serious potential problem emerges. Obviously, a larger sample size is needed, but as IIHS senior research engineer Becky Mueller said, “If further research confirms that these changes reflect a general change, that would suggest that declining visibility in SUVs has compounded the effects of taller, blunt-nosed vehicles that IIHS has already documented.”

More interestingly, it’s not necessarily thick modern A-pillars that decrease forward visibility, but other components such as hood height and angle, cowl height, and mirror size. IIHS researchers attribute the bulk of the new CR-V and Suburban’s reduced visibility to those elements, meaning a happy medium between strong pillars and good visibility theoretically exists. There’s even a good chance it’s on the market already, as IIHS researchers are working through the process of comparing visibility maps of 150 new vehicles.

Top graphic image: IIHS

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The post A New IIHS Study Quantifies How Much Worse Outward Visibility Is On New Cars And It’s Worse Than We Imagined appeared first on The Autopian.

When we drive on public roads, we usually expect the odd bump or two. What we don’t expect is a massive hump to suddenly appear before us, throwing our car airborne. And yet, for one unlucky driver in Missouri last week, that’s precisely what happened.

As covered by Fox10, the incident occurred on Siemers Drive in Cape Girardeau on Sunday, June 22. Local Albert Blackwell was filming a small bulge in the road that had formed during the heatwave. The damaged area of the road had already been signposted as a “BUMP” by city authorities. As Blackwell filmed, the road suddenly burst upwards.

As the road split and bulged upwards, an approaching driver in a Toyota Corolla had nowhere to go. As their sedan hit the surprise ramp, it caught a full foot of air before landing back on the ground with an ungainly thump.

While the Corolla was never built to take jumps, it nevertheless appears to have survived the stunt without suffering major damage. As seen in the video, the drivers following were fortunate enough to have more time to react. Cars coming from behind gingerly worked their way over the surprise obstacle without the airborne antics.

There was a degree of luck involved in catching the shot. “When I went back to get a front angle of cars going over the smaller buckle, the road exploded and rose over 18 inches, sending a car airborne,” Blackwell told media outlet Storyful.

Siemers Drive wasn’t the only road to face issues, either. With temperatures approaching 100 degrees on the weekend, the city of Cape Girardeau reported that another road had also buckled in the hot conditions. Road crews will be pleased to note that temperatures are expected to ease towards this weekend, remaining below 90 degrees for much of the following week.

Video captured by KFVS12 shows just how severe the buckle was. Where the concrete has expanded and pushed up from the ground, it stands well over 12 inches above the surrounding roadway. It would be an almost perfect ramp if not for the fact that commuter cars don’t handle airtime particularly well.

KFVS12 managed to capture repair efforts on Monday. Road crews used asphalt to replace the damaged section, restoring a smooth, continuous surface without any surprise jumps.

Public roads are intentionally designed to withstand typical weather conditions, be they heat, cold, rain, wind, or snow. Still, every so often, high heat can deliver some unwelcome surprises. One minute, you’re driving your Corolla to the store; the next, you’re doing a Streets of San Francisco. Stay safe out there, and watch out for any more surprise pop-up ramps as the roads get warm this summer.

Image credits: FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul via YouTube screenshot

The post Watch A Heatwave Instantly Buckle This Road And Send A Toyota Flying appeared first on The Autopian.

News James Bond

The Spies Must Flow: Denis Villeneuve Will Direct the Next James Bond Movie

But first he’s got to get off Arrakis.

By Molly Templeton

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Published on June 26, 2025

Screenshot: MGM

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Screenshot: MGM

We still don’t know who will be next to step into James Bond’s very stylish (and hopefully practical) footwear, but we know who will be behind the camera: Dune director Denis Villeneuve is set to direct the next Bond film, which will also be the first Bond film from the Amazon-owned Amazon MGM Studios.

In a statement, Villeneuve said, “Some of my earliest movie-going memories are connected to 007. I grew up watching James Bond films with my father, ever since Dr. No with Sean Connery. I’m a die-hard Bond fan. To me, he’s sacred territory. I intend to honour the tradition and open the path for many new missions to come. This is a massive responsibility, but also, incredibly exciting for me and a huge honour.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The search is underway for a screenwriter who will work with Villeneuve to bring the newest incarnation of the secret agent to the big screen.”

Villeneuve has spoken for years about his desire to direct a Bond film; Deadline rounded up some of his comments on the subject. As far back as 2015, he told ComingSoon, “I was raised with James Bond. I love James Bond movies. I would love to do a James Bond movie one day. Action is very cinematic. I’m not someone that loves dialogue—I am someone that loves movement. Action, if it’s well done, can be very poetic and meaningful.”

It may be a long minute before we get Villeneuve’s Bond, as his third and final Dune movie, Dune: Messiah, is expected to arrive in late 2026. Plus, first they’ve got to cast someone in the iconic role. British GQ has a rundown of some rumors and opinions on the matter. The bookies have decent odds on both Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James, but plenty of other names are still in the mix—and the actual actor may, someday, surprise us.[end-mark]

The post The Spies Must Flow: Denis Villeneuve Will Direct the Next James Bond Movie appeared first on Reactor.

“What,” I have often asked myself, “must it have been to live through the rise of Nazi Germany? What did people do?”

Until recent years, I didn’t think I’d have first-hand knowledge of what it was like to experience the rise of fascism. The thing that surprises me the most is how mundane it is.

I wake up. I make coffee. I knit, I read, I talk with friends. I go to the doctor, eat, clean. Hell, I’ve managed to both buy a car and sell a house over the last few months.

I read the news of the day and wonder how people can be so hateful and cruel. I wonder how the people who have the most money can take mercilessly from those who have the least. I wonder how AI tech bros can be so committed to advancing technology that does such environmental and societal harm. I wonder how one person can snatch another off the street and be paid, by the government, to do so. I wonder how those who have told me my whole life to read the Constitution and take it to heart can cheer while it is rendered more and more meaningless day by day by day.

I try to find the logic, to make it make sense. I fail.

I call my representatives (while recognizing that it does little). I donate money to people who need it (and to those who are doing the work I cannot). I contemplate what more I could be doing.

I feel hopeless.

I wake up. I make coffee. I knit, I read, I talk with friends.

And I wish for a better world.

The U.S. market has seen Extended Range Electric Vehicles (EREVs) before. The BMW i3 was technically the first, though many consider the Chevy Volt the pioneer of the general concept. That concept being: You drive in electric mode until the battery dies, then a gas engine-generator charges the battery so you can go farther. But despite these two having existed in the U.S. market, we still have no idea how America is going to react to EREVs, which is wild to think about given that yet another automaker is looking to head that route according to a new report.

I was recently on a call with Bank of America’s senior analyst John Murphy, who was explaining to a group of journalists the contents of the company’s latest annual “Car Wars” market report. At the end of the call, I asked Murphy what his thoughts are on EREVs. Here’s what he replied:

“I think it’s an odd setup for a powertrain. I certainly think in some use cases — pickups and large SUVs, but in general I don’t think it’s going to become that pervasive.”

I’m not saying I think Murphy is wrong, but it seems to me that, at this point, it’s hard to know what’s going to happen. To be completely fair, I wrote “The Future Of The Auto Industry Is Electric, With A Gasoline Backup,” so I, too, am making guesses about how well the technology will do, but I have to admit that I just don’t know for sure.

What I do know is that the technology is awesome to live with day-to-day; I’ve been driving a BMW i3 Range Extender for years now, and it’s simply amazing. The reality is that America’s EV infrastructure isn’t good enough, and that people don’t want low-range EVs. As Murphy said on the all “[EV Range anxiety] is very real.” A Range Extender is a way to solve both problems without jamming a heavy, expensive battery under the floor. 

I’m not the only one saying this; lots of automakers are heading down the EREV path. And I mean lots. Ford, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Jeep, Lotus, Scout, Ram and now BMW have indicated interest in bringing EREV technology to the marketplace.

I say “now” BMW, because there’s a new report from Automobilewoche that states that BMW — once the authority when it came to EREVs – has changed its mind on EREVs. From Automotive News:

BMW plans to revive its range extender technology, starting with a variant of the iX5 SUV, which is already in testing and could arrive in 2026, according to a report in Automotive News Europe sibling publication Automobilwoche.

The news signals a shift for BMW. In 2019 a leading executive was quoted as saying that there was “no future” for range extenders.

The comment came as BMW was looking to shift beyond its i3, which was offered as either a full-electric model or with a range extender in the early days of the transition to vehicles powered only by electricity. The aim of offering the system was to ease range anxiety.

The world watches as the Ram Ramcharger is expected to become the first EREV to enter the U.S. market since the BMW i3 bowed out in 2021. But the question is: How will it fare?

The BMW i3 and Chevy Volt were both relatively slow sellers, but we really shouldn’t draw any conclusions from that. Not only were these two vehicles part of a market segment that America just doesn’t care about anymore (small cars), but because they’re small cars they don’t really stand to benefit as much from EREV technology. Let’s be honest: The Volt and i3 would have probably been 40 MPG cars had they been powered solely by gas.

But as Murphy mentioned: Trucks and SUVs are a different ballgame. Getting an 18 MPG pickup truck to drive on electric power while offering significantly improved acceleration, plus plenty of range for towing — that’s a massive improvement for the buyer.

But at what cost?

That’s really the big question here. If I can buy a gasoline SUV for $40 grand, and — especially if EV tax credits go away as it seems they might — I have to spend $60 grand for an equivalent EREV, what’s the value to me as a consumer? Gasoline is fairly cheap, so it could take over a decade to make up $20 grand in fuel costs. Maintenance costs will help fill the gap, but it’ll take time, and I’m not sure any consumers think that far out. They want the car to bring them value now.

EREVs do promise to offer a cost advantage over full BEVs with similar capabilities (particularly in truck/SUV applications), so I can absolutely see them appealing to those who are already on the fence about buying a BEV. But will automakers actually price them below BEVs? I spoke with a Ram representative who said it’s possible they will price their EREV higher because technically it offers more performance than the BEV (basically, an EREV truck offers EV acceleration with gasoline truck-range: The best of all worlds — with maintenance being significantly less than a regular gas truck). I think not leveraging EV’s potential cost-savings over a BEV would be a mistake.

Then there’s the whole marketing element. EV diehards think EREVs are bad simply because they involve some amount of reliance on gasoline, and gasoline diehards basically just see EREVs as EVs (so many folks in the comments of Scout’s EREV social media posts say “This is cool, but too bad it’s electric!”). It will be challenging to solve that. Add to that the fact that “EREV” is just not sexy at all, and you’ve got a product with an uphill marketing battle. I’ve written about this before:

The term “EREV” needs to be out of the equation. It’s a jargon-y term, and it will not resonate with the public. I won’t pretend to know what the answer is exactly, but I’ve come up with a few fun terms. “Long-range plug-in hybrid” is one option. “Gasoline-Assisted EV” is another. The common thread between these two is: I don’t think shying away from the fact that gasoline is involved is the move. I think many people find comfort in gasoline propulsion, and using a name that implies there’s gasoline is a good thing.

We can look at the success of EREVs in China, but I don’t think we really have a great analog right now that helps us understand how EREVs are going to do stateside. Maybe we can look at plug-in hybrids? But PHEVs are not the same, and as I’ve written, their limited EV range has held them back. Toyota is still heading down the PHEV path, but it’s planning to crank up the range, per CNBC:

“We are going to grow our PHEV volume through the lineup over the next few years,” David Christ, head of the Toyota brand in North America, told CNBC during a visit to the company’s North American headquarters. “We love the PHEV powertrain. We’re working to increase, perpetually increase, the amount of miles you can drive on EV-only range.”

Company sources said Toyota plans to increase PHEVs from 2.4% of its U.S. sales volume last year to roughly 20% by 2030. However, they said that could change based on regulations, customer acceptance of electrified technologies and affordability, among other factors.

Toyota has been right about a lot of things, so I could see higher-range PHEVs catching on, and if so, I could see EREVs doing the same (note that the path to higher-range PHEVs is one that automakers, including Toyota, are traveling carefully). But there are just so many factors in play — fuel prices, EV incentives, marketing, product execution, infrastructure developments, MSRPs and on and on.

With so many factors in play, it just makes it that much more important for automakers to make a great product. Build an excellent vehicle that meets customers’ needs and exceeds their expectations, at a price that they feel is competitive with vehicles that offer similar performance, and I believe it will sell. All this potential confusion about how EREVs work and infrastructure implications and EV incentives and cost savings over gas cars and on and on can largely be thrown out the window if you can get the world to think your vehicle is extremely badass and a good value.

I’m rooting for EREVs solely because I want others to experience the unmatched combination of EV performance and gasoline convenience that I get to enjoy everyday while driving my BMW i3. But in truth, I don’t know how it’s going to shake out; I don’t think anyone really knows at this point.

Top Image: Scout

The post I Don’t Think Anyone Really Knows How The U.S. Market Will Respond To EVs With Gasoline Range Extenders appeared first on The Autopian.