Features

NEW YORK — When Toyota aired a Super Bowl television ad featuring a surprisingly quick Prius gas-electric hybrid eluding police, it marked a turning point for the auto industry.

For years, automakers pushed fuel efficiency to sell hybrid and electric vehicles. Now, in an era of cheap gasoline, the message is: These cars are faster and quieter than their gas-powered counterparts. And, yes, you still save on fuel.

“They’ve graduated out of the class of something that’s a bit of an oddity to drive,” says Mike O’Brien, vice president of product planning for Hyundai. “It’s all about making these cars better.”

Until now, hybrids and electrics have largely appealed to the environmentally-conscious crowd. The vehicles cost thousands of dollars extra, and although drivers eventually recouped their money in fuel savings, the vehicles lacked the power and handling of gas-powered rivals. Electrics also suffered from driver concern that the battery could run out of juice on a trip.

Now, the tide is slowly turning. General Motors and Tesla will bring electric vehicles to market next year priced around $30,000, including a $7,500 federal tax credit. Battery range has improved significantly, experts expect gasoline prices to eventually climb higher, and the advent of autonomous vehicles favors motors powered by electricity over gas.

At the New York International Auto Show on Wednesday, Hyundai and Toyota showed off new electric and hybrid vehicles. Hyundai unveiled battery, gas-electric hybrid and plug-in versions of a new car called the Ioniq, while Toyota showed the plug-in Prius Prime, which can go 35.5km on electricity before the gas-electric power system kicks in. The electric range is double the old version.

The Prius hybrid, powered by gas and electric motors, started the alternative fuel movement in the US in 2000. Toyota deliberately made it look different than other cars, knowing that buyers wanted to make a statement about being environmentally friendly. Other companies set their green cars apart as well.

Even though sales grew as manufacturers added models, they never really caught on, partly because of the improved fuel economy of gas-powered vehicles. At their peak in 2013, with gas averaging $3.50 per gallon, Americans bought only 341,000 hybrids and electrics, about 2.2 per cent of total US car sales, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Companies spent millions developing the cars, taking losses to meet government fuel economy standards that gradually increase and require the new-car fleet to average 87.7km per gallon by 2025.

As gas prices fell below $2 per gallon, sales of hybrids and electrics dropped further. Last year, automakers had 16 hybrid and electric models on sale, but sales sank to just over 274,000.

All of this makes for a bad environment to roll out more hybrids and electrics. But automakers will press on, now selling them on style, acceleration, handling and reliability.

Electric vehicles have few moving parts. “They require far less service,” Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday. “No oil changes, and they are extremely reliable.”

As a power source, electricity outpaces gasoline in just about every area, says Karl Brauer, senior auto analyst for Kelley Blue Book. Advancements have made batteries smaller, increased their storage capacity and brought prices down. Electric motors can take off faster than gas engines, and hybrids can power wheels with both electric and gas motors for better acceleration. Electrics also are far quieter.

Yet at $2 per gallon, it would take more than 10 years to recoup the $3,720 price difference between a base model Toyota Camry hybrid and its four-cylinder gas-engine counterpart. But that’s not always a fair comparison, said Stephanie Brinley, senior analyst for IHS Automotive. Hybrids often come with more equipment and are comparable to better-equipped, pricier models, she said.

The coming debuts of the Chevrolet Bolt and Tesla Model 3, which will have 322km of electric range, should make battery electric vehicles more appealing, even with cheap gas, Brauer said. A lack of charging stations, once thought to limit adoption of electrics, becomes almost moot because of the longer range, he said.

Self-driving cars, which would use electric motors that can be recharged without humans, also would boost sales.

Brauer thinks electrics and hybrids will make up more than half of US sales in the next 12 years as SUVs and trucks get the new systems. Hyundai’s O’Brien thinks the shift will happen sooner.

Any spike in gas prices will only help. The International Energy Agency last month predicted that oil prices will more than double by 2020 because drillers are cutting investments due to current low prices, which will eventually reduce supply.

But even with cheap oil, Mick Roberts, a 46-year-old hydrogen engineer from Lowell, Indiana, bought a 2015 Chevrolet Volt hybrid in October when gas was $2.20. He got a good deal on an outgoing model, but Roberts says he likes the smooth-shifting, quiet motor and quick acceleration. “It would be tough to go back to gas,” he said.

Still, the automakers know it will take a lot of marketing to get mass adoption.

Bill Fay, Toyota’s US general manager, says there will be more chapters in the Prius police chase ad series, including one for the new plug-in. “The early adopters understand the differences in the technology,” he said. “But with the mainstream customers, we all still have a ways to go to explain the benefits.”

I have often been told that at certain moments, while a million thoughts are buzzing in an average woman’s mind, an ordinary man can be thinking of “nothing”. Nothing? That’s right. Absolutely nothing, like: zilch, nil, zero, naught. 

This is not to say that their brains are vacant or that their thoughts do not amount to something. I am just saying, and this is their own assessment, that periodically, men are capable of blanking out everything and not think of anything. It is as simple as that. 

Not being a man, I do not know how much of it is true and I have to eventually take their word for it. But in case it is correct, I cannot even begin to comprehend what a euphoric state of being that must be and the peace, even if it is for a miniscule minute, from the persistent barrage of endless thinking that we women have to endure. 

Nature has not destined the female of the species to be so blessed, therefore I decide to deliberately train myself to un-think. In other words, empty my head of all thought. It is an uphill task let me tell you. It is not as if one can press a pause button or even use an eraser in sort of physically obliterating the mental musings. There is no definitive filtering or blocking procedure either. So the entire process is filled with trial and error, mostly error. 

I start with looking at a blank computer screen hoping that my thoughts will mirror it. The result unfortunately is a complete disaster as my fingers itch to type on the keyboard and articulate the thoughts zipping across my mind. Ditto with a blank sheet of paper, which I also end up filling with words, echoing my feverish imagination. 

Next I walk out and look at the clear blue sky. “Here I can start practicing thinking of nothing,” says the voice in my head. I drag my favourite rocking chair out in the open lawn and sit on it with my eyes closed. I can now hear the birds chirping in an incessant chatter. I focus on that melodious sound and let it permeate my senses. I feel the cool breeze threatening to blow my hair across my face but I do not change my posture. There is a cat mewing at a distance and a car door slams somewhere further away. 

As I concentrate on my surroundings I feel completely at peace with myself. Soon I realise with a start, that my head is completely blank of all thought, positive, negative or even neutral. I quickly understand that this is what thinking like a man is all about and the methodical blankness gives their brains a deliberate mental rest. I am shortly called indoors and my nothingness comes to an abrupt halt. Still I am glad that I manage to discover it. 

The next time I am in that state my good friend walks into the room. 

“Hey! What’s up”, she greets me. 

“Hello”, I respond. 

“What are you doing?” she asks. 

“Nothing,” I say. 

“What are you thinking?” she persists. 

“Nothing”, I repeat. 

“Listen, are you mad at me?” she comes straight to the point. 

“Not at all,” I reply. 

“So tell me then”, she probes. 

“What?” I am confused. 

“Your thoughts”, she queries. 

“Oh that! Nothing”, I say truthfully. 

“Fine”, she snaps, walking away. 

“Wait, let me explain”, I hurry to make amends. 

CUPERTINO, California — “Good morning and thanks for joining us.”

When Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook began his company’s tri-annual product launch Monday with a refrain any Apple fan or well-versed critics knows by heart, it was a sign they were in for the usual drill.

For years, the formula has worked, turning ordinary press conferences into objects of international fascination and Apple releases into can’t-miss events. But with Apple confronting declining annual sales growth of the iPhone for the first time since it launched in 2007, are even its iconic product unveilings in need of a refresh?

The tech press has jumped on Apple in the last two years, repeatedly blasting the company’s increasingly predictable media events in headlines as “boring”. And social media commentators have piled on.

The rhetoric continued Monday as Apple announced a new 4-inch-display iPhone, called the SE, aimed at consumers whose small hands, tight pockets or thin pocketbooks couldn’t handle the big-screened iPhones unveiled last year. iPhone SE starts at $399, making it the most affordable iPhone ever by $150.

The Cupertino, California, company also released an iPad Pro that doesn’t have a giant screen; colourful wristbands for the Apple Watch; and minor software updates for the Apple TV, iPhone, iPod and iPad. Nothing was a big surprise.

Not even the scheduling. During the last four years, as winter gives way to spring, spring to summer and summer to fall, Cook has taken to a Northern California stage. First, he trumpets Apple’s growth. Then, he and other executives run through demos of new hardware. Faster processors. Better cameras. More battery life. For the biggest announcements, there’s a celebrity or two — maybe a U2 appearance. You get the gist.

Couldn’t a company that heralds itself for being innovative find a way to spice things up? Say, holding media spectacles in a country where Apple is still winning over hordes of first-time customers, including India, Brazil and Russia? Maybe partnering with a media company or moving the event to prime time to help gain new attention?

It’s all possible, but close followers of Apple say nothing is likely to change soon. Though the mere words “Apple event” suggest a highly choreographed performance, starring middle-aged white men in front of gigantic illustrations in a darkened auditorium, the event still draws attention. Just as it did Monday.

The only alterations on the horizon would be slight ones when Apple starts holding events at its new ring-shaped headquarters, expected to open early next year.

“There may be a point where they have to take a greater risk, but that’s not now,” said Roger Kay, president of research firm Endpoint Technologies Associates. “Because they have a winning hand, they should keep playing it. They can continue to milk that for a long time.”

For all the talk of the demise of the iPhone, it’s still the single bestselling phone on the planet next to Samsung’s offerings, accounting for more than $155 billion in revenue last year. That’s more than companies like Intel Corp. and General Electric make from everything they sell. And Cook, pointing to Apple’s image as a luxury brand in countries just starting to see a middle-class develop, has said he’s not concerned about the iPhone falling out of favour.

Wall Street investors recently have seen differently, briefly selling off Apple shares as fast as they did many other tech companies. Some have relegated Apple to a value company that produces predictable, generous profits, but not so much a growth stock anymore. Shares of Apple traded down after Monday’s event, hovering 0.2 per cent down on the day at $105.72 around noon.

In a sense, the company’s stability is reflected in the staid nature of its big unveilings.

That’s fine, Kay said, because Cook’s task is to avoid losing control of the “fantastic machine” that Apple co-founder Steve Jobs left behind when he died in 2011.

“He just wants to drive it down the middle of the road,” Kay said of Cook.

Apple watchers acknowledge that Cook doesn’t have the same dramatic flair as Jobs, which is why people might be looking for something different out of the events. Though he set the tone for the event that endures today, Jobs was famous for capping off events with huge surprises.

Cook, so far, has focused more on subtle changes, including to the events. He has opened them to a global audience via livestream, though Apple hardware and software are required to view.

He also has continued to perfect Apple’s use of celebrity speakers “to place an exclamation point on the product release”, said Paul Kent, who worked with Apple on organising the once-annual Macworld event.

The cameos have included a performance by singer John Mayer when touting an update to GarageBand music-recording software, and a comedic appearance by Stephen Colbert when showing how to make phone calls from a desktop. Kent said Apple’s stunts manage to come off as more than a novelty because they’re woven in well.

“They’ll use music to remind people that Apple’s goal and Apple’s reach is inspiring people to be productive and creative,” Kent said. “It’s been fine-tuned to be used with a greater effect.”

The well-known figures are just one part of what experts consider a premium event experience, reflective of Apple’s status as a high-end brand. Apple uses slick videos to detail the most mundane of features. Mishaps are rare, such as when Chinese audio translations were accidentally streamed to US listeners at the launch of the iPhone 6.

“Nobody is unhappy with the Apple event process; they are straightforward and consistent,” said Kent, who now runs Silicon Valley tech event consulting firm PKCreative.

The elements work so well that T-Mobile, Tesla and other companies now emulate parts of the Apple set-up.

“It’s a product launch event,” said Sandro Olivieri, founder of Productive, an innovation consulting agency in San Francisco. “It shouldn’t be that big of a deal. But people are hungry for it. It’s premium and exclusive and [Apple] wants to continue to drive that hard.”

As far as moving events abroad, Kay said the idea is reasonable.

“They have this role as an international icon and they could step on that gas a little more,” he said.

But Tim Bajarin, a longtime Apple analyst, offered another reason why the process, which dates to spiels Jobs gave in the 1980s, is unlikely to get a new look soon.

“This is a part of their way of honouring Job’s legacy,” he said.

SAN ANTONIO DE LOS BANOS, Cuba — Long known for its cigars and rum, Cuba has added organic honey to its list of key agricultural exports, creating a buzz among farmers as pesticide use has been linked to declining bee populations elsewhere.

Organic honey has become Cuba’s fourth most valuable agricultural export behind fish products, tobacco and drinks, but ahead of the Caribbean island’s more famous sugar and coffee, said Theodour Friedrich, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) representative for Cuba.

“All of [Cuba’s] honey can be certified as organic,” Friedrich told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Its honey has a very specific, typical taste; in monetary value, it’s a high ranking product.”

After the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s main trading partner, the island was unable to afford pesticides due to a lack of foreign currency, coupled with the US trade embargo. By necessity, the government embraced organic agriculture, and the policies have largely stuck.

Now that the United States is easing its embargo following the restoration of diplomatic ties last year, Cuba’s organic honey exporters could see significant growth if the government supports the industry, beekeepers said.

Cuba produced more than 7,200 tonnes of organic honey in 2014, worth about $23.3 million, according to government statistics cited by the FAO.

The country’s industry is still tiny compared with honey heavyweights such as China, Turkey and Argentina. But with a commodity worth more per litre than oil, Cuban honey producers believe they could be on the cusp of a lucrative era.

Big dreams, little cash

With 80 boxes swarming with bees, each producing 45kg of honey per year, farm manager Javier Alfonso believes Cuba’s exports could grow markedly in the coming years.

His apiary, down a dirt track in San Antonio de los Banos, a farming town an hour’s drive from the capital Havana, was built from scratch by employees, Alfonso said.

“There is just a bit of production now, but it can get bigger,” he said, looking at the rows of colourful wooden boxes.

Like other Cuban bee farmers, he sells honey exclusively to the government, which pays him according to the world market price and then takes responsibility for marketing the product overseas.

Most of Cuba’s honey exports go to Europe, he said. He would like to be able to borrow money to expand production, but getting credit is difficult, he said, so for now his team of farmers build their own infrastructure for the bees.

“It’s a very natural environment here,” said Raul Vasquez, a farm employee. “The government is not allowed to sell us chemicals — this could be the reason why the bees aren’t dying here” as they have been in other places.

Organic advantage

While Cuba’s small, organic honey industry aims to reap the rewards of increased trade with the United States, honey producers in other regions are under threat, industry officials said.

Beekeepers in the United States, Canada and other regions have long complained that pesticides are responsible for killing their bees and hurting the honey industry more broadly.

The US Environmental Protection Agency released a study in January, indicating that a widely-used insecticide used on cotton plants and citrus groves can harm bee populations.

“I don’t think there are any doubts that populations of honeybees [in the United States and Europe] have declined... since the Second World War,” Norman Carreck, science director of the UK-based International Bee Research Association told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Climate change, fewer places for wild bees to nest, shifts in land use, diseases and pesticides are blamed for the decline, he said.

Because it is pesticide free, Cuba’s organic bee industry could act as protection from the problems hitting other honey exporters, said Friedrich, and could be a growing income stream for the island’s farmers.

“The overall use of pesticides is fairly controlled”, he said. “Cuba has been immune to the bee die-offs [hitting other regions].”

THERMAL, California — With a full-throated roar, the supercar that Honda hopes will breathe new life into its Acura luxury brand is finally ready.

The next generation of the sexy NSX supercar was recently shown to reporters at a raceway here and heads to its first customers into the spring. While the NSX, with a starting price of $156,000, will certainly be out of financial reach of most drivers, company officials hope it can cast a speedy aura over the whole Acura brand.

NSX “is exactly the representation of what we’re trying to do”, says Acura’s US brand chief, Jon Ikeda. “We need to create an overall experience that’s as exciting as this car.”

That could help Acura, which is often viewed as a premium brand, reach an even loftier image goal: To be perceived as higher-end luxury vehicles.

“I think they are frustrated that they haven’t been able to move into that top tier,” says George Peterson, president of automotive marketing research firm AutoPacific. Currently, that luxury space occupied by the likes of Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus.

A boost in prestige could also bolster revenue. Acura started off 2016 with sales that pretty much matched where it stood last year — in the middle of the pack among major luxury car brands. Acura’s sales fell 7.8 per cent during the first two months of the year, Autodata says, while those for swanky Jaguar, Audi and Mercedes-Benz increased. BMW, was worse with an 8.2 per cent drop.

Now the focus is on showing that Acura isn’t just about luxury, but performance. That’s where NSX plays a role. The new NSX represents the latest in technology, both with a hybrid system that uses electric motors with a 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged V-6 engine and a “torque vectoring” system that directs more torque, or power, to wheels where it is needed on turns.

Plus, it looks like its right off the starting line of major European auto race. It will compete against other high-end sports cars like Porsche’s 911 Turbo and BMW’s i8. Aimed at moving emotions, Acura isn’t holding back in promoting NSX.

The supercar’s image was pushed forward with a dramatic Super Bowl TV commercial in which the new NSX is seen arising from pits of molten metal and shaped by machines over the raw screeches of David Lee Roth in Van Halen’s Runnin with the Devil. The message: Acura is putting an emphasis on quality and engineering prowess — “precision crafted performance”.

The message is aimed, too, at recalling the brand’s roots.

When Acura, along with Toyota’s Lexus and Nissan’s Infiniti, came to the US in the mid-1980s, it quickly discovered a market for alternatives to Detroit’s dinosaurs, models like the Cadillac Coupe de Ville or Chrysler Imperial, and the sometimes questionable workmanship that came with them. Japanese makers paid attention to details that Detroit’s Big 3 overlooked, such as how closely body panels fit together. Acura’s car models, like Integra and Legend, quickly gained reputations for reliability.

As if that wasn’t enough, Acura shocked the auto world by showing its own supercar in 1989, the original NSX. The goal was to create a finely tuned performance car that didn’t have the maintenance and reliability issues common to Italy’s finest supercars. It was an immediate hit.

Gradually, since then, Acura moved away from performance and put a greater emphasis on sedans and SUVs over the years, the core products that customers actually buy but not the ones that burnish a performance orientation.

Though the brand was formed around the same idea, it has “wandered around a little bit” over years, Ikeda acknowledges.

Audi’s defining current model, the RS6 Avant is what the Ingolstadt maker does best, and is at the same time spectacularly swift, spacious and sophisticated.

The latest in a line of super estates since the 1994 RS2 Avant and 1983 200 Quattro Avant, which married the iconic original rally bred Quattro sports car’s turbocharged engine and four-wheel drive to a practical and elegant executive estate, this is a segment where Audi truly excels.

Audi may have sportier, grander and more luxurious, high-tech and even quicker models, but none so clearly dominate their segment or capture Audi’s traditional combination of practicality, sophistication, sheer performance and somewhat leftfield brilliance. Supercar swift, impeccably luxurious and with huge hauling capacity, the RS6 Avant’s stubborn roadholding and a raft of high-tech passive and active safety systems, is an impeccably safe way to travel fast.

Dramatic and practical

An ostensible rival to hyper yuppie-mobile super saloons, the RS6 is defiantly and only available in the more practical family estate body style — or Avant in Audi-speak. Ever more sidelined by ubiquitous, unnecessarily tall and often dynamically compromised SUVs, the RS6’s estate body is, however, favoured by more dedicated motoring enthusiasts for offering the same practicality and but with the lower centre of gravity, handling ability and efficiency of a saloon car.

Dramatically assertive, the RS6’s design elements converge on its brutally charismatic and bold hexagonal honeycomb grille. Broad, tall and dominant, the RS6’s grille is the focal point of its fascia, with sharp low air splitter below, squinting browed headlights and vast lower side intakes with brushed aluminium gills to the side. Classy but muscular, with flourishes of brushed metal details, the RS6 features prominently sculpted bonnet ridges and chiselled side character lines.

With long arcing estate roofline and tailgate, sharply defined sills, subtly bulging wheelarches and vast asphalt gripping 285/30R21 footwear lending a sense of sculpted yet sophisticated and well-integrated solidity, the RS6 features a large rear air diffuse and big bore dual exhaust tips at the rear. Meanwhile, a level waistline provides good visibility and an airy ambiance. Revised for 2015 onwards, the RS6 receives mildly re-designed but sharper and cleaner LED headlights.

Relentless rocket

Powered by a twin-turbocharged 4-litre direct injection V8 engine with short intake gas flow path piping for swift low-end responsiveness and little by way of turbo-lag, both the RS6 Avant’s headline performance figures and real world abilities are devastatingly swift. With its engine slung just ahead of equal length front axles and a Quattro four-wheel drive system ostensibly delivering 60 per cent power rearwards, the RS6 launches off the line with brutal efficiency, effectively putting its enormous power to tarmac with no hesitation.

Rocketing off the line with no loss of traction in dry conditions — and one suspects very little if any in the wet either — the RS6 charges through the 0-100km/h benchmark in a supercar-rivalling 3.9 seconds. Developing 552BHP throughout a broad 5700-6600 peak and gut-wrenching 516lb/ft torque over a vast 1750-5500rpm mid-range, the RS6 can easily attain a nominally restricted 250km/h top speed, which can be optionally de-restricted to 305km/h. Nonetheless, it returns restrained 9.6l/100km combined fuel efficiency and 223g/km CO₂ emissions.

Fitted with traffic stop-and-go functionality and seamless automatic cylinder de-activation when cruising to achieve such efficiency from so powerful a 1,950kg car, the RS6 Avant’s various settings can, however, be tailored for sportier or more comfortable driving, including a more vocally growling and popping “dynamic” engine mode. Relentlessly bellowing and eager as it climbs from an abundant mid-range to an urgent top-end plateau, the RS6 overtakes with effortless ease and charges through wind resistance with indefatigably muscular intensity at speed.

Quattro commitment

With a responsive turbocharged engine putting out a broad and generous mid-range tidal wave of torque and slick and quick 8-speed automatic gearbox, the RS6 is ever versatile and ready to pounce. Using its individually adjustable drive settings, “dynamic” gearbox mode is best when using manually actuated paddle shifts, where cog-changes become finger-snap quick and concise. Also adjustable for “comfort” or “dynamic” mode are the RS6’s limited-slip rear differential, steering effort weighting and damper settings.

Driving all four wheels with a default 60 per cent rear bias that lends Audi’s big super estate a more agile dynamic and somewhat off sets its slightly nose-heavy engine layout, the RS6 is an all-weather high performance machine that can vary power distribution depending on prevailing conditions. Able to divert up to 85 per cent power rearwards or 70 per cent to the front, and left and right through its limited-slip rear differential, the RS6’s roadholding is phenomenal and fluently adapts to the situation at hand.

Relentlessly grippy, the RS6 seemingly straightens out a winding road and dispatches corners with utter contemptuous confidence. Pushed to its — albeit high — threshold, the RS6’s instinct is for slight progressive and easily controlled understeer, and if one come back on throttle far too hard out of a corner, it can playfully nudge its rear out, but that only seems to help it slice through bends better as its four driven wheels adjust, reallocate power, find traction and send it blasting even more confidently through a tightened cornering line.

Confidence and comfort

Assailing snaking hill climbs and winding switchbacks with the utter confidence, relentless commitment and tenacity of a roller coaster riding on rails, the RS6 is, however, also a more agile car than its’ size, weight and grip would suggest. In addition to varying power distribution, it also features a torque vectoring system that brakes the inside wheel through tight corners, and allows it to turn and tuck into a bend with crisp and tidy reflexes. 

A natural Autobahn cruncher, the RS6 rides with steely resolve and reassuring, unruffled stability at high speed and is tidily buttoned down on sudden rebound. Steering is meaty, quick, precise and direct, and brakes highly resilient and effective. Riding on multilink air damped suspension, the RS6 is best in adaptive default mode, where it firms up for corners and softens on straights. In “dynamic” mode, it is more focused with tighter cornering body control, but rides slightly busier on straights.

Highly refined on road, the RS6 even features sophisticated sound cancellation and acoustic window lamination as of 2015, along with an upgraded infotainment system with faster processing and 4G mobile Wi-Fi connectivity. Spaciously accommodating five passengers or up to 1,680 litres luggage depending on seat configuration, the RS6 is classy and intuitive inside, with superb seating support, position and versatility, user-friendly infotainment system.

Classy and well-appointed, it also features suede roof-lining, quilted leather seats, carbon-fibres, metal accents, luxurious textures and is available with broad ranging and sophisticated semi-automated driver-assistance systems.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 4-litre, twin-turbo, in-line V8 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 89mm

Compression ratio: 10.1:1

Valve-train: 32-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 8-speed automatic, four-wheel drive, limited-slip rear-differential

Power distribution, F/R: 40 per cent/60 per cent

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 552 (560) [412] @5700-6600rpm

Specific power: 138.2BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 283BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 516 (700) @1750-5500rpm

Specific torque: 175.3Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 359Nm/ton

0-100km/h: 3.9 seconds

Top speed, restricted/de-restricted: 250/305km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 13.4/7.4/9.6 litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 223g/km

Fuel capacity: 75 litres

Length: 4979mm

Width: 1936mm

Height: 1461mm

Wheelbase: 2915mm

Track, F/R: 1662/1663mm

Overhangs, F/R: 939/1125mm

Headroom, F/R: 1046/985mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 565/1,680 litres

Unladen weight: 1,950kg

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.9 metres

Suspension: Multi-link, adaptive air dampers

Brakes: Ventilated & perforated discs

Tyres: 285/30R21 (optional)

In the next great auto-safety advance, 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on cars and trucks starting in September 2022, it was announced Thursday.

“By proactively making emergency braking systems standard equipment on their vehicles, these 20 automakers will help prevent thousands of crashes and save lives,” said US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “It’s a win for safety and a win for consumers.”

The feature has already shown up in many models today, usually as an option. If the car detects it is about to rear-end the car in front of it, it slams on the brakes — either preventing the accident or vastly decreasing the force of the impact.

Automatic emergency braking joins a long list of safety technologies that gradually became mandated as standard equipment, from seat belts and airbags to more recently back-up cameras. The systems use a combination of radar, cameras and lasers to determine distance and relative velocity of vehicles in front. The same sensors are also used in the emerging self-driving car technologies.

The 20 automakers include 99 per cent of the new-car market, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is part of the transportation department. The agency, along with the insurance industry’s safety arm, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), negotiated the deal. 

IIHS says it expects the deal will shave three years off the time it would have taken for a new rule to be implemented.

During those three years, IIHS estimates the deal will prevent 28,000 crashes and 12,000 injuries.

Automakers joining in the deal include Audi, BMW, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Maserati, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen and Volvo. It will also be standard on most medium-duty trucks by September 2025.

Safety experts lauded the agreement, but they say other steps are necessary as well. Sean Kane of Safety Research & Strategies, an auto safety research analysis firm, said that automakers have to make sure that cars are still safe if the systems occasionally fail, and that automatic braking is not a substitute for regulations. “We’ve moving at a very, very fast pace and some of the foundational components that should be in place aren’t there,” Kane says.

But the IIHS says not only will mandated automatic braking make cars safer, but it could lower insurance rates. Having the systems in more vehicles “will allow us to further evaluate the technology’s effectiveness and its impact on insurance losses, so that more insurers can explore offering discounts or lower premiums,” said IIHS Board Chairman Jack Salzwedel, who is also CEO of American Family Insurance, in a statement.

NEW YORK — Suppose Apple loses its court fight with the FBI and has to produce a software tool that would help agents hack into an iPhone — specifically, a device used by one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. Could that tool really remain secret and locked away from potential misuse?

Not very likely, according to security and legal experts, who say a “potentially unlimited” number of people could end up getting a close at the tool’s inner workings. Apple’s tool would have to run a gauntlet of tests and challenges before any information it helps produce can be used in court, exposing the company’s work to additional scrutiny by forensic experts and defence lawyers — and increasing the likelihood of leaks with every step.

True, the justice department says it only wants a tool that would only work on the San Bernardino phone and that would be useless to anyone who steals it without Apple’s closely guarded digital signature.

But widespread disclosure of the software’s underlying code could allow government agents, private companies and hackers across the world to dissect Apple’s methods and incorporate them into their own device-cracking software. That work might also point to previously unknown vulnerabilities in iPhone software that hackers and spies could exploit.

Cases in which prosecutors have signalled interest in the Apple tool, or one like it, continue to pile up. In Manhattan, for instance, the district attorney’s office says it holds 205 encrypted iPhones that neither it nor Apple can currently unlock, up from 111 in November. Such pent-up demand for the tool spells danger, says Andrea Matwyshyn, a professor of law and computer science at Northeastern University, since its widespread dissemination presents a clear threat to the security of innocent iPhone users.

“That’s when people get uncomfortable with a potentially unlimited number of people being able to use this in a potentially unlimited number of cases,” Matwyshyn says.

The creation process

The concerns raised by experts mirror those in Apple’s own court filings, where the company argues that the tool would be “used repeatedly and poses grave security risks”. Outside experts note that nothing would prevent other prosecutors from asking Apple to rewrite the tool for the phones they want to unlock, or hackers from reverse engineering it for their own purposes.

Apple’s long history of corporate secrecy suggests it could keep the tool secure during development and testing, says John Dickson, principal at Denim Group, a San Antonio, Texas-based software security firm. But after that, “the genie is out of the bottle,” he says.

Even if the software is destroyed after use in the San Bernardino case, government authorities — in the US or elsewhere — could always compel them to recreate it.

Testing the tool

Apple argues that the tool, which is essentially a new version of its iOS phone operating software, would need rigorous testing. That would include installing it on multiple test devices to ensure it won’t alter data on the San Bernardino iPhone.

Similarly, the company would need to log and record the entire software creation and testing process in case its methods were ever questioned, such as by a defence attorney. That detailed record itself could be a tempting target for hackers.

Before information extracted by the Apple tool could be introduced in court, the tool would most likely require validation by an outside laboratory, say forensics experts such as Jonathan Zdziarski, who described the process in a post on his personal blog. For instance, Apple might submit it to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the commerce department, exposing its underlying code and functions to another outside group of experts.

The likelihood of someone stealing the tool grows with every copy made, says Will Ackerly, a former National Security Agency employee who’s now chief technology officer at Virtru, a computer security start-up. And while Apple may be known for its security, the federal government isn’t.

Lance Cottrell, chief scientist at Ntrepid, a Herndon, Virginia-based provider of secured Internet browsers, pointed to last year’s hacking of the Office of Personnel Management, which compromised the personal information of 21 million Americans, including his own.

Once such a tool exists, “it will become a huge target for hackers, particularly nation-state hackers”, Cottrell predicted. “If I was a hacker and I knew this software had been created, I’d be really trying really hard to get it.”

Scrutiny in court

Then there’s court, where defence experts would want a close look at the tool to ensure it wasn’t tainting evidence, says Jeffrey Vagle, a lecturer in law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. “It could get quite tangled from a technical standpoint,” he says.

One very likely consequence: More eyes on the tool and its underlying code. And as more jurisdictions face the issue of iPhones they can’t unlock, it’s impossible to calculate where that would end.

The Manhattan DA’s office, for instance, says it expects the number of locked phones to rise over time. The vast majority of iPhones now run iOS 8 or more recent versions, all of which supports the high level of encryption in question.

Elsewhere in the country, the Harris County DA’s office in Texas encountered more than 100 encrypted iPhones last year. And the Cook County State Attorney’s Cyber Lab received 30 encrypted devices in the first two months of this year, according to the Manhattan DA’s office.

The Moor’s Account
Laila Lalami
New York: Vintage Books, 2015
Pp. 321

This well-researched and beautifully written historical novel attests to Moroccan-American writer Laila Lalami’s expansive imagination, her deep intuition about the human condition and her boundless empathy for the downtrodden and voiceless. From a single sentence in Cabeza de Vaca’s chronicle of a failed expedition to find gold in La Florida in the early 16th century — “The fourth [survivor] is Estevanico, an Arab Negro from Azamor” — she creates a memorable character who takes the reader on a perilous journey from Morocco to Spain to the New World. This is a story of adventure, empire and slavery, but the undercurrent is about the power of words and storytelling. 

Born into a world where one empire is fast replacing another, as the Castilian crown retakes Andalusia, Mustafa Al Zamori grows up in Azemmur. His father insists on his having a scholarly education, dreaming of Mustafa being “a notary public, like himself, a witness and recorder of major events in other people’s lives”, but the boy opts for trade. (p. 20)

Another childhood influence is his mother’s storytelling talent. The combined legacy of his parents stands Mustafa in good stead when he later writes his memoirs.

His father’s death and the Portuguese takeover of Azemmur render his town and family destitute, and Mustafa sells himself as a slave, hoping to insure his family’s survival. Renamed Estebanico, sold and resold, he spends five years in Seville before embarking with his new master on an expedition to North America, to capture territory, glory and gold for the Spanish crown. For eight years, he traverses the continent, enduring extreme physical hardships that decimate the expedition’s ranks. Unwillingly, he is party to the pillage, killing, rape and enslavement of the Native Americans — all motivated by greed. In the end, the four men who survive do so by virtue of the Indians’ largesse, but they soon forget this, and Mustafa is the only one who truly integrates into local society. 

Still, the harsh conditions have a great levelling effect on the surviving group, and about halfway through their wanderings, Mustafa no longer feels himself a slave; nor is he treated like one. He has proved his worth by his adaptability, language skills, healing capacity (in which storytelling plays a part) and sheer will power, but it is doubtful that his master will set him free. So he and his Native American wife undertake one last trek, taking freedom into their own hands. 

When the survivors are asked by the Spanish viceroy in Mexico to give an account of their journey, Mustafa alone is not asked to testify. Finding that the others are telling a sanitised version of their great adventure, he decides to write his own account, which he hopes will impart “Truth in the guise of entertainment” (p. 4)

What is significant about “The Moor’s Account” is that Mustafa describes the pretensions and cruelties of the Spanish conquistadors in a way that applies to empire generally, past and present, and that reveals the power of words. About the speech the expedition’s notary delivers at an abandoned Indian settlement, threatening the Indians with dire consequences if they do not cooperate, though they are not present, he comments, “I know now that these conquerors, like many others before them, and no doubt like others after, gave speeches not to voice the truth, but to create it.” (p. 10)

The incident reminds him of the Portuguese hoisting their flag over his hometown: “Now, halfway around the world, the scene was repeating itself on a different stage, with different people.” (p. 4) 

He also notes that as the expedition continued on to new places, “they gave new names to everything around them, as though they were the All-Knowing God in the Garden of Eden”. (p. 18)

Yet, while Mustafa’s account chastises the conquerors for their delusions of grandeur and cruelty, it is not without self-reflection; he acknowledges his own responsibility for the turn his life has taken, starting from his decision to be a merchant. “I fell for the magic of numbers and the allure of profit. I was preoccupied only with the price of things and neglected to consider their value.” (p. 60)

In metaphorical terms, Mustafa’s account reclaims his moral connection to his family, applying the storytelling he learned from his mother and fulfilling his father’s dreams. 

“The Moor’s Account” is a parable of the triangle of empire linking North Africa, Spain and the New World, with prophetic dimensions, as Mustafa realises that his ancestors “had carried the disease of empire to Spain, the Spaniards had brought it to the new continent, and someday the people of the new continent would plant it elsewhere”. (p. 272)

By giving Mustafa a voice, Lalami both entertains and enriches our view of history. 

AMMAN — The Palestine Youth Orchestra with a full set of 75 musicians, along with 12 young women singers from the Palestine Choir, will play at a unique concert on the March 22 at Al Hussein Cultural Centre in Amman (Ras Al Ain) at 7pm.

The event is presented by the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music (ESNCM) in cooperation with Friends of Jordan Festivals. The orchestra will perform under the baton of French conductor Nicolas Simon.

Speaking to The Jordan Times, Professor Suhail Khoury, the director of the Conservatory said that the orchestra will play the entire Symphony No. 2 by Tchaikovsky. The composition is one of the great master’s joyful works, though it is essentially in C minor. It consists of four movements: andante sostenuto allegro vivo, andantino marziale quasi moderato, scherzo allegro molto vivace and finally moderato assai allegro vivo. The fourth and last movement is in C major. The orchestra will also play King Lear, an overture by French romantic composer Hector Berlioz.

Last but not least, the 12 female singers accompanied by the orchestra will interpret three songs in Arabic, of which one is “A Salute to Gaza”, an original piece which music was composed by Professor Suhair Khoury himself and the lyrics written by the renowned, inspired poet Fuad Srouji. They will also sing “Zahrat Al Mada’en” (Flower of the Cities), a poignant, popular hymn to Jerusalem, made famous by the celebrated Lebanese singer Fairuz and composed by the Rahbani Brothers.

Khoury also explained that the musicians arrived in Jordan on March 18, staying at a hotel in Jerash, where they found a pleasant place for all the rehearsals that went particularly well given the very pleasant atmosphere of the city. He added that the same programme (except for the songs in Arabic) was presented by the orchestra in France last summer and was warmly received by audiences there.

The Conservatory was first established in Ramallah and was initially named the National Conservatory of Music. In 2004, so as to honour “the invaluable intellectual and cultural contributions to humanity of the late Edward Said” it was renamed the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music. Its motto speaks for itself: “Making Music Happen in Palestine.”