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The Return of Norton Motorcycles

The famed British maker of the Commando has big plans, including distribution in the US

David Graver

1 October 2024

If you ride, you know the Norton Motorcycles name—but even if you don’t you may have caught classic images of Clint Eastwood on one of many models, or recent ones featuring great motorcycle enthusiast Keanu Reaves. Norton’s rich heritage dates back to 1898, though it’s now freshly reinvigorated under new ownership by international powerhouse TVS Motor Company.

Norton currently makes a few models, starting with the Commando 961, an air-and-oil cooled bike whose namesake put Norton on the map in the 1960s. At the top of the range is the V4SV, powered by a 1200-cc V4 that pushes out 185 horsepower, especially impressive considering the $57,000 bike only weighs 454 pounds; a V4CR is a cafe racer offering of the V4SV. Currently, Norton is cranking out a few hundred of these motorcycles for the UK, but all of that is about to change. 

First, the offerings themselves are about to change. Over the next three years there are six models being brought to market. “We’ll start with that super-luxury, super sport, cafe racer framework, but then there will be an expansion beyond that,” executive director of Norton, Richard Arnold, tells us. “The expectation or the plan we have is to remain premium, luxury quality, beautifully hand-built, quintessentially British-designed bikes, but with the scale TVS bring, and the capability. They’ll still be designed and manufactured in the UK, but with the logistics and ability of a global company.” Arnold, the former Manchester United Football Club CEO, came to Norton after buying a V4SV. 

“There’s a very immersive aspect to a bike experience. The most private experience in the world is inside a helmet. At the end of a ride, you’ll have spent an hour, an hour and a half, and you’ll have watched the cars and you’ll watch what’s going on to make sure you’re safe, and you’ll have enjoyed the experience of controlling the bike, and getting home, but at the end of it, you’ll have not thought about anything but riding that bike. And that sort of mindfulness, and presence, it all sounds a little bit zen, but actually the act of riding a bike, people would pay an enormous amount of money to get that experience in any other sort of way,” Arnold says. 

The company that acquired Norton, TVS, also knows quite a bit about two-wheelers. They’re the fourth largest motorcycle producer in the world, and the third largest in India. Last year they made approximately 4.5 million vehicles—a mix of motorcycles, scooters and mopeds—including a quarter million electric examples. 

“I think what we bring to it is a lot of engineering capability, high quality manufacturing and supply chain, and of course, capital,” says Sudarshan Venu, managing director of TVS. Venu’s company, which produces motorcycles for BMW, has committed 200 million pounds (about 260 million dollars) to lift Norton to prominence once again. “Norton, when we bought it, was a very small brand, but now we are reviving it in a modern way. Looking forward, it’s ready to be a leading global brand. I think we bring a lot of resources, engineers and global distribution,” he says.

Norton will lean into a new factory in the West Midlands, one which Arnold equates to a Swiss watch factory, a stone’s throw from where the company was founded. While the UK will remain a key market, expansion in Europe, and across the Atlantic is also in the cards. “America is a market dominated by Harley. But I think what Norton brings is a uniquely British charm. A certain detail, a certain design, drivability, that is truly unique. I think young aspiring consumers will really enjoy this differentiated experience,” Venu adds. 

You can expect the new Nortons to begin arriving next year, starting in the UK, and will make their debut stateside shortly after. Details of the new models will be revealed closer to launch. 

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Touring Hyundai’s Futuristic New Innovation Hub in Singapore

There’s a smart farm, an AI-assisted command center, robots aplenty and a rooftop test track

David Graver

18 December 2023

Hyundai has big dreams rooted in a new experiential center in Singapore that’s part urban factory of the future and part testbed for current and yet-imagined projects. The factory opts for a vertical design, and has seven unique floors with different purposes. A hydroponic smart farm can be found on the first two floors, and is fully automated, growing nine different crops including sorrel, mustard plants and the visually fascinating ice plant. A robot does everything from seed-planting to transferring the young plants to a tower system that rotates the plants, and controls temperature, humidity, light exposure and nutrition. At present a few hundred plants can be produced per day. Hyundai plans to open a restaurant to showcase this produce, and also gives a plant to new car owners as a memento of their visit. In another twist of how different this facility is, shoppers can custom-order their cars on an app, and then come and pick their car (and plant) up right at the factory. 

Even something like picking up a new car is a unique experience here. There’s a receiving room where customers can watch parts of the building process on a video, and at the end of the video, autonomous palette robots roll their car out to them, before seeing themselves out. The customer can then get in their car and drive right out of the facility. 

Some aspects of the factory are more traditional, but even in those instances, there’s usually a twist. For example, the center, named HMGICS for Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center in Singapore, produces the Hyundai Ioniq 5 electric car, but in a much different way than factories in the US or South Korea. It uses cell-based manufacturing, rather than a traditional conveyor belt. Partially assembled vehicles and parts are transported from one cell to another by robots that move about the factory using sensors, and take orders from a command center. 

At present the command center—which looks like a mini-NASA, with teams of people viewing all of the action on the factory floor on giant heat map screens—has a large human component, but as the AI-aided command center develops, it will become more automated. Currently people watch to make sure the robots are doing their jobs, and they can see if robots are above normal tolerances for things like torque, temperature and how long it takes to complete assigned tasks. Out on the factory floor, this scenario is reversed. 

A worker wearing a weight-assisted exoskeleton affixes components together, while Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot dog watches the process, and takes photos of the task. Images are sent and measured to make sure things like alignment are correct. Elsewhere in another cell, a worker wears smart glasses that can highlight the next task, or where to drill or screw. They also measure the time it takes to complete certain tasks. The end goal is a better product with fewer errors. 

Ioniq 5 driverless-ready robotaxis are produced here as well, like the ones currently being tested by Lyft in Las Vegas (albeit with a human that’s ready to take the wheel, for the moment). Hyundai plans to add production of vehicles like the Ioniq 6 electric car, and the center may support EVTOL, and Hyundai’s advanced air mobility efforts. 

On the rooftop is a test track, in which all cars can be evaluated for things like suspension tuning, braking and fitment. Test drivers are trained to pay attention to certain aspects on the loops. While test tracks are certainly not new (Fiat had them at their factory in Turin nearly a century ago), this one is situated at a fully modern facility, and feels fairly futuristic. In that way, the test track might be as retro-futuristic as the Ioniq 5 cars that are whooshing by. As an added bonus, customers are allowed to take an immersive test ride on the track.

This innovation hub and urban factory is meant to be a test that, once proven, can be replicated in cities and adjacent areas around the world, and can complement larger, existing factories. For now, it feels as if we’re staring into a crystal ball of a possible factory of the future. 

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Interview: Derek Jenkins, VP and Head of Design at Lucid

The designer speaks to us about the Gravity SUV, design challenges and where we’re all headed

David Graver

5 December 2023

No car at the LA Auto Show garnered more attention than the Lucid Gravity SUV, a recenly revealed follow-up to Lucid’s highly-acclaimed, multi-award-winning Air electric sedan. It’s not by accident. While Air was a six-figure technology showcase that felt fresh and innovative, Gravity is in some ways in an entirely different orbit. For one, Lucid is targeting an entry price of less than $80,000, which makes it somewhat more affordable as far as luxury EVs go. That it is an SUV—a burgeoning segment in the US and elsewhere—also means it can bring volume, greater recognition and revenue, all things this California startup will need to scale up to the next level. We sat down with Derek Jenkins, vp and head of design at Lucid in Los Angeles, to talk about Lucid’s “sophomore album,” challenges in its design and where the industry is headed.

What was the design directive going into Gravity? We already have Air, so we have one point on the line for brand identity. What was the idea here?

To your point, we knew we had to have a good sibling, and have a DNA connection. Not to be identical, but to have some things carry over. One thing we did, and it sounds cliche, but we really made an effort to focus on the attributes consumers care about the most. 

To me it’s space, space utility for people and stuff. It’s also range as an electric vehicle. You cannot deny that having over 400 miles of range is very attractive. It’s performance both on and off-road. When I say on-road I’m talking about agility‚ it’s easy to maneuver, high performance and fast. And off-road, good levels of off-road capabilities—though not a rock crawler. If you need to do Moab and stuff like that, that’s a different vehicle. 

And lastly, there’s luxury. There are cool features, ambiance, materials and sophistication. People expect that in a vehicle at this price. And lots of fun features, frunks, versatile center consoles, folding seats. Bringing all of that into one vehicle is very challenging. But that’s what I think the SUV buyer is looking for. If it’s my primary family vehicle, and primary business vehicle, I want it to do all of those things really, really well. And that’s the objective, and of course bringing the Lucid DNA along for the ride. 

We noticed the bear graphic on the key fob. Is that standard? Is that going to be on everything?

The bear is ending up on everything. We’re an unusual case where the Lucid graphic is our logo. And of course we worked really hard on the naming of our vehicles. We don’t follow a letter or a number nomenclature, so we have Air, and Gravity, and we’ll continue that in the future. The bear was originally just our nod to California, but now it’s slowly becoming the brand crest. You’re going to see a lot more of that. 

Was there anything that was particularly challenging in designing Gravity?

I think there were two things that we really worked hard on. On the interior there’s something we’re calling the Clearview cockpit, which is an evolution of the upper display moving higher in the seating position, right up against your sightline to the road. And then we reshaped the steering wheel, so you get full view of the upper display in front of you. 99 percent of the cars on the road today have obscuration from the steering wheel, which can eat up to 35 percent of your usable real estate. We worked really hard to reshape everything, to have a clear field of view which is really immersive. It has more touch surface, and we still have this really cool, sporty steering wheel, so there’s no compromise with drivability. That was really hard to get right, and I really feel like we cracked that. I know for a fact that every design studio on the planet struggles with this topic, and I really feel like we’ve solved it in a great way.

The second thing was aerodynamics. To get a vehicle like this to under .24 of drag coefficient, that’s our working target. We’re still getting just little bits where we can to get that. It’s really, really hard. And we have a vehicle over five meters in length, and almost two meters wide, with incredible interior space, big cargo, big opening, a proper third row for adults, and to still get down to sedan and coupe drag coefficient numbers. We’re doing it with a seven-passenger SUV. That’s pretty remarkable. 

If you had an EV crystal ball, what do you think things are going to look like in 2030, and 2035?

I do believe in Lucid’s approach, and we see that with Air, and I think others will follow. Because there’s a certain honesty to it, and we’ve solved certain problems, and others will seek that out and do the same. Beyond that, I think the bigger trends are the technology. I do believe things like air co-efficiency, aerodynamics, everybody is going to have to embrace that to some degree, or they’re going to be sacrificing.

In terms of interiors, and display technology, that area is moving so fast, and everybody is trying to find their own approach, their own signature. And then you throw autonomy in there, and that opens up a whole other range of things, so the desire to make this captive experience inside the car something special and ownable, from a brand standpoint everyone is going to try and find that, because that is the new frontier. 

You asked about 2035, well, if most companies have sorted out efficiency and everybody is quick, fast, everyone has tons of space, the shape of automobiles will have adjusted to that, so what’s left? Experience. The in-car experience, and I’m not talking about watching YouTube. What else can we get? For us, Sanctuary is the very first step in that direction (changes screens, lighting, audio, seat massagers, to help you relax) and there’s going to be a lot more from us, and I think others will also pursue that eventually. 

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Designing the Retrofuturistic 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 6

The brand’s chief designer SangYup Lee tells us about the much anticipated follow-up to the Ioniq 5

Katie Olsen

24 August 2022

“I’m excited and nervous,” says SangYup Lee, Hyundai’s design chief and a star within the auto design world. “It’s been three years of hard work.” This is just before the silk slips off of his latest creation: the culmination of a thousand days of countless micro-decisions, renderings, adjustments, collaboration, effort and toil, all tucked under a veil in London’s Shoreditch Studios. The Ioniq 6 arrives on the heels of the Ioniq 5, which won the World Car of the Year for design, as well as overall World Car of the Year for 2022.

Hyundai says they simply can’t get enough to dealers, and are working with other markets to try and steer allocation to the US. Canada has customers on a waiting list. At least a large part of this success has to do with the first Ioniq model’s fresh, unique design. It’s a risk that paid off. And the Ioniq 6? It’s simply wild. Like the Ioniq 5, there’s nothing remotely close to it on the road.

Based on the sleek Prophecy concept shown in March 2020, the second of three announced Ioniq cars is as out there as the first. Lee and Simon Loasby, VP and head of Hyundai styling, tell us they looked to the streamliner cars of the ’30s and ’40s (specifically the 1936 Stout Scarab, ’38 Phantom Corsair and the ’47 Saab 92) and appreciate the timelessness of those designs. But the Ioniq 6 achieves a retro-futuristic look that could be peeled straight from the a Total Recall reboot.

Some might see a whisper of Porsche and Tesla (a little Taycan and Model 3 on the front-end, the rear spoiler evocative of the 964’s) here, another little play between classic and modern. Duality is something Lee especially appreciates, often referencing Jekyll and Hyde. “Even here in London, and in cities like Seoul, I love how the old and new—these two different sides can coexist together in harmony,” Lee says.

All Ioniq cars will be based on the Hyundai E-GMP dedicated electric platform. Working with a completely new architecture, truly designed without the requirements of an internal-combustion engine, has yielded a sense of possibility. “After 100 years, we’re getting to rethink design,” Lee tells us. “Not needing a grille for cooling functionally opens up the possibility of a greater lighting signature.” It has also led to a clean, wide front-end. There are six pixels on the front spoiler (Ioniq 7 will have seven), which indicate charging level when the car is plugged in.

The parametric pixel is the key design element of the Ioniq 6, and you can see it everywhere from the aforementioned front end, to the steering wheel, rear light bar, and rear spoiler deck lid, which also features a welcome greeting. In going for a timeless form, Lee says they wanted to maintain the single line and curvature of the roof from the concept. “Keeping the form more simple is a way to make the car ageless,” he says.

That line, along with a twin spoiler out back, help the Ioniq 6 achieve a slippery-sleek 0.21 “coefficient of drag” figure, an aerodynamic feat which helps extend battery range. The Ioniq 6 rides a little higher than the Prophecy concept, the realities of transferring this vision to a production skateboard platform, but the two-color tone with dark underbody draws the eye, and it serves as a way to reduce volume visually.

The interior fascinates as well. For starters, there’s no logo on the steering wheel. Lee explains that Hyundai’s chairman asked, if instead of placing a logo on the wheel (almost a default practice) they could do something that added value. A pixel light indicator on the wheel signals charge level, and at the press of a button, voice-recognition displays like a home AI system would.

Making a strong imprint is also interior signature lighting, which represents a fresh take on mood lighting. Twin screens molded as one unit serve for instruments and media, but some buttons (and thankfully a volume knob) remain. Some markets will have screens for the digital side mirrors, though the US-spec cars will have traditional mirrors to comply with existing regulations.

Rear passengers will benefit from the Ioniq 6 wheelbase, the longest in the segment. While the rear doesn’t get the same special design attention as the front, it’s absolutely cavernous.

If Hyundai represents the mainstream, and Genesis luxury, then Ioniq is to dare, and perhaps to sci-fi dream.

Images courtesy of Hyundai

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Test Drive: 2020 Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible

We drop the top on Bentley’s new GT, and take in some of America’s finest natural wonders

Evan Malachosky

21 October 2019

As the 2020 Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible‘s raucous V8 fires up, burbles emit from the quad exhaust and inside the cabin, a wood veneer dash rotates backwards to expose a 12.3-inch touchscreen—a little theater on display on the chilly desert morning. Shifting the grand tourer into gear, we get rolling and, though Sedona is warming up patiently on this fall morning, we’ll still be warm—electing to get the top down.

As the windows roll down, somewhere a small internal motor hums and the roof begins to fold into itself. Within an astounding 19 seconds, while driving just below the 30mph limit that still allows the roof to tuck away, the top has been fully dropped.

With this, we get an even greater view of the exuberant red rock that Arizona is known for—perhaps nowhere more than here in Sedona. Once open, the morning sun feels nice, but the weather isn’t warm yet, and with a couple of taps into the menu, we turn on the heated seats. Even the armrest is heated, a subtle detail that adds to the many that make the Continental GT Convertible feel special. Eventually we turn on the massaging function on the driver’s seat, which feels as if two golf balls are kneading your back, somehow still very effective through the opulent diamond-stitched, quilted leather.

Each of the diamonds contains 712 stitches, Bentley says. And 1.75 miles of thread (a number that’s surely difficult to grasp) gets used on every Continental GT optioned as such.

There are four drive modes that can be selected via a dial on the center console. Custom, as its name implies, allows you to tailor the driving characteristics and feel to your preferences, while Comfort and Sport act as bookends to the performance portfolio. These two are bridged by the Bentley mode, which offers a nice middle-ground of the two. On an open stretch of road, we rotate the knurled metal bezel one notch from Bentley mode to Sport. Here the menace and emotion are dialed up.

As we accelerate, the upsized 22-inch wheels of our car effortlessly charge forth in a smooth, linear, locomotive-like way. In this mode, more power is sent to the rear wheels and the 4.0-liter twin turbo V8—capable of 542 horsepower and a generous 568 pound-feet of torque. Despite the speed building, and the trees zipping by more hurriedly, inside the cabin you can maintain a conversation at a normal volume. The acoustics within have been so cleverly developed to shelter the occupants from the building drama outside.

Our morning route to the Grand Canyon features a winding, hilly portion that our topless grand tourer takes on with gusto. The steering feels accurate and predictable, and the chassis (an architecture that’s shared with Porsche) helps the 5,000-pound vehicle feel exceptionally agile turning into a corner. Continuously variable dampers ensure the the ride comfort is smooth regardless of which driving mode you’re in.

As we near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the first slots of canyon appear, seemingly out of nowhere. The sun is now directly above us, shining over a deep blue, cloudless sky. The road has shifted to long, mostly straight lines, so we witch the dial to Comfort. The engine note subdues, and the car glides along.

Audiophiles will appreciate the 16-speaker, optional Bang and Olufsen system ($6,770) that’s doing Kacey Musgraves justice as we near the entrance of the National Park. At the first lookout, we park, but not without a few admiring glances from tourists. A geological formation that’s now believed to be 17 million years old, the canyon proves truly awe-inspiring. The steep ridges, when viewed from about 6,000 feet up, are quite majestic—and mesmerizing.

Upon walking back to our GT Convertible, we’re able to take in the exterior with fresh eyes. The crystal-cut LED matrix headlights draw the eye with their intricacy. The wide and long proportions, and muscular sculpture of the rear fenders are emphasized when parked among a sea of other vehicles. Upon opening the door, a bold B illuminates onto the ground, a greeting that reminds you of the pedigree of the Continental—now entering its third generation—and of the brand itself. This year marks Bentley’s centenary, and if the Continental GT V8 and its Convertible are any indication, the carmaker will be celebrating more milestones for many years.

Images courtesy of Bentley

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Archaeology, Camels and Cars: From The Dead Sea to Petra

We ride with archaeologist Sarah Parcak and Infiniti to the ancient city in Jordan

Katie Olsen

10 October 2019

It’s early morning in Jordan’s Wadi Rum and we’re loading our gear into the fleet of Infiniti QX80s, backed by only the sounds coming from doors opening and closing shut, and feet shuffling silently in the red sand. Despite the bright LED lights of our fleet SUVs, an observatory’s worth of glowing stars remain visible above, shining down in the pre-dawn desert. As I sit behind the wheel, archaeologist Sarah Parcak hops into the passenger’s seat. “I’m prefacing our conversation by warning you everything I say is pre-coffee,” she says. But it’s soon clear that Parcak’s pre-coffee cognitive state is already far ahead of the majority of us. 

Tasked with choosing our playlist, Parcak decides on Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It seems to set the right mood for the day—one of curiosity and exploration, and irregular by any measure. We’re retracing the steps of T.E. Lawrence on the road to Aqaba, as part of a journey that started from the Dead Sea, to the beautiful Wadi Rum desert and will end up at the ancient trading city of Petra. While Al-Khazneh (aka Treasury) is world-renowned, the larger site is decidedly impressive, for its history and state of preservation. But there’s a twist.

Parcak has discovered a new site in Petra, which she believes may yield even more cultural treasures—an area of the site we’ll visit today. How she discovered it was also unique, and part of a growing phenomenon she’s helping to push, along with other archaeologists: Parcak uses remote sensing technology, including satellite imagery to help find potential new sites.

As a professor of anthropology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Parcak says her students always ask, “How much can there be left to be discover?” She wanted to get a sense of that herself. And rather than focus on the greater archaeological world (Mesopotamia, Cambodia, South America, or even Jordan) she narrowed that to her area of concentration, Egypt.

I feel comfortable saying that we have discovered far less than one percent of the sites in ancient Egypt alone

“We have records going back 150 years, and I took the sum total of all the known excavated sites in the Egyptian Delta. I very generously rounded up the total volume of the areas excavated, compared to the total volume of the sites as they existed at that time, before they were destroyed partly by agriculture, and urbanization. Then we ran the math. We’ve excavated 1/1,000th of one percent of the sites in the Egyptian Delta alone. Add on top of that the number of previously undiscovered sites my team and I have mapped and surveyed, and then you add on top of that the number of sites in upper Egypt that are far less excavated, and I feel comfortable saying that we have discovered far less than one percent of the sites in ancient Egypt alone.”

Parcak credits her interest in harnessing remote-sensing technologies to her grandfather, Harold Young, who was a forestry professor at the University of Maine. Young was one of the pioneers in the application of aerial photography and photogrammetry in forestry. In that application he would map and measure tree heights, forest density and tree species. Parcak says, while he never made the shift to computers, she thinks he’d be pretty excited about how far the field has come. “By a long shot I’m not the only one doing this—there are several others using remote-sensing technologies. Whether you’re doing work in paleontology, preservation, conservation, or landscape mapping, so much of this is interconnected. That includes mapping from drones and lasers, or terrestrial LiDar mapping, or 3D reconstruction of sites.”

As the sun slowly warms the upper reaches of the sky, we come into view of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. I press gently on the brakes and slow our vehicle down to take in the sight. Despite having been to Jordan, and this area before, Parcak stops to snap some photos and to take in the spectacularly beautiful surroundings.

If you stare at the globe long enough, you stop seeing borders, and you start seeing the interconnectedness of the planet

“One of the things I like about the field generally,” Parcak says, “is what astronauts call the ‘overview effect.’ If you stare at the globe long enough, you stop seeing borders, and you start seeing the interconnectedness of the planet, and that’s profoundly affected how I think about the world, and the past, and how I think about my colleagues. That’s the spirit in which I approach remote-sensing.” She says the data for the sites and the learnings from the digs allow us to ask bigger questions, and push more on what we don’t know.

This is partly what caught Infiniti’s attention as well. Parcak (a TED Fellow and winner of the 2016 TED Prize) is no stranger to taking on convention, which is a spirit Infiniti felt was shared. This makes her an obvious choice for an ambassador, as when she began using satellite archaeology it allowed for breakthroughs (and continues to) in her industry.

Back in 1989, Infiniti entered uncertain territory, aiming to be a Japanese luxury car brand set to challenge an industry without historical precedent. (There were no other Japanese car companies doing that before 1989, and Lexus debuted that same year). Along with taking that risk, the brand has also pioneered several industry firsts. Parcak says she appreciates that daring nature.

Above us, the sky is brightening quickly. On the ground, the mesmerizing red hues of the rocks and sand are taking their more familiar appearance as we get closer to the village. We’re less than two hours away from Petra, and Parcak tells us about the new site she’s found—this one dating back two millennia. “The site we found is massive. When we first started satellite, images were 2.5 meters, we now have ones that are .3 meters, which is an order of magnitude different in the work that I do. You can now see this site on Google Earth. You couldn’t see it on Google Earth when we first spotted it, but even with the more crude images, we found a recta-linear anomaly.”

Parcak says it’s not clear where the Nabateans (a group of ancient Arab peoples) that lived in the area came from, but she believes they were a mostly a semi-nomadic people that became more settled as wealth came into the region, and they chose to settle in Petra. The area was perfectly situated along the Silk Road.

“So my colleague that I’m working in collaboration with on this went out and did drone mapping of the area, and we think we’ve found a monumental structure. We believe it to be a ritual site, dating to the first or second century AD. It’s located at a very high point, similar to other temples and ritual sites, and it’s located in a very strategic location. About 200 meters by 160 meters.” She says a central feature is an altar, and while she stresses they have to be very careful with the words used, she believes the finding correlates with a temple site. “It needs to be excavated, and I hope that will happen in the next couple of years.”

Parcak explains that digs globally will vary, but in Egypt they’re somewhat similar. “You typically have an excavation director—which is my role. I run a joint mission with the Egyptian government, so I have an Egyptian co-director, and I have roughly 12-15 core staff.” A field director is responsible for the field work, making sure all the specific units are being recorded properly, and that good archaeological work is happening. The archaeologists themselves work individually, and sometimes there’s an architect who draws, maps, and plans all the architecture that you find. A registration team logs them, and artists will draw them. “Lest you think it’s 2019 and we can just take digital photos and 3D-print what we find, it’s the artists that will be able to comment on the material, make, and the artist marks, they’re totally essential.”

Beyond that there are focused specialists, like Parcak’s ceramics team, who analyze the countless pot shards that are found. Seed specialists connect the arhaeo-botanical remains. There are anthropologists and bioarchaeologists who look at human remains and determine age, sex, and health of the populations. Conservationists may be brought in to help preserve painted materials or stabilize objects. And there are people coming into tombs, taping cracks or putting in cross-pieces and making sure they won’t collapse. “Safety is the number one concern for my staff. It’s no laughing matter, people have been killed before in a collapse in other places, and I can’t take that risk,” Parcak says.

Another concern within archaeology is looting. Following 2011 and the Arab Spring, there has been an uptick in looting, which Parcak’s team has been tracking with high-resolution satellite imagery. “There are a lot of big questions, about networks, who’s doing the looting, and how is it leaving Egypt? How is it ending up in Western markets, and how much money is the black market worth? As far as the routes, we think it’s the same as the gun running, drug running, and human smuggling, because those routes are already well-established.” Parcak says that looting pits look the same all around the world. “We mapped over 200,000 pits, it wasn’t a happy six months of my life. I like finding things, not finding looting.” Step one in stopping it is data. “You can’t protect them if you don’t know where they are, and we can then provide governments with detailed heritage databases and other cultural assets,” she explains. 

Ideally it’s possible, but the future of archaeology will also include and empower “citizen archaeologists” through Parcak’s GlobalXplorer initiative, which encourages the global community to help analyze satellite images. “It started in Peru, and it’s this idea of empowering local archaeologists with new tools and new technologies. We help support them and let them go out and do what they’re best at. We’re going to India next,” Parcak says excitedly. 

Her techniques have already helped locate 17 potential pyramids, some 3,100 forgotten settlements, and 1,000 potential lost tombs in Egypt. She hopes that with the help of citizen scientists they can uncover much, much more. Together, we’re piecing together an enormous jigsaw puzzle—and everything we know of archaeology and history may only be a few pieces. But there’s a sense that, in the coming decades, we just might get a sense of the broader picture. And the site we’ll glimpse today, once excavated, may just be a tiny part of the archaeological puzzle.

Images by Abdulla Jaafari

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Test Drive: 2019 Audi TT 20th Anniversary

The iconic auto’s latest chapter is a bonafide driver’s car

Katie Olsen

26 August 2019

In the ’80s and ’90s, Audi built a heroic reputation in the motorsports world but somehow that daring ethos wasn’t translating to its line-up of cars. The directive became clear: to produce a sports car worthy of unpacking that emotion and racing excitement and translating it into an accessible and alluring sports car. What began as a vision in 1994 at the Volkswagen Group’s California Design Center would become the first Audi TT Coupe in 1998. The Roadster would follow a year later, and the two-door sports car was an instant and early success.

Back in 2000, Dany Garand (who designed the third and current generation of the TT) had just joined Audi, coming from the Honda design studio in Germany. He tells us the TT was one of the reasons he fell under the brand’s spell. That original mission would also come full-circle once again when Garand was tasked with designing the latest TT.

Back then, Audi was creating cars to align in three distinct avenues: A (core line up), Q (crossovers) and R (sport models). When the team had to decide where to position the newest TT the decision was clear: “Our line-up had really grown since the first TT came out,” Garand says. “The third generation was meant to keep the icon alive, to keep that original mandate of performing as a sports car. We knew this had to be an R to be a true ambassador for the sportiness of the brand.”

Garand says he’s a fan of the wedge shape—one that’s certainly at play with the new TT. The front end is slimmer than the previous two generations, which helps emphasize the muscle in the rear. You can best see this on the front- and rear-three-quarter angles.

The 20th Anniversary Edition is a further tribute to that first car, and gets several special touches. It comes in Aviator Gray with pearl effect or Nimbus Gray Metallic (exclusive to the US), which complements the five-arm-design gunmetal wheels on summer tires. It’s produced in ultra-limited numbers, at just 999 cars available worldwide, and only 40 coupes and 40 convertibles available to the US.

“20 Years of TT” badges can be found along the front fenders, as well as matte-finished Audi rings etched into the rear sills. The 20th anniversary edition also gets the striking OLED lights from the TT RS model to give it a sharp, almost predatory aesthetic. The interior gets plenty of attention too.

In a nod to the original TT, the 20th gets Moccasin Brown Fine Nappa leather seats—a fitting name as you feel as if you’re slipping into custom-fitted seats. Gorgeous details are there to be noticed. Air vents look like a turbine engine, and have a unique design aspect that Garand, who is an exterior designer, appreciates. “You can orient the air flow in different directions, but the look of the air vents doesn’t change. That first optic impression remains.”

Exquisite yellow stitching contrasts the seats to intentionally give it a “baseball glove” feel like that of the original. There are commemorative badges on the steering wheel and shifter and the wheel is finished in the same leather as the seats and door trim. Audi’s MMI suite of technology is there of course, including the Virtual Cockpit. Striking Bang & Olufsen speakers round it all out.

Powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine, the TT pushes 228 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque—all channeled via a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The drive select button opens up a goody bag of driving modes that completely change the nature and character of the car. There’s an Individual mode, Comfort or Auto for a quieter, get-about-town ride, and Dynamic which dials up the drama. The TT is quick, the 19-inch wheels eager-to-lurch, but it also has an accessible level of performance.

The steering feels wired to your brain, the Quattro all-wheel drive and well-sorted chassis each contributing to the cause. In Dynamic mode, the clean, clear grunt builds as your foot presses the accelerator and speed builds in a hurry. Coupe or convertible, both versions can hit 60mph in a blink over five seconds. It feels even quicker than its numbers would suggest, too. Like the original, the latest in the TT chapter is a bonafide driver’s car.

Images by Matthew Askari

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Test Drive: 2020 Cadillac XT6

A three-row luxe alternative to the brand’s more truck-like Escalade

Katie Olsen

5 August 2019

Pulling away from Washington DC’s National Mall toward the green woods of Northern Virginia, there’s a calming near-silence in the cabin of the 2020 Cadillac XT6. The ride is smooth too, the result of a lot of chassis engineering ensures road vibration doesn’t translate to the cabin. New Cadillac-specific Bose speakers offer noise-cancelling technology. Details like these matter most to buyers of Cadillac‘s new three-row crossover, which is larger than the XT4 and the XT5 and smaller than the massive Escalade.

On the Platinum Edition, there’s a carbon fiber interior trim that has some unique thought put into it. It features a copper wire that’s actually woven through the structure and it gives off a reflection in the light. There’s also a unique finish applied. “You’ll notice on the instrument panel it has a hand-painted ombre effect. You get this darker shift as you move down to the lower section of the detail and it just accentuates the form. After the part’s been formed and the gloss coating is on it, there’s someone that adds that coloring to the bottom section, to add a little bit of movement as well,” Mara Kapsis, a color and trim designer tells us.

She explains how decisions like this are based on trends, but also how the team interprets them: “Obviously it’s a really big trend in fashion, in furniture, in interiors and this was a way of sort of bringing that in, in a really sophisticated way,” she says.

There are several other subtle, deliberate and intentional touches that are thoughtful too—the headlights have a bit of the bright Galvano metallic finish (which looks like a slightly subdued chrome) that matches the Galvano-finished metal work on the side of the vehicle, the wheels and rear.

A laser-etched Cadillac chevron in the headlights matches the chevron on the seats, connecting exterior and interior. Similarly, the Cadillac script can be found in the headlights and inside of the vehicle. “We really want that to be a bit of a surprise and delight feature for the customer,” adds Ryan Skelley, who leads wheel design.

In fact, the details all interweave. Skelley says, “The idea was you’ve got your bright work on the front and as your eye moves around to the side you get to the bright work on the wheel, and then you get to the Galvano bright bar itself, and then you hit another wheel, and then you get to the bright bar on the rear, so the customer’s eye is always moving around the car, always in motion.”

Skelley says this helps the car feel elegant, but also more mobile and dynamic. The XT6 also debuts Cadillac’s first-ever 21-inch wheel as an option. The optional Sport wheel (finished in Medium Android Satin) is meant to work with the Galvano bright metallic finishes on the car.

While there are several thoughtful details, Cadillac has covered the basics as well. Regardless the version or trim, the XT6 is powered by a 310 horsepower, 271 pound-foot 3.6-liter V6 engine. Power is distributed to the front or all four wheels via a nine-speed automatic transmission, and the delivery is smooth. Sitting on the same architecture as the XTV, the XT6 gets stretched about nine inches longer and a couple inches taller.

An eight-inch screen features the newest CUE (Cadillac User Experience) infotainment system, and it’s logical and easy to use. There are six USB ports, seats can be heated and cooled, and a myriad of options offer significant choice. While the XT6 begins at $52,695, our well-equipped and highly-optioned model is priced at $71,000. The XT6 will be available in dealerships in late summer.

Images courtesy of Cadillac

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Aboard the 2getthere Autonomous Shuttle

In a pilot program at the Brussels Airport, the shuttle is an example of realistic autonomy

Evan Malachosky

31 July 2019

Dutch-based 2getthere has been producing autonomously driving shuttles long before the concept became popular in the car industry. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding autonomous driving, but we’re still a long way from a safe, practical, and widely used application. In the meantime, 2getthere believes development of their shuttles for public use provides a realistic move toward autonomy.

“Dedicated lanes are the best first step in the road to autonomous vehicles. It allows us to continue developing these technologies, while gaining public trust of these systems,” says Wolf-Henning Scheider, CEO of the major automotive supplier ZF—who acquired a majority stake in 2getthere this year. The company was encouraged by 2getthere’s autonomous shuttle technology currently being used. In fact, their first-generation autonomously operated shuttle has racked up more than 67 million miles over a 20-year span in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Even the brand’s first shuttles, two decades ago, were using a LiDAR system that could detect real objects from “ghost” objects—such as rain, snow, or falling leaves. The newer shuttles use an advanced combination of sensing and perception systems similar to the technology we’re seeing in the newest cars. These include 3D-camera systems, LiDAR, radar and ultrasound systems that have classification capability. It’s this mix that’s especially important as the shuttles are used in increasingly complex situations.

We recently hopped aboard 2getthere’s newest shuttle, near Dresden, Germany, to experience the technology in use. On a track inside the Lausitzring complex, we boarded and rode the shuttle to a building about a mile away. The shuttle can accommodate up to 22 standing passengers, or eight seated individuals. Doors can open on both sides, as we saw on the prototype. The shuttle has a range of 31 miles, and a top speed of 25mph. It is capable of being charged at stops, and it can recharge up to 80% in just 11 minutes. While it was a sunny summer day when we rode along, the shuttles can be used in many weather situations, such as rain and snow.

Interestingly, the shuttle has four-wheel steering, meaning it can—as we observed—perform a sort of slow-motion drift, to angle and maneuver more precisely into spots. There’s a bit of noise while in transit on our prototype ride, something that will likely be worked out when the second-generation shuttles begin operations in several upcoming destinations, including the Brussels Airport.

The company is currently testing a pilot project at the airport, and will launch a dozen shuttles for public use, and on public roads at the airport beginning in 2021. The software is also currently in use in a Southern California theme park, shuttling 60 to 80 passengers daily in the park’s custom vehicle. (While they are tight-lipped on whether it’s Disneyland or Universal Studios, because of contractual agreements, we can confirm it’s one of the two major parks.)

The shuttles are also in use in Masdar, United Arab Emirates, as well as other locations around the world. While cars have a long way to go toward full autonomy, ZF and 2getthere believe the more limited shuttle use on public roads can both help develop these systems, while also building public trust in them over time.

Hero image courtesy of 2getthere

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Car eWallet Uses Blockchain Tech

Your car could pay for tolls, parking, fuel, insurance and more on its own

Evan Malachosky

30 July 2019

The idea behind Car eWallet seems so logical, it’s a wonder such a platform isn’t already in use. The tech company recently separated from major automotive supplier ZF and aims to do something fairly radical: create the largest blockchain-powered open mobility marketplace, and make your car-related payments more seamless, centralized, and automatic.

Partnering with IBM and UBS, eWallet has already begun a pilot program with BayWa in Germany for the first phase and step in its program, which allows a car to automatically pay for gas at the pump. It saves the step of having to pay by swiping or inserting your credit card, or by physically going into a store to pay for gas. But the company’s plans go well beyond this.

While Chevrolet has recently started its own similar pilot project with Shell, eWallet aims to use IBM’s Blockchain technology to add a myriad of car related transactions into one central portal. In theory, your car would be able to pay for tolls, parking meter fees, charging costs for electric cars, insurance and gas, automatically.

Car eWallet’s reps tell us that you could receive a transaction report online, or monthly invoice, much like with a credit card now. The idea is to simplify and centralize these transactions, with your car doing the hard work. eWallet is also system-agnostic, and you would be able to use an app on any phone, or even interact with prompts on your car’s screen. At this point the program is in the development and testing phase, but there’s a great deal of flexibility that can be tailored to meet the needs of consumers, an OEM, or fleet. With blockchain tech slowly gaining more acceptance and use, the idea of simplifying several transactions seems like a pragmatic move.

Images courtesy of Car eWallet