Auto Events

OAKVILLE, ON – Ford Motor Company made a big announcement yesterday that their Oakville Assembly plant will be receiving an $800-million investment ($700-million from Ford and the rest from the federal and provincial government) to expand its manufacturing capabilities.

This is all part of Ford’s “One Ford” global product plan that has seen several European vehicles come to North America, and vice versa, into Europe and Asia. This new investment will bring several new global models to the Oakville facility, but they didn’t specify which models they will be. 

Currently, the Oakville Assembly plant produces the Ford Edge, Ford Flex, the Lincoln MKZ and Lincoln MKT, which brings about 2,800 jobs. This announcement is a major boost for the workers at the plant, as those jobs will be secured with this announcement. There’s no talk of added jobs, but there will be plenty of work to go around once the new global models are added to production.

“This investment is helping us find much needed capacity for global products and securing jobs, and it is positioning Oakville as one of the most competitive and important facilities in the Ford system,” said Joe Hinrichs, president of The Americas. “Global fuel-efficient products, built in a state-of-the-art facility, by a great workforce are a win for everyone today.”

Furthermore, Hinrichs noted that this investment into Oakville would mean more purchases of Canadian-made auto parts increasing its sales by an additional $200-million.

The “One Ford” global plan will be put into action in Oakville and production will adjust accordingly based on consumer demand. The plant workers will not face line shutdowns and time away from work, because now they can change their focus from one car to the next in this flexible global approach.

“Ford’s investment demonstrates Canada can be competitive in the global market through strategic partnerships,” said Dianne Craig, president and CEO, Ford of Canada. “Working closely with government and labour, we have secured a bright future for our employees at Oakville Assembly.”

Since 2004, Ford has invested $2-billion in Canada and survived the automotive financial crisis without a government bailout. Ford is clearly doing things right and it’s nice to see that Canadian jobs have been secured for the foreseeable future. 

Infiniti just released its upcoming Q30 concept at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this month. Infiniti claims that the vehicle is a sports coupe, a hatchback, and a crossover all rolled into one. The company also claims that the Q30 is designed to appeal to a younger customer that would usually opt for a premium compact vehicle. 

The Q30 certainly reveals the future of Infiniti’s design language without straying too far away from their current one. The design shares design cues with other Infiniti products such as the deep grille found in the Q50, as well as the familiar curve on the rear passenger window – currently found on the popular JX model, now known as the QX60.

Even though this is a concept, its design looks too road-ready to consider it one. We expect this to be what the Q30 will most likely look like. Although we like the design, we couldn’t help but compare it to Mazda’s newly designed compact hatch – the Mazda3. Expected to come out this fall, we can’t help but think that the Q30’s design might be a bit outdated by the time it launches. In fact, it was just a few months ago at the Detroit Auto Show that we were surprised how similar the Q50’s rear looked to the Mazda6. 

This can only make us wonder: are automotive companies truly running out of design ideas?

TORONTO, ON - Anxious video-gamers began lining up early Monday evening for the midnight launch of Grand Theft Auto 5.

To celebrate the latest release of the billion-dollar video game franchise, a launch party was held outside the Best Buy store on Bay and Dundas Streets in downtown Toronto.

By shortly after 10 p.m. about 40 gamers, mostly 20-something males, were waiting in the roped-off area in front of the store.

And the crowd continued to grow until the 12:01 a.m. release of the much-anticipated video game.

First in the line was 26-year-old software developer Aubrey Cottle who said he also lined up hours for the last Grand Theft Auto release in 2008.

“This is very much a regular occurrence for me and it doesn’t get any less exciting. My wife encouraged me to come do this actually,” laughed Cottle, who often camps out for game releases or new video game systems.

“I once had a tent right over there,” he said pointing to the sidewalk in front of the store.

Cottle plans to take Tuesday off work to play with his new toy.

University of Toronto student, Vishnu Habi went to the midnight launch in Singapore in 2008.

“I’ve been playing since I was 11 or so and to be honest what attracted me as a kid was the mindless violence. Just like all little boys I loved it," he said.

"Today I wanted to line up again in my new home in Canada. I wanted to be a part of the experience.”

The lone female gamer in line, Ashleigh Alexander, 23, credits the game's open-world freedom for its tremendous popularity. “It’s fun to just play a bad guy, because in real life you’re a good guy. So I like letting some steam out at the end of the day and just robbing people,” she said laughing.

Another gamer, Drew Beaulieu, said he just moved to Toronto and came to the launch party to see what all the fuss was about.

“Why not spend a few hours taking in some city time and getting the game?" he said.

"It’s one of those games you really just have to play.”

Best Buy employees said the Dundas store sold over 200 copies of the game during its pre-sale.

Over the years, cruise control has been a steadily evolving feature. It started simply as a function to hold one’s speed on the highway to ease driver fatigue. Lately, automakers have started implementing systems that start to take away some of the basic challenges of driving, such as radar guided cruise control and park assist. All of these new advancements edge us closer and closer to fully autonomous vehicles, which in turn, will force us to start trusting these unfamiliar electronic systems.

General Motors (GM) just recently announced that by the year 2020, they want to offer consumers vehicles that have the ability to automatically follow road lanes without any input from the driver. 

Do you realize what this means? A driver would just have to simply drive to the highway, activate the autonomous system and from there the car would do all the work.

If you think that’s wild, Nissan seems to be aiming higher than GM. At the Nissan 360 event (a large test drive and stakeholder interaction event held in Southern California), Nissan showed off their electric Leaf vehicle equipped with its full autonomous system.  They demonstrated it by having the cars drive through a simulated urban environment without any input by a human being whatsoever. What was even more impressive is that they were that confident in their technologies to carry automotive journalists as passengers. 

Nissan’s system works differently than GMs. GM wants you to drive to the highway and from there sit back and relax; while Nissan wants you to sit back and relax from the moment you leave your driveway. 

These systems aren’t without their own flaws. The biggest challenge for these manufacturers is to avoid system malfunctions. If they were to break down – the driver must be aware of what’s happening on the road ahead to react in time.  One little glitch could create a major catastrophe making it hard to solely rely on technology. 

The more we rely on these systems, the more we place our lives in its hands as they pilot our vehicles. The driverless cars bring created today still don’t possess the capabilities of handling the unexpected, forcing us to still have our eyes peeled on the road. So in a sense, they’re only an advanced version of cruise control with additional functions.

Autonomous cars are a truly fascinating technology and it brings us closer to a reality that only existed in science fiction books and movies. GM, Nissan and numerous others are hard at work to drive us around without lifting a finger. Autonomous cars might be the way of the future, but for now these systems should be designed strictly to ease the load of long drives rather than remove driving altogether.