Tag: news

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Agnelli family’s Exor confirm F1 plan

Filed under: Motorsports, Fiat

John Elkann and Luca di Montezemolo

Exor/Fiat CEO John Elkann with Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo trackside

It may have seemed far-fetched when the news first broke, and Bernie Ecclestone may think it will never amount to anything, but the reports of a plan to buy-out Formula 1 have proven factual.

The initial reports indicated that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, together with an unnamed second investor (speculated to be connected to Ferrari), were looking into acquiring the commercial rights to the premier motor racing series, which are currently held by CVC Capital and directed by Ecclestone. That second party turns out the be Exor, the investment company owned by the Agnelli family and chaired by its scion John Elkann, who also heads up the Fiat Group… which in turn owns Ferrari.

Exor has confirmed that it and News Corp are interested in buying all or part of the F1 business, although it admits that its interest alone won’t necessarily lead to the deal’s completion. After all, CVC would have to be willing to sell, and sources don’t expect that to come any time soon. But then, everything has its price.

The notion of Ferrari’s owners also owning F1, of course, will lead to much speculation, particularly since the team’s former chief executive Jean Todt already presides over the FIA, the body which governs everything about the sport that Formula One Management doesn’t. Follow the jump for the brief announcement from Exor.

Continue reading Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Agnelli family’s Exor confirm F1 plan

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Agnelli family’s Exor confirm F1 plan originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 04 May 2011 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Agnelli family’s Exor confirm F1 plan”

The Detroit News apologizes

Filed under: Etc., Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Chrysler

Jonathan Wolman“I owe our readers an explanation and an apology for the lapse that raised questions about our credibility” writes Detroit News publisher Jonathan Wolman today in a response to the blowback caused by the paper’s decision to weaken a review of the Chrysler 200 in response to advertiser demands. The decision to edit the online version of the review, which had already appeared in its original form in print, caused longtime auto reviewer Scott Burgess to resign rather than sacrifice his integrity. Burgess discussed the matter this week during a live appearance on Autoline After Hours and in a reader Q&A session at Jalopnik, which broke the story on Wednesday.

Wolman argues that Burgess was asked to “soften a few passages,” but that “there was no effort to change Scott’s verdict or his reasoning.”

Why bother, then? The excuse that “our intent was to improve the piece by making these passages less grating” is an exceptionally thin attempt to cover the paper’s backside. Nobody found it “grating” as the paper went to press, but suddenly, web readers are going to start bleeding from their eye sockets when Burgess rightly points out that while the Chrysler 200 is an improvement over the Sebring, that’s all it is? This affair hasn’t just “raised questions” about the paper’s integrity; rather, it’s all but ensured that The Detroit News will be viewed skeptically by many people going forward.

For his part, Scott Burgess states that he feels The Detroit News remains a source worthy of readers’ trust. In a comment to Jalopnik readers, he says,

“I think nearly every print publication — including The Detroit News — are trustworthy. The reason this became a big deal is because it is so rare, it never happened before and it certainly won’t happen again at the paper. In 15 plus years I had never had anything close to this happen to me. Journalists are a dogged group of people who work extremely hard, are typically underpaid and want to do the right thing.

In recent years, we’ve seen a lot of polarization of issues and I think that’s been more of a threat from online the changing ways people consumer media. There are a lot more voices out there and papers shouldn’t feel threatened by them, they should embrace them. I have always enjoyed the discussion, the debate, thoughtful response and evolution of ideas. There seems to less of that nowadays.”

Advertisers must sell product, and it’s natural for an auto dealership to complain about negative reviews of the wares it sells. It’s also not a stretch to understand how a newspaper would pay attention to an unsatisfied car dealer, as automotive ads are one of the biggest sources of revenue to newspapers. Still, that doesn’t get Wolman or The Detroit News off the hook, and a carefully-worded apology is too little, too late when the appropriate action would have been to back up the staff of “expert writers” the apology glowingly brags about.

[Source: The Detroit News]

The Detroit News apologizes originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 19 Mar 2011 12:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “The Detroit News apologizes”

Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius

Filed under: Etc., Technology, Videos, Toyota

Testing Google's driverless car

ABC News goes for a spin with one of Google’s driverless cars – Click above to watch video after the jump

Google’s autonomous fleet has been clandestinely racking up the computer-driven miles, and so far, their autonomous autos have been fault-free. One minor incident happened when a car was rear-ended, but the Skynet Google cars have yet to incur any points on their virtual licenses. Earlier this week, ABC News got the chance to go for a spin in one of the tech company’s automated cars, riding shotgun in a computer-controlled Toyota Prius.

The engineers from Google explain that the Prius utilizes a series of cameras and a roof-mounted, spinning laser to see what is going on around it. The result is a vehicle which might just be safer than one with a human behind the wheel. However, according to the report, the goal of the system is not to completely remove the driver from the equation, the system is pitched as more of a “super cruise-control” than a full auto-drive system. The theory is that it would be useful for traffic-filled commutes to and from work, and it might be a nice solution to eliminate or reduce distracted-driving. Get a phone call? Hit the Google button and let the car have the wheel while you take your call.

Becky Worley, the news correspondent in the video clip, even gets up the guts to give the Google car a real-life brake test. She steps in front of it as it’s motoring down the road. What happens? The car “sees” her and slams on the binders. Check it all out in the video after the jump.

[Source: ABC News]

Continue reading Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius

Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Video: ABC News gets taken for a spin in Google’s self-driving Toyota Prius”

Unsurprising News of the Day: Ford Explorer Sport Trac is toast

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Crossover, Ford


Ford Explorer Sport Trac Adrenalin – Click above for high-res image gallery

When it comes to a new Explorer Sport Trac for 2011, the only real surprise would have been if Ford had actually opted to build one. With the standard Explorer moving to a unit-body architecture, there are no plans for a new pickup truck version, a vehicle that probably would have been something akin to the Honda Ridgeline.

Since the Ridgeline hasn’t exactly been flying off dealer’s lots, Ford has wisely decided to focus on its full-bodied version, the Explorer. The Blue Oval hasn’t made a habit of breaking out Sport Trac sales from its SUV kin, but the Explorer only totaled 52,190 in 2009, so the pickup’s volume probably wasn’t a huge seller. According to Automotive News’ sources, Sport Trac sales usually totaled about 20 to 25 percent of Explorer sales over the last decade, but that number strikes us as curiously high. Over its entire life, we never saw a ton of them – even on the roads around Michigan where domestic pickups are commonplace.

Gallery: 2008 Ford Sport Trac Adrenalin

[Source: Automotive News – sub. req.]

Unsurprising News of the Day: Ford Explorer Sport Trac is toast originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Unsurprising News of the Day: Ford Explorer Sport Trac is toast”