Headlines & Coming Up – Week of 1.29.18 | iDSC025

Headlines & Coming Up – Week of 1.29.18 As predicted, accidents involving autonomously driven vehicles seem to be increasing – we note two of them from the Golden State this past week.  And the lawyer sues a luxury resort and valet company who gave his $300k Ferrari to a young man hoping to impress a young lady he’d just met that night. And coming up this week, we review the Sonata Hybrid Limited from our friends at Glendale Hyundai and talk about the past, present and future of the automotive industry and driving itself with the Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum. ***Transcript*** Recording date – January 29, 2018 Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States – Southern California. I’m Tom Smith.  Here’s what’s happening in mobility news: A California motorcyclist is suing General Motors for the negligent driving of one of the company’s robot driven vehicles. The suit stems from an accident in San Francisco where the car apparently aborted a lane change, in traffic, bumping the motorcyclist who went down and was hurt. There was human driver behind the wheel of the Cruise AV at the time of the crash but the vehicle was driving itself. The police report blames the motorcyclist for the crash. GM also blames the biker and says he was splitting-lanes just prior to the accident. Experts have been predicting many more incidents involving autonomously driven vehicles are to come as testing increases. And another autonomous driving related crash had two federal agencies responding to investigate. This one was here in Southern California on the 405 near Culver City. A Tesla, that may of have been operating on autopilot, slammed into a parked fire truck – no one was hurt. The fire truck was parked on angle in the carpool lane while firemen tended to an accident on the other side of the highway. Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are investigating but neither are commenting at this time. Tesla had no comment either but stated that drivers must remain attentive even when autopilot is in use. And the owner of a Ferrari valued at three-hundred-thousand-dollars has filed a lawsuit after a valet parking attendant gave his car to someone else. It happened at a luxury resort in Saint Petersburg, Florida. The police report states a 28-year-old male met, and wanted to impress a 24-year-old female so he told the valet the car was his. He demanded the vehicle and insisted he’d left the valet ticket in the car. The valet grew frustrated when he realized he wasn’t receiving a tip and walked away. At 12:30 in the morning cops pulled the Ferrari over noting it was driving without taillights. They found cocaine on the center console and marijuana in the female’s purse. It sounds like the lawsuit against the resort and the valet company was easy to file as the owner of the vehicle is a lawyer who was at the resort for a convention. And that’s what’s happening in mobility news. Coming up this week on iDriveSoCal. The Professor himself, Clinton Quan, joins us with analysis after another test drive.  This time he picked up a Sonata Hybrid from our friends at Glendale Hyundai.  Hear the complete details of his report this Wednesday. Clinton Quan: We are reviewing the 2017 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid Limited which is the top of the line hybrid for the Sonata. It has a really,