Autoblog

How brazen can you get? At least most of the Chinese auto-cloners automakers create their own renderings of the cars they are copying. HongQi, a "premium" brand produced by First Auto Works in China simply grabbed a couple of press shots of the Lincoln MKT concept from the Ford Media site and starting 'chopping. Regardless of what you might think of Lincoln's new styling direction (generally, we like it), the Chinese version is not easy on the eyes. You would think with three months to work on it since the Lincoln pics appeared they could find someone to do a more professional-looking job. The question is, will FAW get their version on the road before the production version of the MKT lands at Lincoln dealers in 2009?



[Source: China Car Times]

Now this has disaster spelled all over it. (If you can read Chinese.)

Chinese carmaker First Auto Works (FAW) is demonstrating a sedan that drives itself. Equipped with two cameras hooked up to a computer guidance system of some sort, the FAW Hongqi (Red Flag) HQ3 prototype is designed to navigate its way through streets, avoiding obstacles, stopping at traffic signals and hopefully mowing down a minimum of pedestrians.

FAW demonstrated the car at the Northeast Asia Investment and Trade Expo, where it was limited to a snail-pace 37 mph, though the automaker claims it could safely operate at speeds up to 93 mph. If it actually works in real life, this would mark a significant step forward from the embarrassing demonstration of Mercedes' Brake Assist PLUS system and a challenger to vehicles entering the next DARPA Grand Challenge.

Personally, I'll just be happy if it can get an egg roll and crispy beef to my house while they're still hot.

[Source: Techdirt via Engadget]