Month: April 2021

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  Mazda's first battery EV is this small crossover, the MX-30. [credit: Mazda ]

On Wednesday, Mazda confirmed that it will bring its new battery-electric vehicle to the US later in 2021. It's called the MX-30, and it's an attractive compact crossover that has been on sale in Europe for a few months already. It's the first full EV to join the Mazda lineup. The MX-30 will be joined in time by a series hybrid version that uses a rotary engine as a range extender, as well as a new plug-in hybrid for an as-yet-unseen larger vehicle, plus a US-made hybrid crossover.

The MX-30's technical specs probably won't win any bench races. There's a 107 kW (144 hp), 271 Nm (200 lb-ft) electric motor that drives the front axle, and a 35.5 kWh lithium-ion battery pack that has a 124-mile (200 km) range under the generous WLTP testing format. And DC fast charging tops out at a maximum of 50 kW, which equates to a 36-minute pitstop to get back to 80 percent state of charge on road trips.

But we're expecting it to drive like a peach, as it shares the same Skyactiv Vehicle architecture as the CX-30 crossover and Mazda 3 sedan and hatchbacks, all of which are a joy from behind the wheel.

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  Ford's new hands-free driving system, called BlueCruise, will be enabled on the newest F-150 truck later this year, via an over-the-air software update. The driver-monitoring system uses an infrared camera that's mounted just above the infotainment screen. [credit: Ford ]

On Wednesday morning, the Ford Motor Company revealed some fresh information about its forthcoming hands-free highway driving assist. Originally known as Active Drive Assist, this new system has been renamed BlueCruise, and it will roll out in Q3 2021 via an over-the-air update to F-150 trucks and Mustang Mach-E crossovers that shipped with pre-installed hardware.

Like General Motors' highly rated Super Cruise system, BlueCruise only enables hands-free driving on predetermined roads—in this case 110,000 miles (177,027 km) of pre-mapped divided-lane highways.

And, like Super Cruise, it uses an eye-tracking infrared camera to make sure that the driver's eyes are on the road ahead while engaged. To prevent mode confusion, Ford says that the main instrument display will change unambiguously so drivers know whether BlueCruise is active.

Enlarge (credit: Drew Angerer | Getty Images)

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) proposed a new bill on Monday aimed at blocking mergers and acquisitions for companies with market caps of over $100 billion.

The bill introduced by Hawley, a frequent critic of Big Tech, is strikingly brief at just eight pages long. It would amend the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act, and the Federal Trade Commission Act—three antitrust laws enacted around the turn of the 20th century.

“It is a radical, populist transformation to antitrust,” said John O. McGinnis, a professor of constitutional law at Northwestern University.

Enlarge / The back panel on this 2021 Inspiron 16 Plus is pretty minimal. (credit: Dell)

This week, Dell is launching its 2021 Inspiron laptop line. The new lineup features refreshed models with Tiger Lake CPUs for Inspiron 13, 14, 14 2-in-1, and 15 laptops—and a brand-new Inspiron 16 Plus.

If you're not familiar with Dell branding, Inspiron is its budget laptop lineup—but in this context, "budget" means solid laptop designs targeted to price-sensitive customers, but not bottom-of-the-barrel cheap stuff. You'll find the same Intel i3, i5, and i7 CPUs in these Inspiron models as you'd find in more expensive Dell Latitudes, HP Probooks, and so forth.

2021 Inspiron 13

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  The Inspiron 13 has the compressed arrow-key layout we know you all love, along with what appears to be a somewhat undersized Enter key. Power button is on the top right, just above backspace. [credit: Dell ]

In most of the world, the Inspiron 13 is available in one color—"Platinum Silver with tonal blocking." Chinese customers get a Peach Dust option (also with tonal blocking) as well. The Inspiron features a 13.3" display in 1920x1200 or 2560x1600 16:10 resolution, and it comes with a choice of Intel i3-1125G4, i5-11300H, or 17-11370H CPU, and (on the i5 and i7 models) an optional Nvidia GeForce MX450 GPU. Weight starts at 1.25kg (2.75lb)—we're not shown a full range of weights, but we don't see any options that should plump things up much, either.