MatoCar's Apple Car 2.0: How We Did It
Speculation can be simple, a few folks gathered at a bar and wondering about the future. Creating a physical manifestation of that future and bringing it to life is anything but. Our process began with Garrett DeBry, an ArtCenter College of Design grad, concept artist for BMW and Toyota, and the man who developed our first Apple Car concept in 2016.
DeBry is a proper futurist, spending hours poring over Syd Mead designs and listening to the Interstellar and Blade Runner 2049 soundtracks while working on sketches. From our side, we looked further into the future this time around, which afforded DeBry the freedom to design a vehicle that would fit into an Apple Car ecosystem, rather than imagining a comparatively simple autonomous Uber competitor.
His inspirations range from the wraparound corner windows of Apple's flagship Chicago store to Amazon warehouse robots to the natural materials and organic shapes of the iconic midcentury modern Charles Eames lounge chair. On this project, DeBry worked to minimize automotive design to its core elements. This thought process is how we ended up with the ultra-slick suspended teardrop you see here, but that was only the start.
Once DeBry submitted final sketches, we called on teams from around the world to lift his design off the page. Our second take on the Apple Car was painstakingly modeled in CAD so we could provide the files to a local 3-D print shop. After multiple days printing the 16-piece scale model you see here and bringing DeBry's design into the material world, it received countless coats of paint and finishing touches.
Once we reached that point, Mumbai, India-based automotive photographer Kunaal Kelkar came to town to employ his own wizardry. Kelkar's work first came to our attention in 2020 when he published a shockingly realistic photo set that was in reality a scale Lamborghini Huracán posed on a wet treadmill. For the Apple Car, he spent four days building a future city almost entirely out of Apple products found around our offices. The results speak for themselves.
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We've got some good news and bad news for if you're one of the thousands who've pre-ordered or are interested in purchasing the 2022 MotorTrend Truck of the Year (not to mention the only electric vehicle to cross the Trans-America Trail), the Rivian R1T pickup, and its SUV sibling, the R1S. The good news is that the company is expanding its R1T and R1S lineup, now offering dual-motor variants and a new battery pack. The bad news is that it's going to cost more for less Rivian, as quad-motor prices rise to make room for the new two-motor versions of the R1T and R1S, which will cost the same as the entry-level quad-motors did before.New Homebuilt MotorsAs we long suspected, Rivian-built dual-motor variants are now slated to join the R1 lineup. Available starting in 2024, these new Rivian designed, engineered, and built motors (one installed at each axle) are said to be good for over 600 hp and 600 lb-ft of torque, and Rivian promises a 4.0-second 0-60 mph time, making the dual motor R1T about a second slower to 60 mph than the quickest four-motor R1T we've tested. Current quad-motor Rivians produce 835 hp and 908 lb-ft of torque.Rivian also says that its new motors are simpler, lighter, and cheaper to build than the supplier-sourced motors on today's R1S and R1T.The California-based automaker isn't publicly committing to utilizing its new motors on the quad-motor R1S and R1T, but sources at the company have told us that Rivian is currently hard at work on a quad-motor R1X super SUV that makes 1,200 hp and 1,200 lb-ft. We're not math experts, but we're fairly certain that if you put four of Rivian's new motors together, the output would add up to 1,200 ponies and pound-feet.We suspect that in addition to the R1X, a detuned quad-motor R1S and R1T featuring the new motors is in the cards given CEO RJ Scaringe's desire to bring core competencies in-house.Rivian's new battery packIn addition to the new twin-motor models, Rivian today announced its new Standard battery pack will go on sale in 2024. Available only on dual-motor R1S' and R1Ts, the Standard pack joins the Large pack (on-sale now), and Max pack (slated for 2023). Dual motor R1s will be able to travel about 260 miles on a charge with the Standard pack, 320 miles with the Large pack, and over 400 miles with the Max pack, all pending EPA certification.Quad-motor R1Ts will continue to be available with only the Large and Max packs. The Large pack is the only one currently available; it nets the R1S an EPA-estimated range of 316 miles and R1T 314 miles.Price increases for the R1Although Rivian is keen to point out that base prices for the R1T and R1S remain unchanged at $68,575 and $73,575, respectively, that's a bit disingenuous, as the dual motor, standard pack is the new base configuration for the R1 line. Previously, those prices applied to quad-motor, Large pack models.Those quad-motor prices rise from $68,575 for a Large pack R1T Explore model to $80,575, and from $73,575 for a Large pack R1S Explore to $85,575. Max pack prices rise as well. The cheapest quad-motor R1T Max pack is now $90,315. The R1S, which has a shorter wheelbase than the pickup (and therefore less underbody space for batteries), is unavailable with the Max pack.Dual-motor Large pack R1Ts will begin at $74,575, and R1S' will begin at $79,575. Prices for the dual-motor R1T Max Pack start at $84,575.What does this mean for current Rivian reservation holders?Rivian chief growth officer Jiten Behl points to global supply chain shortages, increasing component parts, inflation, and semi-conductor delays as the primary reason for the price changes. "This rise in cost and complexity due to these challenging circumstances necessitate an increase to the prices of the R1T and R1S models we offer today — prices which were originally set in 2018. This decision will allow us to continue to offer competitive products that maintain the high standard of quality, performance, and capabilities that our customers expect and deserve from Rivian," he said in a statement issued to the media.A source at the company told us that customers who are already in the final steps of completing their R1T orders won't be affected, but unfortunately for the vast majority of existing Rivian reservation holders, the price increases will apply.While the price changes likely won't sit well with existing R1 customers, Rivian no doubt hopes that the new two-motor variants will cushion the blow.
People blow up expensive cars with surprising frequency, for various reasons. Some are mad that the car exhibits problems, while others just blow up fancy rides to dunk on haters, exhibit wealth, or for no good reason. One artist who goes by the name "Shl0ms" just blew up a Lamborghini Huracan, and is now selling highly detailed videos of 888 of the supercar's remains as individual NFTs via auction. Pricing starts at 0.01 Ether, or roughly $26 apiece, per Fortune.Another 111 so-called "$CAR" NFTs exist, for a total of 999, but they're being held for the team behind the elaborately choreographed explosion, as well as the investor behind the whole project.At first blush, the whole thing feels like a cunning, slickly marketed missile aimed at the intersection of crypto, NFTs, and a host of other recently gold-rush-generating buzzwords. Maybe that's because many of us are conditioned to think of NFTs and crypto as some kind of bad-faith gold rush.The Exploding Lamborghini VideoA visit to Shl0m's Twitter account is a seeming immersion into the sort of pump-'n-dump hype machine you'd expect to find behind many other cryptocurrency or NFT opportunities of the moment.Though, a closer look a Shl0ms reveals that atmosphere comes from other Twitter users excitedly sharing news coverage of the Lamborghini explosion and feverishly pinning that exposure to perceived increases in the (yet-to-be-released) NFTs' value.We know you're probably here for the Lamborghini explosion, so here's that:When reached for comment via their website, the faceless artist insists it isn't a protest against crypto, as other outlets have reported, but rather a critique of short-term greed and hopefully an example of how digital currencies can be used for more than just "zero-sum wealth extraction."Still, Lamborghini the automaker did just partner with an artist to sell off five NFTs of a graphically-exploded Lamborghini being shot into space, so it does seem like this could be mocking that a little bit.NFT Auction Proceeds Will Fund More ArtMost of the proceeds of the sales, we're told, will fund future public art installations. Shl0ms views NFTs for their original purpose—minting a digital entity's singularity on the blockchain as proof of its originality—and wants to use the digital artwork's intersection with currency as a way to funnel value toward good. Therefore it makes sense, to some degree, that just as demolishing his Huracan is performative, the air of publicity from others feels like a performance in itself.If it leaves some observers with a scammy crypto scheme taste in their mouth, know that Shl0ms doesn't want you to think of their project that way, and hopes the buyers of the NFTs are looking to appreciate the creation and the future art it funds, rather than simply accruing value. It's not supposed to be taking advantage of anyone in particular, but rather of the broader financial movement of the moment to raise funds for further art projects.Blowing Up The CarThat blow-up was more complex than you'd imagine, with the artist mentioning how carefully charges needed to be placed to avoid obliterating the Huracan too much. We doubt, based on the video evidence above, that the Lambo was left in exactly 999 pieces post-'splosion, but hey, 999 feels like a nice, cool number, doesn't it?In all, Shl0ms and company spent about two weeks testing explosives and even blowing up another (presumably less interesting) car before turning their hired explosives expert (said to be "federally licensed") on the used Lamborghini. If you're salty about the lost car, Shl0ms says it was purchased for about a quarter of a million dollars and apparently had lots of miles on its odometer.Following the big boom, the artist collected the 999 pieces and took detailed, closeup, rotating 4K videos of each one. Those are what are being sold off as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, inimitable digital properties on the blockchain. Again, the proceeds of the NFT auction taking place February 25 will go to funding artistic installations.
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The 2022 Chicago Auto Show gave us our first real chance to crawl around the 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer Obsidian model, which went on sale late last year. As the name implies and as we explained at the time, this variant based on the mid-grade Series II trim caters to fans of the blacked-out look. The example shown in Chicago also gave us one of our first experiences of a bench-seat-equipped eight-passenger Grand Wagoneer. So let's climb into this latest 2022 Jeep Grand Wagoneer's interior and have a look around.
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