GEM’s new app shows every road in a city where you can drive a low-speed vehicle
GEM, a low-speed vehicle (LSV) manufacturer in Anaheim, California, has just released a new app to make it even easier to use those small vehicles. The GEM Go app shows users a map of all roads in their area and highlights the streets with posted speed limits of 35 mph (56 km/h) or lower.
Low-speed vehicles (LSVs) are a federally regulated class of motor vehicles in the US. They often look like micro-cars or golf carts, but must meet a certain set of safety requirements that go above and beyond golf cart regulations.
LSVs that meet those requirements are allowed to travel at speeds of up to 25 mph (40 km/h) and are allowed to operate on roads with speed limits of 35 mph (56 km/h) or lower.
GEM’s new app is designed to make it even easier to plan trips and determine which roads are accessible by LSVs.
Some areas have a limited number of roads with speed limits of 35 mph or lower. In other areas, like apparently Venice in Los Angeles (as seen in the app example below), pretty much any asphalt you can find is fair game.
GEM Go is a free web-based, mobile-friendly, interactive mapping app available at go.GEMcar.com. It is designed to be easy to use anywhere, even on your phone when heading out for a trip.
It of course works for planning trips with any LSV, not just GEM’s vehicles, and cyclists may even find it handy in a pinch to help avoid faster roads that are less friendly to bikes.
Playing around with it myself, it’s apparent just how much of the US is accessible by low-speed vehicles. Every city I look at is covered by a sprawling network of blue lines, showing me everywhere I can legally drive an LSV.
In fact, more than half of the roadways in the US have speed limits below 35 mph, and that number is actually growing as cities make the responsible decision to reduce speed limits for the safety of all road users. Washington, D.C., for example, has a default speed limit of 20 mph (32 km/h). LSVs can thus reach any part of the city. Heck, they could get a speeding ticket if a cop is having a bad day.
The CEO of GEM’s parent company Waev, Keith Simon, explained that he hopes the availability of the app will help encourage more people to use LSVs around the country:
GEM has been leading the charge in LSVs for more than 25 years. We created the GEM Go mapping app to help current and future GEM owners understand the breadth of places LSVs can actually operate – it’s eye-opening and we expect it will drive even greater adoption of LSVs across the country.
The number of LSVs on US roads is growing, even if they remain a small minority of total motor vehicles in use. There’s been a push toward smaller vehicles in many cities, with golf carts getting their own boost. Unlike golf carts though, which aren’t street legal outside of a few specific cities that have passed golf cart ordinances, LSVs contain more federally regulated safety features and are street legal almost everywhere.
Their safety can’t be compared to that of typical passenger cars that are rated for highway use, but their intended use in lower speed environments around slower moving traffic means that they usually don’t face the same collision risks faced by larger cars.
Simon believes that LSV numbers will continue to grow in the US, explaining:
Although we have an extensive installed base with GEM, it represents a very small fraction of what LSVs can become in the market when you keep breaking down the barriers like the lack of understanding of where GEM vehicles can be driven. With our recent launch of the all new MY24 GEM and now GEM Go we are on the leading edge of driving the LSV category forward.
Electrek’s Take
Anyone who knows me will already know I’m one of the biggest proponents of LSVs out there. Heck, google “LSV” and you’ll probably find that half the bylines are mine.
And so I love the idea of this new app to make it even easier and safer to find LSV-appropriate roads. If it actually mapped a journey for you, that’d be even better. But knowledge is half the battle and so even just showing you all of the roads you can use is a great asset.
As someone who loves LSVs and advocates for them, I can already tell you that the biggest argument against these handy vehicles is the misconception that they aren’t safe. You’ll certainly find people in the comments section below this article saying that a 25 mph vehicle shouldn’t be on a 35 mph road (they inevitably didn’t read this far). And I understand that sentiment – trust me, I do. I use LSVs all the time and I get it.
When I’m doing 25 mph on a 35 mph road with other cars doing 45 mph around me, it’s…. less than ideal. So I don’t do it very often (crossing the Brooklyn Bridge above was a rare example for me). While LSVs can legally be on 35 mph roads, I like to stick to even slower roads when possible. But so many cities these days have safer, slower speed limits. Washington, DC, defaults to 20 mph. Boston, New York City, Seattle, and many other major cities default to 25 mph citywide speed limits. It’s easier than ever to get somewhere in an LSV, and that is only improving.
And if I may say so from my own experience, it’s also more fun to go somewhere in an LSV. It’s novel and creates a more engaging experience. It’s simply fun.
Sure, you’ve got some of the same downsides of cars, such as often being stuck in traffic and not getting the same kind of exercise I get on my e-bikes. But I can also travel with more people, carry more things, have lockable storage, and have a roof over my head keeping me dry (and use the air conditioning in some models). Plus, I’m arguably a bit safer than if I was hit by a car driver while riding my e-bikes. So even though it has some downsides, LSVs are just a lot of fun to use, cost less than “real” cars and take up less space in a city. So anything that makes them even easier to use is a good thing in my book.
Now just don’t ask me to talk about my opinion on increasing the federal speed limit for LSVs. That’s another article for another day.
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Packing up to 852 hp and a cutting-edge technology stack developed by Huawei, Chinese luxury brand Maextro just revealed its latest entry into the Mercedes-Maybach EQS and Rolls-Royce Spectre segment of ultra-luxe EVs. Meet the all-new Maextro S800.
Despite a somewhat steady stream of new Chinese EVs that defy expectations and threaten to re-set the global order of performance cars, semi trucks, and just about everything in between, brands like Maybach, Rolls-Royce, and even Bentley have seemed relatively “safe,” in the sense that their value is based on something a bit less objective than lap times or kW/mile.
The new Huawei Maextro S800, first shown as a series of renderings late last year, seems to have found some of Henry Rolls’ secret sauce – and they’ve sprinkled it liberally all over the S800.
Huawei sparkles – literally
The shimmering, sparkly, fiber-optic headliner was pioneered by Rolls-Royce over a decade ago, pushing back against the more open and accessible glass-roofs that were becoming popular in the higher end market. Huawei goes a step further, adding similar, Swarovski-like shimmer to not just the headliner – but the door handles, the headlights, projections dancing around the car as you approach it in the street.
It looks and feels special, in other words. And these cars are all about making their owners feel special. Different.
When Henry Rolls began work on his first US factory in Springfield, Massachusetts way back in 1919, there was supposedly a mantra that management repeated to the workers. It went, “every time you touch the car, you add cost. Make sure you add value.”
I’m not here to argue that Huawei is living up to the same maxim with the Maextro, but I am here to argue that this car’s bespoke, purpose-built platform doesn’t share any parts with a lesser offering from the Mercedes or BMW or Volkswagen lineup in the way that a Maybach, Rolls-Royce, or Bentley does. That may not mean much to you and me, but the people shopping six- and seven-figure cars, it might.
Those well-heeled buyers will get a choice of EREV or “pure” battery electric powertrains good for between 480 and 852 all-electric horsepower. 32 ADAS sensors including both radar and lidar compliment a suite of cameras analyze the road ahead and feed data to Huawei’s ADS road perception system, which is constantly adjusting torque distribution, suspension compression and rebound, and front and rear steering to deliver a tech-driven chauffeur experience that Huawei insists is second to none.
That digital chauffeur is also pretty handy when the weather goes sideways, too. Huawei says the Maextro’s sensor array can help it to increase the detection distance in rain, fog, and dust by 60% compared to the benchmark, while delay was reduced by 40%.
In the event a collision is unavoidable, the car can adjust its stance, seating position, raise the windows, and unlock the central control lock to enable outside help to open the doors. Following the collision, the Maextro S800 switches the redundant power supply and calls for help, as well.
Finally, reports indicate that the Maextro S800 supports the 800V high-voltage system in some trims, suitable for 6C charging, which means it can be energized with up to 390 kW of charging power, taking just 10.5 minutes to charge the 66 kWh battery in the EREV version (523 hp) from 10% to 80%.
The Maextro S800 will enter the Chinese in May this year with a price range of 1 – 1.5 million yuan (about $135–205,000 US).
Maextro S800 | gallery
SOURCE | IMAGES: Maextro, via CarNewsChina.
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Volvo Penta will debut its latest modular and scalable battery energy storage system (BESS) platform for the off-grid construction and mining industries at the bauma equipment show – here’s what you can expect.
Best-known for its marine engines and gensets, Volvo Penta is the power production arm of the Volvo Group, specializing in putting energy to work. Operating under the tagline, ‘Made to Move You’, Volvo Penta is headed to bauma 2025 with a plan to keep construction, port shipping, and mining operations moving productively and competitively throughout their transitions to battery and (in theory, at least) hydrogen power.
To that end, the company will show off a job site ready version of the scalable and modular BESS subsystem concept shown last year.
Volvo says its new, modular BESS subsystem will enable other OEMs and third party system integrators to seamlessly deploy electric power to meet the ever-exceeding energy needs in construction and mining.
“Our modular and scalable battery-electric platform is designed to support the electrification ecosystem—combining high-performance drivelines with the crucial energy storage subsystems for efficient charging and operation in construction and mining,” says Hannes Norrgren, President of Volvo Penta Industrial. “We want to meaningfully collaborate with our customers on value-added customization that will enable them to stay productive, efficient, and future-ready.”
The Penta substation at bauma will be built around the company’s “Cube” battery pack, an energy-dense solution with a favorable C-rate designed to make it easy for BESS manufacturers to offer more compact job site solutions capable of charging and discharging energy with high levels of speed and efficiency, enabling both stationary and mobile BESS configurations that can change and grow to meet the evolving needs of a given asset fleet or project.
A Volvo Penta-developed DC/DC unit converts the voltage from the Cube battery packs (600 V) into lower voltage (24 V) for powering auxiliaries and portable offices.
Electrek’s Take
Volvo Penta has always provided power. Historically that’s been from combustion, but the company is looking ahead, developing products that will bring energy to job sites, tractors, and more long after the last ICE engine shuts down.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Volvo Penta.
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Just days after Rivian announced that it would be making its iconic electric delivery vans available to anyone willing to pay for one, the company launched the new Rivian Upfit Program, offering a “one-stop shop” to help fleet managers put its EVs to work.
Launched in partnership with commercial vehicle heavyweights Ranger Design, Sortimo of North America, Bush Specialty Vehicles, Holman, LEGEND, and EV Sportline, the Rivian Upfit Program helps fleet buyers make the switch to electric by simplifying the ordering process and delivering an experience that more closely reflects the experience fleet managers get at dealerships.
Despite partnering with leading brands and launching into a well-establish market, however, the program’s web page seems largely aimed at people outside the space – even kicking off with an explanation of what upfitting is:
Upfitting is the process of customizing a vehicle in order to meet fleet, business, or individual consumer needs to tackle the job at hand. This work is done after the vehicle has been built and released from the factory, and can include everything from shelving modifications, flooring options, to sirens and flashers and much more.
The program was announced on LinkedIn with a number of photos indicating upfit options for Rivian’s R1T and R1S vehicles focused on lifeguard and roadside assistance duty, and Rivian’s van upfit with a HVAC/telecom style toolbox arrangement.
No word on pricing or turnaround time.
Electrek’s Take
The general consensus around the Electrek water cooler is that the direct-to-consumer model offered by Rivian, Tesla, and even CarMax deliver a superior customer experience, I’ve consistently drunk the franchise dealer Kool-Aid, arguing that the industry-leading margins enjoyed by these companies actually indicate they’re giving consumers an objectively worse deal than they’d get in a more competitive dealer landscape.
That same competitiveness has led to talented fleet managers at those franchise dealers putting in the effort to get to know the needs of the businesses and buyers in their regions, to understand what upfit options makes sense for their local markets, and – crucially – what to stock for quick turnaround when their customers need it.
Rivian is hoping its upfit partners will do a lot of that heavy lifting for them, but my two cents is that if building cars is hard, building relationships is harder, and Rivian isn’t going to make a good first impression by talking down to its customers. If you think differently, let me know how I got it wrong in the comments.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Rivian, via LinkedIn.
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