Daily News: Tuesday 1/30/18

McLaren 720S Customized by McLaren Special Operations Sells for Charity

McLaren likes to tout the fact that they can build customers anything through their McLaren Special Operations program, otherwise known as MSO. To demonstrate this while simultaneously benefiting a charity, MSO has participated at the previous two Naples Winter Wine Festival (NWWF), auctioning off an MSO creation to benefit the Naples Children & Education Foundation (NCEF).

This year, the company created a one-of-a-kind McLaren 720S for the charity and festival. Enhancements are mostly visual, with Narello Red exterior paint, Saddle Brown leather interior with Narello Red stitching, and a grape motif throughout the cabin. At auction, the car finally sold for $650,000.

This is the second year that McLaren and MSO have participated in the Naples-based event, raising a total of $1,130,000 for children. Look for them at next years Naples Winter Wine Festival.

 FCA Delivering Thousands of Self-Driving Mini-Vans to Waymo Self-Driving Service

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Waymo’s multi-year partnership seems to be bearing results in the world of autonomous ride hailing services. FCA and Waymo’s jointly-developed autonomous Chrysler Pacifica Minivan has slowly been trickling into the testing phases of autonomous ride hailing, with 100 of the vehicles delivered in 2016 and a further 500 in 2017.

Now, testing seems to be moving into the public ‘Beta’ phase, with FCA delivering thousands more of their Pacifica Autono-Vans to Waymo. The company plans on launching their ridesharing service as a pilot program in Phoenix, beginning this year, with expansion into further markets as technology and legal situations allow.

Who knows, this year you may hop in a taxi, Uber, or Lyft and not have a driver to contend with. Neat.