We're not quite done with video game showcases for the year 2023. Devolver Digital is squeezing in one more in the form of its annual Public Access Holiday Special. The stream starts at 11AM ET and you can watch it below.

It seems like the publisher's going to stick to form by delivering some offbeat skits (including a musical number and "a surprisingly detailed cooking segment") alongside more details on some of its upcoming games. Expect fresh looks and additional info on Baby Steps (think QWOP but 3D and with a story), Pepper Grinder and the impossibly charming-looking The Plucky Squire at the very least.

We're very much looking forward to Baby Steps, which is slated for a summer 2024 debut, so extra details about that one will be more than welcome. I'm personally hoping for an update on Skate Story after Devolver delayed that one (and several other games) to 2024.

It's been an interesting few years for Huawei. After the Chinese giant's initial struggle with the US trade sanctions, it would end up with a surprise mobile resurgence featuring homegrown processors — ones that are just two generations behind the competition. Not only that, the Chinese government has since allocated billions of dollars to boost its silicon industry, so much that Huawei is already working towards a self-sufficient chip network. It's as if former President Donald Trump's earlier attempts to starve Huawei of vital inputs eventually accelerated China's semiconductor development.

Trump's first strike on Huawei was the declaration of a national emergency in May 2019, which saw the Commerce Department add the company to its Entity List, citing surveillance concerns and links to the Chinese state security. As such, Google could no longer provide Android support to Huawei, thus causing the Mate 30 series and later models to miss out on Google apps (they would eventually adopt Huawei's Android replacement, HarmonyOS, two years later).

In November 2019, the FCC banned carriers from buying Huawei and ZTE networking gear with government subsidies.The following March, Trump signed a bill that would reimburse the replacement of Chinese gear — even if it meant spending an estimated $1.8 billion. Huawei attempted to sue the FCC over these restrictions, but the court sided with the regulator.

The tech war heated up rapidly in May 2020, when the US further restricted Huawei's access to American equipment and software. This meant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's leading fab, would have to stop producing HiSilicon chips for Huawei — its then second-largest customer, after Apple. Likewise, Samsung and SK Hynix had to stop selling chips to the Chinese brand by the September 15, 2020 deadline. As Bloomberg's teardown of the latest Huawei smartphones revealed, the company didn't have a problem stockpiling these Korean memory chips.

For processors, Huawei had no choice but to rely more on local chip makers, namely Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and Shanghai IC R&D Center. That meant a significant downgrade, though: SMIC had just started mass-producing 14nm chips for Huawei then, whereas TSMC reached 5nm later that year and supplied Kirin 9000 processors for Huawei's Mate 40. That would be the final "high-end" Kirin chip, Huawei's mobile boss Richard Yu said at the time.

Qualcomm was eventually allowed to supply 4G chips to Huawei as of November 2020, but that's four G, and market share figures don't lie. The once-leading brand in China dropped to just 16 percent locally in January 2021 (and then down to a mere 6 percent in Q2 2022), as noted by Counterpoint. Huawei's global market share has been negligible since 2021. According to both Counterpoint and Statista, though, since Huawei sold the Honor brand in November 2020, the spin-off has been able to claim one of the top China quarterly chart positions all this time.

China's chip investment finally paid off when SMIC made a 7nm breakthrough in August 2022 — a leap from 14nm in just two years — faster than it took TSMC or Samsung, according to TechInsights. What's more, this achievement was apparently done without using the most advanced lithography equipment, which were largely exclusive to the likes of ASML and Nikon. It wasn't until earlier this year that the US convinced the Netherlands and Japan to restrict China’s access to advanced chipmaking machinery.

As Bloomberg would later find out in a lengthy investigation, this might have been the fruition of a Shenzhen city government investment fund from 2019 that helped Huawei build "a self-sufficient chip network." Through a network of enterprises, Huawei could stealthily gain access to lithography tech while exchanging experts to work on each others' turfs, without raising any flags. Huawei apparently even managed to hire several former ASML employees, which was likely key to reaching the 7nm node process for its latest processor (the 5G-capable HiSilicon Kirin 9000S, fabricated by SMIC). Benchmarks indicate that this chip's performance is on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 from late 2020, thus suggesting that it's around two generations behind the leading competition.

Huawei then took a rather unusual approach to launch its Kirin 9000S smartphones at the beginning of September this year. Without any launch event or teaser, the company simply announced on Weibo that the Mate 60 and Mate 60 Pro were immediately available. This surprise stunt coincided with the US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo's visit to China, which led many to believe that Huawei received special orders from certain authorities to hastily launch these 5G devices ahead of schedule. This was quickly followed by the China's announcement of a $40 billion fund to further boost its chip industry, as well as the launch of two more phones, the Mate 60 Pro+ and the Mate X5 foldable, a week later.

REUTERS / Reuters

While this may seem a temporary win for China, the country actually saw 10,900 chip-related companies close down in 2023 (as of December 11) — a staggering 90-percent year-on-year increase, which is a sign of a bad economy, according to TMTPost. On the flip side, 65,700 new chip-related companies registered in the same period, which is a 9.5 percent increase year-on-year. The report added that the China-made RAM chips and processors on Huawei's Mate 60 series are an indication of the growing reliance on the local supply chain, which will continue to drive the long-term development of the Chinese semiconductor industry.

As much as the US government wants to limit China's access to high-end tech, the truth is western companies still want to tap into the big market in the east. NVIDIA is a prime example, as it's still in talks with the authorities on the specifications of AI chips that it can sell to China, without breaching US export rules. "What we cannot allow them to ship is the most sophisticated, highest-processing power AI chips, which would enable China to train their frontier models," Raimondo told Reuters. Of course, failing that, China may eventually come up with an AI chip that's just as impressive, if not more — like its recent claim of a light-based chip that is apparently 3,000 times faster than NVIDIA's A100.

The US-China tech war isn't just limited to chips, either. The Biden administration is proposing to cut tax credits on electric vehicles that contain Chinese components — especially batteries, as an attempt to wean local car brands off Chinese components. The trade-off here is always the cost savings (as is the idea behind Ford and CATL's Michigan battery plant), as well as the US market missing out on potential breakthroughs on power density or output, namely the upcoming 150kWh battery demoed in Chinese EV manufacturer Nio's ET7, which reached a range of around 650 miles. Who knows, maybe someday Huawei may want to sell its Aito or Luxeed electric cars in the US, too — if it's allowed to enter at all.

It's hardly a secret that Samsung reveals its latest slate of Galaxy smartphones at the beginning of each year. With only a few weeks to go until the first Unpacked of 2024 is expected to take place, the rumor mill is ramping up and credible leaks are starting to shed some light on what the Korean manufacturer most likely has up its sleeve.

Along with a countdown indicating that the next Unpacked will take place on January 17, leaker Evan Blass shared a spec sheet that purports to break down the components of the Galaxy S24 lineup. There are no prizes for guessing that Samsung likely has three Galaxy devices in store: the regular model, an S24+ and an S24 Ultra. All three are slated to run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, at least in the US, Canada and China (folks elsewhere might have to make do with the company's own Exynos 2400, as The Verge notes).

The standard Galaxy S24 is slated to have a 6.2-inch AMOLED 2x FHD display along with a 50MP main camera that can shoot video at up to 8K. The leak suggests Samsung will offer Space Zoom of up to 30x and dual telephoto zoom of up to 3x in the Galaxy S24. The device is likely to have 8GB of RAM and internal storage options of 128GB and 256GB. You may be able to charge the 4,000mAh battery to 50 percent capacity in 30 minutes.

Per this leaked spec sheet, the S24+ is likely to have the same camera system as the base model. The key upgrade will come in the form of the display, which seems to be a 6.7-inch AMOLED 2x QHD+ panel. There will probably be a larger 4,900mAh battery as well, with the spec sheet indicating you'll be able to charge this to 65 percent of its capacity in half an hour. The S24+ will likely have more RAM as well at 12GB, with internal storage options of 256GB and 512GB.

Unlike the other two models, which are slated to have an Armor Aluminum 2.0 casing, the S24 Ultra may have a titanium body. Although it's likely to have the same RAM and storage options as the S24+, the Ultra will probably have a vastly superior camera system. It will have a 200MP main lens, per the spec sheet, with up to 10x quad telephoto and 100x Space Zoom. The AMOLED 2x QHD+ display is likely to measure 6.8 inches, while the battery should be slightly larger than one in the S24+ at 5,000mAh.

The displays on all three models are expected to have up to a whopping 2,600 nits of brightness, so you shouldn't have to struggle to make out what's on your screen while the sun's out. Expect IP68 water resistance on all three models, while the S24 Ultra is likely the only one of the three that will boast a built-in S Pen.

As for the designs, what we can see of them in the spec sheet indicates they'll largely be the same as the S23 lineup. However, previous reports suggested that the S24 Ultra has a fully flat screen.

Based on the leaks so far, the Samsung S24 lineup isn't likely to have any terribly exciting upgrades in terms of the designs and pure specs. However, Samsung is widely expected to integrate its Gauss generative AI system into the S24 lineup. It may be the case that GAI processes will be handled entirely on-device rather than requiring access to the cloud (the new Snapdragon chipset will help on that front).

If you're racking your brain trying to find a last-minute gift or a stocking stuffer for a loved one, bear in mind that you can rarely go wrong with charging accessories. As it happens, many of Anker's products are on sale on Amazon right now, with discounts of up to 50 percent. Some of the discounts are available via a coupon and for others you'll need to be a Prime member. First up, the Anker 735 Charger will run you $30.39, which is 40 percent off the usual price of $56.

This is a 65W charger with two USB-C ports and one USB-A slot. When you have multiple devices connected, the charger can direct power to where it's most needed. It'll charge several devices at the same time, such as your laptop, Steam Deck and earphones. While Anker says this model is capable of giving a 13-inch 2020 MacBook Pro a 65W charge, other MacBook models have different wattage needs.

That's where Anker's MacBook Pro Charger could come in handy. It's capable of 100W USB-C charging. That'd be overkill for many devices, but not so for a power-hungry MBP. Of course, it's capable of charging other devices via USB-C. It comes with a five-foot cable. The charger is on sale for $24, which is $14 off the usual price of $38.

In some cases, USB chargers might not cut it. Many devices need the full power of an outlet and if you're running out of space, a power strip might be what you need. Not only does Anker's Surge Protector Power Strip have 12 outlets, you can plug in one USB-C and two USB-A cables too. There's surge protection as well. The power strip, which has a five-foot extension cord, is 17 percent off at $30.

If you're an iPhone user who hasn't upgraded to the latest generation yet, there's no harm in having a spare Lightning cable or two kicking around. As it happens, Anker sells Lightning cables, and one that's six feet long will currently cost you $10, $2 less than usual. The cable is MFi certified, meaning that it meets Apple's standards. It has a nylon exterior, which might make it more durable than Apple's own cables.

Of course, this being Anker, there are power banks on sale too. The Anker Nano Power Bank is 20 percent off the usual price of $30 (i.e. $6 off) when you apply a coupon. This is a small power bank with a built-in USB-C connector, so you can plug it straight into your phone or tablet to charge it up without having to carry a separate cable. There's a separate USB-C port too. Anker notes that the device won't fully charge an iPhone 15, but it will top up the battery by around 80 percent.

Last but not least, the Anker 737 Power Bank is for those who need plenty of extra juice with them when they're on the go. This model has a capacity of 24,000mAh, which Anker says is good for nearly five full charges of an iPhone 13 or 1.3 charges of a 12.9-inch 2021 iPad Pro. A smart display will show you the remaining battery percentage as well as how much wattage the charger is delivering to the connected devices (it has one USB-A port and dual USB-C ports). The 737 Power Bank, which is capable of delivering a 140W charge, is currently $58 off at $92.

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The European Union says three porn sites are now subject to stricter rules under the Digital Services Act (DSA). It has designated Pornhub, Stripchat and XVideos as “very large online platforms” (VLOPs) after determining they each have an average of more than 45 million monthly users in the EU. This means they will face the same rules as Facebook, X, and TikTok. (Is the discourse in comments really worse than parts of X? Yes. Probably.)

The three porn sites have four months to comply with additional obligations. That includes measures to prevent the spread of illegal content, which includes “child sexual abuse material and content affecting fundamental rights, such as the right to human dignity and private life in case of non-consensual sharing of intimate material online or deepfake pornography.”

The penalties for failing to comply with the DSA’s requirements are severe. Platform holders can be fined up to six percent of their annual global revenue.

— Mat Smith

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E-scooter rental company Bird files for bankruptcy

It will continue to operate as usual, for now.

REUTERS/Mike Blake

After laying off nearly a quarter of its staff last year, e-scooter rental company Bird has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Bird launched in multiple cities in 2017, amid a lot of hype framing e-scooters as a sustainable urban mobility solution. The company continued to expand despite a lack of profitability (following the Uber model), but the COVID pandemic forced the company to halt operations in multiple locations around the world. Since then, cities have also become more hostile to e-scooter rentals. This filing doesn’t affect Bird Canada or Bird Europe, which are separate organizations. Unfortunately. So, I can expect to keep tripping over the e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.

Continue reading.

Watch an AI robot learn to demolish humans at a marble maze game

CyberRunner beat Labyrinth faster than any previously recorded time.

ETH Zurich

ResearSo I can expect to keep tripping over e-scooters dotted around London in 2024.chers have developed an AI-powered robot they claim can beat Labyrinth, the physical marble game, faster than humans. The aim of these games is to guide a marble through a maze without falling into any holes, using two dials to angle the board. Thomas Bi and Raffaello D’Andrea of ETH Zurich created CyberRunner, which combines model-based reinforcement with the dexterity needed to beat the game. The joke is on AI, though — marble mazes are boring.

Continue reading.

Sony has sold 50 million PS5 consoles so far

It’s estimated to have outsold the Xbox Series X and S by three to one this year.

The PlayStation 5 has officially hit the 50 million sales milestone, despite all the supply chain issues that kept PS5s in limited supply. Oh, and a pandemic. Fun fact: It took the PS5 a week longer than PlayStation 4 to reach 50 million sales. According to the Financial Times, Sony has also outsold the Xbox Series X and S by almost three to one this year, based on data from Ampere Analysis. While Microsoft doesn’t release official Xbox sales numbers (I wonder why…), Ampere estimated Microsoft sold 7.6 million next-gen systems this year, while Sony’s sales reached 22.5 million units.

Continue reading.

If you've been holding out on buying a new MacBook, congrats, your delay has been rewarded. Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air has dropped to a new all-time low price of $999, down from $1,299. That's right, the 23 percent discount saves you $300, far from chump change. The deal is available for the 256GB 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chipset in either Midnight or Starlight. Keep in mind, though, that Amazon estimates these will ship in early to mid-January, so don't plan on picking one up as a last-minute Christmas gift. 

Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip came on the scene in June of this year. It garnered a 96 in our review thanks to its ability to offer a large size and great performance without mirroring the Pro's exorbitant $2,000+ price tag. Despite being over a year old, the M2 chip functions great — in line with the 13-inch model. The battery life is also impressive, lasting over 18 hours on video playback alone and 12 hours during everyday use for work.

Its screen is also high-quality, with the extra two inches making a surprisingly significant difference. The 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display has a 2,880 x 1,864 resolution, 500 nits of brightness, a 60Hz refresh rate and support for the P3 wide color gamut. No, it doesn't measure up to the 14-inch or 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M3 chip in terms of display or performance quality, but it's hard to care that much for half the price. 

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Just ahead of CES (as usual), LG has unveiled one of the most interesting gaming monitors we've seen yet as part of its 2024 UltraGear OLED lineup. The 32-inch 32GS95UE UltraGear OLED not only offers a stellar 240Hz 4K option, but also lets you crank the refresh up 480Hz at 1080p with a "simple click." The company also unveiled new and updated 27-, 34- and 39- and 45-inch UltraGear OLED widescreen curved models, expanding its OLED gaming monitor family considerably. 

The 32-inch UltraGear OLED is the first model in that family to use LG's new "Dual-Hz" feature that lets you quickly switch between 4K (3,840 x 2,160) at 240HZ, to Full-HD 1,920 x 1,080 at a stellar 480Hz. Very few monitors have the refresh rates that high, let alone the ability to choose between the two highest refresh rates available at their respective resolutions. 

LG

LG says you can switch between these modes "via a hotkey or joystick's directional switch" to best suit the genre of game you're playing. "For fast-paced action titles and shooting games, users can select FHD 480Hz, while visually rich story-driven games can be enjoyed in 4K 240Hz," the company said. 

Along with that trick, the 32-inch UltraGear OLED offers a .03-millisecond GtG response time — something that's important for a high refresh rate monitor to avoid motion blur and other artifacts. Other features include high-end HDR picture quality (DCI-P3 98.5 percent at 400 nits), a "virtually borderless design," built-in speakers with DTS Virtual:X tech, G-Sync compatibility and more. 

LG

Aside from that Model, LG introduce the 34-inch 34GS95QE and the 39GS95QE, it's first 39-inch OLED monitor. Both are ultra-wide models with a 21:9 ultrawide aspect ratio, aggressive 800R curve, 3,440 x 1,440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rate. These are significant because they're LG's first ultrawide OLED monitors, and the first such ultrawide curved OLED models with a 240Hz refresh rate. Both support G-Sync, FreeSync Premium Pro and DisplayHDR True Black 400 (the OLED standard). 

LG has also refreshed its UltraGear OLED 27 and the UltraGear OLED 45. Both versions of the 45-inch model offer 3,440 x 1,440 resolution and 240Hz refresh rates, but the 45GS96QB version includes speakers and a USB-C PD (power deliver) connection rated up to 65 watts.

When Apple introduced the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, it had no clear release schedule and only said that the device will be available sometime early next year. According to a new report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, “early next year” means as soon as February. Apple reportedly ramped up production of the headset in China over the past several weeks with the intention of getting the devices ready for consumers by the end of January. The plan is to make the Vision Pro available the month after that. 

In addition to ramping up production, Apple has reportedly sent developers an email, notifying them to test their apps for the headset with the latest tools and to send their software to the company for feedback. Gurman says that’s another sign of the device’s impending release. In his report, Gurman also detailed the steps Apple is taking to launch a completely new product category. The last time the company introduced a brand new product was in 2015 when it started selling the Apple Watch, but the Vision Pro is a different beast that requires meticulous planning for its release.

Since the headset has multiple possible configurations and could be customized to meet each customers’ needs, Apple is apparently sending at least two staffers from each retail store to its headquarters for training in January. There, they’ll be taught how to attach the device’s headband and light seals, as well as how to fit prescription lenses. The Vision Pro will set customers back $3,499 when it goes on sale, but Gurman previously reported that Apple is working on a more affordable (and less powerful) version that will cost between $1,500 and $2,500.

Following the patent dispute over the blood oxygen sensor on the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, the International Trade Commission (ITC) sided with medical technology company Masimo, and ordered to halt all sales of said wearables in the US — conveniently just in time for the holidays. Apple has since filed a motion to pause this ban until its appeal is done, but earlier today, the ITC denied this request, meaning the Apple Watch ban is going ahead, unless the President decides to veto.

"A Presidential Review Period is in progress regarding an order from the US International Trade Commission on a technical intellectual property dispute pertaining to Apple Watch devices containing the Blood Oxygen feature," Apple told Engadget in an earlier statement. "While the review period will not end until December 25, Apple is preemptively taking steps to comply should the ruling stand."

The Apple Watch models affected will stop being sold on Apple.com on December 21 i.e. tomorrow, then on December 24 at Apple's retail stores, and then until stocks run out for third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy — which could be pretty fast given the import ban on December 26. Other models like the Apple Watch SE that don't contain a blood oxygen sensor will continue to be sold.

Masimo filed its lawsuit against Apple in 2021 over alleged violations of patents related to light-based blood-oxygen monitoring. The case originally targeted the Apple Watch Series 6, but despite the sales ban, you can continue to use the blood oxygen feature on that and other previously purchased Apple Watch models. In retaliation, Apple filed two patent infringement suits against Masimo in October 2022, claiming that the latter's own smartwatch copied Apple Watch features.

A “Compliance Car” is a vehicle designed not to be sold in large quantities but to satisfy rules around range-wide consumption. For instance, makers of enormous, gas-belching trucks may have to offer a thrifty, gas-sipping ride to balance out the emissions numbers. One infamous example is Aston Martin’s Cygnet, a rebadged Toyota iQ with a luxury interior that sold for three times the iQ’s price. Now, imagine a company chose to make one of those vehicles intentionally. That’s the best way to describe Lexus’ new LBX, a small but luxurious, Europe-exclusive city car that you’ll love sitting in while waiting in traffic.

The LBX is a subcompact car based on the same underlying platform (GA-B) as Toyota’s Yaris Cross, its tiny crossover SUV. The Yaris Cross is a city runaround pretending to be an SUV, complete with flared wheel arches, high ride height and optional All Wheel Drive. Lexus is keen to point out that this isn’t a rebadge, and that the luxury automaker has refined every facet of its design. The wheelbase is longer and wider, the powertrain smaller and faster, with luxury kit everywhere you look. You can call this many things, but it’s not a lazy cash-grab, especially given how much of the early chatter around this car talked about it diluting Lexus’ brand.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Inside, you’ll find a 1.5 liter, three-cylinder VVT-iE engine with a bi-polar Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery. That composition offers higher power density and faster response with a smaller footprint than Toyota’s own-brand hybrids, with a lighter weight which is key in such a small car. The combined total output is a restrained 136 DIN hp, which is fitting for a car designed to sit in traffic. But Lexus piqued my interest in this car by claiming that its new hybrid system offered “powerful acceleration like that of a battery electric vehicle.” Given the stately manner in which most small hybrids move, I was curious to put that claim to the test.

If you’re only accelerating to get off the line when the lights change, then you’ll find plenty to like here. It’s too much of a stretch to compare it to an EV but if you’re looking for a performant city car, it’s no slouch. It thrives in the cities, where its small-ish size, speed and driveability let you dart around corners and dive into tight spaces. But this power doesn’t run too far beyond the lights, and putting your foot down on the highway exposes this engine. No amount of sound dampening tech — and there’s a lot of it in this car — can mask the LBX’s anguished screams when you try to accelerate or put the power down going up hills.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Up front, it’s roomy with a comfortable driving position, while the rear bench seat is higher to offer the passengers a better view. I’m 5’ 11” and had enough headroom, but I doubt anyone taller than me would fancy riding in here for long. There’s not a huge amount of rear legroom either, so you wouldn’t want to do a long trip in one of these.

The Lexus LBX is a lot of car, too much for the role in your life that it’s intended to play, with a lot of frou-frou. Given this is a car designed for short journeys, I’m not sure it needs to have as much technology on board as it actually does. The model I tested had a digital instrument binnacle, a big central console and a heads-up display. Plus, flappy paddles so you can control your braking level and three USB-C ports in the central console. Oh, and a suite of safety tools that were so sensitive it’d erupt in a chorus of pings and bongs if I so much as glanced at the accelerator before the way in front of me was clear.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Lexus says the LBX is targeted at “younger, city-smart Europeans” rather than the company’s traditional, older base. The marketing is full of youths in red vinyl overcoats and Vitaly jewelry but I’m not sure that’s the demographic who’ll be interested. I’m not sure too many young, city smart Europeans could afford a car like this, or even know how to drive in the first place. Some of the recent stats have been skewed by COVID but the general trend of young people learning to drive has pointed down for a while. The company’s representatives did mention they thought another potential demographic would be empty nesters looking to downsize.

And then there’s the price, with the base model costing £29,995 (around $37,700) on the road in the UK while the fully-specced model is £40,545 (around $50,870). Nobody needs to be told if that’s a lot or not, especially given the various ways people buy new cars these days. But Lexus, knowing that it’s not going to undercut similarly high-spec city cars in the space, say that while the up-front price is higher, it’ll save drivers plenty with its fuel economy. I’m not sure how many people buy a luxury car because they’re keeping their eye on the dollars and cents.

Photo by Daniel Cooper / Engadget

Fundamentally, as much as I like the LBX, I’m unable to square its inherent contradictions as they pile up on top of one another. There are very few faults that I can pick at which are tied to just this vehicle, rather than the quirks inherent in the company’s range. But I just can’t see a world in which people would line up to buy a car that’s this over-equipped and over-specced given the environment in which it thrives.