Items tagged with automobile
Things aren't looking so good for Takata Corporation, the Japanese maker of automobile air bags serving about 20 percent the market. A recently discovered (and potentially deadly) defect in the design of certain air bags dating back to at least 2008 has already resulted in the recall of millions of vehicles,and now the company faces a lawsuit accusing it of covering up evidence that it knew about the defect for the past decade. The faulty air bags are believed to be responsible for at least four deaths. At issue is a bad part that can cause the air bags to deploy with too much force, which then ends up shooting metal shards inside the vehicle. The defect became public when a Georgia women sued...
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In just a few short years, Intel's entire world has changed. The company used to rake cash in with server, desktop, and laptop chip sales. These days, desktop sales are waning and laptops are being replaced by tablets. In other words, Intel has to figure out a way to get its silicon into different and more varied products if it wants the growth curve to continue as it has. Lately, Intel processors have been found in phones and tablets, but it's definitely not the primary player in the mobile realm. What's next? Cars. The company has unveiled In-Vehicle Solutions, which is described as a portfolio of new hardware and software products that would (in theory) bolster the growth of vehicle automation....
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Any time you deal with technology, rooting out bugs is inevitably part of the process. Sometimes it's a literal step -- just ask Mazda, which for the second time in three years is recalling its Mazda6 sedans in North America because of spiders that like the smell of gasoline crawling up into the fuel system and weaving webs that could cause bad things to happen. Spiders have been known to build webs in the evaporative canister vent hose. This is a problem because the web blocks the vent and causes the fuel tank to have an excessive amount of negative pressure, which in turn can crack the fuel tank. If that happens, fuel can leak out, increasing the risk of a fire. According to a report filed...
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Heads up for all you California motorists, and perhaps drivers in all 50 states. If you're donning a pair of Google Glasses while behind the wheel of your car, you might get a ticket. Cecilia Abadie found that out the hard way when she was issued a citation by a police officer in California for what essentially amounts to distracted driving. The first item on the ticket is for speeding, which is probably the reason she was pulled over in the first place rather than for wearing Google Glass. However, she was also cited for her headgear, with the officer likening the infraction to "driving with monitor visible to driver." "Is Google Glass illegal while driving or this cop wrong??? Any legal advice...
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Italians make the best food (I won't debate this) and without a doubt some of the sexist cars too, most notably Automobili's Lamborghini line. Sexy often borders on obscene, such as the brand spanking new Lamborghini Veneno Roadster, an open racing prototype boasting an "extreme design" and "breathtaking performance" to celebrate the vehicle maker's 50th anniversary. Under the hood, the Veneno Roadster packs 750 horses nestled inside its 6.5-liter V12 engine. It goes from 0 to 100 kilometers per hour (0 to just over 62 miles per hour) in a mere 2.9 seconds. Keep the pedal to the medal and you'll quickly top out at 355 km/h (220 mph). Automobili ported the engine over from its Lamborghini Aventador,...
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Detroit may be bankrupt, but the surrounding towns seem to be doing quite well. Ann Arbor has traditionally been a fairly well-to-do place, with the University of Michigan no doubt having a very positive impact. And clearly, NVIDIA is willing to bite while everyone else is selling The Motor City. The company has just announced that it will soon open up the NVIDIA Technology Center in Ann Arbor, and it notes that both Microsoft and Google have also recently opened offices in southeast Michigan, not far from Detroit. Interestingly, software developers are in high demand in the area, as all of the local automakers seek to re-envision the dashboard and up the ante with superior infotainment systems....
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Know what happens when an armored vehicle company decides to go green? You get the Jo-Mojo, a lightly armored open-top electric low-rider with a top speed of 125MPH and a bulletproof exterior. Yep, this thing steers clear of gasoline, has a respectable amount of get-up-and-go, and can take a bullet, should the need arise. Or at least that's the idea. Dartz is collaborating with the Gray Design studio once again with the intention of converting its gas-powered Mojo roadster into an electric car with style and substance. According to Gizmag, the Jo-Mojo will sport an 80 horsepower electric motor with 90 lb-ft of torque. It will go from 0-60MPH in 9.5 seconds, and as mentioned, hit a top speed of...
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A car isn't really a piece of computer hardware. It's made of up lots of them, though, and Chevrolet's Volt holds a special place in the hearts of technology freaks. For years, people have watched the Volt progress from a concept, into a car with a questionable future, into a car that's all-but-ready for release. Now, the final hurdle is upon General Motors. The Chevy Volt is expected to debut on American car lots as a 2011 model, and the biggest question surrounding it was just how good would the gas mileage be. Now we know. The EPA has just revealed the MPG sticker for the 2011 Volt, and it's impressive. The math to figure up these figures is fairly complicated, but the car has received a 93MPG...
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Comedians often make cracks at banks for including Braille on drive-through ATMs (there are number of valid reasons why they do this), but given the progress made by researchers at The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech, don't assume that the driver in front of you isn't actually visually impaired. While it may seem an unlikely scenario, the researchers are ever closer to developing a car for the blind, and in fact plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year that will help those who can't see be able to drive. That's because it will come equipped with technology called "nonvisual interfaces," which use sensors to help a blind driver weave in and out of traffic and other...
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Hands on the wheel and eyes on the road. Sounds like such basic advice, doesn't it? Be that as it may, the advent of cell phones has disrupted this most fundamental building block to becoming a good driver and you can't drive down to your local grocery story without seeing someone yapping on their iPhone, Nexus One, or other mobile device. We all do it, which isn't comforting in the least. That's where BlueAnt comes in, which just unveiled what it claims is the world's first hands-free, voice-controller Bluetooth car speakerphone. And by "hands-free," BlueAnt really means it. To initiate a call, a driver need only blurt out "BlueAnt Speak To Me" followed by the command to activate the phone's...
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It's been a dream of Earth's residents since The Jetsons made us believe it was a possibility: true auto-pilot. It's alive and well in some cases, but not all. Existing commercial airplanes have an auto-pilot button that guides the planes controls based on the route it needs to take, but that's relatively easy. There's no highway to follow, no drunk drivers to watch out for, and no posted speed limits to obey. Doing the same thing in an automobile is definitely more difficult, as you can probably tell given that no auto-pilot car yet exists for the consumer market. But just because there's no car like that yet doesn't mean that researchers aren't working towards that goal. A team at North Carolina...
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Just a few years back, car stereos were fairly lackluster from the factory. To get any sort of serious audio within the automobile, you had to turn to complicated aftermarket installs. At some point between then and now, automakers have seemingly figured out that consumers are demanding more right from the showroom floor, and with Ford integrating SYNC into nearly every car it makes, General Motors had to step up and do something.That something is Pause and Play, which is a unique new feature that is built into the High Navigation Radio in the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX as well as the Cadillac CTS Jukebox and Navigation radio. Basically, the feature allows...
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Here comes still more technology based on fish. As opposed to the earlier tech, autonomous robotic fish built to detect pollution, Nissan has developed a system that emulates schooling behavior of fish to avoid auto collisions.Nissan's new "EPORO" robot car concept is designed to travel in a group of "cars" while avoiding obstacles (including other cars). The technology is designed to mimic the behavioral patterns of a school of fish.The EPORO technology is an update to the Biomimetic Car Robot Drive "BR23C" concept which was designed to mimic bees. Why did Nissan switch from bees to fish? The answer is simple: while both bees and fish have excellent collision-avoidance abilities, bees tend to...
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It was only a matter of time, right? With digital becoming the new black, we knew that those hugely thick, underutilized user guides that shipped with automobiles would one day fade from existence, and it looks as if the fading has begun. Chrysler has just announced that it will become the first automaker to ditch the paperback and go digital with the guides that accompany its fleet of vehicles.The paperless approach is designed to save over 930 tons of paper, or around 20,000 trees annually, and we can imagine that it'll also save the company some serious dough. The deal covers Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, all of which will have much more room in their glove box starting with the 2010...
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The much-hyped CARS program may be drawing to a close, but you know you you'll still be longing for one of those cute-as-a-button MINI Coopers even after that clunker rebate vanishes. If you needed just one more excuse to give your local dealer a visit, how's this? MINI USA has today become the first automaker in the US to offer a dedicated mobile assist application for iPhone and select BlackBerry handsets. MINI owners simply download the free application, fill in vital vehicle statistics (VIN number, etc.) as well as their home address and name, and then upload an image of their car should they choose. Once this information is saved in the application, owners can simply call up the app and...
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We were pretty moved by DOW Chemical's recent "Human Element" campaign, and we're delighted to see yet another major American corporation going above and beyond the call of duty in order to better our planet. Ford, along with its utility partners, have announced that they are testing out one of the industry's first vehicle-to-electric grid communications and control systems, which enables electric vehicles to interface with the grid for optimal recharging. Put simply, this new approach enables the vehicle operator to program when to recharge the vehicle, for how long and at what utility rate. In other words, an operator could choose to charge only during off-peak hours when electricity is cheaper,...
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