Items tagged with Automobiles
It's crazy to think what kind of technologies will be commonplace in vehicles within the next 10 or 20 years. Whereas power windows, cruise control, and more recently satellite radio were all once cutting features, today's generation of car buyers may wonder how we ever got by without such amenities. Likewise, the...
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By now it's been beaten into all of our heads that text messaging or otherwise farting around on a mobile phone while driving is a bad idea. Study after study shows that bad things are prone to happen when we take our eyes off the road and fixate them on our phones or other objects, but according to research by the...
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Google this week made its Android Auto platform now available for devices running Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and higher, provided you own a compatible car stereo head unit. Pioneer gets first dibs on that front with a trio of compatible models -- AVIC-8100NEX, AVIC-7100NEX, and AVH-4100NEX -- though Google says more partners will jump on board.
"Starting
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Goodyear isn't necessarily reinventing the wheel, but it is attempting to improve upon tire design for a new generation of electric vehicles. The company showed off two concept tires at the 85th Geneva International Motor Show, one of which could charge the batteries of electric cars, both while in motion and when...
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If you grew up watching The Jetsons like I did, you might have thought we'd all be commuting in flying cars by now. We're still a long ways from that kind of technology, though in its place are self-driving cars like the ones Google has been experimenting with. According to a new study, it won't be all that long...
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If you can't beat 'em, and you don't want to join 'em, then what can you do? Settle, of course! Apple is currently in discussions with electric car battery maker A123 Systems on a settlement over a lawsuit the latter initiated, in which it accuses the former of poaching engineers and other top level talent to build a...
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Google is engrossed with self-driving cars and Apple has reportedly assembled a super team of engineers to build an electric vehicle to take on Tesla. Whether or not either venture makes it into the mainstream is something we won't know for at least several more years, but in the meantime, both companies are also...
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One of the hottest rumors in tech right now is that Apple is working on an electric car. Word all over the web Apple is approaching the project hyper aggressively with hopes of launching an electric vehicle as early as 2020. If Apple pulls it off, it would mean that this is something the Cupertino company has been...
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The web at large nearly wet it pants when word got out that Apple might be working on an electric car of its own. In reality, if that's what Apple wants to do, the $700 billion company has the cash and resources to dive in, along with the connections. The company lacks experience -- building an electric car is a bit...
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Google's self-driving car project has crossed a new milestone with the unveiling of its first fully functional prototype. The team behind the project will spend the holidays testing the newest build on its private track with the hope (and goal) of having it ready to hit the open road in Northern California sometime...
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BMW is hard at work trying to end parking lot mishaps. The answer, of course, lies in sensors that will be able to detect when you're about to make a terrible mistake; like trying to squeeze in between another car and a concrete beam or backing up just a little to far as you ram into a wall. Incidents like that will...
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Japan-based Takata Corporation isn't eligible for the Consumerist's Worst Company in America designation, as voted on by its readers, but that hasn't stopped the company from making all the wrong moves. Just a few weeks ago, the company stood accused of destroying test records that showed design flaws in its airbags...
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If you're a BMW enthusiast in search of a hybrid model, you have options, just not many of them. However, that's about to change. BMW this week announced that it's planning to offer plug-in hybrid versions of its core-brand models rather than restrict the more eco-friendly drivetrain to just a few variants. The first...
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Airbag maker Takata Corp fessed up that there may be more defective air bags in the wild than previously thought. A defect in the driver-side air bag inflator has already been linked to at least four deaths and over a dozen injuries, along nearly 31,000 recalled vehicles by GM and Nissan, and now Takata is saying that...
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Word to the wise -- you may want to cover your keyboard with some plastic wrap or other protective layer before reading on, lest you short it out with your drool. It's hard not to work up a slobber when reading about Audi's forthcoming R8 Competition, a limited edition supercar of sorts that was shown off at the 2014...
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A single letter of the alphabet has the Internet pondering what in the world is coming next from Tesla Motors. It's the letter "D," which Tesla Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Elon Musk casually tossed in a vague Twitter post along with a date -- October 9, 2014 -- for the unveiling of whatever the "D" might be, as well...
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Occasionally we'll report on stories that are off the beaten path for a PC and technology website, and though it doesn't happen often, some announcements and happenings are just too big (or awesome) to ignore. This is one of them. If you're a fan of technology in general or of motorcycles or of Kawasaki (and...
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Jay Leno isn't just a talk show host, he's also a car enthusiast. In the latest episode of his Garage YouTube video series, Leno shows off Chrysler's ferocious Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat, a beastly muscle car for the modern era with a 6.2-liter Hemi supercharged V8 engine kicking out 707 horsepower and 650 pounds of...
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In what qualifies as one of those, 'Are you freaking serious?' moments, the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (AARC) is suing auto makers Ford and GM for selling cars with technology to rip music from CDs. The feature that has the AARC in a tizzy is called Jukebox, which records songs from CDs to the...
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It looks like Tesla has a few security vulnerabilities to address. That much became evident after Chinese hackers participating in a hacking competition at the annual Syscan conference in Beijing took advantage of a vulnerability in a Tesla Model S electric car that allowed them to honk the horn, unlock the doors, and...
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With all due respect to Jackson Galaxy, the famed cat behaviorist featured on Animal Planet's "My Cat From Hell," some cats just aren't meant to be tamed. Dodge's 2015 model Challenger SRT with its supercharged 6.2 Hemi V8 engine, also known as the Hellcat, is one of them. The Hellcat engine in what Dodge is pimping...
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Go ahead and check one more state off the list of where you're not allowed to text message while driving. New Mexico is catching up with the majority of the country with a ban intended to prevent distracted driving that goes into effect tomorrow (Tuesday), after which offenders will be hit with a $25 fine for the...
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