Tag: AUTOMOBILE

A researcher at Yale University has developed a car-safety system that uses touch, rather than sight, to warn drivers of potential danger. According to Tech News Daily, John Morrell lined a car seat with a bunch of cell-phone vibration motors that warn drivers of approaching vehicles. The motors continuously (and lightly) vibrate as the driver cruises down the road. When another car ...

Not content to rule the PC market, Intel is trying to shoehorn its chips into everything it can find. The latest target of the chip giant is the automobile, which it hopes to make truly "smart" by way of processors, sensors and wireless transmitters. At the company's latest Research Day event, it showed off an electric vehicle equipped with cameras and sensors that stop just short of turning it ...

Judging by past experiments, Volkswagen believes autonomous features are the future of the automotive industry. According to Engadget, the auto manufacturer's 2011 Phaeton has a dash-mounted camera that reads street signs and adjusts to lessen glare from oncoming headlights. Once a street sign has been read, the information (e.g., traffic information, speed limit) is displayed on the car's ...

Apparently all those studies and advertisements about the dangers of texting while driving are getting through to the American people. According to Motor Trend, Ford recently commissioned a survey that found 93-percent of the participants support a nationwide ban on texting while driving. It looks like the automotive giant surveyed a bunch of cynics though -- because only 42-percent said they ...

While Washington scrambles and searches for answers, the automotive industry remains in shambles. So far, nothing has worked. And by 'nothing,' we mean 'throwing wads of cash at the problem.' So why not take a creative approach? That's exactly what one talented illustrator has done. While Core 77 user lunchbreath's suggestions to the Motor City might not be practical, they're loads of fun to ...

Some Xbox 360 mods are the product of serious craftsmanship, some are rather silly, and some -- like this Suzuki automobile console / Xbox 360 game console hybrid -- really give one pause. This isn't the sort of thing that one spends moments / hours / weeks on, after which he reflects for a moment ("Aren't I rather clever?"), and then hides it safely in the closet (or sells it on eBay). No, this ...

And we're not talking about that 3.5mm-to-3.5mm trick, either. No sirree, we're referring to bona fide iPod integration, and 2009 marks the first year where over half of all US-bound automobiles are expected to offer optional support for Apple's prolific PMP. When looking at 2008 model year vehicles, just 39-percent offered tight iPod integration, but according to Phil Magney, vice president of ...

Seeing that General Motors left a gaping hole of opportunity for other automakers to produce a new EV by 2010 that isn't uglier than sin itself, it's no real shock to see Chrysler champing at the bit. Just this week, the company has introduced a trio of advanced electric-drive vehicle prototypes (simply coined Chrysler EV, Jeep EV and Dodge EV for now), one of which will mysteriously surface in ...

Using little more than book knowledge, experience from previous projects, and a healthy shot of elbow grease, a Kenyan kid has constructed a nifty (and perhaps just a little scary) box that attaches to your car to provide a number of unique remote-control features that you're not going to find on your average OnStar setup. The flagship function seems to be the real-time lockout, which can call ...

This isn't so much a technology story as a super-sized, impress you with the audacity story. A giant billboard in Moscow, stretching up and across approximately 1.5 ACRES (no, not a typo), features real BMWs affixed sideways to appear as though they are racing across the advertisement's expanse. In the Western World, we know they do things big in Texas, but this enormous ad tops anything we've ...

Could this finally be it? We've been promised flying cars since the 1950s, but so far nothing has made it past the prototype and demo film stages. The father and son team of Chris and Jame Milner seem to think they can bring this dream to reality by 2010. At the New York International Auto Show later this month the pair will unveil their prototype convertible car / plane. The vehicle is small, ...

We may be half a world away at CES in Las Vegas, but this announcement out of the 9th annual Auto Expo in New Delhi certainly caught our attention. India manufacturer Tata officially unveiled what is now known as the Tata Nano. But whether you call it the Nano, the People's Car, the 1-lakh, or the $2,500 car it's still a feat of engineering. Sure, for $2,500, you're forgoing a lot of comforts ...

The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held every January in Las Vegas, is just around the corner (and Switched.com will be there), which means it is time for companies to assault us with an absurd number of product launches. Garmin took this idea to heart, apparently, and is prepping the launch of no less than 11 new GPS products for the world's biggest geek-fest. At the top of the ...

Google is making sure that you can find it everywhere. Eventually, the search-engine-cum-portal may start showing up bedside to give you suggestions on how to be a better lover, but until that creepy, creepy day arrives, you'll have it on your PC, your cell phone, on your TV, your radio, in your newspaper, your car, and now even at the gas pump. Following on the heels of the announcement of ...