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Every year, I try and attend the New York International Auto show, I enjoy checking out all the concept cars and the newest offerings from my dream car list. Some of the displays are cool, but the way you’re introduced to a car is pretty much the same old thing, until now…
Subaru of America, Inc. will debut the all-new Impreza at its New York International Auto Show news conference via 3-D video. In a show first, attendees will throw on some 3-D glasses so they can experience the lives of Subaru owners – from mud running, to yoga, to car driving – as its new model is revealed to the world. You can also catch the show in plain old 2D on Continue reading » Subaru.com, and it may just be a show worth watching, the Impreza is being touted as the most fuel efficient all wheel drive vehicle in America. Facebook and 3D - Car Sales of the Future?
Advantech announces TREK-550 in-vehicle fanless computer
Advantech has just announced the brand new TREK-550 in-vehicle fanless computer which will see action in transport trucks, buses, vehicle fleets and taxis, where it will be able to hook up to a range of monitoring systems. We’re talking about onboard diagnostics (OBD-II), a car area network (CAN), and tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) amongst others.
Apart from that, it offers built-in wireless communications (comprising of WWAN, WLAN, Bluetooth) which enable the TREK-550 to send data back to a central site, not to mention to receive over-the-air (AOTA) updates and communicate with central dispatch. The $1,400 TREK-550 is also ISO7637/SAE J1455 Class A/ SAE J1113 certified; making it work just fine even in extreme temperatures as well as transient power conditions; as it can endure shocks and vibrations.
Continue reading » Advantech announces TREK-550 in-vehicle fanless computer
Ford Motor Company Building Digital Child Crash Dummies
Ford Motor Company is set to begin one of the world’s first research projects to build a digital human model of a child with lifelike re-creations of bones, internal organs and brains in order to enhance the company’s future safety research.
Researchers are constructing the digital model, as they did the adult version, component by component – brain, skull, neck, ribcage, upper and lower extremities, etc. After gathering data through medical scans as well as anatomical texts, the researchers will build the model section by section, recreating regions of the body from childrens MRIs and CAT scans in order to obtain child geometry and basic body information so they may better understand how crash forces affect children and adults differently. Continue reading » Ford Motor Company Building Digital Child Crash Dummies
Wind Explorer car is both electric and kite powered, and crossed Australia
This is the Wind Explorer, and it is a car that can drive by kite.
The Wind Explorer can take credit for breaking three world records: the first continental crossing by a wind-powered vehicle, the longest distance covered by a wind-powered vehicle, and the longest distance covered by a wind-powered vehicle in 36 hours.
You can catch a video of it after the jump if you want to see it in motion. The Wind Explorer traveled 3,107 miles across Australia in about 18 days, and it uses only $15 worth of electricity. Talk about your fuel efficiency!
Continue reading » Wind Explorer car is both electric and kite powered, and crossed Australia
BrainDriver allows you to drive with your mind
Imagine getting behind the wheel of your car, and no hands were required on the wheel.
This is the technology of BrainDriver which is under development at Freie Universität Berlin by professor Raul Rojas. BrainDriver uses a head cap with 16 sensors that allow the driver to have control over the wheel.
This is electroencephalography in action, and it is technology that is getting better every day. We have reported on computers that can do this, and all BrainDriver does is create a system for guiding the steering wheel. There’s a video after the jump so you can see how it works. You will note that they aren’t testing this on the real road with real traffic yet.
Continue reading » BrainDriver allows you to drive with your mind
Pagani Huayra car will cost…one million dollars in the United States
Some of you have heard about the Zonda, a huge leader in top speed and power contests for automobiles.
The Zonda is made by Italian supercar manufacturer Pagani Automobili SpA. They have a new model called the Huayra, named after the ancient God of the wind Huayra Tata.
It has a six-liter, 12 cylinder engine with two turbochargers built by Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance unit. This engine “breathes through a pair of air intakes behind the occupants that the company”, and is a “tribute” to supersonic aircraft of the late 1950s and 1960s.
So far, Pagani has developed five Huayra prototypes, and has road-tested for about the past four years. They traveled for more than 300,000 miles and they plan to cover about 600,000 miles before they come to the United States.
Continue reading » Pagani Huayra car will cost…one million dollars in the United States
The Most Convenient Bluetooth Headset
If there is one thing that I have noticed about Hammacher’s products, it is the use of adjectives. While some of them might sound out of this world (as our readers have pointed out in the past via comments), surely they haven’t gotten slapped with a lawsuit before for false advertising, which means their claims are legit?
Here we are today with another device - known as The Most Convenient Bluetooth Headset. Why is it called that, you ask? Well, apparently it will remain charged in a car and automatically reconnect with your cell phone. The headset will juice up from a base which plugs into your 12-volt DC adapter, hence doing away with the need to charge up your headset inside every time.
The moment you enter the vehicle, the headset will automatically reconnect with your paired cell phone, which isn’t different at all from the automatic reconnection of a built-in hands-free system. You will be able to enjoy crystal clear conversation since the headset boasts noise suppression technology.
One hour of charging delivers up to four hours of talk time and 150 hours of stand-by time. Thanks to a USB mini-charger, you can also juice up this $99.95 purchase from any USB-powered source.
GM’s EN-V Concept Car - Home, James!
I get in a car these days and I’m amazed that I actually get where I’m going without getting killed, or at least seriously maimed. There are simply too many people on the road. Sometimes while stuck in traffic I remember the Jetsons, you know, the cartoon about the space age family, they had cars that drove themselves, well, they could fly too, but thats besides the point.
GM has introduced an amazing concept that I always dreamed would someday exist on our streets, the EN-V. By combining a Global Positioning System (GPS) with specialized vehicle-to-vehicle communications and distance-sensing technology, the EN-V concept can be driven manually or, get this… it can drive itself. Continue reading » GM’s EN-V Concept Car - Home, James!
