BlackBerry has been hit hard by Apple and Android in the enterprise smartphone market, and now it’s making some moves to make sure that it doesn’t face the same fate in the automotive segment. QNX, BlackBerry’s operating system subsidiary that makes the new BB10 operating system, today announced that it would be adding music streaming service 7digital into its in-car entertainment and information… → Read More
If, one day, we really are all going to be carted around in driverless cars from the likes of Google and others, then we may as well have some apps on board to keep us occupied. Today, the Linux Foundation announced that it was throwing its hat into the car-apps ring, with the creation of the Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup. → Read More
Vital Insights, an enterprise startup focused on providing a cloud-based customer experience management solution to the automotive industry, has announced a $20 million growth round from a single investor, private equity firm Bregal Sagemount. This is a first round of funding for the company, which has actually been cash-flow positive since 2008, seeing revenue growth of 30% in the first half of… → Read More
The ridesharing-disruptive car service space in the U.S. is about to get a little more crowded: Carpooling.com, a ridesharing service out of Munich, Germany currently enabling million rides monthly, is today announcing a C-round of investment from carmaker Daimler, which it will be using to expand to the other side of the Atlantic starting in the fourth quarter of this year. Financial terms of the… → Read More
The economic downturn of the last few years hit few cities as hard as Detroit. Still, the city has recently become somewhat of a startup hub in its own right and today Ford Global Technologies, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company that manages Ford’s intellectual property portfolio, announced that it is opening a showroom for “innovators to show off their creations to peers and… → Read More
Don’t you just hate it when you are driving down the road at night, and that oncoming jackhole in the SUV can’t be bothered to turn his brights off? Particularly these days, when said jackhole is probably driving a car with HID headlights, and you have to stare at the white line to avoid driving off the road? Well hopefully technology can help with that. A French company is currently working on a… → Read More
Nissan‘s Leaf is almost ready to be picked. The company announced its all-electric car will be available to buy as early as December, but only for those in California, Washington, Oregon, Arizona and Tennessee. Other parts of the country will have to hold their horsepower a little bit longer.
Nissan chose to release to those five states first because they’re home to the EV project, the world’s… → Read More
EcoMotors announced today a $23.5 million series B funding round from Khosla Ventures and Bill Gates that the company will use to build and test its eco-friendly engine, known as an Opposed Piston Opposed Cylinder (OPOC) engine.
EcoMotors makes engines that run on diesel or gasoline but have greater power density, weigh less and produce lower carbon emissions than conventional engines. OPOC… → Read More
Every watch needs some kind of theme, and Equipe has certainly found theirs. Inspired by the auto industry, this Detroit based company designs their watches using vehicles as their guide. → Read More
So we all know that drafting increases fuel efficiency. Heck, I even saw an episode of MythBusters where they proved that following a semi suicidally close will increase your mileage dramatically. Of course, drafting is dangerous, stupid, and the risk vs. reward just isn’t there. Well, what if it was? Scientists in Europe are working on a system that would make drafting safe. Get ready to ride the… → Read More
I’ve been quite fascinated by electric car firm Better Place since I read up on how the company was founded by former SAP executive Shai Agassi in the excellent book ‘Start-up Nation’, which tells of Israel’s historical entrepreneurial DNA and tech success stories.
Basically, Better Place aims to reduce global dependency on petroleum through the creation of a market-based transportation… → Read More
Ford announced today their move to upgrade their SYNC in-car communications system into MyFord Touch. This all-encompassing system integrates not only your cell phone or portable media device, but now your GPS, air conditioning, audio library, and much more. Multiple touch screens will replace the traditional dashboard of your car, and remember that mobile Wi-Fi hotspot we were talking about… → Read More
Mitsubishi Electric has developed a Blu-ray player that is is just 1/3 of the size of conventional players [JP] and is intended for automotive use. The 1DIN prototype is the smallest in the industry. → Read More
When I first heard about AC Schnitzer’s new LCD-equipped gear shifter, I thought, wow, this would be useful as the LCD takes the guessing out of what gear the transmission is in. Then I realized, most people that drive a manual don’t think about what they’re doing. They just know what gear they’re in and what gear they’re planning to shift into. Are there really people out… → Read More
Tokyo-based Tech and machinery company Furukawa developed a thermoelectric conversion material that can supposedly boost the fuel efficiency of automobiles. Power is generated in the material through differences in temperature between its two sides. Conventional thermoelectric conversion material warms up as a whole, when one side is exposed to heat. This method is said to be rather inefficient… → Read More
http://blip.tv/scripts/flash/showplayer.swf?enablejs=true&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcrunchgear%2Eblip%2Etv%2Frss&file=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Frss%2Fflash%2F928353%3Freferrer%3Dblip%2Etv%26source%3D1&showplayerpath=http%3A%2F%2Fblip%2Etv%2Fscripts%2Fflash%2Fshowplayer%2Eswf Volkswagen is on a quest to find out exactly what the people want, and they’re not afraid to use new technology… → Read More
GM is currently holding the Challenge X competition and today it rolled into NYC. Unfortunately, I’m on my deathbed and was unable to make it to Central Park this morning, but thanks to YouTube I can give you a glimpse of what’s going on. Challenge X is an engineering competition that has 17 North American universities competing against one another to rebuild a Chevy Equinox to make it more… → Read More
If you’re forgetting where you parked your car with enough regularity that you long for some sort of device that would make noise to help you find it, you’ll probably be happy to pony up for a new Chevy with a KITTY LOC8TOR pre-installed. See what they did with the number eight there? KITTY stands for Key Innovation That Talks To You and "has the added feature of being able to… → Read More
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