Carvoyant, a startup that’s been busy developing a platform that will tell you exactly what’s going on with your vehicle’s general health (and what that blasted “check engine” light means), is today ready to start shipping its devices to early adopters and developer testers. It has also signed a couple of agreements with auto dealer partners, who will be the first to distribute the system more… → Read More
Apple’s launch of its new mapping service, the ensuing backlash and management shakeup, have been anything but its proudest moments. Adding insult to injury, as Kim-Mai reported two weeks ago, Apple’s pain quickly turned into a gain for other map makers. However, for most, this was only a temporary blip. Only one company was able to sustain increased marketshare: Waze, which saw its share of U.S. → Read More
One of the worst things about getting drunk far from home is having to abandon your car overnight which you then have to painfully retrieve it the following day, hangover and all. Sometimes, the car isn’t even where you left it – it’s been towed. A startup called StearClear launched earlier this spring to address that problem by offering a designated driver service that uses driver teams who drive… → Read More
A new study from the University of Utah suggests that a very small percentage of people are able to drive safely while using a cellphone. The actual percentage, 2.5 percent of the population, isn’t high enough to affect policy, but it’s interesting nonetheless. Well, kinda. → Read More
What an odd array of breakfast items in this product shot: Egg McMuffin, sure. Apple juice, okay. Fries? You might be on to something there. Whatever the case, if you’ve been eating food out of a bag while careening down the highway on your way to work maybe it’s time to class things up a bit with this $11 Swivel Car Tray. → Read More
Newsflash: Sending text messages while driving is dangerous. There’s really no safe way to send a text while behind the wheel unless you’re at a stoplight or pulled over.
And while there’s no nationwide texting ban for regular drivers, Uncle Sam has just decreed that anyone driving a large commercial truck or bus anywhere in the country can be fined up to $2,750 if caught texting while in… → Read More
Meet AIDA, the Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant. This is a prototype robot that utilizes sensors inside and outside the car to create “a platform comprising of a personal robot and an intelligent navigation system that aims to bring an innovative driving experience.” I don’t own an automobile, so practically every driving experience is innovative to me right now! Rather than traditional… → Read More
Perhaps your job has you driving miles and miles and miles in a relatively straight line. You might as well rig your steering wheel up with a surface suitable for eating, computing, and playing solitaire. Whup, wait, scratch the solitaire. You can play solitaire on your computer instead — the computer that rests on this $25 Wheelmate Steering Wheel Desk Tray. → Read More
King of Queens Season Five, Episode 20 (titled Driving Reign) finds Doug Heffernan and his cousin Danny squaring off in an IPS truck race. Hilarity ensues — see the video clip below.
But did you know that the friendly men and women of the United Parcel Service, upon which the fictional International Parcel Service is based, have their very own real-life driving competitions? It’s true! → Read More
License plate covers with scrolling LED messages used to be the playthings of kings, CEOs, and hotel owners! Now you, too, can get in on the fun for far less than you think. GraveyardMall.com is selling the “E-Plate Scrolling License Plate Frame” for just $14 plus shipping. → Read More
A couple of grad students in China have developed a method for testing someone’s blood alcohol level directly from a middle finger. The system consists of a small box mounted inside of a car, connected to the vehicle’s ignition. A would-be motorist sticks his or her swear finger into the box for twenty seconds and the system first checks the fingerprint to identify the driver and then checks… → Read More
Drivers in Pennsylvania between the ages of 50 and 75 will get to test out a new program by Allstate that’ll attempt to determine whether playing video games makes for better drivers. The pilot program will be open to 100,000 people who will be asked to play at least ten hours of memory-type games aimed at improving alertness. These drivers will then be compared to other 50- to 75-year olds who… → Read More
To the girl who almost slammed into me as she was texting away on her phone while driving last week: regardless of the crazy face you made and the nasty words you mouthed through your windshield, that was your fault. California agrees with me. Just yesterday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation outlawing the reading or writing of text messages while driving. Starting… → Read More
A study in the small Dutch town of Hengelo is conducting field research by the University of Twente to determine if a new type of concrete can reduce acid rain. Concrete paving stones are laced with photosensitive titanium dioxide. When used to pave highways, the additive reacts with sunlight and the nitrogen oxide particles emitted by car exhaust, thereby forming nitrates. The testing is being… → Read More
I don’t have any children but from what I’ve heard, they’re quite a nuisance. If you have kids that are just starting to drive a car, why not purchase this dash-mounted camera with built-in GPS logger and Google Earth compatibility? You’ll be able to playback video of recent trips complete with a nice little GPS overlay on the right-hand side of the screen. Aside from keeping the driver of… → Read More
Nice work, San Francisco. Nice work. This fall, San Francisco will be testing a system of 4-inch by 4-inch mesh-networked bumps glued to 25% of the city’s parking spaces. The bumps will be linked to various wireless networks, which will relay parking information to a smartphone-friendly website and nearby street signs. So instead of driving around the block 15 times, you’ll be able to see… → Read More
If your name is Michael and you’re into GPS systems, then have I got the unit for you. The Knight Rider GPS by Mio features voice directions by none other than William Daniels, the voice of KITT on the Knight Rider series. When you fire the gadget up, you’ll hear “Hello, Michael. Where do you want to go today?” No word on a release date, but the price will be $270 when it becomes… → Read More
Behold the Chinavasion.com Breathalyzer Keychain Car Gadget with built-in flashlight and stopwatch. It costs a meager $4.43 — far less than other breathalyzer gadgets — and it seems to work although it tops out at a 0.05 blood alcohol content (BAC) reading, so you’ll never really be quite sure if you’re over the 0.08 limit in most states. → Read More
It’s nice to see GPS devices come out near the $300 point that don’t skimp too much on features. The NAVIGON 2100 max and 2120 max were announced today at CeBIT and feature a 4.3-inch widescreen display, text-to-speech directions, and “NAVIGON’s exclusive Reality View, which provides 3D guidance when approaching highway interchanges.” There’s also a feature… → Read More
If you’re looking for something new to put in your car that’ll give you yet another reason to drive slowly and erratically while you get your greasy fingerprints all over it, might I suggest either the Sony NV-U83T at $400 or the Sony NV-U73T at $300? → Read More
The other day, I got stuck behind a little Honda Civic hatchback that was swerving back and forth, crossing over into the lane on its left and then the lane on its right a few times before finally slamming on its brakes in deference to the red light and, in turn, the various non-moving cars in front of it. My initial assumption was that the driver was at least moderately, if not severely… → Read More
How many hilarious moments have you witnessed from behind the wheel of your car? Tens? Hundreds? Now imagine if you had a dash-mounted device that could record up to eight hours of video at a time and would preserve all these moments forever. Catch the physical comedy of the neighborhood invalid slowly traversing a crosswalk while the light turns green and everyone starts honking, laugh in horror… → Read More
It’s officially official: texting while driving will get you a ticket. Back when I was a kid, this wasn’t a crime, this was a hobby. Right? Right? Phoenix hands out its first citation for texting while driving [AZ Central] → Read More
This will make people’s lives easier. That’s why I like Google, plain and simple. Gas pump manufacturer Gilbarco Veeder-Root is rolling out 3,500 Google Maps-enabled touchscreen pumps around the country that “include an Internet connection and will display Google’s mapping service in color on a small screen. Motorists will be able to scroll through several categories to… → Read More
Texting while driving is a sure fire way to get a ticket or get in an accident. Just being back in California this last week makes me wonder why and how I ever used my phone while driving. It’s ridiculously stupid and unsafe, but I still do it. Heh. But things may change thanks to some fancy speech solutions from Nuance. Oh, yeah, DWT means driving while texting. Watch the video and see how easy… → Read More
Hun dee durr thar partner! I was juss crackin’ open a can of Milwaukee’s Best and saw that yer a NASCAR fan yerself! Ya know that high-tech satellite radio crap? The one that’s a “play on words” as they call it. Surious! That’s it! Yeah, well I reckon I heard some news ’bout a new NASCAR show a’comin and it done be good. Supposed to debut… → Read More
TEXTING + DRIVING = DEAD MOOSE Driving while talking on your cellphone may have risks involved, but it’s still possible to do it safely via one way or another. However, when it comes to texting and driving, that’s just a bad mix no matter how you look at it. My roommate texts and drives all the time, even when he’s doing 80MPH down the BQE. It kind of freaks me out and I just… → Read More
Exciting news? Not really, but it could mean improved service and better products with TomTom’s announcement to buy map-provider Tele Atlas. TomTom is rumored to have purchased the company for $2.5 billion. Sure it’s a lot of money, but think about what you’re getting with that deal. Tele Atlas is currently the supplier of TomTom’s data. This news will also shake up other… → Read More
While NJ may have been one of the first states to ban driving and talking on a cellphone, Washington is smart enough to realize that plenty of people still text while they drive. Now in an effort to curb accidents and careless driving, Washington has made it illegal to operate a cellphone while driving. However, it’s a secondary offense, meaning the po’ can only give you a ticket if… → Read More
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