Items tagged with Automobiles
Nobody likes getting behind a semi-trailer truck. Those 18-wheelers typically drive slower than four-wheeled cars (not all the time, mind you), and because of their size, there's quite a bit of roadway that gets blocked. You can't see what's going on in front of the truck, and passing isn't always easy, especially if...
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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has grown tired of waiting on future technologies to help curb the dangers of distracted driving and is recommending that currently available collision avoidance systems be a standard feature on all new passenger and commercial vehicles. From the NTSB's standpoint...
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If you're old enough to remember The Jetsons, a cartoon series that ran from 1962 to 1988, you probably thought we'd all be taking to the skies in flying cars by now. We're not there yet, but in place of flying cars, automakers and wealthy tech companies are testing out autonomous vehicles. Several prototypes already exist, including Audi's
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Remember when power windows were considered luxuries in the automobile world? Times are changing and these days there are all kinds of fancy pants features out there, from cars that park themselves to ones that even drive on their own. Those technologies are still in development and won't become mainstream for quite...
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We've long heard about the dangers of text messaging while behind the wheel, yet according to a survey conducted by AT&T, it's still the most prevalent activity by those who admit to engaging in smartphone activities when driving. And how many admitted such behavior? Seven out of 10 surveyed, a staggering number made even more frightening
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The automobile industry is changing right before our very eyes. We have companies like Chevrolet building insanely powerful modern-day muscle cars; Ford and others getting fancy with newfangled technology integrations; Tesla pushing new and used sales of electric vehicles; and of course companies like Google ready to...
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Summer is fast approaching, and that means swimming pools, backyard barbeques, vacations, and self-driving cars. Wait, what? That last one is being added to the list as Google gears up to unleash a few of the prototype autonomous vehicles it's been testing onto public roads in Mountain View, California, where the...
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There was a lot of buzz in the media yesterday when it was revealed that four of the 50 self-driving cars deployed in California had been involved in accidents since hitting the streets last September. Three of those automobiles were using sensors provided by Google, though only two of the four accidents occurred when...
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Google and others are investing in a future where automobiles are fully automated, getting us from point A to point B on their own. We're at a very early stage in what could be a revolution in the auto industry, though it doesn't bode well that around 8 percent of the self-driving cars motoring around California have...
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Tesla is growing up right before our eyes. The startup that continues to shake up the automotive industry with its lineup of electric vehicles that can only be ordered online is now selling pre-owned Model S cars on its website. Pricing depends on the year, miles, and exact configuration, though each pre-owned vehicle...
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Motor Trend's Jonny Lieberman narrates an interesting 17-minute video on YouTube that pits the world's quickest sedan against the world's fastest sedan, those two being the Tesla Model S P85D and Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, respectively, both 2015 variants. Before getting to the results, it's important to understand...
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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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