Hasta La Gadget!

Nissan seems keen to give Google a run for their money in the autonomous vehicle technology category, and the Japanese giant is working hard at creating functional robot vehicles for 2020 and beyond.

Nissan has recently been able to pick up an official Japanese license plate to start testing smart driving systems in real world driving environments.

The car’s brains have been stuffed into an all-electric Nissan Leaf. Some of the features include automatic lane centering as well as adaptive cruise control. The vehicle will also support automatic exiting for freeways, automatic lane changes, and the ability to overtake slower or stopped cars as well.

Soon enough, we won’t even have to drive our cars, and maybe texting and driving will be okay.

[via Wired]

Be it PCs, phones, televisions or wearables, if it can go wireless, Broadcom wants in on the action. Today the company has added one more category to that list, and it’s the car. Indeed, its new line of wireless chips is specifically catered for automotive use, and is decked out with the latest 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth Smart Ready technologies for smoother streaming between mobile devices and in-car displays. But the technology’s scope doesn’t stop there. You could also use it for smartphone remote control of your vehicle’s settings, high-speed connectivity via LTE hot spots, vehicle-to-infrastructure communications and even the syncing of biometric data to make sure the driver isn’t fatigued or drunk when he or she’s behind the wheel.

Broadcom’s current automotive portfolio consists of the BCM89335 5G WiFi / Bluetooth Smart Ready combo chip and the BCM89071 Bluetooth and Bluetooth Smart Ready chip, which are now in the sampling stage. Of course, as this is still in development, we’re not sure just which cars will incorporate such tech just yet. Seeing as how more cars are getting connected, however, you’ll probably see it in action at your local auto dealership sooner than you think. For more on Broadcom’s automotive initiative, check out the press release after the break.

Filed under: Transportation

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Source: Broadcom

This horrible new tank—the shamelessly named 2015 Chevy Suburban—is the only car with six USB ports and six power outlets. Doesn’t that sound stupidly overkill? Not in suburban America! Just imagine all those kids playing Candy Crush on their iPads while they are not using the USB ports for their surveillance equipment.

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I’ve seen cars covered in gold, diamonds and other materials, but it isn’t everyday that you see a car covered in bison leather. This insanely over-the-top ride was made by a guy from Russia.

The car is completely covered in Canadian wood bison leather from the inside out. I guess this guy really loves his leather. Though expensive natural fur, including mink and sable was added to the interior to complement the bison leather.

The hood, dashboard, seats and even the engine has been enshrouded in specially treated leather that can withstand high temperatures.

And of course, there are also Swarovski crystals in select areas, because you have to have those gaudy and cheap bits of glass to pimp anything out.

What do you think? Too much leather? Or do you love it? Oh, did I happen to mention that it’s for sale? It’s just 88,000,000 Russian Rubles – or about $2.66 million US Dollars.

[via Oddity Central via Damn Geeky]

It’s not a good idea to hold your smartphone in your hand while driving. It’s better to have some sort of heads-up mount where you can quickly look at items on the screen without taking your eyes off the road. While there are tons of mounts on the market, most of the ones I’ve seen are difficult to install, or cause irreversible changes to your car or mobile gadget, or are inconvenient to attach devices to. Not so with iOMounts‘ iOauto Pro mounting kit.

Its adjustable bracket installs to your car in seconds, without any need to drill holes or screw anything in place. iOauto mounts use a heavy-duty magnet to hold your device in place, which means installing and removing your gadgets takes just a second. It’s strong enough to hold all smartphones (with or without cases), GPS units, or small tablets.

This is achieved by attaching a small adhesive metal disc to the back of your mobile device. The kit includes two of these discs, which are held in place with a very strong adhesive. The disc itself is very unobtrusive and about the thickness of a credit card.

You have the choice of attaching the disc directly to your gadget, though I opted for first sticking on one of iOmount’s removable vinyl stickers on the back of my iPhone’s Mophie battery case – just in case I ever want to remove it.

Each iOauto Pro comes with a car-friendly mounting bracket from ProClip. These are custom-made to fit individual makes, models and years of cars. In my case, the bracket attached neatly to a gap in the dashboard on the bottom edge, and hooked into the A/C vent on the top. Fitting the mount to the car takes seconds. There’s a small adhesive strip on each end of the bracket to help hold it in place, but it doesn’t leave any permanent marks.

Once in place in your car, attaching your device is just a matter of holding it in front of the iOauto until it clicks in place. This creates an unbelievably stable and strong grip for your gadget. With my iOauto mount in place, I took a couple of long road trips – at high speeds and with the top down on my convertible, and the bracket didn’t flinch. Not even Chicago’s most evil speed bumps or potholes made my phone move.

Perhaps my favorite thing about the iOauto Pro is its clever magnetic ball-joint style design. This allows you to position your device at whatever angle you want, or switch from landscape to portrait modes without detaching your gadget.

It works quite brilliantly. And if you’re wondering if magnets can damage your gadget, nope. As long as your device doesn’t contain a magnetic hard drive, you’re all good. Since 99% of today’s mobile devices use solid state storage, you should be fine.

The iOauto Pro is available now for $80(USD), including a ProClip mount for your vehicle of choice.  There’s also a less expensive version that forgoes the angle control, but I think the extra $10 for the Pro mount is worth it, so you can angle your gadgets exactly how you like.