Hasta La Gadget!

Last year Kenji Ishida and his company Brave Robotics released 10 units of his awesome remote controlled car that can transform into a mecha. Unsurprisingly, all 10 units were bought, and there’s no word on when the company will release more. But you might not have to wait for Brave Robotics, because toy maker Takara Tomy is also working on a similar toy.

Before you accuse Takara Tomy of stealing Kenji Ishida’s work, lawyer down. Frankie of Hobby Media spotted Takara Tomy’s prototype at the 2013 Tokyo Toy Show, and apparently he also found out that Takara Tomy is collaborating with Brave Robotics. So we’re all good.

Frankie also said that he saw the toy transform, but he was asked not to film it as it was still a work in progress. Just to refresh your memory, here’s what Brave Robotics’ toy looks like in action:

I think I’ll save up for Ishida’s life-size transforming car.

[via Hobby Media]

Apple has been teasing an extra level of integration with cars beyond the likes of iPod Out or Siri Eyes Free, and it just gave us substantially more today. A new iOS in the Car feature will directly link iOS 7 with cars’ infotainment systems, giving drivers an optimized interface for maps, messages and music. They’ll be waiting awhile to plug in, however, as a number of automakers (including Ferrari) only expect to implement iOS in the Car sometime in 2014.

Follow all of our WWDC 2013 coverage at our event hub.

Filed under: Transportation, Apple

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There were a lot of cool cars in 1980s TV shows and movies. We must have been obsessed with cars in that era, because you don’t get these sort of iconic rides anymore. Ralph from Brothers Brick has created some awesome homages to TV and movie vehicles of that era and they look amazing.

They look so good, I wish we could buy each as a set and put them together ourselves. These cars even have LEGO characters to go with them. All of our favorites are here: the GMC Vandura from The A-Team, Ecto-1 from Ghostbusters, KITT from Knight Rider, and The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard.

Holy Duke boys! Daisy is stacked!

Head on over to Ralph’s Flickr page for more pics of these awesome LEGO rides.

[via Nerd Approved]

With more and more vehicles featuring telematics and built-in wireless connectivity, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a new ecosystem emerge around the technology, with M2M specialists providing everything from radios to apps. BlackBerry wants a piece of this pie, and today at the Telematics Detroit conference, the company is showing a new OTA (Over The Air) service for automakers. The solution lets car manufacturers manage and deploy software updates to vehicles in the field and takes advantage of BlackBerry’s push expertise and secure infrastructure. Other remote capabilities include installing apps on a car’s infotainment system and getting status information on vehicle components. Let’s just hope there’s no service outage in the middle of that ECU update, okay? PR after the break.

Filed under: Transportation, Mobile, Blackberry

Comments

Wow. This is a real sport. Extreme Barbie Jeep Racing is basically off-roading, but without the huge heavily modified and super horsepower 4x4s. Instead you use cheap, fast, toy plastic cars that grown men barely fit in, and remove the speed limiters. Sounds awesome.

From what I can gather from the info available, you drink a bunch of moonshine, slap each other on the back a few times, crank up the country music and then push each other down the hill in one of these kid’s cars.

I guess I would be game for that. Just don’t try to feed me any roadkill or anything. And the minute I hear banjo music, I’m out!

[via Jalopnik]