Hasta La Gadget!

This week Ford and Amazon have attached at the hip, pushing their Amazon MP3 app’s connectivity in iOS device to Ford SYNC AppLink-equipped vehicles. Now if a user works with an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad and has a Ford vehicle with SYNC AppLink abilities, they’ll be able to stream music from their Amazon Cloud Player music library automatically. This is a rare moment in which iOS connectivity has come after, not before, a similar feature working with Android devices.

Both Android and iOS devices working with Amazon Cloud Player are ready for action with Ford SYNC AppLink-equipped vehicles. The iOS version has been outlined this week with dashboard controls as well as voice recognition abilities. Users will also be hearing their tunes with high-quality 256kbps audio straight from their vehicle’s speaker system.

With Amazon’s system, users will have the ability to play music wirelessly from their iOS device or through their Cloud Player. With Cloud Player, music is accessed through Amazon’s online archive, this allowing the user’s vehicle and iOS device to free up local storage space for alternate media.

This push is affecting the 2013 Ford Fiesta, Mustang, Focus, C-MAX Hybrid, E-Series, F-150, Expedition, Fusion, and Super Duty models, and will quite likely be appearing on future vehicles with Ford SYNC AppLink embedded as well. This connectivity should be appearing on and with your vehicle and iOS device starting today. Android users should, by all means, have had this connectivity working nicely since February – if you’re still waiting, make a move!

iOS Amazon Cloud Player hits Ford SYNC AppLink-equipped vehicles is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Range Rover‘s hybrid versions of its two big SUVs will make their public debut in September, though neither of the diesel-hybrid cars will be headed to US forecourts. Range Rover expects to show off the duo – the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport – in hybrid form at the Frankfurt Motor Show, chief programme engineer for RRS Stuart Frith told Car Sales Australia, with sales kicking off in Europe by the end of the year.

The hybrid will also be joined by a new V8 diesel, returning an SDV8 to the Range Rover Sport line-up. Meanwhile, a four-cylinder version is also teased, with 420kg of shed curb weight meaning that performance is still as perky as drivers would expect.

It’s the hybrid that is arguably the most interesting, however, building on Range Rover’s experimentation with the Range_e concept revealed back in early 2011. That car paired a 69kW electric motor and 14.2kWh lithium-ion battery with a 245PS 3.0-liter TDV6 diesel powerplant, and could be driven for 20 miles on battery power alone.

When the diesel lump kicked in, meanwhile, the Range_e was good for 89g/km CO2 with a fuel efficiency rating of 85mpg (Euro), while the battery could be topped up using a regular 240V outlet.

For the production RR/RRS Hybrid, the car company is aiming for 169g/km of CO2 with a diesel V6 engine. The batteries and the rest of the power system will be hidden under the floor, meaning internal space and luggage capacity will be unchanged, and is expected to feed power through a motor/generator that’s positioned in-between the regular engine and the 8-speed transmission.

However, the US won’t be getting either of those models, since Range Rover’s North American line-up is light on diesels. Instead, there are expected to be unspecified gas-electric hybrids taking similar approaches, though Range Rover is yet to confirm when they can be expected to go on sale.

[via Motor Authority]

Range Rover Hybrids due late-2013 (but the US misses out) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

As it was with the Acer Enterprise-esque spot that turned out to be a rather strange Windows 8 computer by the name of Aspire R7 last month, so too do the stars of Star Trek appear this week in a video spot for Audi. In their newest crossover appearance, both original Spock and new-age Spock have a bit of a battle on the road, complete with so many Star Trek references your head will spin. This spot is also home to a driverless / self-driven Audi vehicle in addition to the Audi S7, as driven by Zachary Quinto.

What the audience will find in this push for the film is an advertisement for an Audi vehicle stocked with infotainment system, light-up bits and pieces, and a presentation that makes Leonard Nimoy’s ride look like a bit of a joke. Of course that’s the point, as the new age – with Quinto, aka Spock from the newest series of Star Trek movies – makes way as the old – Leonard Nimoy, stays cool.

You’ll find Nimoy making reference after reference not just to Star Trek in more form than one, but to his own professional (read: odd) past as well. For an extended period of his vehicle trip in this video he sings a new rendition of the classic “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”, a song which he sang for a variety show in 1967 by he name of Malibu U. Because we live in an age where all things digital can be preserved, you’ll be treated to this epic masterpiece as well, right this minute.

Please mind the 60′s pixie women, if you can. Zachary Quinto meanwhile stays par for the course, ready to appear as Spock for the film Star Trek Into Darkness later this month – on the 17th of May, mind you. It’s also rumored that Quinto will be returning to the most terrifying television show of all for another season soon: American Horror Story. Can’t be too silly for that one.

Audi Spock vs Spock continues Star Trek crossover advertising is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Tesla Motors, the company behind the popular Model S and its all-electric car tech in general, is interested in self-driving cars and is in talks with Google on how bring that technology to Tesla cars in the future. Tesla CEO Elon Musk says that self-driving cars are the way of the future and are the next step in car technology.

However, Musk is wanting self-driving technology that’s more like the autopilot system in airplanes, mentioning that the word “self-driving” implies that the car is “going to do something you don’t want it to do.” Instead, Musk says that autopilot would be perfect, and says that cars “should have it.”

While Bloomberg reports that Musk is currently in talks with Google, it seems as if he wants to implement his own system for self-driving cars, rather than just use Google’s technology. Musk says that “Google’s current approach is that the sensor system is too expensive.” Instead, he claims that “an optical system” would be better, which is an array of cameras that can tell what’s going on just by looking at the surroundings.

Toyota demonstrated a similar system to what Musk describes back in January, and the auto maker is also an investor of Tesla, so we could see the two companies work together possibly on a new self-driving technology. However, it’ll be a long while before self-driving and autopilot cars hit the mainstream. Until then, save up your money.

UPDATE: Elon Musk said over Twitter that making autopilot Tesla cars is “important,” but it’s not yet a “top priority” for the company. Musk says that production of autopilot cars is still a “few years” away.

UPDATE 2: Musk further comments via Twitter that the report from Bloomberg is “off-the-cuff” and that there is “no big announcement here.”

[via Bloomberg]

Tesla in talks with Google over self-driving car tech [UPDATE] is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Word has it Tesla Motors will get to announce its first profit on Wednesday, May 8, a long-awaited reality for the company. According to the LA Times, the profit will happen due to the subsidization of the company through the sale of environmental credits it receives from California and to others auto makers. Estimates currently have it that credit sales during 2013 could bring in $250 million.

According to the report, Tesla Motors receives up to $35,000 in credits for every Model S electric vehicle it sells, a substantial number on top of the car’s sticker price. The credits have been a financial staple of the auto maker, and likewise gives it a boost that is unique to Tesla Motors – no other car manufacturer gets so much in credits. As Chrysler’s CEO pointed out last month, for example, its taking a $10k hit on every Fiat it sells in California.

California has been heavily pursuing zero-emissions vehicles, with that reality reinforced last month via the publication of a roadmap by the California Fuel Cell Partnership, in which it detailed the state’s plans for rolling out hydrogen stations and the number of fuel-cell vehicles it expects to see in the coming years based on current and estimated growth rates.

Despite accusations that California is playing favorites, the state’s Air Resource Board is quoted as saying: “We are in the air pollution business, not the car business. There is some jealousy of Tesla going on here.” As far as Tesla Motors goes, the maker saw Model S sales tally in at 2,650 last year, and expects the number of sales to jump drastically this year to 20,000 units. Such a number will bring in substantial environmental credits, which will then sell for an even more substantial amount to other car makers.

[via LA Times]

Tesla to sell millions in environment credits during 2013 is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.