Hasta La Gadget!

Modern automobiles benefit from increasingly small and smart computers, which can help control or augment everything from a car’s dashboard display to fundamental functions like steering. But as the world is slowly realizing, if something runs software, that thing can be hacked. That’s what Forbes recently found out thanks to a demonstration by two computer security experts.

Image by Forbes

Forbes’ Andy Greenberg met with Charlie Miller – a security engineer at Twitter – and Chris Valasek – the Director of Security Intelligence at security services consulting firm IOActive – to experience firsthand how today’s high-tech cars can be fooled. Charlie and Chris connected to one of the Electronic Control Units or ECUs of a Toyota Prius and proceeded to do all sorts of dangerous tweaks with it on the fly.

Charlie and Chris are working under a grant from DARPA to expose vulnerabilities in cars. Greenberg also drove a Ford Escape that both security experts hacked in similar ways. When Greenberg spoke to a Toyota spokesperson, he was told that the hack in the video above didn’t really concern them because it involved gaining access to the car and physically connecting a device to it. But the reason why Charlie and Chris didn’t bother to do it wirelessly is because that part has already been proven, way back in 2010:

Yeah these things need to be patched now. These videos are extremely troubling.

[via Forbes via BBC]

Track cars are quite something to behold, and can be a lot of fun to take out for a weekend ride. While many track cars aren’t street legal, this one is – and it looks amazing too.

The Vuhl 05 is made in Mexico, and it’s made for track days. It’s very light, at only 1,500 pounds, and has got 285hp under the hood. Its lightweight body uses steel, aluminum and has a plastic open-top body. The two-liter Ford EcoBoost four-cylinder engine is quite snappy, so you’ll be able to power away from your competitors. Its maximum speed is 150 mph, and it will reach 62 mph in only 3.7 seconds.

It has a six-speed manual gearbox and it’s also perfectly street legal, so you won’t have to tow it around. The Vuhl 05 sells for approximately $84,000(USD) and it will be available in the spring of 2014.

[via Top Gear]

Electric bikes can be expensive and sometimes just plain ugly, which really sucks, because if you are lazy, you want one. There are some conversion kits available, but they make the bike look too weird. Rubbee to the rescue!

Rubbee recently-launched as a Kickstarter project and the idea is that it turns your regular bike into an electric one. Even better, it does this in mere seconds. It is an electric motor drive that you mount on your bike. Just attach the motor pack, connect the throttle, and you’re done. There is a friction wheel at the back tire, which turns when the electric motor is on. The Rubbee will give you about 15 miles of range on a 2 hour charge. Best of all, it looks nice and doesn’t get in the way.

All done with your electric bike and need some exercise? Just flip a switch.

Then full Rubbee electric drive package will cost you a minimum pledge of £699 or about $1,070(USD). While this is as expensive as some standalone electric bikes, the Rubbee lets you use your existing bike, and keeps weight to a minimum.

[via C|NET via Oh! Gizmo]

Crowdsourcing is all the rage these days, so why not apply the concept to shooting a video? That’s exactly what Lexus did when it got together over 200 fans to each shoot frames for a promotional video. What makes the clip unique is that all of the images were captured and posted via Instagram.

The short film, called #LexusInstafilm captured a walk-around of the new 2014 Lexus IS, by instructing each of its Instagrammers to stand (or lie down) in a specific location to capture their still image. 3D mapping technology was used to identify the precise locations where each image needed to be snapped in order to stitch together the final stop-motion video.

Each individual captured their image, applied Instagram filters and posted them with a specific hashtag so they could be filtered and edited into the video sequence later the same day.

Here’s the final video, along with a little behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot:

Sure, it seems like a whole lot of labor to capture just a few seconds of video, but it’s still a creative way to let so many people could contribute to a single video.

It’s taken McLaren almost 15 years, but they’re about to finally release the F1′s successor, the P1. Like a few of the new supercars, it will feature a petrol engine mated with an electric motor to boost its power to even more. The maximum power output of the P1 is 903 HP!

The McLaren P1 is a hybrid supercar, with rear-wheel drive, and a mid-engine design which is combined with lots of carbon fiber to make it as light as possible. It comes with a 3.8 liter twin-turbocharged V8 tuned to 727hp. This engine is combined with a KERS electric motor producing an extra 176 horses. You can use it just with the petrol engine, with both, or just with the electric engine. Granted, you’ll only be able to drive 12 miles, but hey, it’s the thought that counts!

It was revealed that McLaren will produce just 375 P1s, each one costing $1.44 million (USD). In May 2013, McLaren announced that it had already sold 250 units, so you’d better hurry up if you want one. Production started in July, with the first cars to be delivered on August 22nd.

[via Autoblog]