Hasta La Gadget!

A lot of places suffered the wrath of Sandy as it collided with the East Coast last week, but one manufacturer in particular was left with quite a mess to clean up after Sandy had passed. Fisker says that 300 of its Karma electric vehicles were destroyed by Sandy as they sat in a New Jersey port. Fisker sells each one of those Karmas for about $100,000 here in the States, so Sandy managed to destroy a lot of really expensive product when it made landfall.

Luckily, Fisker thought ahead and had each and every Karma insured. The cars were destroyed when the port flooded, though some of the Karmas actually caught fire when the saltwater shorted their batteries. The wind from Hurricane Sandy made things worse, spreading the fire to other cars. In the end, 16 Karmas had caught fire, but Fisker says there weren’t any explosions.

Even though having 300 cars destroyed is a pretty big loss, Fisker says it probably won’t suffer too much of a financial setback and that this shouldn’t cause any immediate problems with stock in the US, since there already cars in the States waiting to be sold. All in all, it sounds like Fisker will be relatively okay despite the fact that Sandy destroyed 300 completed and ready-to-be sold Karmas.

Fisker hasn’t been having the best of luck lately. Earlier in the year there were reports of Karmas randomly catching fire, and it wasn’t too long ago that we heard of one of Fisker’s manufacturing partners running out cash and selling off assets. Fisker could really use a pick-me-up right about now, but at it least it sounds like the company dodged a very expensive bullet when Sandy came to town.

[via Wall Street Journal]

Fisker hit hard by Hurricane Sandy is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

A few weeks back we mentioned a customized Kia Optima SX Limited done in partnership between Kia and DC Entertainment in a Batman theme. I don’t think a billionaire/playboy/superhero would be seen cruising around in a Kia personally. Still the Batman car was pretty cool.

Kia has now unveiled four more super hero themed customized cars at SEMA 2012. The other four cars are styled after other core members of the Justice League include the Flash Forte Koup, Aquaman Rio 5-door, Cyborg Forte 5-door, and Green Lantern Soul. All four of the new cars have customized exteriors with cues from the superheroes outfits as well as customized interiors.

Most of the cars were done in cooperation with West Coast Customs, with help from RIDES and Super Street for others. All five customized superhero vehicles are on display in Las Vegas right now. I guess this will reveal my comic book ineptitude – but I’ve never even heard of Cyborg. I hear there’s a Wonder Woman car somewhere in that picture parked next to her jet. I can totally imagine Doctor Sheldon Cooper cruising the streets in the Flash Forte Koupe, even though he doesn’t like to drive.

Around these parts, we like gadgets, games, LEGOs, and lots of other geeky crap stuff. But we also like our cars. General Motors put out a press release this week about the engine that will be used in the 2014 Corvette, and the gear-heads around here got all tingly.

The 2014 Corvette will debut as a 2014 model in late 2013. It will have a 6.2-liter V8 engine under the hood providing 450 HP, making it the most powerful base Corvette engine ever offered. The engine will also produce 450 pound-foot of torque and promises performance of 0-to-60 mph in under 4 seconds. Any treehuggers out there might be shaking your fists right now chanting “Prius!… Prius!….”

Before you grab your pitchforks, consider that the engine has an EPA estimated 26 mile-per-gallon rating on the Highway. Considering this is a big and powerful sports car engine, 26 MPG is pretty impressive.

If automakers continue to develop standard gasoline-powered engines with such impressive fuel economy I’m not sure EVs and hybrids will ever go mainstream.

Viper is one of the better-know automotive accessory companies out there when it comes to keyless entry systems, remote starting systems, and car alarms. One of the coolest products the company offers is its Viper SmartStart system that uses your smartphone as the controller.

The system supports the iPhone and various Android devices. Viper has announced a new update specifically for iPhone users that adds compatibility with Siri.

The update only works for users that are using an iPhone 4S or an iPhone 5 running iOS 6. If you’re running a supported iPhone and the latest version of the operating system, you get Siri interaction that allows you to start your car using your voice. The update allows the user to launch the app using the phrase “SmartStart” and the app can be set to execute specific commands such as start the car when it opens. The updated app is available now.

It always amazes me how humans will do so many silly stunts. I’m not sure if that makes us stupid or awesome, but it’s always entertaining. Chris Todd made a homemade floating hamster wheel boat so that he could “walk” across the Irish Sea.

It’s more or less a simple pontoon boat that’s powered by walking in the wheel. The idea was to walk all 66-miles across the Irish Sea from Wales to the East coast of Ireland. Sadly, he had to stop around half way because of a faulty rudder and bad weather.

He was pulled to safety by a support boat, but the watercraft, called “Tredalo,” ended up at the bottom of the Irish Sea where the fish now have a new wheel to play with.

[Dvice via Geekologie]