Hasta La Gadget!

Toyota has pulled the veil off its new Smart INSECT, and its safe to say that if you want a distinctive car, this one is for you. Announced at Ceatec in Japan, this new car seems to be aptly named, seeing as how it looks an awful lot like a bug. It’s also fully electric – not a hybrid – and can be charged using a home AC100V outlet, which means no more gas for you.

Details are still pretty scarce, but we’re imagining that you can get some pretty good distance from a full charge with a car this tiny. After all, looking at the pictures above, it’s clear that this vehicle only fits one person, so we’re assuming that a full charge can take this thing quite some distance. The doors also open upward instead of outward, which adds to the distinctive bug-like look.

The Smart INSECT features a motion sensor that can detect when you’re nearby. As you approach, the doors open for you, so not only are you helping to save the environment by purchasing this car, but you can also feel a little like James Bond every time you get in your INSECT. The Toyota Virtual Agent can give you traffic reports through your smartphone, and if you’re Toyota Home user, you can even use your smartphone to lock and unlock the door to your house from the car. There are likely many more smart features than the ones we’re hearing about on the show floor at Ceatec, so we’ll be keeping an eye out for those.

As stated above, details are slim – super slim, for that matter – so we’re not sure when this car is launching, where it’s launching, or how much it will cost. One thing is certain: the Toyota Smart INSECT has officially caught our attention, so we’ll definitely be watching for new details to surface. Stay tuned.

Toyota Smart INSECT electric vehicle announced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Texas Instruments has made the startling announcement that it’s going to wind down its wildly successful smartphone and tablet business in favor of embedded systems. VP Greg Delagi told investors that the switch would create a more “stable” and “long-term business” than the cutthroat battles it’s faced in mobile. While, currently the world’s third biggest semiconductor company, it’s concerned about losing ground to players like Qualcomm, Samsung and Apple — despite its latest OMAP CPUs powering tablets like the Nook HD and Kindle Fire. We’re scratching our heads as to why a major player would drop such a strong position like this, but perhaps they know something that we don’t.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Transportation, Mobile

Texas Instruments wants to ditch smartphones, switch focus to embedded processors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It doesn’t take much driving to notice that many in-car infotainment systems are custom-built and locked down tight. The Linux Foundation sees it differently and wants our cars to embrace the same notions of common roots and open code that we’d find in an Ubuntu box. Its newly-formed Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup is transforming Tizen into a reference platform that car designers can use for the center stack, or even the instrument cluster. The promise is to both optimize a Linux variant for cars and provide the same kind of years-long support that we’d expect for the drivetrain. Technology heavy-hitters like Intel, Harman, NVIDIA, Samsung and TI form the core of the group, although there are already automakers who’ve signaled their intentions: Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota are all part of the initial membership. We don’t know how soon we’ll be booting into Tizen on the morning commute, but we’d expect in-car systems to take a step forward — just as long as we don’t have to recompile our car’s OS kernel.

Continue reading Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen

Filed under: Transportation

Linux Foundation forms Automotive Grade Workgroup, aims to open-source your ride with Tizen originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Sep 2012 15:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This tiny sensor sticker can save your life – provided you’re also wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Bikes and motorcycles make it easier to commute and squeeze through traffic during rush hour. However, the chances of you getting hurt when you figure in an accident are pretty high since there’s nothing standing in the way of you and whatever it is that’s about to hit you.

You might already be using some sort of In Case of Emergency (ICE) system now, but one that you really should look into if you bike is the ICEdot. It’s basically comprised of the tiny yellow sensor (that’s the dot on the helmet above) and an app that’s installed on your phone.

The sensor is programmed to trigger your phone to call for your ICE contact once it detects that you’ve been in an accident. It also gauges how severely you’ve been hit. To prevent false alarms, the app generates an emergency countdown which you can manually abort if you just dropped your helmet or took a small fall or something.

The ICEdot will be available next year for around $200(USD). That’s not a bad price, considering that it might just save your life if you crash out on the trail somewhere.

[via Gizmodo]

When I was a kid, I was a cub scout and the only thing I remember that was cool from the experience was the magazine that came with the membership. The coolest thing about that magazine wasn’t the articles or puzzles. The cool part was the ads in the back for things like x-ray glasses and this awesome DIY hover vehicle powered by a vacuum cleaner motor. Sadly, my mother would never let me take her vacuum apart to build one, but if Aerofex is successful with its hover vehicle, I won’t need a vacuum.

The Aerofex hover vehicle looks similar to the hover bike we talked about last year. The main difference is rather than one geek working on the project, Aerofex is a company that hopes to commercialize the technology. One of the most interesting parts is that Aerofex has solved some of the instability issues plaguing similar earlier designs and says operation of the vehicle is so simple no pilot training is required.

Rather than having wheels like a normal motorcycle, the Aerofex vehicle has a pair of ducted rotors. The company has addressed stability issues in the design using a mechanical system with two control bars located at the rider’s knee level. Those control bars allow the vehicle to respond to the pilots leaning movements and natural sense of balance.

Control of the bike is handled mechanically with no electronics or artificial intelligence flight software required. That should make the bike more robust, cheaper to purchase and operate, and safer. Aerofex has crushed my dreams somewhat because the company doesn’t plan to develop and sell versions design for people to ride to start with. The company envisions the vehicle as a test platform for new unmanned drones.

[via Space.com]

Aerofex hover bike is the coolest vehicle ever is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.