Hasta La Gadget!

When one talks about Volvo, great vehicle design is not the first thing that pops into one’s mind, as most of the time, as safety seems to be the major keyword instead. This iconic Swedish automaker has had its fair share of safety features introduced in the past, with the most recent one being an inflatable child seat concept that will hopefully see action in production vehicles soon. This time around, Volvo looks to enhance the in-car experience by signing a multi-year agreement with AT&T for the mobile carrier to deliver in-car connectivity services.

This agreement would see AT&T’s single SIM platform be the brains behind Volvo’s in-car solution that is known as Sensus Connect, where it will kick off with model year 2015 vehicles that are sold in the US and Canada. Sensus Connect happens to be an infotainment platform that will rely on technology from Ericsson.

Operating on AT&T’s HSPA+ network, it might seem to be a surprise to some considering how many people are making the jump towards LTE connectivity in the US, but I guess Volvo is more concerned with ensuring that everyone gets adequate coverage just about everywhere, instead of concentrating on the more modern areas of the country. It remains to be seen as to how much Volvo will charge customers for connectivity, so go figure.

Volvo Gets AT&T To Provide HSPA+ In-Car Connectivity , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Transportation, AT&T, volvo,

When the name Volvo is bandied about, many of us would automatically think of safety as one of its main draws, although over the years, design of Volvo vehicles have become more and more sleek to keep up with the Joneses – which ain’t a bad thing at all, really. Well, a special concept was developed by Volvo at their Volvo Concept center in Los Angeles, where it comes in the form of an inflatable child safety seat that can even fit within a small bag each time it is deflated for easy portability.

Standard issue child car seats tend to be bulky in nature, difficult to move around and is a pain to mount, but these tend to be staples in a vehicle for parents due to their concern of safety for their little one. Why not make life easier for the parents (and also other folks who are waiting for your parking lot while you struggle with your child safety seat) by delivering a lightweight and inflatable rearward-faced child seat concept?

Relying on technology developed in military research, this concept seat is touted to be the safest in the market today, even when measured against conventional child safety seats. The biggest advantage? The ability to pack and carry it in a jiffy, considering how it takes just 40 seconds to inflate and deflate thanks to the integrated electric pump. There is no word as to when a consumer version will be released, but this is where sooner is better than later.

Volvo Inflatable Child Seat Concept , original content from Ubergizmo, Filed in Transportation, volvo,

That may look like an ordinary Volvo S60, but it’s far from it. Inside that handsome but inoffensive Swedish body is the same technology that helped make Formula One cars so fast in the last few years — the hybrid Kinetic Energy Recovery System . That’s good news if you like efficiency and speed.

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When CarPlay was announced, the general idea was that it would be making its way into newer car models, meaning that for the most part, older car models would not be getting the feature. Ferrari is one the car manufacturers that Apple has partnered up with and for a company that creates such beautiful, fast, and expensive sports cars, it seems that they have no intentions of bringing the technology to their older models.

One would think that the price that they are paying for a Ferrari that the company would at least look after its customers by offering to retrofit older models with CarPlay, right? According to a Ferrari representative, “The new system CarPlay is available only on new range cars and cannot be installed on older ones.” (more…)

CarPlay Support For Older Models Unlikely For Ferrari And Volvo original content from Ubergizmo.

Apple is showing off CarPlay at the Geneva Auto Show this week with its first crop of car makers, and so far we’ve seen it in action in Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but a new video gives an extended look at how it works with Volvo cars. The demo features an Apple rep taking it through real-world usage scenarios including finding destinations in Maps and having text-based… Read More