Hasta La Gadget!

We recently were lucky enough to meet the makers of the Meguru, an electric car made with traditional Japanese crafts and techniques.

Resembling a kind of rickshaw eco car, the Meguru is comfy and looks pretty stylish, in a funky antique sort of way. The main body is iron coated with urushi (lacquer), the flooring made from real bamboo and, most noticeably, the “door” is a fan-shaped washi (Japanese paper).

Developed jointly by Yodogawa Group and Kinki Knives Industries Corporation in Osaka, the makers hope that Meguru will become a hit in traditional towns like Kyoto and Nara. They plan eventually to offer the light vehicle at a cost of around a million yen (c.$10,000).

Its batteries can be powered by ordinary household electrics and a two-hour charge lets you drive non-stop for forty kilometers (about 25 miles). Fairly leisurely in pace, Meguru can still pick up some speed, apparently up to 40 km/h (25mph). The car is actually already registered as a road vehicle and can be driven in public. so keep your eyes peeled!.

On the right is a picture of me enjoying the cushioned seating with the very friendly Kiyonobu Agata-san, one of the people behind the project.

A few years ago a Japanese university developed the BamGoo, a small EV made of bamboo. Could this be the start of a new Back to Japan eco car trend?

Though Microsoft, RIM and possibly Google are already vying to be the center of the automotive infotainment push, a certain Finnish phone manufacturer says it wants to take charge — in what seems to be the latest phase of its Terminal Mode initiative, Nokia’s tapped infotainment provider Harman to “standardize” the interface between phone and car. Like Harman’s last in-dash venture, a touchscreen and physical controls will be the focus, while your handset (rather than an Intel Atom) does the heavy lifting. Connected via Bluetooth or USB, your Nokia will play music, deliver Ovi Maps, respond to voice control and more, with the entire phone display duplicated onto the car’s larger touchscreen for easy access and a set of auto-specific apps planned for Nokia’s Ovi Store. It all sounds pretty swell, but it’s still not clear how the companies intend to standardize anything beyond their balance sheets; we’re not sure how much Nokia will appreciate you connecting a Droid to their Ovi-powered car. PR after the break.

Update: It appears that this is part of Nokia’s Terminal Mode initiative, which — as some have noted in comments — we’ve actually told you about before. Whoops!

Continue reading Nokia partners with Harman to ‘standardize’ cellular infotainment

Nokia partners with Harman to ‘standardize’ cellular infotainment originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 May 2010 22:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We think you’re going to be hearing a lot about this one over the next few days… or weeks. A team of researchers at the University of Washington and the University of California San Diego have determined that, with physical access to your car’s ECU, a hacker could “adversarially control a wide range of automotive functions and completely ignore driver input — including disabling the brakes, selectively braking individual wheels on demand, stopping the engine, and so on.” For example, the team was able to connect a computer to a car’s ODB-II port, access that computer wirelessly, and then disable the brakes in the first car while driving down the road in a separate vehicle. The conclusion is that these in-car systems have few if any safeguards in place and, with physical access, nearly anything is possible. The solution, of course, is to prevent physical access. So, if you see a hacker hanging around in your car looking all shady, or a laptop computer sitting in the footwell that totally wasn’t there before, well, you know who to call.

Continue reading Hackers can remotely disable your car’s brakes, create sensationalist headlines

Hackers can remotely disable your car’s brakes, create sensationalist headlines originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 May 2010 09:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought the Chevy Volt’s OnStar apps were impressive? You may not have to buy a Volt to get them. General Motors says it would like to extend such infotainment beyond its flagship plug-in hybrid, and has partnered with a undisclosed tech firm to help make it happen. Speaking to CNN Money, OnStar president Chris Pruess teases that we could see some of Volt’s features — remote locking, charging and perhaps air conditioning options — on other OnStar automobiles, or even other ventures (the exec says they’re looking “beyond automotive”) the auto manufacturer might decide on. The big question, of course, is whether this mysterious partner might restrict smartphone functionality to a particular handset or carrier — after all, when we think of cell phone manufacturers who’ve both worked with GM and recently acquired automotive assets, one in particular comes to mind.

[Thanks, Jub]

General Motors partners with mystery organization to bolster OnStar technology originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 May 2010 10:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there’s one thing business types love more than their BlackBerry, it’s their BMW — or so we’re told. It makes all sorts of sense, therefore, that the two companies would partner up to help the things they sell communicate with each other more effortlessly. Using Bluetooth MAP (Message Access Profile), BlackBerry devices can now beam emails and contacts over to BMW’s iDrive dash system, where the driver can listen to his messages via a text-to-speech option or make calls using the car’s speakerphone. The first supported handset is the newly minted Pearl 3G, and we’re told this functionality will come as an integrated part of BlackBerry 6. To see how it works on a 335is, click past the break for the video.

[Thanks, Horatiu]

Continue reading RIM converts BMW’s iDrive into ‘a remote control for your BlackBerry’ (video)

RIM converts BMW’s iDrive into ‘a remote control for your BlackBerry’ (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 May 2010 04:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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