You want to play music from your iPhone when you’re in the car. You want to control everything from the in-dash head unit. Rarely do these two pieces of hardware work together in harmony, even if we wish that was the future of all car stereo systems everywhere. Pioneer’s AppRadio might just change that. More »
The Noise Snare is just that — a trap to catch drivers of excessively noisy cars and motorbikes and prove to the world (or maybe just the cops) that they spend their travel time ripping a ragged hole in the peace of other city dwellers.
The trap is simple. A microphone detects loud vehicles and starts a camera which records both video and stereo sound. The driver and his license plate can be read from the footage, and the whole lot used as evidence. The invention, by SNR Systems, works equally well at night and takes pressure off traffic cops, who might not have time to enforce noise laws as they’re too busy harassing cyclists.
I love it, although for me it would be rather pointless. I live in an almost car free part of the old town, where the narrow streets make anything bigger than a bike impractical. The downside of this is that you live stacked up with your neighbors with mere feet between your open windows. What I need is a detector for the kids torturing their baby brother in the flat below, or the old smoker who spends a half hour every morning trying to cough a slimy tar-ball from the depths of his throat.
Noise Snare [Street Noise Reduction Systems via The Giz]
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Man, social networks have taken on a loose definition as of late, haven’t they? Toyota just announced plans to launch one for its customers, and while our initial reaction was an eye-roll and sighs of “what the world needs now,” the truth is that it’s really just a system that uses Twitter and Facebook to let you know when something’s amiss. Dubbed Toyota Friend (and built on Salesforce.com’s private Chatter network), the service will dish up battery power warnings to electric vehicle owners, along with maintenance tips — advice that can pop up on phones, tablets, and “other advanced mobile devices.” In addition to their friendly neighborhood car dealerships, folks can befriend other cars and the friends and family who own them, though it’s unclear from the press release below why you’d care. (Okay, we suppose if we had a teenage driver we might want to know if they were about to break curfew.) If that all sounds like bunk, you probably won’t get a test drive soon, anyway — the service is slated to launch in 2012, in Japan, and, initially, for electric and hybrid vehicle owners only.
Continue reading Toyota to launch social network for people who like to befriend car dealerships
Toyota to launch social network for people who like to befriend car dealerships originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 14:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
ZMP RoboCar ditches driver, creates own map (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 May 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Cars with built-in video cameras. Today’s kids just don’t know how lucky they are
When I was a kid, I used to wonder just what the drivers of toy cars might see. Just before I sent my Hot Wheels (or the 1970s UK equivalent) car plunging down its long, long ramp for a date with terminal velocity, extreme G-force and the inevitable bone-snapping impact, I considered what the experience might be like from inside the car.
If I had had the Hot Wheels Video Racers kit, I may have stopped torturing the tiny drivers immediately, because it turns out to be terrifying. The video kit, first peeked at CES this year and soon to be on store shelves, puts a tiny video camera into the driver’s seat. This shoots at 30fps for up to 12 minutes, and you can play back the footage on an LCD screen on the bottom of the car itself.
The car hooks up to a computer via USB and you then drag-and-drop the clips into Mattel’s own Hot Wheels video editor, which lets you chop up video and add transitions, sound and music and special effects.
This is more like a car-shaped video camera than a video camera in a toy car. Which brings us to the accessories. You have a tough camera, and you have a kid. What could be better than combining them with straps, clips, sticky strips and mounting brackets so the kid can put the camera on his bike helmet, skateboard, cat or any other moving object?
The kit, which comes with car, case, USB cable and various mounting devices, will cost $60. You’ll need to buy Hot Wheels tracks separately, or just get on your bike, go outside and start shooting. Available soon.
Hot Wheels Video Racer Video Camera Car [Toys’r’Us. Thanks, Matt!]
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Porsche has already tricked out its racing cars with kinetic energy recovery systems, and now it looks like its more mainstream 911 is getting the hybrid transmission treatment, too. Citing anonymous sources, our sister site Autoblog reports that the entire range of the next-gen coupe is going to use these systems, which don’t store energy in a battery, but instead capture kinetic energy during deceleration using a flywheel mechanism. Even without that sleuthing, a series of spy shots (including that one up there) reveal that the auto maker has expanded the wheelbase length by just enough so that it can accommodate a KERS between the gearbox and the engine. What does this mean for the 911? Well, these same sources say the entry-level Carrera is on track to surpass its rated 4.7-second 0 to 60 time and that it will generally be lighter, faster, more energy-efficient, and go farther on a gallon. Can’t afford a low-end Porsche? Well, you can still ogle the eye candy at the source link.
Next-gen Porsche 911 getting hybrid transmission system? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 20:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn announced at a NYC event last night that the company’s HD Traffic service, previously only included with the Go 2535 M Live, would be available on all U.S. Live models, including the Go 740 Live and XL 340 Live. Traffic updates will be one component of the subscription-based Live, which will also see a 50 percent price drop, to $60 per year. This is all part of TomTom’s grand Traffic Manifesto, which aims to cut traffic by five percent overall. Achieving this rather lofty goal in the U.S. would require 10 percent of the country’s drivers to be using Live, which transmits real-time traffic data using a dedicated AT&T SIM. The company says drivers using the service themselves can expect to see travel times reduced by up to 15 percent. Our commute often involves a pajama-clad hike from the bed to the desk, so if you’re currently a subscriber who drives to work, let us know if Traffic is making a dent in your travels.
TomTom sends HD Traffic update to all Live models, extends Traffic Manifesto to US (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 May 2011 12:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Google has been working long and hard on self-driving cars. You may remember late last year when Google’s fleet of self-driving vehicles were caught on the road. Google initially said the technology was at least eight years away from prime time. Even if that’s still true, it hasn’t stopped Google from quietly lobbying the Nevada […]
Continue reading Continental readies stereo camera system for ‘seeing’ cars
Continental readies stereo camera system for ‘seeing’ cars originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 12:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Formula 1, the pinnacle of gas-powered racing, is more often at odds with the eco-conscious electric car movement than in tune with it, but here’s an exception to that rule. The FIA, the sport’s governing body, announced back in December of last year a move to a hybrid four-cylinder turbocharged engine, which is still on track to be introduced in the 2013 season, and Williams boss Adam Parr has now enlightened us on some of the benefits of the new power setup. Noting that future cars’ kinetic energy recovery system will be four times as powerful as on current models, Parr says enough electric juice will be available to power each one-seater through its journey into and out of the pit lane. That would mean that at least for the tame, speed-restricted portions of a race, the F1 gas guzzlers you know and love will be humming along in almost perfect silence while using good old electricity. Unfortunately, it’s exactly that lack of vroom vroom that old timers like Bernie Ecclestone and Ferrari chief Luca di Montezemolo are afraid of, describing the new hybrid stuff as sounding “terrible” and insisting on the sport sticking to its V8 roots. Then again, as Parr says, if you don’t move with the times, the times leave you behind.
Formula 1 cars set to go all electric in the pit lane from 2013 onwards, racing purists outraged already originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Apr 2011 07:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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