Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve seen the plug-in Prius (a few times, actually), but what we hadn’t seen was how Toyota planned to get the juice from the grid to its car until now. Turns out, the automaker plans to sell home battery chargers starting in 2012 so that buyers of PHEV Prii can fully take advantage of that plug in the front fender. The chargers come in two flavors: one for the garage and one for the exterior of your home, and will cost upwards of ¥200,000 ($2411) fully installed, making it quite a bit more than GM’s $2000 Voltec charging station. The good news for us all is that Toyota’s charger uses the same SAE J1772 plug found in the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, so we’re hopefully just weeks away from the first-ever EV charger price wars. Popcorn grabbing seems a must given the circumstances.

Toyota to start selling home battery chargers in 2012, sate the electrical appetites of the Prii originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Feb 2011 05:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Within a few years, your car may become a hub of interconnected devices, media and online services.

And you thought it was for getting you around town.

I spent a little time recently in a tricked-out 2009 Corvette whose dashboard included some proof-of-concept technology to integrate the car with a smartphone, a tablet and the internet.

The console was created by QNX, the company that makes the operating system underlying GM’s OnStar systems, Toyota’s upcoming Entune and other vehicles. It’s similar to these systems, except it extends them by adding even more integration with the consumer devices you’re carrying.

In this car, the dashboard can interact with other devices in your car, such as your iPhone, a BlackBerry or RIM’s upcoming tablet — the BlackBerry PlayBook. It can play media from all of the above, or connect to the internet (by 3G) to stream music from Pandora.

Because QNX also makes the operating system underlying the PlayBook, there’s also a possibility that developers can create software for your car as easily as they can for the tablet, using HTML5, Java and other tools familiar to app developers.

I take a look in this video at some of the ways cars will soon gain even more sophisticated connectivity.

Toyota got mostly good news this week when the Department of Transportation concluded that ill-designed floor mats but not electronic throttles were to blame for sudden-and-unintended acceleration issues in Toyotas and Lexuses. That and driver error. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood chose to say “pedal misapplication” instead of “driver error,” leaving the impression that drivers needn’t shoulder any of the blame. All this may leave Toyota with the same oh-what-a-lousy-feeling as former Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan when he was indicted in a widely publicized fraud case then acquitted on all charges in court. Donovan asked, “Which office do I go to get my reputation back?”

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

This week opened with the exciting news that Norway and Jordan signed an agreement create a flourishing solar oasis in the scorching Sahara Desert. India also made waves as they announced the first tidal plant in Asia, and we took a look at a novel wind power tech that eschews noisy turbines for piezoelectric pads. We also rounded up our favorite wind-powered gadgets that don’t blow, and you won’t believe the latest extreme sport: wind turbine base jumping!

In other news, green transportation took to the skies as we showcased a futuristic airship that generates its own fuel and a hydrogen-powered UAV that can stay aloft for up to a week. Meanwhile, back on earth we heard several major auto manufactures make exciting announcements as Chevrolet unveiled tech that could double the Volt’s battery life and Toyota pulled back the curtain on an upgraded electric motor that requires less rare earth metals.

This week we also shined a light on the world of energy-efficient illumination with our Green Lighting 101 guide, and we were blinded by the brilliance of Mischer Traxler’s repurposed Relumine desk lamps. Finally, from the realm of wearable tech we brought you the solar-powered Androcell backpack that backs up your data, and we tested a handy alphabet flash card app for tech-savvy tots.

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: self-sustaining airships, turbine base jumpers, and the Sahara’s solar oasis originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What’s going to spin the tires in your car of the future? Will it even have tires? Right now it looks like either hydrogen fuel cells or pure EVs will be dominating the streets in a few decades, and thankfully they share enough technology for us to think they can peacefully co-exist — just like Apple and Microsoft fanboys and girls have been known to host really great parties together where they engage in long, respectful discussions regarding their differing opinions. However, while EVs are already well on their way, for fuel cells to take off we’re going to need more hydrogen filling stations and more cooperation between auto manufacturers. That’s happening now in Japan, with 13 companies — Toyota, Nissan, and Honda along with a number of gas and utilities companies — joining forces to enable a “smooth domestic launch” of fuel cell vehicles as soon as 2015. They hope to create about 100 hydrogen stations across the country, work to form a broader hydrogen supply network, and also educate people about FCVs in general. We’ll give them a head start by letting you know that stands for “Fuel Cell Vehicle,” though they’re also often called FCEVs, or “Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles.” Bam! Two items off the to-do list.

Continue reading 13 Japanese companies join to further fuel cell adoption, also plan to ride bikes together

13 Japanese companies join to further fuel cell adoption, also plan to ride bikes together originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Jan 2011 14:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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