In Your Car
RechargeIT, an investment programme run by Google.org, Google's philanthropic arm, has announced that it will be providing Aptera, makers of the 230mpg beautiful object of my car gadget lust you see pictured, with a $2.75 million infusion of cash to help them get the Aptera Typ-1 to buyers.
At a price tag of $30,000, the ridiculously huge fuel economy (refuel my car 10x less? Yes, please!), and looks that tickle the same spot Apple has been hitting for years, the Aptera Typ-1 is looking poised to provide welcome relief from soaring gas prices.
Google.org also provided another $2.75 million to ActaCell, makers of the battery technology that is going into some of the new hybrids and electrics coming out in the next few years.
Bravo, Google!
Google.org gives electric cars a push, with investments in Aptera and ActaCell [VentureBeat]
[via: Engadget]
If you live in one of those misguided states that seems to think outlawing handset usage and mandating headsets will actually improve driving (many studies are now concluding using a headset is basically just as bad - it's the divided attention that's the problem, not the physically holding a cellphone part), and you've gotten a ticket for your wanton cellphone usage on the road, Aliph is now extending a discount to ease your pain: a $20 discount on their Jawbone noise cancelling bluetooth headset.
Aliph's site is apparently hooked into the ticket database for each state that outlaws handset usage while driving and if you enter your ticket number, they'll automatically slap on a $20 discount to your order. A neat marketing gimmick, but even with the $20 discount, you're still laying out $110 for the luxury headset.
Me? I just refuse to answer the phone while I'm driving. No phone call is worth my life.
What about you folks? Do you use a headset while driving, or do you play it safe like I do?
Product Page [Jawbone]
[via: BBG]
I've come to the conclusion in that advertising people are screwed out of their minds. Completely. And I desperately want to be one. Just like Augusten Burroughs... wait. OK, maybe not just like him, but you get the idea.
Why do I bring this up? Because when I see campaigns like this and realize I had ideas identical to this in college and nearly failed my advertising courses because I was too crude (well, that's upper education in Kentucky for you).
This campaign is for the Prius. The "At Least He Drives A Prius" campaign is probably designed to counter the idea that people who drive Prius' are elitist bastards, but instead it makes you think they're all low-life's or schmucks. But whatever, it an awesome campaign and I want more!
Not that I'm in the market to buy a car, but I tell you what, knowing that I can drive my Prius up to the lake and dispose of bodies while playing "Al Capone" with my friends here in Chicago is a good enough sell to me!
Toyota Prius Campaign - Prostitute, Lover, Killer [Trendhunter]
[via: Geekologie]
You heard me. A frickin Knight Rider GPS system. Want to have K.I.T.T. navigate you areound town? You got it. Want to have him say your name when you start up the car? Double check. How about the sliding red voice bar that moves completely in sync with the voice over? Your damn right it in this baby! And that's not all:
The device’s integrated randomized greetings and 300 custom names will welcome you to your navigation experience. In addition to Mio’s hallmark high-quality navigation, the Knight Rider GPS features an active LED voice synthesizer display that moves in sync with the voice, just as it did on K.I.T.T.’s dash. The Knight Rider GPS can even be programmed to advise drivers of speed limit infractions for those inclined to apply too much turbo boost. The Knight Rider GPS features a 4.3-inch widescreen interface, which allows for more on-screen information and additional details about upcoming intersections. More than four million points of interest will assist drivers in locating gas stations, emergency assistance, hotels and restaurants — turning every trip on the road into an adventure. Like the original K.I.T.T., which had multiple modes including normal, auto and pursuit cruising, the Knight Rider GPS allows drivers to choose routing modes including the fastest or shortest route and highway preference. In a race against mobile assassins or your child’s soccer schedule, the Knight Rider GPS also features a SiRFInstantFixIII GPS receiver, which delivers faster GPS signal locks so drivers can navigate as soon as they are ready to drive.
I simply can't think of a more fitting full-on GPS system than this. I don't even have a car anymore, and I want this. Badly! Hell, I'd probably order one right now if I wasn't planning on lining the pockets of Apple this week!
Check out the Press Release for more info.
[via: Coolest Gadgets]
Just when you thought it was safe to make fun of Britain's floppy-eared, clown-nosed, chinless wonder, Prince Charles turns around and makes a stand-up move: deciding to fuel his Aston Martin DB5 with low-impact bioethanol.
And then, just when you realized it might no longer be safe to make fun of Britain's floppy-eared, clown-nosed, chinless wonder, Prince Charles decided to pour white wine into his automobile.
Once Aston Martin heard tell of the Prince's green ambitions, they hooked him up with a company called Green Fuels, which distiled 99.8% pure ethanol from 8,000 liters of "surplus" white wine from a nearby vintner. (It was not, you can safely bet, a woody but crisp Sancerre.)
Green Fuels then added some whey ferment from... um... from local cheesemakers. And a little gasoline.
At $8.30 a gallon, this solution remains princely. And weird. And eco-friendly.
I'm so torn: do I make fun of the Prince for fueling his convertible with wine and cheese, or do I applaud the prince for reducing his carbon footprint? I know, I'll do both - I'll have my cake wine and eat drive it, too.
Prince Charles Fuels His Car With Wine [UberReview]
If, while playing Portal, you thought to yourself: "Wow, I'd love to have a psychotic, homicidal, bipolar artificial intelligence unit guiding my every turn while I drive!" - you're in luck!
Someone who loves Portal almost as much as I do has come up with a voice pack for Garmin Nüvi GPS units that will have the soothing tones of GLaDOS telling you where to go:
The voice pack is free for download at the creator's site.
GLaGPS Genetic Lifeform and Global Positioning System [GLaGPS]
[via: BBG]
Here we see Chrysler selling us yesterday's announcement: a $500 option for an in-car WiFi hotspot called UConnect Web. Through Autonet Mobile, Chrysler is combining an EVDO modem with its cars to create a hundred-foot hotspot.
With a $29 monthly price for unlimited data use, UConnect isn't breaking the bank, although the 400-800Kbps EVDO network can become spotty in some areas, so this might be better for carpool than road trips. Also not entirely awesome is the WEP security - Ars Technica rightly asks how long it will take before we see a lawsuit sprung from tailgating hackers.
That said, if you want to invite the internet into your car and are planning on buying a Chrysler - this sounds like a swell idea.
[via Ars Technica]
Hybrid vehicles are so quiet they can mow down blind people in the streets, and will, unless cars are built to emit a minimum of decibel levels.
In an article that made me think, "Huh, why didn't I suppose that before? After all, I'm wicked fekkin' smaht" the National Federation of the Blind railed against those silently humming gas-savers as potential death traps for visually impaired individuals attempting to cross the street. Blind people, after all, rely on traffic sounds to determine safe passage.
This comes one month after courts determined that U.S. currency, as is, discriminates against the blind.
Verdict? We need to think hard during the manufacturing process.
Hybrid vehicles pose silent threat to the blind [The Boston Globe]
I'd been seeing BMW's Gina concept model make the blog rounds the last couple of days, but for the life of me I couldn't be interested. Maybe I'm too pragmatic but I just can't see the use of a cloth covered car in the real world...
...I'd have recurring nightmares of scissors meeting the skin of my car.
That was until I finally hit the play button on BMW's little promotional piece. If you can stomach the promotional PR BS, you'll see the visual hook that grabbed me: the ability for the car to literally blink:
Anthropomorphous cars? I can get behind that.
I'm still not keen on the whole cloth skin part, but at least the results are cool.
Crave called Brando's new Car Time Projector "ultimate uselessness." I call it a deathtrap waiting to happen.
Everybody knows cars comes standard with—gasp!—dashboard clocks. But that's not good enough for the geniuses at Brando. No, they want a clunky projector to zap the date and time onto your windshield. So while you're mesmerized by the tick-tick-ticking of the colon (not that colon; the one separating hours from minutes, perv), you're unwittingly driving through school zones, over medians and into nursing home caravans.
Check out the product page. Check out how proud they are this piece of shit has an on/off switch. Hilarious.
Anyway, the thing retails for $32, so if you have absolutely nothing to do with that inheritance money you pilfered from your dead aunt, go ahead.
[via: Crave]
I've been playing Grand Theft Auto IV pretty-much non-stop since its release, taking breaks only to go to work, shower and spend some sexy alone time in my room. And while I haven't felt the urge to arm myself to the teeth and pop innocents in the streets of Boston, my perception of the world around me has shifted ever so slightly.
So it was with great surprise that I stumbled upon this Wired article detailing Susan Arendt's altered reality based on her exposure to the game.
I must admit, I'm a bit of a leadfoot by nature, but the flow of traffic on a highway is usually rapid enough to keep me content. That day, however, despite the reasonable pace being set by the cars around me, I quickly grew impatient with my perceived lack of progress. I looked for holes in the traffic that I could use to my advantage to make faster progress. As I approached a stop light at an empty intersection, the thought flashed through my mind that I should just drive right on through it. I didn't, of course, but the thought was there, just the same.
Insert female driver joke here.
Here's the thing: I don't drive. But after jacking hundreds of cars on the streets of Liberty City, I've felt the salivating desire to do so in Boston. Just yesterday I was walking back from the grocery store when a motorcycle cruised slowly by. Motorcycles in GTA are by far my favorite vehicle, and the hardest for me to find precisely when I want one. Seeing this Reality Bike I immediately thought, "Man, I gotta jack that shit, go off some killer jumps."
Of course I didn't (I am, after all, writing this from a computer outside of a prison) but, as Susan points on, the urge ... it's there. Am I crazy? Or have you had warped reality sensations like this, too? Can technology and video games truly alter your brain chemistry? Is this what those anti-violence advocates keep harping about?
[via Wired]
Remember that merger offer between Sirius and XM, like, awhile ago? Yeah, I didn't either until I saw this story, but in any case, it seems that the Department Of Justice is completely cool with the two former rivals joining teams. It's not the final step though, as the FCC still has to give its thumbs up before the two can officially become one, but if the DOJ has already conceded, it seems likely that the FCC will give the green light as well.
Some groups are still worried about price gouging once the services are officially merged, as they are the only two entities in the satellite radio market, which should be a legitimate concern. I don't agree with that concern though, mainly because the market penetration of satellite radio is still pretty small. They have to concern themselves more with making their services compatible first and foremost, then finding ways of getting new customers. Because of that, I don't think rising subscription costs should be a major concern, not while people can still listen to free over-the-air radio (regardless of whether or not those channels suck or not, they are free).
Personally, I've avoided the satellite world because it's just not as easy as my radio or MP3 player to use. For the longest time, you had one transmitter that you could basically only use in the car, and I need to be able to transfer it to my house or listen on the go. That may have changed recently, but I've never really looked back. Here's to hoping for innovation in the satellite radio world with this merger though, as it is a great idea, and anything that is able to skirt FCC decency regulations does in fact make me a happy boy.
Sirius, XM radio merger passes DOJ hurdle, FCC next [Ars Technica]
And girls who like girls who like fembots!
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