Car Tech
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While the most common way of testing one’s sobriety is blowing into a breathalyzer machine, it’s far from the only way. At roadside checkpoints, one thing police often look at is called horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN). HGN can be caused by several factors, but alcohol consumption is prime among them. When drunk, our eyes don’t want to move smoothly, and this can be easily observed by a sober policeman with a penlight. It can also be observed by the camera of an iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S, and HGN is exactly what’s measured by the BreathalEyes app. As Gizmag points out, the...
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Quantum Levitation Racing: Wipeout Videogame Made Real
Anyone under the age of about 30 who grew up in the "PlayStation Generation" will have heard of the videogame Wipeout. For anyone who hasn't, it's a game in which you pilot a futuristic anti-gravity racing ship around utopian race circuits. The original game was set in 2052, which back in 1997...
Antony Ingram -
BMW i3 Smartphone App Previews The Future
As gearheads get uneasy over increasing numbers of electric and hybrid vehicles hitting the streets, BMW has been working hard on developing two of the most exciting vehicles of any kind we'll see in the next few years. Those cars are the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sports car, and the BMW i3 electric...
Antony Ingram -
Mercedes E Superlight: Carbon Fiber, Fuel Cell Exec For 2015
It's difficult to discuss the weight of modern cars without referring to the old Colin Chapman adage, "add lightness". Still, the old Lotus chap had a point--by making a car lightweight, you improve it in every dynamic area, and efficiency increases too. Automakers are once more starting to take...
Antony Ingram -
2013 Ford Fusion To Offer Lane Keeping System
Ford will launch an available Lane Keeping System, usually reserved for luxury cars, on its new 2013 Fusion sedan.
Kurt Ernst -
Hyundai Lets You Race The Veloster In Times Square… Virtually: Video
As the clock strikes midnight on December 31st, New York City residents will be waiting to see the famous Times Square Ball drop. However, this year, a brand new motor racing series will make its debut in the city. Well, a virtual one at least. Hyundai has launched an interactive racing game called...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
We'll likely look back on 2011 as the year that the app truly entered our automobiles, becoming integrated with our Bluetooth-connected smartphones and, in some cases, fully integrated with vehicle infotainment systems.
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Japanese Security Car Seat Knows One Backside From Another
Car thieves of the future had better hope they have exactly the same build as you, otherwise they won't be getting very far. It's already difficult enough to steal modern cars, but according to TechCrunch (via Digital Trends), Japanese engineers have been working on a car seat that won't let anyone...
Antony Ingram -
Europe's Big Brother Insurers Trialing Black Boxes
For years, women in Europe have been paying less for car insurance than their male counterparts. Statistically, the claims that women make on their insurance are significantly less expensive, hence the lower rates. However, December 2012 brings a European ban on assessing rates based on gender...
Antony Ingram -
Good Headlights: The Most Important Technology On Your Car?
If you live in the Northern hemisphere, as the majority of the world's population does, today is the shortest day of the year. For those of us at relatively high latitudes, that means an even shorter period of daylight hours, and like much of winter, a commute both to and from work in the dark...
Antony Ingram -
In-Car Video Chat And 4G Streaming From OnStar
OnStar will show its latest 4G tech at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in January.
Chris Weiss -
All Car Tech Is Now Part Of Motor Authority
If you're a fan of the intersection of high-tech electronics and cars--and who among us isn't?--today is a happy day: our sister site All Car Tech has become part of Motor Authority. What does this mean for you, the reader? More news and analysis of the latest, coolest in-car tech, car-themed video...
Nelson Ireson -
Let's be honest: Bluetooth isn't the most beloved product on the market. As communications technologies go, it's a huge battery hog, it's notoriously buggy, any many folks would rather listen to radio static and miss calls than try to pair their phone with an in-dash system. However, a new version of Bluetooth recently arrived on the scene, and it's hoping to change the way we think about wireless communications. It's called "Bluetooth Low Energy", and a company called FMC Smart is leveraging it to make finding your parked car a little easier. In a nutshell, FMC Smart has developed an app for...
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Grand Theft Auto 3: 10 Year Anniversary Edition: Full Review
Ten years might as well be ten aeons in the game industry, such is the pace with which technology progresses. It takes a rare title to transcend the huge developments in graphics, game engines and hardware that a decade brings. We're pleased to confirm to you that Grand Theft Auto III, 10 Year...
Antony Ingram -
Top Ten Concept Cars Of 2011
2011 has been a great year for concept cars, with everything from eco vehicles to supercars, to... eco supercars. There's definitely been some imaginative shapes appearing on the motor show stands, so here are some of our favorites - in no particular order... Toyota Fun-Vii The writing is on the...
Antony Ingram -
Google Awarded U.S. Patent For Driverless Car Tech
The news that Google has been working on a driverless car, or autonomous vehicle, probably won't come as a shock. We've followed Google's progress closely, but now the BBC has revealed that Google has been awarded a U.S. patent for the technology. Specifically, the patent refers to the technology...
Antony Ingram -
2013 Mazda CX-5: The Challenge Of Designing A New Platform
Being a carmaker is, in theory, quite easy. You build cars, sell as many of them as possible and ensure your outgoings are as low as possible. One of those outgoings is research and development, which can cost hundreds of millions of dollars, so when a manufacturer develops a new platform, they had...
Antony Ingram -
Gran Turismo 5 Christmas Downloads Landing December 20th
We've not stopped enjoying the spoils of the last Gran Turismo 5 downloadable content yet, but the team at Polyphony Digital have prepared another one, just in time for Christmas. The Gran Turismo Blog (via GTPlanet) has revealed full details of the update 2.02, due December 20th. The best news is...
Antony Ingram -
If you're the kind of person who has too little time to test drive cars for real before you buy them, then Ford's new augmented reality app for the 2013 Ford Fusion could be just the thing you need. Of course, it won't let you actually test drive the car, that'd be silly (though we aren't ruling it out, one day...). Instead, it lets customers involve themselves in Ford's reveal of the Fusion, using virtual images of the car. Users have to take a photo of a Ford logo using their smartphone's camera, and then they'll be able to drive the new Fusion through a series of "worlds" that gradually...
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BMW Now Developing Production Laser Headlight Tech
"Farewell, LED lights, it was nice knowing you. We've enjoyed a good few years together, but now something better has come along and swept us off our feet." So might go the "breakup speech" with LED lights, now that BMW has announced it's working on a production version of the laser headlights we...
Antony Ingram -
Ford Employees First To Get Benefits Of New MyFord Touch
MyFord Touch hasn't been the success story that Ford perhaps hoped it would. In fact, criticisms levelled at the system's poor voice command and counter-intuitive controls were largely responsible for Ford's poor showing in J.D. Power's recent Initial Quality Study. Ford owners weren't so much...
Antony Ingram -
After Two Years, Apple Pulls Fake Driver's License App
If you heard the sound of a thousand distant screams yesterday, it wasn't an ebbing in The Force, it was the anguished moans of college freshmen, learning that Apple had pulled DriversEd.com's free "Driver's License" app from the company's App Store. In an instant, fake IDs became minimally more...
Richard Read -
Audi Connect Gets Internet Radio And Google Street View
We recently brought you news that Audi would be fitting its cars with a new broadband Internet connection based on the ultra-fast LTE mobile connectivity standard as the latest initiative in the automaker's 'Audi Connect’ vehicle networking strategy. Audi's system also has the ability to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Nissan And Microsoft Partner For Cloud Computing Tech
An announcement between Microsoft and Nissan to develop a dealer management system further proves one thing we've learned this year: connectivity is becoming increasingly important in the auto industry. The two companies announced a "strategic relationship" on Monday, says the Financial Times (sub...
Antony Ingram