Category: Car Tech

We know what you're thinking: "It's been way too long since I've heard a good GPS fail story." This latest tale is actually an incredible double fail where poor judgment only served to make the failure of the GPS system even worse. A group of South Korean tourists found themselves stuck in a gully in the Australian wilderness after following their GPS's direction off-road. The group can be ...

To make the roads safer for all, electric cars might soon be equipped with unique sounds that would warn pedestrians of their presence. According to the Daily Mail, automotive regulators in Europe, the U.S. and Japan might require manufacturers to incorporate sounds -- from the roar of a muscle car engine to the buzz of a 'Star Wars' spacecraft -- into electric cars. This news comes on the heels ...

In Austria, a telephone booth might soon be used for more than making a phone call. According to an AFP report hosted on Physorg, Telekom Austria proposed earlier this week that the country's phone booths be converted into charging stations for electric cars and other vehicles. The first car-charging phone booth was unveiled in front of Telekom Austria's headquarters earlier this week. By the end ...

A British man has patched together a Frankenstein car that's just as green as the monster itself. According to The Daily Mail, Buzz Knapp-Fisher's 'Womble Truck,' named after a kid's TV show about recycling, is made from the parts of 21 different vehicles, and runs entirely on french fry fat and vegetable oil. Knapp-Fisher, a sculptor and environmentalist, purchased the original wrecked frame for ...

According to an Associated Press report on NPR, German researchers have created a hands-free driving technology that allows drivers to steer a vehicle with their eyes. It's called eyeDriver, and yes, we're scared to death that this technology might one day hit city streets. Raul Rojas and his team from Berlin's Free University recently demonstrated the vehicle, dubbed the 'Spirit of Berlin,' ...

Two brothers have discovered a way to get close-up photos of African wildlife without risking life or limb. According to Wired, Will and Matthew Burrard-Lucas rigged a Canon EOS 400D camera to a remote-control buggy, and cruised it around Tanzania. The boys have even chronicled the adventure, which saw its share of excitement, on their blog. Will and Matthew took a basic four-wheeled robotic ...

How does a Russian get around the frozen countryside during sub-zero winters? He builds an awesome snowmobile that looks like something out of 'Mad Max.' According to the English Russia website, an unnamed retiree built the pictured snowmobile, which is powered by an old Yamaha motorcycle engine and constructed from pieces of scrap metal. The gearshift is fashioned from a wooden Coke bottle ...

Later this month, Sony will release a new Walkman speaker system that fits into a car's cup holder and looks a lot like a coffee thermos. According to Engadget, the RDP-NWV500 is fitted with two-way speakers that will blast 16 watts of Walkman power at 360 degrees inside your car. The device plugs right into your car's cigarette lighter, instead of using an internal battery. There are two ways to ...

Believe it or not, there are people out there who really enjoy dressing up their cars. And we don't mean painting flames on them, either. There is a whole subculture of enthusiasts who like nothing more than mounting blue lights on the undercarriage of, and putting $30,000 spinning rims on their $12,000 Nissan. Well, this crew of largely questionable drivers (with even more questionable taste) ...

In many parts of the country, spring has officially sprung. If you're planning on going outside and playing some golf in this fine weather, you might want to drool over this luxury cart. According to DVICE, Monaco's Garia Soleil de Minuit golf cart is the most expensive vehicle to ever ride the links. Priced at about $52,000, the cart comes with a built-in fridge, a custom paint job, aluminum ...

Motorcycle enthusiast Colin Furze, who recently became known for attaching a flamethrower onto the back of his scooter, was arrested in England last week. According to the Telegraph, Lincolnshire police noticed the publicity surrounding Furze's creation -- reminiscent of something from a James Bond film -- and arrested him for suspicion of possessing an object converted into a firearm. It's an ...

After failing in its first attempt to popularize two-wheeled transportation in large urban areas, Segway has partnered with General Motors (GM) to introduce a new concept car. According to Wired, the Electric Networked Vehicles, or EN-Vs, will be revealed to the public at the World Expo 2010 this May in Shanghai. The two-wheeled cars have a carbon-fiber shell and can run at about 25 mph, on a ...

An Ohio man is using his cell phone's GPS to fight a speeding ticket that he received back in March of 2009. According to CNET News, Jason Barnes was fined $35, and had two points deducted from his license for allegedly driving 84 mph on a 65-mph stretch of Interstate 75. Barnes has testified that his employer used GPS-tracking to detect employee speed violations, and he claims that his Verizon ...

Share When Omar Ramos-Lopez was laid off from his job at Texas Auto Center last month, he decided to send his former employer a message... about 100 times. It turns out that Ramos-Lopez not only had an intimate knowledge of cars, but knew his way around computers, as well -- and, in particular, around his company's online vehicle-immobilization system. With the help of a former colleague's ...

Augmented reality has primarily been used to locate nearby restaurants, insert 3-D baddies into video games, and offer glorified advertisements. General Motors, however, is trying to put the technology to good use, and integrate it into the windshields of future automobiles. Under the generic title "enhanced vision system," the prototype uses sensors, GPS, and video cameras to overlay useful ...