We love technology, but there are times when the smart-pants science types help the bad guys even more than the good guys. The latest example is called the Electronic Key Impressioner (EKI), and it makes the job of a locksmith (or Memphis Raines) a lot easier than it has ever been before. The scanner is [...]
How many gears are enough? While it seems that six-speed automatic transmissions are just now becoming the de facto standard in most circles, Mercedes-Benz has been working with seven ratios for a while now and Lexus did its German rival one better by designing its own eight-speed. Not content to sit idle while other marques [...]
The first Audi Quattro unveiled in Geneva in 1980 – Click above for high-res image
Audi’s Quattro system is 30 this year, introduced on the Ur-Quattro at the 1980 Geneva Motor Show. To celebrate, Audi has a full year of activities planned, including a special exhibition at the Audi Forum Ingolstadt, a place at the Techno [...]
When Nissan’s new Juke compact crossover hits the streets later this year, it will be powered by the automaker’s first gasoline-turbocharged-direct-injected (GTDI) engine. Following in the same technical path blazed by the Volkswagen Group, General Motors, Ford and others, the new engine uses the high-pressure injection system to execute multiple injection pulses for cleaner and [...]
Volvo 2.0-liter GTDi engine – Click above for high-res image gallery
Direct injection and turbocharging go together like peanut butter and jelly. Abbot and Costello. Brett Favre and protracted retirement negotiations. And it’s easy to understand why. Few of us seem willing to give up performance in the name of fuel efficiency and the combined efforts [...]
BMW M Power app for iPhone – Click above for gallery of screen shots
The Apple iPhone has a built-in accelerometer that rather accurately detects even the slightest motions. Developers have been quick to create applications that capitalize on the iPhone’s hardware, including software that helps enthusiasts obtain g-force and 0-60 times from their phone. We’ve [...]
The Computer Electronics Show (CES) is underway, and the first navigation item to hit the wires is this: the Garmin Voice Studio.
The software enables Nuvi owners to record their own voice for basic navigation instructions. Garmin says the PC-based application will take about 20 minutes to complete, but when you’re done you can tell yourself [...]
Every carmaker has seen Ford’s success in promoting its Sync technology, and they want a piece of that pie – as do many suppliers. Sync is built on top of a Microsoft-developed software platform and after a couple of years of Ford exclusivity, Kia just announced a similar system called Uvo. At the Consumer Electronics [...]
Audi has announced that HD Radio Technology will be standard on its 2011 model year A6, A8 and Q7 vehicles.The 2011 Audi A4, A5 and Q5 models, sold at lower price points, will also offer the technology, but with the optional navigation radio.
“We are dedicated to providing our customers with the best entertainment options [...]
Last year we heard about a very interesting experimental engine that Ford was working on called the “Bobcat.” The engine in question is a 5.0-liter V8 that features turbocharging and two independent fuel injection systems. The primary system utilizes traditional port injection to deliver gasoline to the cylinders, while the secondary system injects E85 directly [...]
The 2010 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show is over, and so we’re looking back with some of the vehicular highlights from the floor, and the sidewalk, and the parking lot, too. The rides on hand ran the gamut from a late ’40s Chevy Truck that had been gutted and filled with speakers, to the [...]
You didn’t think Porsche would let Mercedes-Benz AMG (or much less, Dacia) monopolize the use of the color black, now did you? Of course not. So while everyone else is going for blinged-out shiny this and sparkling that, Porsche Design has re-released its cutting-edge P’9522 mobile phone all in black.
The feature set is the same [...]
Ford appears to be using any advantage it can, from any industry, to make better cars and make them more quickly. Last month we got word of the motion-capping tech The Blue Oval borrowed from video games and movies. This month the news is that it’s putting all of that mo-cap work into its immersive [...]
Omnivore [(om-nuh-vawr)]: An animal whose normal diet includes both plants and animals. Human beings and bears, for instance, are omnivores.
So says Dictionary.com, at least. Ask the engineering boffins from Lotus, though, and they’ll tell you than an Omnivore is an engine that can operate on just about any combination of gasoline or alcohol at equally [...]
Our sister site keeps up with the plainly-visible automated machines that are precursors to The Robot Apocalypse. But what about the microscopic machines that the T900s will be working with? At right in the picture above is a Top Fuel dragster. To the left is a nanodragster; the red guys in the foreground are the [...]
