Steve Jobs never got around to building the iCar, but Apple has worked with Volkswagen on its new iBeetle. The German carmaker teamed up with Apple to design what it calls a "genuine integrative interface" for the smartphone, pairing them using the peculiarly named smartphone app Volkswagen Car Net The Beetle and a dedicated docking station located on the car's dash.
It's no secret that late Apple CEO Steve Jobs was keen on bringing the company's technology to the automotive world. In fact, according to longtime Apple board member Mickey Drexler, "Steve's dream before he died was to design an iCar." Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Shiller, echoed those sentiments during the company's copyright infringement trial against Samsung, saying there had been discussion of Apple making a vehicle.
Immediately following Jobs' death, it seemed like his dream might never come true. But since then, Apple has made a big push to integrate its Siri technology into vehicles. Meanwhile, automakers are finding ways to get iOS apps to work on the dashboard. These and other moves have set Apple on a collision course with Microsoft and Google in a market that's still very much up for grabs...
As you may or may not know, cars these days are getting fancier and fancier with technology by the year. Remember when automatic windows and a CD player were considered amazing car technologies?
Now you can talk to your car, have GPS built in, and see exactly where you are when backing up, without having to turn around! I compiled 5 more features we will see in the future of cars...
As you may or may not know, cars these days are getting fancier and fancier with technology by the year. Remember when automatic windows and a CD player were considered amazing car technologies?
Now you can talk to your car, have GPS built in, and see exactly where you are when backing up, without having to turn around! I compiled 5 more features we will see in the future of cars...
Beauty is ephemeral and subjective, it’s very tough to reach a consensus on which car has the best design. Some people may find a certain car’s exterior attractive, while others may consider the same car unappealing. In the past, many cars have been manufactured that were able to get the approval/appraisal from the most pickiest and strictest auto critics and car enthusiasts, thus becoming somewhat of icons in the automobile world. I think everybody in the general public has a dream car. Today we would like to focus your attention on bold vehicles admired by almost every passionate car enthusiast...
Apps are already making their way into cars.
Ford has embraced the connected car movement with its Sync platform, which integrates apps like Amazon Cloud Player, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Live into the car dashboard.
And the Tesla Model S touchscreen connects to the Internet for access to things like maps, restaurant reviews, and movie times.
But by 2017, twenty percent of cars in the U.S. and Western Europe will be app-enabled, according to analysts over at Juniper Research.
That means we'll have more cars on the road with "infotainment" features through smartphone tethering and in-car systems, according to Juniper.
Say hello to the new Lamborghini Veneno. At the Geneva Motor Show, Lamborghini will unveil the most powerful and most expensive Lamborghini ever made. Created to be part of Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary celebration, the car will be built in a production run of just three, each with a price tag of around $4.6 million. Veneno is based on the Aventador LP700-4 and will have 740 horsepower from a 6.5-liter V12, and top speed of 220 miles per hour.
It's hard to tell which Google project the world is more excited about--Google Glass(es) or Google's self-driving cars--but this frequent car-driver, anyway, can't wait for the latter.
(The Glasses sound cool, too, don't get me wrong.)
Google is making great progress with these cars: The cars have now been driven more than 300,000 miles, and there have been no accidents with a car under the computer's control. (There was a widely publicized fender-bender in 2011, when one of the Google cars crunched into the car ahead of it, but the human driver was driving.)
One of the insights that people often quickly have when they ride in these cars, according to people who have ridden in them, is that it's obvious the computer can be a vastly better driver than a human ever could be. With lasers and radar for eyes, the computer can monitor an extraordinary number of inputs and react much more quickly to surprises than a human ever could.
I have always assumed that there would be much excitement around the self-driving cars right up until the time that one killed someone. At that point, I assumed, the years of litigation and liability arguments would make the technology so expensive as to be impractical for normal use....
Cars are big and heavy, and that means they use a lot of energy while traveling. It’s easy to understand why these behemoths have traditionally been so weighty, though: It takes countless parts to make a modern car, and it’s mostly made out of steel for structural stability. That’s all changing, however, now that large-scale 3D-printing is becoming a reality. These new cars can use less parts and lighter materials to offer the same functionality and safety with less complexity and energy required. With the Urbee 2, Kor Ecologic is making a small two-passenger vehicle with a 3D-printed exterior. It’s highly efficient, light, and extremely safe in spite of being made of plastic.
In an article on Wired, the Urbee 2′s lead designer Jim Kor talks in-depth about the process being used to create this lightweight aerodynamic marvel. Using the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method, thin layers of plastic are sprayed one after the other for about 2,500 hours until an entire car exterior is created. Thanks to the customizability afforded by this production method, different thicknesses and patterns can be used to reinforce the structure. This leaves us with a product as strong as traditional cars, but at a fraction of the weight.
Once upon a time, the steam engine reigned supreme — first in trains and heavy tractors, as you well know, but eventually in cars as well. It’s quite hard to fathom today, but at the turn of the 20th century, more than half the cars in the US were steam-powered. The steam engine was so advanced that, in 1906, a steam car called the Stanley Rocket even held land speed record — a heady 127 mph!
Now, you might think that the steam car was only a success because internal combustion engines (ICE) didn’t exist yet — but in actual fact, steam cars and ICE cars were developed contemporaneously. Because engineers already had 100 years of steam engine experience, though, the steam car had a rather large head start. While hand-cranked ICEs were breaking the arms of hapless operators, by 1900 steam cars were already highly automated — and, with no clutch or gearbox (steam provides constant pressure, unlike the piston strokes of an ICE), very easy to drive. The one caveat, of course, was that you had to wait a few minutes for the boiler to heat up.
Driverless cars may be coming sooner than expected.
With companies like Google and Audi already working on ways to make our vehicles more autonomous and safe, we're left wondering what the future will look like once every car has that ability.
Today we found a simulation via The Atlantic Cities that answers how a four-way intersection could work in an era of driverless cars.
The self-driving car could be available to consumers in 3-5 years, the head of Google’s autonomous driving project says. That’s the most optimistic timeframe yet. Other projections have been for 2020 and beyond, which still beats “probably not in our lifetime.” The timeline came from Anthony Levandowski, Google’s product manager for autonomous driving, speaking at a Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) conference in Washington last week. “I can’t tell you you’ll be able to have a Google car in your garage next year,” Levandowski said. But he added, “We expect to release the technology in the next five years. In what form it gets released is still to be determined.” Releasing technology is different than announcing a self-driving car going on sale in 3-5 years. The real challenge could be getting the self-driving car approved for use of public highways everywhere, not just the handful of states that allow self-driving cars for test purposes.
GenCept brings to you the most exiting and breathtaking cars on your screen. Automobile Photography of the week a.k.a. Cars of the Week is a series of posts where every week we’re going to showcase some of most powerful and extreme machines around. This post is dedicated to the automobile enthusiasts. Our goal is to share automotive enthusiasm and to be the number 1 source for High Quality Pictures of the worlds most “Extreme” Cars.
Imagine never having to drive again, doesn’t that sound great? And it’s more of a reality than you might think. Self-driving cars are definitely in our near future, in fact several automakers are testing them, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) predicts 75 percent of cars on the road in 2040 will be self-driving.
Safety is another great benefit of self-driving cars. In 2010 there were 35,000 deaths due to car crashes in the U.S. and 90 percent of vehicle crashes can be attributed to driver error. So, self-driving cars mean less error which means less crashes. Self-driving cars are also programmed to follow local traffic laws. So not only will you be safe, but you won’t have to worry about getting a speeding ticket.
This year’s CES may have been about startups more than ever before, but over the last few years, the car industry has also increased its presence at the show. In previous years, we heard a lot about the connected car, but until now, those cars remained virtually closed to developers. In one fell swoop, that changed this year, as Ford and GM announced concrete programs with SDKs and APIs that are either already open for developers or will be available within the next few months.
The approach the two companies are taking is very different: Ford is betting on drivers bringing their own smartphones into the car and having apps run on the phone, while GM is actually setting up a framework for running apps right in the car’s built-in infotainment system. Both of those systems have their merits: Ford’s AppLink system is easy to integrate into existing apps and drivers don’t have to pay for yet another data plan. GM’s framework, on the other hand, is more deeply integrated with the car and doesn’t necessitate a smartphone.
Brian Konoske is a advertising and editorial photographer based in southern california. His love for photography, people, traveling, action, cars, architecture, design, the outdoors, and adventure give him a unique perspective that helps him create exciting and timeless images for his clients. Past clients include Chevrolet, Imperial, Tortoise and Blonde, Polaris, GMC, VW, Toyota, Cadillac, Nissan, Infiniti, Subaru, Mitsubishi, Argent Financial, Indy Racing League, Indy Car Magazine, Racer Magazine, Automobile Magazine, Nylon, Hagerty Insurance, K2 sports, Salomon, Franco Shade Clothing, Gost Clothing.
The cars of today are costly in more ways than one. In 2010, there were 35,000 deaths due to car crashes in the U.S., and car crashes cost the economy $230 billion every year. Traffic congestion costs the U.S. economy a staggering $87.2 billion a year. As a nation, we waste 4.2 billion hours in traffic each year—that’s one work week for every traveler. The environment takes a beating from the cars of today as well. Twenty-two percent of carbon dioxide emissions come from cars and trucks, and 2.8 billion gallons of fuel are wasted each year due to congestion.
Audi and Lexus are well into development of self-driving car technology.
While you would think that the end result would be similar, the two companies are taking completely different positions on how they want drivers to experience assisted driving.
Lexus' primary goal with its self-driving cars is safety. Currently, the company's LS model is the world leader in car safety with its pre-crash system. Lexus sees its self-driving technology as a way to prevent human error.
Toyota and Audi are throwing their hats into the ring of potential suppliers of self-driving vehicles.
Both auto makers confirmed on Thursday that they will be demonstrating autonomous-driving features at the Consumer Electronics Show in the coming week, signaling a new effort to raise the technology's profile among consumers.
Toyota previews the Lexus AASRV, a computer-controlled car, ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week. (Photo/Video: Lexus)
In a preview video posted to its website on Thursday, Toyota showed a five-second clip of one of its Lexus brand cars outfitted with various sensors and the caption, "Lexus advanced active safety research vehicle is leading the industry into a new automated era."
An Audi official also said the luxury-car company will be demonstrating autonomous vehicle capabilities at the Las Vegas show, including a feature that allows a car to find a parking space and park itself without a driver behind the wheel.
There is no shortage of speculation when it comes to what will power our vehicles in a more eco-friendly future. But the truth is that we don’t know what it will be, nobody knows, and nobody will for some time. Electric cars still suffer from many of the same drawbacks that put companies like Detroit Electric out of business in 1938, corn-based ethanol takes land away from food production, algae fuel can’t be produced efficiently, and oil is just plain going to run out. So the future of transportation is still open to anyone who can make their technology viable before everyone else does. Audi, and their new partner Joule, think they might have the answer.
