The Washington Post reports Chrysler is adding in-car internet access to their hot selling– I mean vehicles. Web access will arrive via cell phone towers; users will need a wireless phone carrier to ensure continuous service. Chrysler is touting themselves as the first car company to provide in-car internetage, conveniently overlooking "ConnectedDrive." BMW's system offered Google access last year; it's expanding to unrestricted www access this year. (Chrysler will be the first to offer internet access in the U.S.) Regardless where it's offered or who offers it, the idea of some n00b playing Halo 3 while blasting down the interstate at 75mph is really scary. Yes, I know there'll be built-in safeguards, but it won't take the MMORPG crowd very long to figure out how to override them. In fact, the hack should be on the internet before Chrysler buyers can access the internet via their car to get it.

The ever-increasing technological sophistication of cars is fast becoming a pet peeve of home mechanics and car tinkerers. But Linux Insider reports that the open-source operating system may just find a new home in automotive applications, improving the at-home tweakability of production vehicles. Open-source technology guru David Schlesinger: "The increasing value of [open-source software] will result in greater use of open-source software in automotive systems, largely in … communications, navigation and the like." This development could replace proprietary operating systems with a single open-source, Linux-based OS which could control everything from engine management to on-board navigation and computing. But we're not quite there yet. While Linux offers immediate options for on-board computing, it still needs to be optimized to handle real-time tasks like engine control. Still, the manufacturers' desire for broader management of services in cars and consumer's desire for greater tweakability may just add up to an open-source future for the industry.

The Register reports that MIT scientists have unveiled a new, "stacking vehicle" concept which will "reinvent urban mobility." The concept is based on stacks of small vehicles which fold up to stack together into small racks which would be located near subway stations or bus stops. The vehicles would be powered by "wheel robots:" tiny, self-contained, digitally controlled reconfigurable electric motors in each wheel. In theory, the system provides all-wheel power and steering, easy navigation of urban areas and best of all, sideways parking. The vehicles would charge while folded on their racks; the user would "simply take the first fully charged vehicle from the front of the stack." The concept's website states that "The City car is NOT a replacement for personal vehicles, taxis, buses, or trucks; it is a NEW vehicle type that promotes a socially responsible and more effective means of urban mobility." That doesn't conform to automotive safety standards. Never mind. Team leader architecture professor Bill Mitchell say he'd like to see the system in production in three to four years. Team member Christopher Borroni-Bird is a little more skeptical. "What we have is a very intriguing concept. It is certainly a very promising idea," GM's Director of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts said. "but I don't want to say it is ready for production… there's still a lot of work yet to take it from concept to production." This from the people who champion E85, the Volt and two-mode hybrids.

TTAC commentator Winklovic recently posted a link to an interesting website that introduced me to aftermarket air horns. I don't mean the pissant little Marchel and Hella beepers. Go to www.hornblasters.com and you can hear them; by God they're straight out of a Johnny Cash train song. I drive an ambulance with an air horn– the kind where you reach up and pull a chain when the kids on the sidewalk pump their elbows– and I'm here to tell you, those things can evoke miscarriages, soiled pants, split colostomy bags and pacemaker misfires. I was never aware that it's legal to put them on a car. A search of FMVSS, ISO and DOT standards turns-up nothing about maximum-horn-noise regulation. There are, however, numerous local noise regs that can get you ticketed for blowing one (apparently silent ownership is perfectly legal). Unfortunately, people who actually have these things seem to use them solely to cruise city streets at 15 mph and get close enough behind pedestrians to literally blow them into the weeds. That ain't right.

C/Net reports that it all starts innocuously enough: upgraded navigation systems with live, local updates. Next, Mircosoft will offer "points of interest" navigation to local businesses and attractions featuring fresh information on products, prices etc. And then… in-car advertising. We're talking pop-up ads on your navigation, free mp3 downloads when you stop at a Starbucks, and anything else Bill Gates' boffins can think of to suck the cash out of your wallet. While web-based ads are unlikely to inspire immediate action (i.e. significant click-through revenue), the head of MS' Automotive Unit says in-car advertising's worth will be "measured in dollars." Martin Thall reckons that's because the driver is out of the house and more likely to follow through on the ad's suggestions. Because after all, you're just driving. You've got plenty of attention to spare. Especially when it means 35 cents off your next Frappuccino.

The flying car is The Concept That Will Not Die. And here's another version, the Milner AirCar, due to be introduced at the New York Auto Show later this month. There's absolutely no reason why cars can't fly, or why airplanes can't drive down a road. All it takes is wings and a propeller in the first case, and folding or removing those wings plus something to drive the road wheels in the second. Robert Fulton (grandson of the same-named dude who built the first practical steamship) did it quite well in the late 1940s. His cute little Fulton Airphibians flew lots and drove plenty back in those halcyon post-World War II days, when returning vets dreamed of a helicopter in every garage and Cessna was advertising its airplanes as being so simple to fly that you could "drive it up and drive it back down." But the current realities of satisfying both FAA and DOT regulations in the same vehicle on the one hand, and teaching a new generation of driver-pilots to deal with thunderstorms, crosswinds, icing, navigation and instrument flying when they can't even handle a half-inch of snow on a road on the other, give new meaning to the word insane.

Futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil is smart enough to have predicted the ascendancy of the Internet, the common availability of wireless (at a time when the great Bill Gates was busy hard-wiring his $40m mansion so that it could be "run by a computer") and the fall of the Soviet Union. Livescience.com reports that the inventor and futurist now predicts that solar power will be a viable crude oil alternative within the next five years. And then… "[Use] is doubling now every two years. Doubling every two years means multiplying by 1,000 in 20 years. At that rate we'll meet 100 percent of our energy needs in 20 years." Kurzweil  says you can thank nanotechnology, which will make solar panels light, inexpensive and more efficient. This could be a big deal. The sunlight falling on earth contains 10k times more energy than we use annually. If Kurzweil is right, we'll soon be energy-rich. (Rich, I tell you, rich!) Automotively speaking, a large source of cheap energy would immediately put zero emissions hydrogen fuel cell-powered cars back on the front burner. 

Maine is enduring one of its snowiest winters on record . This has the state’s lawmakers pondering a bill that would allow the use of retractable studded tires year-round, reports WMTW. Under current Maine law, studded snow tires must be removed by May 1st. The bill, sponsored by State Senator Bill Diamond, would allow tires that deploy studs when road conditions get bad, and retract them when conditions improve. Diamond says the tires meet federal motor vehicle safety standards. According to gizmag.com, “retractable-stud tires incorporate an air bladder that pushes the studs out from inside the tire when needed, and deflates so the studs retract into the tire when not needed. The tires are not entirely maintenance free- the bladder needs to be refilled with air after the studs have been deployed around 50 times.” No comment.

Did you know your car grows whiskers? The revelation comes via computer industry pundit Robert X. Cringely (nee Mark Stephens) on his PBS.org blog. Here's the deal… Tin is the primary ingredient in electrical solder that's used in automotive circuit boards and electrical terminals. Tin can grow thin crystal threads that can reach several millimeters in length. Unshaven, these tin whiskers can create short circuits that blow delicate electronics. (NASA banned the use of 100 percent tin in its components after tin whiskers disable three communications satellites.) So electronic component makers switched to solder made of a tin – lead alloy. In 2006, environmental concerns led the EU (so to speak) to ban lead in electronics. Cringely says this well-intentioned regulation means that today's electronics are THOUSANDS of times more likely to create tin whiskers than before. If you’re tired of buggy electronics in your car now, just you wait.

There's a commercial for an insurance company where a driver wrecks his car when his GPS tells him "turn right…" and he does so before it can add "…in fifty feet."  As Computerworld reports, these kind of incidents actually happen in real life. There've been several reports of trains hitting cars after the Darwin Award candidate behind the wheel followed the sat-nav's directions to turn onto the railroad tracks (the drivers managed to escape unharmed). Others have driven into ponds and lakes, sandpiles at construction sites or gone the wrong way down one-way streets because they trusted their GPS and ignored road signs. It's gotten so bad in England that they've started posting "ignore your sat-nav" signs in the areas where the problems occur the most. Of course, if the idiots don't believe a sign that says "one way" or "road closed," why would they pay attention to one telling them to ignore their electronic back-seat driver? [Thanks to KixStart for the link]

Brand purists that we are, the tagline for the Njection automotive website leaves us nervous about their commercial future: "Speed Traps, Car Forum, Automotive Pictures….Anything else?" Then again, it's taken TTAC six years to get to 20k visitors per day; so what do we know? This much is for sure: there are plenty of speedtraps in this world of ours. Njection's readers have tapped into Microsoft's live maps and plotted tens of thousands of them, around the globe. Think local, speed global? "Over 50-thousand speed traps have been contributed to the site since its Thanksgiving public launch," says Shannon Atkinson, President of NJection.com, in the press release announcing the feature. "This response reflects the feelings of motorist[s] around the world." Terror? Anger? Suspicion? Shannon doesn't say. But he does trot-out the old argument that speeding doesn't kill people; sipping a latte while cell phoning your baby sitter and changing lanes at a red light camera-equipped intersection does. Anyway, Njection promises to make their map GPS device compatible, which could provide the site with a nice tidy profit (provided police or other do-gooders don't upload "fake" speedtraps). Bastards.

BusinessWeek reports that Ford will offer a high tech “Work Solutions” package for its forthcoming F-150 pickups and commercial vans. Deep breath. The package includes a Bluetooth-enabled 6.5” in-dash touch-screen computer running Microsoft’s Windows CE and Windows Autos connected to the ‘net via Sprint cellular. Owners can radio-tag their tools using a “Tool Link” function. When the truck starts up, a pair of antennas scan the owner’s brain waves for thoughts of theft– I mean scan the vehicle looking for tools missing from a preprogrammed inventory list. "Think of Tool Link as no tool left behind," jests Mark Fields, Ford’s president of the Americas and a living, breathing example of the theory. The “Work Solutions” package also includes fleet tracking and a lockable storage system for pickup beds. The electronic features will be available together or separately.

According to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute, urban congestion drains the U.S. economy of 4.2 billion man hours and 2.9 billion gallons of fuel per year. The Wall Street Journal reports that the I-95 Corridor Coalition is tackling the problem with Inrix. The subcontractor will gather real-time traffic data (via satellite) on over 2.5k miles of highway, including I95 from New Jersey to North Carolina. Inrix will then beam the data to state transportation departments, who will offer it to motorists via the Internet, mobile alerts and road signs. North Carolina Department of Transportation engineer Jo Ann Oerter figures her employer receives timely traffic data for only one percent of the state’s roads. "We'll be able to see where traffic is building and work within our system to say these are routes you should avoid.” While Inrix will also sell the data to GPS providers for automatic traffic avoidance, we’re guessing Oerter’s union job is safe. 

Owners of cars with built-in navigation systems are familiar with the legal disclaimer screen, which indemnifies the manufacturer if the unit distracts you to death. Nissan plans to expand this e-hectoring with a start-up screen reminding drivers not to drink and drive. According to a press release on WebWire, "the alert 'Do not drive after drinking' appears automatically for about five seconds on the navigation panel between the hours of 17:30 and 05:00 at the start of the ignition. In the daytime i.e. between 05:00 and 17:30 hours, the display message reads 'Let’s continue safe driving today.'" The new Nannying– featured on their way cool CARWINGS nav system– is a Japan-only deal. For now. Nissan also says it intends to "widen its use of technology to address the hazards of drink-driving." Could a breathalyzer ignition lock be in Nissan drivers' future?