While we wait for more details coming out of the joint Toyota-Microsoft press conference scheduled for a few hours from now, we thought we’d share some of the more recently-released details. A press release notes that the two firms
have forged a strategic partnership and plan to build a global platform for TMC’s next-generation telematics services using the Windows Azure platform. Telematics is the fusing of telecommunications and information technologies in vehicles; it can encompass GPS systems, energy management and other multimedia technologies.
When DBM Energy, an unknown German “mailbox company,” announced it would attempt a world record for the longest single-charge EV trip, the reaction from observers and industry insiders was nearly universally dismissive. Even when the drive was completed, and DBM’s electrified Audi A2 completed a 600km (373 miles) journey under observation, the skepticism lingered. Then, when the record-setting A2 burnt in a fire, the mystery deepened. Did the enigmatic battery start the blaze (as, a DBM battery apparently already has in a forklift), or, as DBM suggests, did a jealous German OEM try to kill their miracle battery breakthrough with a convenient arson? That puzzle hasn’t been hashed out, but according to AutoBild, Germany’s Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) as well as the Ministry of Industry have tested the DBM battery for
extreme climate and air pressure changes, electrical short circuits, overloading or incorrect polarity and to mechanical influences such as vibration, shock and impact
The result? It’s safe! DBM has also made a 454km (282 miles) journey this month in a battery with less capacity than the world record-setting pack. More testing will be done, but it seems that DBM is on to something with its “miracle battery,” and the German automakers may yet be forced to abandon their long-held preference for hydrogen fuel cells.
First of all, the car doesn’t really make a good personal computer, and, secondly, consumers don’t have to have a PC on four wheels. Ultimately, any type of Internet access in the future has to support the ownership experience of the vehicle; this is not about enabling me to have the same experience I have on my laptop
We love staying ahead of the curve with new engine technologies like the Ecomotors OPOC engine, but without an engineering degree it can be hard to tell the the posers from the next big thing. So when something like the Wave Disc engine comes along, we throw ourselves upon the collective wisdom of our Best and rightest to help us make sense of it. In the video above, the Wave Disc engine’s creator, Michigan State’s Norbert Muller, explains his invention and its benefits including simplicity, light weight and efficiency. And, he claims, the technology is close enough to reality to have a Wave Disc-electric hybrid within three years. Hit the jump for more technical details, and be sure to let us know if this is worth watching or just another engineering dead-end. (Read More…)
With the proliferation of in-car connectivity systems like SYNC, MyLink, MyFordTouch, Blue&Me, etc, the ability of a car to play MP3s, read out text messages and update social media accounts has surpassed such traditional attributes as power, efficiency and handling for many car buyers. And though many of these OEM-branded systems are underpinned by identical software architectures from Microsoft or Garmin, they are taking an ever-more important place in the marketing of new cars. Differentiating these differentiators, then, takes a huge amount of development effort on the part of automakers and their suppliers, and the result is another electronic system with the potential to go out of date with the same speed as a cellular phone. Wouldn’t it be smarter to just create an open-standard connection between your phone and your car so that you don’t need to replace your car when its onboard connectivity electronics go out of date? That’s the goal of the Car Connectivity Consortium, which is aiming to explode the OEM-branded in-car connectivity model. (Read More…)
From Hybrids and plug-ins to direct-injection and HCCI, a number of new technologies hold the promise of ever-cleaner automobiles. But what if, by solving existing pollution problems with these new technologies, we create new pollution problems? That’s what the Health Effects Institute’s Special Committee on Emerging Technologies (SCET) looked into in its “Communication 16,” titled The Future of Vehicle Fuels and Technologies: Anticipating Health Benefits and Challenges [via GreenCarCongress, PDF here]. The findings? Gas Direct Injection (GDI) may improve efficiency, but particulate matter (PM) emissions are still a serious concern. Urea exhaust treatment systems for “clean diesel” engines
gives rise to concerns regarding the formation of nitrogen-containing compounds, including nitro-PAHs, in emissions and possibly other toxic compounds.
EVs have their own issues, including electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation and the possible introduction of battery materials into the environment through production or crashes. Both fuels with more than ten percent ethanol (E15, E20, E85) and biodiesel (B20) have not been sufficiently studied for exhaust pollutants. And even in “regular” gas, the use of metallic additives has not yet been fully tested for health risks. As a result of all of these untested effects of new automotive technologies, the HEI’s Research Committee will begin study of tailpipe emissions from vehicles using GDI, Urea exhaust treatment and biofuels, and will also study the toxicity of lithium and other battery components used in hybrid and electric vehicles. hopefully they’ll find that the cure isn’t worse than the disease…
A year ago we reported on a study by the Center for Automotive Embedded Systems Security, which showed that the proliferation of eletronics systems in modern auomobiles left them vulnerable to hacks through the OBD-II port, leading to such scary lessons as
Much to our surprise, significant attacks do not require a complete understanding or reverse-engineering of even a single component of the car.
But, the results of that study were dependent on gaining physical access to a car’s OBD port. This year, the UC San Diego and University of Washington academics behind CAESS took their research a step further, exploring how hackers could compromise cars without ever gaining physical access to them. Researchers bought a 2009-model-year vehicle of undetermined make, and attempted to hack into it. One of their findings: cellular-enabled assistance programs like GM’s OnStar and Toyota’s SafetyConnect unsurprisingly leave vehicles especially vulnerable.
Start the video, then click on the 3D button in the menu bar to select 3D or 2D format. You can also select resolution up to 1080p HD. Video courtesy of Ford Motor Company and Cars In Depth, where you can also find 3D images of Ford’s VR lab.
With a big push from the film, computer, video game, camera, and television set industries, 3D seems poised to become rather commonplace, particularly when passive display panels requiring no special eyeglasses will soon be at consumer level price points in just a year or so, I’d say. Some of the most sophisticated 3D technology in use today, though, is not in use in Hollywood, California, or Redmond, Washington, it’s in places called Dearborn, Auburn Hills and Warren, Michigan. The domestic automakers were early adopters of advanced computer aided design and manufacturing (CADCAM) as well as advanced computer imagery. They have some of the the most advanced tools available today and some of the most skilled and creative engineers and designers who develop and use those tools. Virtual reality is one of those tools. By projecting a realistic holographic or stereo display, stylists and exterior designers can get an accurate perspective on how their ideas will look without having to make time consuming and expensive scale and full size models. I think it’s pretty understandable that car companies would use 3D and VR for exterior design studies. Perhaps even more valuable to automakers, though, is how stereo image technology can be used in the interior design and engineering of modern cars. (Read More…)
Via the excellent lawbloggers at The Volokh Conspiracy comes news of a decision by a California appellate court in re: State vs Xinos which finds that the data recorded by a vehicle’s Event Data Recorder or “black box” is protected by the fourth amendment. The ruling covered a case in which police used EDR data to charge the driver in a fatal crash of vehicular manslaughter, and under appeal, the ruling was handed down that
We do not accept the Attorney General’s argument that defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the data contained in his vehicle’s SDM. The precision data recorded by the SDM was generated by his own vehicle for its systems operations. While a person’s driving on public roads is observable, that highly precise, digital data is not being exposed to public view or being conveyed to anyone else. . . . We conclude that a motorist’s subjective and reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to her or his own vehicle encompasses the digital data held in the vehicle’s SDM.
And, according to Volokh
the computer data is in the car, not outside the car, so the legal standard that governs access to the data probable cause but not a warrant
Given trends towards ever more storage of vehicle telemetry data, this is a heartening development for motorists and privacy activists… but don’t be surprised if the issue ends up in the Supreme Court. [Hat Tip: TTAC commenter fincar]
I believe in 2020, the car will drive itself. The infrastructure will be in place, and that infrastructure will be very significant and hefty. But in that target environment, you and I don’t have to be sitting behind the wheel. In that environment, everyone will be a passenger, and you want to have full connectivity with full access to any media, or any person anywhere via the best videoconferencing available. So you need a rich media experience in the car.
At the same time, there will be a significant amount of safety applications that will be running in the car, making sure that the car is fully protected and is communicating through the infrastructure to other cars. That would be the nature of how I see the driving experience transforming in ten years plus.
Obviously, as CEO of an in-car connectivity solution firm, Mr Hushayr is heavily invested in a driver-free future… but is his vision the product of more than just wishful thinking? I certainly have some difficulty imagining giving up driving before I turn 40… but then, I’m not sure that most of my peers would. Surf over to AT and read the whole interview before letting us know what you think.
VW’s 1.4 TSI “Twincharger” engine may well have been the most groundbreaking mass-market of the last 20 years, combining a supercharger and turbocharger to create a lag-free, forced-induction driving experience (a feat only Group B racers had previously attempted with any seriousness). Making either 120 HP or 158 HP in a Golf, the 1.4 TSI is rated on the Euro-cycle (non-EPA) at 6 liters per 100 km, or 39 MPG (please note, cross-cycle mileage comparisons are problematic). In the (smaller, lighter) 177 HP Polo GTI, it gets an even better 5.9l/100km. In short, it can be quite powerful, extremely efficient, and more importantly, it offers the flexibility to be tuned for a number of different applications. As a result, it won the International Engine Of The Year Award for 1.0-1.4 liter displacements four times running, and added “Best New Engine” in 2006, as well as “Green Engine Of The Year” and “International Engine Of The Year” in 2009.
And now, according to Autocar, the industry’s tortured tug-of-war between outstanding technical achievements and crushing profit-seeking grind will call the Twincharger its latest victim. The British mag reports
The company’s 1.4-litre engine, which mixes turbocharging and supercharging, is said to be too complex and expensive to produce.
Instead, VW engineers now believe that new turbocharging technology can achieve similar results at a much-reduced cost.
The case of three Renault executives who are accused of passing off trade secrets to a foreign firm has taken yet another turn for the confusing, as two of the dismissed managers are suing Renault for defamation. Reuters reports that Michel Balthazard, the highest-ranking executive to be accused in the case, has joined colleague Bertrand Rochette in threatening to file a defamation suit against his former employer. Balthazard is also appealing his dismissal to a French labor tribunal, in hopes of being reinstated at the company. Rochette, Balthazard and a third exec, Matthieu Tenenbaum, are accused of passing strategic information to a foreign network in exchange for bribe payments, charges all three executives deny. According to the WSJ, Rochette denies even having a Swiss bank account into which Renault alleges his bribes were deposited. Meanwhile, French finance minister Christine Lagarde tells the NYT that
I really don’t think that the Renault case has a Chinese angle. I have zero indication
But, as has been typical thus far in this strange case, other French officials including the head of Parliament’s economic intelligence working group insist that a Chinese connection is involved. We will continue to keep an eye on this case… but don’t expect much clarity on the details for some time.
When Chrysler let slip at the Detroit Auto Show that it would be offering a hybrid version of its 300 sedan by 2013, we automatically assumed that the Pentastar was going back to its Hemi-based Two-Mode V8 hybrid system, jointly developed by GM, Chrysler, BMW and Mercedes. Not so, it turns out. That billion-dollar drivetrain has been relegated to poor-selling hybrid SUVs, and it’s already being considered a dead-end by at least the German firms who helped develop it. Instead, it seems that Chrysler has gone to the government for a hybrid system, and will adapt a hydraulic hybrid system developed by the EPA. (Read More…)
Bloomberg reports that Toyota’s engineers have reached an “advanced stage” of research on a new “induction”-type electric motor which holds the promise of freeing the Japanese automaker from dependence on so-called rare-earth materials. These elements, including neodymium and dysprosium, are used to strengthen the magnets used in traditional electric motors and generators, and are crucial to the production of everything from electric and hybrid cars to wind turbines and guided missiles. China currently controls over 90 percent of the world’s supply of rare-earth materials, and has recently cut exports quotas, raisingtensions between China and Japan.
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