Electric Vehicles & Cars News - Page 80

Pioneer has announced that it will be among the first car audio names to bring support for Apple CarPlay to the aftermarket. Rather than having to buy a new car stereo to get CarPlay support, some existing Apple receivers will get CarPlay support via a firmware update. The updated firmware will be offered for five of the 2014 NEX in-dash multimedia receivers.

All five of those receivers have large LCD screens. CarPlay will add Siri voice control to the mix to let the driver use their phone while keeping eyes on the road. The five models that support CarPlay include the AVIC-8000NEX, 7000NEX, 6000NEX, 5000NEX, and 4000NEX.

Those units range in price from $1400 to $700. Pioneer hasn't said exactly when the update for the firmware will launch. All it has said on a launch date so far is in early summer.

Land Rover is showing off one of the coolest concept technologies I've seen in a car recently. The tech is called invisible bonnet, bonnet being a hood for those of us in the US. The tech uses a camera in the front of the Land Rover that shoots data to some sort of HUD inside the car.

The result is what appears to be an invisible hood that allows the driver to see through the car to get a look at what is under the vehicle. This could be a great feature to keep Land Rover drivers from getting stuck when off-roading. If you have ever driven off road, you know just because an obstacle makes it past the bumper doesn't mean it will make it past all the hardware under the car.

Land Rover will be showing the new invisible bonnet tech off at the New York International Motors Show. The tech is pure concept right now and there is no word of it coming to a production vehicle. In addition to seeing the surface under the car, the tech will also show the driver the position of the wheels and their angle.

Viper is a company that has been making car alarms for years. It has announced a new device called the Viper SmartKey that makes keyless entry truly keyless. The SmartKey system creates a wireless perimeter around the car that responds to your smartphone without having to press any buttons or open an app.

You do need a Viper security or remote start system for the SmartKey to work. The company says SmartKey is compatible with all Viper alarm systems. The SmartKey system itself sells for $149.99. Once installed, the system will lock or unlock the doors without you having to do anything.

All you need to do is have the smartphone on you. SmartKey will unlock the car and turn on the alarm when you approach the car without you doing anything. When you walk away from the car, it will automatically lock and arm the alarm system.

An owner of a Tesla Model S was recently fiddling about with his car after discovering a hidden Ethernet port inside the vehicle. He cobbled together some sort of Ethernet cable and set about sniffing the car's network for fun.

The owner found that the car has a 100 Mbps full duplex Ethernet network with three devices on it. The addresses on the network are in the 192.168.90.0 subnet and includes the center console, dashboard/nav screen and another unknown device.

He found that some of the ports and services were open and that Port 80 was being used to serve a webpage with the image or media for the current song being played. He also notes that the OS is a modified version of Ubuntu.

GTC 2014 - As an Australian-based editor of TweakTown, one thing I've always wanted to do is go for a drive in Tesla Motors' Model S electric car. Well, while I was at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California, I took the opportunity to jump in and take a look.

Jonathan Katz, Product Specialist of Tesla Motors, drove the car - and just as we were taking off, I asked if he could wear my Google Glass unit, where he was more than happy to help out. The video above gives you a first-person perspective of the drive itself, something that I don't think has been done before, at least with Google Glass.

It gives you the perfect look at the car, with Katz explaining the various features and functions of the car, of which there is actually many. There were five of us in total in the car, but the backseat did not seem cramped. The 'frunk' as Katz explains (the front trunk, as there is no traditional engine and components under the bonnet is spacious, with the trunk featuring even more space.

Audi unveiled a system during CES 2014 that is able to connect with compatible traffic lights and give the driver a countdown on the dash showing when the light will turn green. Audi has offered some more information about the system, and the carmaker says that the system will save fuel as well.

The way the traffic light recognition tool will help save fuel is by connecting with the start stop technology inside the car. The start stop system will leave the engine off until five seconds before the light turns green. Audi figures that the system could save about 240 million gallons of fuel if it was in wide use.

The system could also cut emissions by 15%. If you are wondering why the engine starts five seconds before the light turns green when most start-stop systems can start an engine in less than a second, the 5 seconds is meant as a reminder to the driver to get ready to drive.

If you are a fan of outrageous exotic sports cars, you will be familiar with the Lamborghini name. Lamborghini has been making some of the coolest high performance cars since the 60's and its latest offering is a replacement for the Gallardo called the Huracan. The car is all-new and has a very slick digital dashboard.

The digital dash inside the car replaces old-fashioned analog gauges and is powered by NVIDIA. The digital dash uses a 12.3-inch TFT display offering a resolution of 1440 x 540. The graphics for that dash are powered by a Tegra 30 chip from the Tegra 3 series.

The digital muscle behind the dash lets the virtual tachometer work at 60 fps so it can keep up with the engine without causing difficult to read lag. The digital dash can be configured to show what the driver wants to see with three modes. The Full Drive mode offers an analog style tachometer with smaller displays for fuel level, temperature and a digital speedo. Mixed mode frees up half that display for a navigation screen.

Today, Apple officially made an announcement about its brand new iOS specifically made for cars- CarPlay. The company first talked about its car iOS version during the developer conference last year and the cars with this Car specific iOS integration will be shown in an auto show at Geneva. This required partnership with car companies as it requires the manufacturers to provide the suitable hardware/interface setup for the in-car touch panel on the dashboard.

Via a statement, Apple VP Greg Joswiak said,"CarPlay has been designed from the ground up to provide drivers with an incredible experience using their iPhone in the car. Iphone users always want their content at their fingertips and CarPlay lets drivers use their iPhone in the car with minimized distraction. We have an amazing lineup of auto partners rolling out CarPlay, and we're thrilled it will make its debut this week in Geneva."

CarPlay allows drivers to access their iPhone content and maps via the car's entertainment display that's integrated on the car's dashboard. Once your iPhone is connected to the car, you can make and receive calls, message, use Apple maps for navigation, use the inbuilt display or Siri for whatever you require it to do. As of now, CarPlay has limited app integration, but one can easily assume that eventually a lot of apps will be available by the time cars with this iOS version rolls out from its factories.

Apple teased that iOS in the Car was something that was "very important" to the company, and a new product its ecosystem, like iTunes, or Siri. Well the time has come for it to be launched, if the latest reports are to be believed.

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple will unveil formal car integration deals with some of the biggest names in the industry: Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo. The system still requires an iPad or iPhone in the car to work, so it's not something that is leaps and bounds for Apple, as it would probably like people to expect.

A few weeks back the internet was set ablaze with speculation and rumors after Elon Musk met with Apple's executives, and while everyone else was hung up on acquisition rumors, I reported that the talks were more than likely about investing in a new battery manufacturing facility. A little over a week later, my suspicions were confirmed when Elon Musk announced what is to be the world's largest battery factory.

Musk says that Tesla will build the largest battery manufacturing facility ever with the help of investments from others totaling $5 billion of which $2 billion Tesla will invest itself. Musk's goal for the new "Gigafactory" is to have the 10 million square foot facility producing more batteries annually by 2020 than the entire world's current annual production. This would allow Tesla to ramp up its production to the levels of that of Ford, GM and other major manufacturers today.

With Apple one of the largest consumers of Lithium-Ion based batteries in the US, and tons of reserve cash just sitting in banks, it made perfect sense for Tesla to approach the Cupertino-based company as a potential investing partner. With Tesla only looking for $1.6 to $2 billion in extra funds, Apple could easily front the money in exchange for deep discounts, or better battery technology that results from the deal. With battery manufacturing mostly an automated process due to the extreme hazards of the chemicals involved, labor cost would be very low, making the investment even more attractive for Apple.