Just when America’s most promising generation turns up its nose at cars, new technology rides to the rescue of the embattled industry: Cars that do away with drivers. A study by the automaker and union-funded think tank Center For Automotive Research (CAR) and the CPA firm KPMG comes to the conclusion that with self-driving vehicles, “the industry appears to be on the cusp of revolutionary change.”  Do you buy that? Jay or nay? Read More >

Need some extra money? Want to work from home? Easy: Sell her to perfect strangers, by the hour. You will receive assistance in pimping her as long as she’s an OnStar-equipped Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, or Cadillac.   Read More >

On those long cross country rides, some of us may hope to pick up a hitchhiker, or hitchhikeress. Seems to be a dying breed though. An app will fill that gaping void. SideCar, an on-demand ride-sharing app, lets users request a ride by indicating where they would like to be picked up and dropped off”,  Reuters says. Read More >

Imagine barreling down the road in a hot prototype. Now you don’t have to imagine anymore, because these pictures, taken on the first day of the annual conference of the Japan chapter of the SAE, show you in graphic detail what your workplace would look like.  Like a mess.

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Need an excuse for getting fat for lack of exercise?  Buy Honda’s latest invention, and you won’t even have to walk to the bathroom anymore, assuming a barrier-free environment. Honda presents the UNI-CUB, the first vehicle you steer with your ass. Read More >

Google received the first license the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles to test driverless cars. The Las Vegas Sun believes this is the first such license issued in the country. Does that mean that driverless cars will roam Nevada? Not exactly. Read More >

“For 100 years, people have been dreaming about flying cars,” says, well, a promotion video that attempts to drum up investor interest for a flying car. Despite many attempts, we don’t see many flying cars, nether flying, nor driving. At TTAC, the story is as old as the old Farago-era layout. Fear not, flying cars will be here, real soon now, promise. One will even be at the New York Auto Show. Read More >

Have a Jeep, need a pickup? No problem! For only $595, Crewbed will sell you – a crewbed. Invented by Goodyear, AZ real estate salesman Calvin Williams, the 88 pound collapsible bolt-in platform transforms a JK, TJ or YJ Jeep into a mini-pickup.

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Last year, Nevada was the first state to legalize driverless cars – in a way. The law stipulated that Nevada’s Department of Transportation “shall adopt regulations authorizing the operation of autonomous vehicles on highways within the State of Nevada.” Probably hoping that this would take a while. The Department worked overtime and finished the regulations in eight months. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles announces: Read More >

“With a languid stroke, her lascivious fingers caressed the seat. Out of nowhere, Chopin’s Nocturnes engulfed Rudolfo’s vintage Testatrossa in a sea of glissandi. Soon, Rudolfo’s  testosterone was on full volume. He opened the first button of her blouse, there was a pop, then – silence.”

If Maksim Skorobogatiy of the Polytechnic School in Montreal, Canada, gets his way, then this is how future novels will be written. Or car catalogs. Skorobogatiy suggests: Read More >

The stuff those crafty engineers in Stuttgart come up with to keep our eyes off the road.

And just in case you are stuck in traffic in [geolocate your position] … Read More >

The quote is courtesy of John Sedat, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California at San Francisco, quoted in a CNET article. Let’s get another quote, this one from Dr. Peter Rez at Arizona State:

To call anything based on high energy X-rays ‘low energy’ is worse than 1984 doublespeak

What’s this all about?

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TTAC readers certainly were fascinated with the fascination with white wall tires on the part of the Chinese military (the white is just painted on, don’t worry, and the paint easily comes off.) Now for something REALLY whacky:

What about pink tires under your pink Ferrari California? In China, this is made possible by Double Star Tires from the great city of Qingdao in Shandong province. Double Star developed a patented process to make tires in any color. Fittingly, this new product is called ‘Rainbow.’ The bonbon-colored tires will hit the market soon and likely with great success. At least in China. Read More >

A while ago, we showed you a system that helps military vehicles blend into the background.  Back then I thought wouldn’t that be nice to have for a car? I bet there are occasions where you would prefer that you could simply look like you weren’t there. Tonight, I saw something that looks like the civilian version. It comes from Toyota. Read More >

MyFordTouch was supposed to build on the SYNC system’s momentum, extending Ford’s edge in mass-market infotainment gizmology. Instead, MyFord nearly killed the golden egg-laying goose, by earning Ford a sharp downgrade from Consumer Reports and widespread criticism. Ford has decided that 40-minute training sessions weren’t going to cut it as a response to the complaints that the system was balky and confusing, and The Blue Oval is now trumpeting the all-new for 2013 version of MyFordTouch. Because, in the words of Ford’s spokes-interior-designer-person

As you can see, with a software platform like SYNC, it’s easy to continuously improve and upgrade your system.

You know, in comparison to the all-new Ford Escape she’s sitting in. It’s still not quite as easy as a computer software update: instead of downloading the reflash, you have to go into a dealer to get the upgrade. Meanwhile, this is just the latest hurdle in the hot-hot in-car gizmo side of the business. The big one comes in 2014, when the government issue rules on distraction-mitigation in voice-activated in-car systems. That could make this minor public beta testing fiasco look like nothing…