The recent emergence of the modern plug-in electric vehicle has brought more automaker start-ups to the marketplace than we've seen in decades, with Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors the most prominent examples. While there were numerous parallels…
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Ford SmartPhoneLink Could Extend Life of Aftermarket Car Audio
As smartphones become ever more ubiquitous and mobile broadband connectivity improves, traditional sources of news and entertainment such as radio and CDs are speeding their transition into irrelevance — and along with them, the traditional car…
Lincoln: Dead Brand Walking, or Signs of Life?
When Alan Mulally walked into the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters for the first time in October 2006, he had already formulated a basic plan to save the biggest family-controlled business in America, and it didn't include Lincoln or Mercury.…
Should Automakers Be Selling “Beta” Cars?
In the introduction to a January 2009 BusinessWeek excerpt from his book “What Would Google Do?,” author Jeff Jarvis extolled the idea that the Detroit automakers should start releasing cars in “beta” form, much the way the Silicon Valley tech giant…
The History of the Ford Mustang's Independent Rear Suspension
When the 2015 Ford Mustang finally goes on sale this fall, it will be the first time in the pony car's 50-year history that every example will sport an independent rear suspension system. Aside from a few thousand SVT Cobras between 1999 and 2004,…
Tesla hires “Hacker Princess” to help lock down the Model S
Over the past decade, computer network security has been a growing field, and hackers play an important role. One of the newest employees at Tesla Motors is Kristin Paget, whose job title is Security Geek.
To be clear, Paget is a hacker.
The news of…
How Ford's SYNC conference at CES could mean powerful new apps
Ever since Ford first came to what was then the Consumer Electronics Show in 2007 to announce SYNC, mobile device connectivity has been at the heart of the automaker's infotainment strategy. This year, Ford is adding new capabilities for SYNC AppLink…
You can 3D print these free Honda concept car models at home
The day when we can skip a trip to the parts store and just download and 3D-print what we need to fix our cars is probably still many years in the future. Until that time arrives, we'll have to satisfy ourselves with printing out small-scale versions…
NHTSA Looks at Mandating Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications for Future Cars
This week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), took the first step toward bringing talking cars to America's roads by enabling vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication systems.
This is all about vehicles silently talking to each…
Will Samsung build autonomous electric cars with Google?
South Korean industrial behemoth Samsung may be on the verge of trying its hand at cars again after a failed attempt to establish itself as an automaker in the mid-1990s. This time, however, it could be a very different story, as Samsung may be…