InsideTech

Chief Engineer Andrew Farah and Battery Engineering Group Manager Bill Wallace recently gave members of the press an update on the status of the 2011 Chevy Volt and its battery pack.  Designed with the goal of providing a 40 mile range from a 16 kWh (8 kWh usable) charge, the pack and its supporting systems have evolved greatly over the past ...

LOS ANGELES - Facebook said Thursday a California court has awarded the social networking Web site $711 million in damages in an anti-spam case against Internet marketer Sanford Wallace. Facebook sued Wallace for accessing users' accounts without their permission and sending phony posts and messages. The company said on its blog that in addition to the damage award, the San Jose, ...

New engine ideas are gaining traction thanks to a combination of technical breakthroughs and demand for more fuel efficient vehicles.  Such diverse technologies as cam-less (solenoid driven) engine valves, gasoline direct injection, and advanced turbocharging are being explored. However, one fundamental problem is that when you reduce the engine to the smallest possible size with these technologies, it's still a block ...

Good drivers can make the road a friendly place for their fellow drivers and milk great gas mileage (or equally great performance) out of their vehicles.  However, for every good driver on the road, there's plenty of bad ones.  According to studies, cell phones play a role in the poor overall quality of driving that leads to many accidents across America.  ...

WASHINGTON - Safety investigators told federal regulators three years ago that it was dangerous for bus drivers to talk on cell phones while driving and recommended a ban. The National Transportation Safety Board put that recommendation on its list of most important safety measures. Industry and safety groups had no objections. Yet the regulatory agency that would write new rules ...

In the early twentieth century, airships were a promising new front of warfare, with dirigibles serving both for bombing and for intelligence gathering.  However, the advent of airplanes and key disasters such as the Hindenburg fire spelled the death of the airship as a war weapon.  Airships still stuck around, though, in the form of the blimps that float over sporting ...

Toyota's third-generation Prius is a certified hit with consumers. While the Prius has been one of Toyota's more popular models in recent years, the 2010 Prius with its promise of 50 mpg has pushed sales and demand into the stratosphere. At first, however, Toyota was a bit worried over how much damage Honda's cheaper 2010 Insight would do to the sales ...

P. Morgan Brown learned the hard way how crafty wireless providers can be. On a quick trip to Indonesia, his wife took her Verizon Wireless cell phone and when she came home, a nice big surprise was witing for her. The first bill, with charges at $2.50 per text message and $1.75 per one-minute phone calls, came out to around $8,000. "We ...

WASHINGTON - Opening a government meeting on auto safety, the Obama administration reported Wednesday that nearly 6,000 people were killed and a half-million injured last year in vehicle crashes connected to driver distraction, a striking indication of the dangers of using mobile devices behind the wheel. The Transportation Department was bringing together experts over two days for what it's calling ...

WASHINGTON - Ford said Thursday it backs federal legislation pressuring states to ban texting while driving in an effort to reduce driver distractions that could lead to accidents. In a statement, Ford safety executive Sue Cischke cited research that shows drivers who take their eyes off the road for extended periods increase the risk of accidents. That includes drivers who send ...

A popular alternative to hybrid buses and subways gets a boost Bombardier is well-known worldwide as a manufacturer of aircraft, snowmobiles, and personal watercraft. The company has annual sales of almost $20 billion USD, and is well diversified into multiple transportation markets. One of these markets is light rail vehicles, commonly known as streetcars. Many European cities have highly developed light ...

DETROIT - A cane equipped with the technology that retailers use to tag merchandise could help blind people avoid obstacles. An engineering professor and five students at Central Michigan University have created a "Smart Cane" to read electronic navigational tags installed between buildings to aid the blind in reaching their destinations more easily. "This project started as a way for ...

The hybrid SUV market has popped up and expanded greatly over the last several years, though it has been damaged by the recession.  Ford offers the affordable Escape and Mercury Mariner hybrids and Mazda is offering its new Tribute hybrid SUV. Toyota's Highlander is also making the rounds in the hybrid market. Lexus< has competitors easily beat on price.  Priced lower ...

It was reported late last month that the $1 billion set aside for the Cash for Clunkers program had been exhausted. Under the Clunkers program, Americans were offered up to $4,500 to trade in old, gas guzzling vehicles -- the cash would then be applied towards the purchase price of a new, more fuel efficient vehicle. According to the Obama administration, ...

DETROIT - When two Visalia, Calif., police officers swung their cruisers behind a sport utility vehicle that had been carjacked at gunpoint early Sunday, they prepared for a dangerous high-speed chase. The 2009 Chevrolet Tahoe roared away with officers in pursuit, but shortly after the suspect made a right turn, operators at General Motors Co.'s OnStar service sent a command ...

Honda and Toyota bet big on two things - hybrids in the short term and hydrogen fuel cells in the long term.  For Toyota, the first bet has added up to 2 million units in sales and big profits.  And while Honda, which was the first to release a commercial hybrid in the U.S. initially saw the attempt flop, it now ...

Luxury electric car maker Tesla Motors appears to be firing on all cylinders.  Despite a painful couple of years that saw the company cutting back to survive the recession, the company emerged stronger than ever. Thanks to a new partnership with Daimler, additional engineering, distribution, and marketing resources were gained. And most importantly, Tesla finally began to deliver vehicles. Now the company can ...

ATLANTA - Air travelers nationwide scrambled to revise their travel plans Thursday after an FAA computer glitch caused widespread cancellations and delays for the second time in 15 months. The Federal Aviation Administration said the problem, which lasted about five hours, was fixed around 10 a.m., but it was unclear how long flights would continue to be affected. Doug Church, ...

The U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee now believes NASA must come up with an additional $3 billion per year to be able to launch manned missions to the moon or to Mars. The committee said the U.S. space agency absolutely must rely more on private contractors to help fly astronauts back to the International Space Station, and other low Earth-orbit ...

These days, wild claims about plug-in fuel economy are becoming commonplace.  GM is claiming that the 2011 Chevy Volt will get an incredible 230 mpg.  And Nissan, not to be outdone, is claiming that its pure-electric 2011 Nissan Leaf EV will get 367 mpg (presumably calculated using power plant efficiency, as the vehicle uses no fuel). Fisker, meanwhile, is taking a ...