If you are out partying with your friends this holiday season, download this app before you head out
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has created an app to help you get a ride and provide your location if you've had too many adult beverages this holiday season. ?
The Prius is a great fuel-efficient car, but save the $6,000 on the plug
The +TOYOTA Prius is as good as ever for efficiency minded, but the non-plug version is the one to buy. If you really want zero emissions driving, buy a BEV like the Nissan Leaf or at least a longer-range PHEV like the +Ford Motor Company Fusion Energi or +Chevrolet Volt.?
The security of electronics in cars is an important issue, let's not desensitize people by overblowing trivial stuff
Over at +Jalopnik, +Jason Torchinsky does an excellent job of debunking an overwrought post from Cult of Mac. Charlie Miller does a lot of important research and automakers should be encouraging this so they can find and fix the wholes in their systems. But what Miller accomplished on this vehicle is more of an annoyance than a real problem. Let's keep a watchful eye on this worry when we really need to.?
There’s an article out now about how Apple security expert and intrepid car-hacking experimenter managed to ‘brick’ his new Jeep Cherokee. Fascinating story, right? Guy destroys his own car with a laptop? Too bad it’s not true. Well, I guess good for the Jeep owner/experimenter.
Yesterday in Dearborn, Ford CTO Raj Nair announced the Ford Performance brand
Ford Performance will encompass SVT-developed vehicles like the GT350 Mustang and Team RS-developed vehicles like the upcoming Focus RS. Best of all, Nair announced that henceforth Dave Pericak will be the global director of Ford Performance. I can't think of a better choice within Ford to lead all of the company's performance vehicle efforts. Since 2008, Dave has been chief engineer for the Mustang and led the development of the all-new model that just launched. With a team that includes Jamal Hameedi and Kerry Baldori at SVT, Ford Performance should produce some exciting stuff in the coming years.
During my time at Ford, I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Pericak and I got to write a profile last year when the new Mustang was revealed.
https://media.ford.com/content/fordmedia/fna/us/en/asset.download.document.pdf.html/content/dam/fordmedia/North%20America/US/2013/12/05/DPericak.pdf?
Texas Instruments may have abandoned phones but they are still mobile in new Ford SYNC 3
MyFord Touch is dead, long live SYNC 3!?
Evidently the midsize pickup segment isn't quite dead yet
Despite Ford arguments that the segment doesn't make sense, +TOYOTA is revealing its next-gen Tacoma at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show.?
If you've been watching the price of Tesla stock for the last couple of weeks you might be getting worried
While I've long felt that the share price of +Tesla Motors is the result of irrational exuberance, that doesn't mean the company is in any imminent danger. There is clearly a market for the products the company is offering although it is unlikely to approach the volume of Toyota or Volkswagen anytime in the foreseeable future.
That said, Tesla should know as well as any company that in the absence of hard data, the internet will speculate and Tesla is a company that was built on the power of the internet "news" machine. I've said previously that the estimation of 3,000 unsold Model S in inventory is probably not a big deal. At the company's sales rate, that's about 5-6 weeks of inventory and for other automakers, 8 weeks (60 days) supply is considered optimal.
Those vehicles are in-transit to stores, showroom demos and stock for customers that want a car now. What may pose a bigger long-term problem for Tesla is the low price of oil especially as the brand tries to move down-market. In all likelihood, Tesla could probably find itself a sustainable niche at the $100,000+ end of the market and potentially even get truly profitable some day. Trying do the same in the $35-40K region will be a lot harder.
As Damon says in his +Jalopnik story, if Tesla wants to kill the speculation of trouble, they should just come clean about what's really going on. ?
There’s been a collective freak-out about Tesla’s sales figures for the year. Specifically, there’s a discrepancy between the cars Tesla claims to have delivered and the number of Model S sedans actually registered. Why? Because Tesla refuses to publish sales data like everyone else.
I'm so glad that we gave up on the Newsroom after the second episode of season 1
I've never liked Aaron Sorkin's work and this show was a particularly egregious example. I'm not sorry to have missed this episode.?
The HBO series The Newsroom began in 2012 as a story about one man’s mission to civilize — starting with the lowest-common-denominator churn of cable news. Like Mad Men, it is a workplace period…
The United States government committed human rights atrocities in the name of "protecting" the American people and accomplished nothing positive in the process
Torture is not and never has been an effective means of gathering intelligence. We need to permanently repudiate this behavior and punish those that authorized and committed these acts. If we do not prosecute the perpetrators it will surely happen again. ?
Interrogators waterboarded one detainee at least 183 times.
Once upon a time, having just three cylinders under the hood was the kiss of death but no more
The 1.0-liter EcoBoost I-3 in the +Ford Motor Company Fiesta is an awesome engine. There's a lot to like about the rest of the car too but it's not the roomiest car in the segment. ?
