At CES on Monday, Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda said the Japanese auto giant will transform a 175-acre site of a former car factory into a “prototype city of the future” where it can test autonomous vehicles, innovative street design, smart home technology, robotics, and new mobility products on real people who would live there full-time. The Verge reports: The site, which…
Tag: Toyota
Uber Joins Forces With Joby Aviation To Launch An Air Taxi Service By 2023
Uber is joining forces with California-based aerospace company Joby Aviation to launch urban air-taxi services in select locations by 2023. The Verge reports: Joby is the brainchild of inventor JoeBen Bevirt, who started the company in 2009. The company operated in relative obscurity until 2018, when Joby announced it had raised a surprising $100 million from a variety of investors, including…
How Much Are Cars Spying On Their Owners?
“We’re at a turning point for driving surveillance,” reports the Washington Post (in an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader davidwr ). “In the 2020 model year, most new cars sold in the United States will come with built-in Internet connections, including 100 percent of Fords, GMs and BMWs and all but one model Toyota and Volkswagen.” Often included for free…
Vietnam’s Richest Man Bets $2 Billion To Sell Cars To Americans
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: The billionaire behind six-month-old Vietnamese auto startup VinFast plans a feat even Toyota and Hyundai couldn’t pull off during their early days: sell a car in the U.S. Pham Nhat Vuong, the Southeast Asian country’s richest man and now in charge of the new automaker, is so intent on exporting electric vehicles to…
New Cars’ Pedestrian-Safety Features Fail In Deadliest Situations, Study Finds
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Wall Street Journal: New safety features being rolled out by auto makers to keep drivers from hitting pedestrians don’t work at times in some of the most dangerous situations and frequently fail at night, according to a new study by AAA. Testing performed by the association found that pedestrian-detection technology offered in four…
Toyota Is Trying To Figure Out How To Make a Car Run Forever
Put together the best solar panels money can buy, super-efficient batteries and decades of car-making know-how and, theoretically, a vehicle might run forever. From a report: That’s the audacious motivation behind a project by Toyota Motor, Sharp and New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan, or NEDO, to test a Prius that could revolutionize transportation. “The solar car’s advantage…
What Happens When Landlords Can Get Cheap Surveillance Software?
“Cheap surveillance software is changing how landlords manage their tenants and what laws police can enforce,” reports Slate. For example, there’s a private company contracting with property managers that says they now have 475 security cameras in place and can sometimes scan more than 1.5 million license plates in a week. (According to Clayton Burnett, Watchstore Security’s director of “innovation and…
Toyota Testing Improved Solar Roof For Electric Cars That Can Charge While Driving
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Toyota is testing a new and improved version of the solar power cells it previously launched on the Japan-exclusive Prius PHV, in a pilot along with partners Sharp and Japanese national research organization NEDO. This demo car’s prototype cells can convert solar energy at 34% and up, which is much better than the…
Swapping Spark Plugs For Nanopulses Could Boost Engine Efficiency By 20 Percent
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Transient Plasma Systems has its roots in pulsed power technology developed for the Department of Defense at the University of Southern California, specifically nanosecond-duration pulses of power. Since 2009, it has been working on commercializing the technology for the civilian market in a number of applications, but obviously it’s the automotive one…
Hydrogen Station Explodes, Toyota Halts Sales of Hydrogen Cars In Norway
Socguy writes: The Uno-X hydrogen station in Sandvika in Baerum exploded on Monday and resulted in two injuries in a nearby non-fuel cell vehicle. The company operating the station has suspended operation at its other locations following the explosion. With the refueling network crippled, Toyota and Hyundai have announced that they are temporarily halting sales of fuel cell vehicles. Jon Andre…