Safety

Driving around in a snowstorm or heavy rain often feels similar to the hyperspace travel effect seen in the various "Star Wars" movies, which can distract even the most seasoned driver (unless you can make the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs). A new smart headlight from Carnegie Mellon University could make distracting precipitation far less dangerous to drive through.… Read more

So Lit Motors is developing what looks a lot like a motorcycle, but with several traits from a car: You don't have to balance and you don't get wet. They call this model the C-1 and the full-size running prototype is, admittedly, in a very basic state. But here we see the sort of thinking that is perhaps just this side of too radical, while performing drastic surgery on one of the last great areas of waste in our daily lives: the amount of car we lug around for no particular reason.

I like Daniel Kim, he wants to change things but isn't up "there" in a world of intangibles. He began his career as a Land Rover mechanic and, like Steve Jobs, did a little coursework at Reed College in Oregon before moving on (probably bored with the routine progression of college.) He's assembled a team of about a dozen people in a old warehouse in San Francisco that looks like a poster child for urban renewal. … Read more

When fines and warnings don't work, police may want to consider another tactic to stop distracted driving: confiscate mobile devices.

Thanks to a new law in Cape Town, South Africa, police have started confiscating mobile phones of motorists caught talking or texting while driving, reports the Cape Times. It's legal for motorists to use hands-free devices to operate mobile phones, but using handheld phones behind the wheel can result in a 500 Rand ($60) fine, or up to three years in jail, or both. However, officials say they give out 8,000 fines each month, and haven't … Read more

Settling into the driver's seat of a modern, 2012 model year automobile means that you'll be facing quite a few LCD screens. You've got the display for the audio system, sometimes a color screen for navigation, the occasional standalone climate-control display, the monochromatic trip computer/vehicle settings LCD in the instrument cluster, and sometimes the instrument cluster itself is just one big LCD. Lots of screens demanding more and more of the driver's visual attention.

Sometimes, it's good to simplify and consolidate these screens down to a more manageable number. Many drivers chose to do … Read more

In the next 12-24 months, luxury vehicles will hit the roads with the driver physically at the wheel, but his mind potentially elsewhere. Audi, BMW, and Mercedes have all demonstrated semi-autonomous "traffic jam assistants" that will do the driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic, lessening the stress of the daily commute. But what about for the equally tense driver of your non-luxury vehicle? Luckily, Ford is working to bring that same frill to the mainstream buyer.

Ford announced in a news statement that it, too, is developing a semi-autonomous system for its vehicles. The "Traffic Jam Assistant" is … Read more

An Illinois town's police department is using social media to spread the word on the dangers of running a red light.

For the past couple of months, the Granite City Police Department in Illinois has posted a weekly video on its Facebook page of red light runners filmed from a traffic video camera. The video shows car after car running red lights at the lone intersection in the town equipped with the red light camera.

The Facebook posts may hint of public shaming of traffic violators, but license plates aren't readable from the video, and no descriptions or … Read more

It's a completely new way to capture pictures that moves the process of focus, composition, and even interpretation from the photographer to the viewer. Ren Ng is the founder of startup Lytro in Silicon Valley, where they are building this new kind of camera and new kind of mindset to go with it.

The things Lytro exposes in consumer photography have always been just a little out of the grasp of the mainstream photographer. By making them simple, this company's technology could popularize some of the finer points of photography like depth of field and perspective control. Biggest challenges? Definitely the smartphone and the flight to convenience, social connectivity and low commitment that it represents. … Read more

You may want to think twice about responding to a text the next time you're behind the wheel -- a Massachusetts court set a precedent by convicting a teenager of vehicular homicide for texting while driving.

Today a jury found Haverhill, Mass. resident Aaron Deveau, 18, guilty of vehicular homicide for a distracted driving accident he caused last year that took the life of Donald Bowley, according to CBS Boston. The car driven by the New Hampshire father of three was struck head-on by Deveau's vehicle when the young driver swerved across the center line.

Deveau, who was … Read more

Another 19 Fisker Karmas are being recalled due to a potential fire hazard risk in the battery compartment.

Incorrectly positioned hose clamps could cause a cooling leak, Fisker Automotive reported in its government recall notice. If coolant enters the battery compartment, an electrical short could result in a fire. The luxury automaker recalled 239 of its plug-in hybrid vehicles in December 2011 because of this installation defect, and the latest recall is an expansion of the same problem.

Owners of the affected 2012 Karmas will be notified by Fisker, which will arrange transportation of the vehicles to repair facilities. The … Read more