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As gas costs climb, driving dwindles

Gasoline prices this week reached a new record average of $4.02 per gallon, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.

Two-thirds of Americans have already changed how much they drive due to high prices at the pump, according to a poll commissioned by Access America Travel Insurance and Assistance.

Seventy-four percent of those polled said they would drive less, once gas hits $4 per gallon. Eighty-five percent said $5 costs per gallon would motivate driving changes.

The median price to spark a shift in driving habits was $3.20 per gallon, which was near the average several months ago. … Read more

News.com Daily Podcast: Getting ready for Road Trip 2008

Space shuttles, Corvettes, and more await CNET News.com reporter Daniel Terdiman on his annual tech trek. Listen now: Download today's podcast

For the third straight year, CNET News.com reporter and Geek Gestalt blogger Daniel Terdiman is taking his show on the road.

For three weeks he'll be wandering the southeastern United States with a gaggle of gadgets in tow as he checks out the geekiest places the South has to offer. Daniel joins Erica Ogg to talk about the places he's most excited to see, as well as the best ways for readers to interact … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 735: Ind_na Jo__es

Paramount is dropping sounds out of your movies; Canadian customs guards might be rifling through your laptop for ripped CDs; and aliens are real. See, now, it sounds like today's show is all made-up stories, but the first two things are true, and the last one is...well, I don't know, I guess it might be true. There's a guy in Denver who says he's got a video. YouTube it!

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 735

Comcast hijackers say they warned the company first http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/comcast-hijacke.html http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/007034.html… Read more

Stupid hybrid tax incentive quotas

I already own a hybrid (a Ford Escape) but am toying with the idea of going for the gusto by trading in the old Ford for a gas-sipping Honda Civic or Toyota Prius hybrid. When I bought my Ford, Uncle Sam sweetened the deal by giving me a tax credit of around $2,000, so my expectation was a similar financial incentive if I went for a more economical model. Not so fast! In its infinite wisdom, the federal government created one of the dumber set of guidelines you could ever imagine.

Once a manufacturer (for instance, Ford, Honda, Toyota, … Read more

Hybrid-electric carmaker readies 220 mpg 'super car'

Hybrid Technologies is preparing a '"green" sports car to submit in the Automotive X Prize contest, according to a report in Popular Mechanics.

The car will come in two versions: one for the Auto X Prize that will have a gasoline engine and battery and another all-electric version.

The gas-battery hybrid will get the equivalent of 220 miles per gallon while the all-electric will get 150 mpg to 180 mpg. A drivable prototype is set to hit the streets in September.

The idea is to make the X Prize entrant something that will result in a mass-produced electric … Read more

Sanyo to make batteries for Volkswagen cars

Sanyo and Volkswagen announced an agreement on Wednesday to make lithium-ion batteries for hybrid electric vehicles, turning up the competition in the field for energy-efficient cars.

Sanyo intends to open a factory to make the batteries in 2010 and Volkswagen plans to introduce a car with them the same year, according to a Bloomberg report. The first car to get the batteries will be an Audi AG, Reuters reported.

The pact also calls for the two companies to make software to electronically control the batteries.

Sanyo already provides nickel metal hydride batteries for Ford and Honda.

Lithium-ion batteries are growing … Read more

Photos: Production hybrids

As part of our retrospective of this season's auto shows, we've put together a roundup of new hybrids that are scheduled--or likely--to make it to market in the next year or so. Many of them are larger models that make use of the two-mode hybrid system jointly developed by a consortium of major automakers that are scrambling to clean up their fleets.

See our round up of production hybrids here.

Photos: The 12 greenest cars of 2008

Each year, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) puts out its list of the 12 "greenest cars," taking into account tailpipe emissions, gas mileage, and curb weight. Here is our photo gallery of this year's greenest 12.

Click here for photos of the ACEEE's 12 greenest cars of 2008.

Electric cars: iPhones of the auto industry?

Depending on who you talk to, electric cars pack the disruptive force of either Dell PCs or the Apple iPhone.

Regardless of your choice of analogy, the auto industry is facing the kind of technology-based competition it hasn't seen in years.

And in this game, start-ups claim to have the upper hand on the incumbents.

"This is probably something that has not been seen since we moved from the horse to the engine," said Henrik Fisker, the CEO of Fisker Automotive, which is designing a luxury hybrid electric car, the Karma.

"We suddenly have an open … Read more