Mercedes-Benz new fuel cell research vehicle is built on its B-class platform.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)Instead of big, new vehicle launches at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz focused heavily on technology. The company brought out its next generation fuel cell vehicle, a car that lets passenger and driver view different content on the same screen, and an iPhone app that works with the company's new telematics service, Mbrace.
The 2011 Mercedes-Benz F-Cell is a fuel cell research vehicle, continuing the company's look into using hydrogen fuel cells to generate electricity to drive a car. The new model is based on the Mercedes-Benz B-class, a small vehicle with practical interior space. The fuel cells, lithium ion battery, and hydrogen tanks sit below the floorboards.
Mercedes-Benz owners can use this iPhone app to unlock their doors.
(Credit: Wayne Cunningham/CNET)The hydrogen tanks store 3.7 kilograms of hydrogen compressed at 10,000 psi, while the lithium ion battery produces 35 kilowatts. This vehicle's range is 248 miles, getting the equivalent of 86.6 mpg. The electric motor drives the wheels with 136 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque, getting the F-Cell to 60 mph in 11.3 seconds.
For its production cars, Mercedes-Benz introduced its new Mbrace service, powered by Hughes Telematics. Similar to competing services such as Onstar, Mbrace provides crash notification to the nearest authorities, concierge services for navigation, and emergency roadside assistance. Mbrace also offers traffic and weather features, but most of these are concierge-based, so you will have to talk to a real operator.
Mbrace includes a smart phone app, current available for the Blackberry and iPhone, that lets you lock and unlock your car from almost anywhere in the world. The app uses a graphic of a Mercedes-Benz key, with button areas matching the lock and unlock functions of the physical key. The app also has a car location feature, which can guide you to your car if you forgot where you parked it.
And finally, Mercedes-Benz will offer an optional split-view technology for the LCDs in its S- and CL-class cars. This technology lets the passenger watch a movie, while the driver uses the car's navigation. Check out Brian Cooley's video, in which he shows how it works.
After its introduction almost two years ago and after numerous delays, Garmin and AT&T announced on Tuesday the upcoming availability of the Garmin Nuvifone G60.
The Nuvifone G60 will be sold in stores and online starting October 4 for $299 with a two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. For the price, you're getting a smartphone with full GPS capabilities, including preloaded maps of North America, millions of points of interest, and voice-guided directions.
Just like Garmin's standlone portable navigation devices, the G60 will also feature the company's "Where am I?" feature that shows you your coordinates and the nearest address, intersection, gas station, hospital, and so forth in case of an emergency. Customers will also be able to get Premium Connected Services, which include real-time traffic, fuel prices, weather, white pages, movie info, and local events for an additional $5.99 per month after a 30-day trial.
The smartphone also offers a full HTML browser and is 3G-capable. You can also get online with Wi-Fi and access AT&T's 20,000 hot spots around the country. There's also a 3-megapixel camera with geotagging capabilities and 2GB of user-available memory with a microSD expansion slot (up to 16GB). Physically, the Nuvifone G60 measures 4.4 inches tall by 2.3 inches wide by 0.57 inch thick and features a 3.5-inch WVGA resistive touch screen and 2.5mm headset jack.
As far as the smartphone part, the Linux-based G60 offers standard personal information management tools (Calendar, 5,000-entry address book, notes, alarm clock, etc.), document viewing, and support for Hotmail, Gmail, AOL mail, POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts. For the full list of features and specs, you can check out Garmin's Web site.
Now, that it's official and we have a launch date, what do you guys think? Anyone interested in getting one? Or would you rather stick with a standalone GPS or use a location-based service like TeleNav with a GPS-enabled smartphone or cell phone? Let us know!
(Credit:
CellControl)
If you can't keep your hands off your cell phone while driving, a new blocking device can help you keep them on the wheel.
CellControl plugs into the computer terminals of cars made in 1996 and later (terminals are located under the steering column). It then links to your cell via Bluetooth and a downloadable application. When the vehicle is in motion, the device blocks all incoming and outgoing calls, plus texts and e-mails. But it always allows you to call emergency numbers.
CellControl does not depend on cell phone tower triangulation or GPS; as long as a car is moving at more than 1 mph, it will sense the motion and block calling. Incoming calls and messages are stored.
The device can be programmed, though, to allow only calls or text messages. Once the car is stopped, calls automatically come through. Passenger cell phones are not affected.
Driving while distracted (DWD) is becoming an increasingly important public safety issue.
Louisiana-based developer Obdedge says texting was related to about 500,000 road accidents in 2008. Meanwhile, the United Services Automobile Association recently noted that studies conducted in summer 2009 show texting while driving makes a driver 23 times more likely to be involved in an accident, while talking on a cell phone while driving, even hands-free, makes drivers as likely to cause a crash as someone considered legally drunk.
Obdedge is offering free beta testing before it launches CellControl for BlackBerry devices on September 15. Launches for Windows Mobile and Android will come later.
DETROIT--General Motors is still striving to prepare a fuel cell power train for production around 2012, says the company's new research and development chief.
"Technology leadership is one of the pillars of the company. That is going to remain, and it will probably be emphasized as part of the brand of GM," says Alan Taub, executive director of GM r&d.
Taub, 54, takes over for Larry Burns, 58, who retires Oct. 1.
GM has significantly reduced the size and cost of its fuel cell stack, which produces electricity from hydrogen. The latest generation fits in the same space as the company's four-cylinder Ecotech engine.
But the future of fuel cells is uncertain in part because the United States would have to spend billions of dollars to create a fueling infrastructure for hydrogen. And the Obama administration has little enthusiasm for hydrogen.
Taub, who has a Ph.D. in applied physics, spent 15 years in research at General Electric before working for Ford Motors. He joined GM in 2001. Taub reports to product development chief Tom Stephens.
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TeleNav Navigator running on the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G.
(Credit: TeleNav)TeleNav announced on Monday that it will make its TeleNav GPS Navigator application available to the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G when it goes on sale on August 5. It will be the first location-based service to launch on the MyTouch 3G and customers will be able to try it out for free for 30 days before signing up for the $9.99 per month unlimited access option.
According to the location-based service provider, TeleNav GPS Navigator has been optimized for the Android smartphone and offers 3D moving maps in portrait and landscape mode, text- and voice-guided directions with text-to-speech functionality, and automatic route recalculation. In addition, the application features speech recognition so MyTouch 3G owners will be able to press a button on their smartphone, speak the name of a business or address, and get directions.
When calculating routes, TeleNav GPS Navigator will take traffic into account and it will also alert drivers to any new incidents along the route with audible and visual prompts. Alternatively, users can set up daily traffic commute alerts where TeleNav sends an e-mail at a predetermined time with a summary of the traffic conditions for their routes. Other features of the app include a 10 million points of interest database, gas price listings, five-day weather forecasts, and the ability preplan trips from TeleNav's Web site and send them directly to the MyTouch 3G.
To sign up for a free trial, you can go to TeleNav's Web site. TeleNav GPS Navigator is also available on a wide range of handsets, including the T-Mobile G1, Apple iPhone 3GS, and the Palm Pre, and also powers AT&T Navigator and Sprint Navigation.
Well, I'll be damned. I never thought I'd see this day, but after numerous delays, Garmin-Asus is finally releasing its Nuvifone models, starting with select Asian markets.
The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone G60 will be the first out the door and will go on sale in Taiwan on July 27, and then in Singapore and Malaysia by the end of August. The Garmin-Asus Nuvifone M20 will also go on sale in August, shipping in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia.
As for us here in the States (and Europe), Garmin-Asus says the Nuvifone G60 is on schedule for delivery in the second half of the year. However, there was no mention of a North American release of the Windows Mobile-based Nuvifone M20. However, I have to wonder, does it even matter? Today's market is full of so many capable and proven smartphones and mobile GPS solutions; is anyone going to go for this?
Scientists from Ohio University have come across a way to harvest large amounts of cheap hydrogen from a rather unlikely source: urine. Apparently, plucking hydrogen atoms from urine is much easier than getting it from water.
Gerardine Botte, one of the Ohio University professors actively developing this "pee power" technology, attributes this difference to urea, a cleaner of diesel emissions and major component of urine. A molecule of urea is composed of four hydrogen atoms and two nitrogen atoms. Applying an electric current using a special nickel electrode causes those hydrogen atoms to pop right off. The trick is that it requires about 97 percent less electricity to release the hydrogen from the urea molecules than from a water molecule--specifically 0.037 volt for urine versus 1.23 volts for water.
Imagine a future where fuel cell vehicles get 90 miles per gallon (of pee) and farms generate their own power from livestock waste. That future could be here sooner than you think. Botte currently has a working small-scale prototype that generates up to 500 milliwatts of power, and she plans to have large-scale examples up and running in about six months.
I imagine this will probably change the nature of stopping for a fill-up during a long road trip.
(Via Discovery News)
TomTom on iPhone
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)With the announcement of iPhone OS 3.0, we knew that real-time, turn-by-turn navigation would soon become a reality on the iPhone. It was just a matter of when and how, and it looks like we finally got our answer on Monday.
Joining Apple onstage at the WWDC 2009 keynote, longtime GPS manufacturer TomTom unveiled its application for the iPhone, bringing maps and voice-guided directions to the smartphone. The biggest boon for drivers is the addition of the audible prompts, since the current iPhone is only able to provide text-based instructions through Google Maps. In addition, TomTom will offer a car kit for the iPhone, which includes a vehicle mount and car charger.
The TomTom app is expected to be available this summer, but as CNET's Erica Ogg and Kent German point out, the big question is how much this will cost. Mapping and navigation software isn't cheap, so it'll be interesting to see where they put the pricing on this app and how it compares with Sprint Navigation on the Palm Pre. Also, I have to wonder, would Garmin have been better off going the app route instead of launching its own Nuvifone line of GPS-enabled smartphones, which has yet to see the light of day?
(Credit:
Pharos)
Pharos announced on Thursday the immediate availability of its latest GPS-enabled smartphone, the Pharos Traveler 137. The Traveler 137 will be sold unlocked through various online retailers, including Amazon, Dell, eXpansys, and Newegg, for $599.95, though you can receive a $250 discount if you sign up for a two-year T-Mobile contract through Pharos.
First introduced at CES 2009, the Traveler 137 is a bit unlike other GPS-enabled smartphones in that you can use its navigation software without a cellular connection. The smartphone ships with Pharos' Smart Navigator software with the vector map and routing calculations, so you'll be able to view maps, create routes, and get turn-by-turn directions at any time.
In addition, the Traveler 137 offers a 3.5-inch, VGA touch screen; a 3-megapixel camera; Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; and support for T-Mobile's 3G network (1700/1900/2100MHz). We'll be getting one in for review and putting it through the usual testing, so stay tuned for a full review.
Obama talks GM, but leaves out the "B" word. Hydrogen is back this week; will it stay? And the new version of Microsoft SYNC is out; we'll tell you what it does and if your Ford can get it. Plus, a ride in a hotted-up Lexus.
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SHOW NOTES
• CNET Video: Cooley drives the Lexus IS350
• Check here to upgrade SYNC in your FoMoCo vehicle
