Posted on 2008 under Digital News, Eco-Friendly, Auto |
1
Jul
Tesla’s following up their $100,000 super-electric roadster model with a four-door, five-passenger sedan. It’s called the Model S and will go on sale for about $60,000 in 2010. The Arnold (CA Governor) was on hand at the announcement because he’s giving an incentive package to Tesla to manufacture the car in California, and will probably be in the Bay Area where we are. Perhaps a Telsa manufacturing plant visit is in our future?
Update: Jalopnik says it’s going to have 225 miles per charge. Wowzers!
Posted on 2008 under Auto, Gadget, Security |
28
Jun
Progressive insurance has been testing out the MyRate driving monitoring system for a few years now (it used to be called TripSense), but it’s finally taking the system national, bringing pay-as-you-drive insurance into the mainstream. The little blue box plugs into your car’s ODB II diagnostic port (all cars made after 1996 have one), and studiously records your driving habits, wirelessly sending the data back to Progressive HQ (it’s not clear exactly how). Every six months, Progressive will crunch the numbers and issue a new rate for you based on how you drive — savings of up to 40 percent are possible. Read more… »
Posted on 2008 under Eco-Friendly, Auto |
27
Jun
Volkswagen is going to get into the game, with a “Twin Drive” Golf powered by a 122 horsepower diesel engine and 82 horsies of electric motor. The car should debut around 2010, and VW plans on spending $769 million on the project, helped along by a $23.5 million program put in place by the German government to help along such development. The car, which uses the electric motor for primary power, supplemented by the diesel motor Read more… »
Posted on 2008 under Auto, Miscellaneous |
31
Mar
If Coda’s claims are true, their Self Inflating Tires in development now seem like an inevitable future for car owners. The simple mechanism works with classic principles of a peristaltic pump: a tube is placed in each tire’s sidewall. As it’s run over, the tube’s compression forces air in (filling the tire). A cut-off makes sure the tire doesn’t explode. That’s it. Sound too good to be true? Maybe. But having all tires on the road at optimal inflation could lead to a huge gas/energy savings every year (and as our friends at Jalopnik point out, it’s pretty good for safety as well). So our Read more… »