Xeni & Rob

In future America, car stops you.

To wrap up our visit to its R&D lab in Palo Alto, Mercedes-Benz's Gordon Peredo demonstrated "Smart Stop," a wireless safety system that stops cars automatically when the driver fails to heed a red light.

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Rob Beschizza

Cars! Mercedes' future wireless entertainment tech

Dr. Kal Mos, Engineering Director for Mercedes-Benz R&D, North America, demonstrates future in-vehicle entertainment and information systems at the company's Palo Alto lab.

In the fourth post from our visit to Mercedes' North American research lab in Palo Alto (Disclosure: MB is a sponsor of BBG), we discover that COMAND's next-gen media streaming user interface is uninviting (and unfinalized) but effective: think the 1990s web, but with modern features like high-def YouTube videos, Facebook or Twitter integration, and Google or Mapquest Maps.

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Rob Beschizza

Cars! E-Wolf E2 Electric Car

Wolf offers an electric Lambo to go with Tesla's Lotus-a-like. But looks, like batteries, only go so far. From Autoblog:

Powering the theoretical electric supercar will be one 134-horsepower electric motor per wheel for a total of 536 squeaky-clean horses and an impressive 738 lb-ft of torque (1,000 Nm). The run to 60 mph is expected to be dispatched in well under four seconds, though the top speed may be capped at 155 mph.

Energy storage will be by way of a lithium ion battery pack composed of 84 flat cells from CERIO. Although no details have been released on the pack's stated capacity, e-Wolf suggests that range could be as high as 187 miles...

e-Wolf channels inner Italian with planned e2 electric car [Autoblog via The Awesomer]

Xeni & Rob

Cars! Pairing Mercedes with iPhone

Bluetooth is a standard feature on Mercedes' COMAND system, allowing owners of many phones to use the dashboard's phone keypad to make calls. SMS messaging will be introduced some time down the line, too.

But we'll admit that trying to set it up was a stumper. First blaming the car, we soon found that the failure lived at the intersection of our own stupidity and an unusual UI choice by Apple. President and CEO of Mercedes R&D, North America, Johann Jungwirth, shows here how to pair an iPhone with the Mercedes 2010 E Class.

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Xeni & Rob

Cars! BBG visits Mercedes-Benz' telematics research lab

Pale and precise behind rimless spectacles, Johann Jungwith looks the consummate engineer; though a longtime U.S. resident, Formula 1 is still his sport. As president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz' U.S. research arm, it's his responsibility to oversee development of new technologies intended to make driving safer and drivers smarter. Today, however, more pressing matters are at hand: he's showing us how to pair an iPhone with a Merc.

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Xeni & Rob

Cars! Interior textures of the 2010 E-Class (Gallery)

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Rob Beschizza

Cars! Battle of the little green electric urban go-carts

Nissan's Leaf is out next year; a year after that comes the Reva NXG, recently shown off at the Frankfurt motor show.

It's a similarly equipped little plug-in, with the emissions of a butterfly and the driving range of a bee: it lasts 125 miles and can go 80 MPH. Perfect for Pittsburgh, but not so much for anything that involves tasks other than shopping and commuting. Unless it is making technologically suspect "MPG" claims, of course! But still, I want one: in pastel lime green, naturally. And with a free tankful of electrons. [Jalopnik]

Rob Beschizza

Cars! Natural Gas street-rod blasts out of gangster age

AVF Tech's 1933 Ford Street-Rod contains a 7-liter engine, drive-by-wire and a six speed automatic gearbox. When completed, it'll push out 600 hp and blow away just about everything else manufactured in the last 75 years.

Oh, yes, and it runs on natural gas. [AVF Tech via TA]

Lisa Katayama

Honda's U3-X is the new segway

Earlier this week, Honda unveiled the U3-X, a unicycle-like tilt-operated vehicle that could put the Segway to shame. It's still a prototype, but once commodified it could become a popular mode of transportation in

[via TokyoMango]

Steven Leckart

Review: 16 Months w/Belkin's 300W DC/AC Inverter

Why ALL automobiles don't come equipped with at least one, built-in 3-prong outlet is beyond me. And why more drivers don't keep an inverter like this one from Belkin in their cars is also a mystery.

Emergencies alone make a simple inverter a super worthwhile item (we also keep a tub filled with spare clothes, shoes, MRIEs, water, etc. in the trunk, you know, "just in case."). But apart from the once-in-a-blue-moon, doom-and-gloom scenarios where we'll be stranded in our car and need to tap the battery to charge a phone or radio, having an inverter available for daily use is a true no-brainer.

Since last April, I've stashed this 300-watt DC-AC inverter in one of the rear seat pockets. I've used it to charge my cell phone and replenish my GoBe battery overnight while car camping. In addition, I've charged up a range of devices en route on car trips — long and short — way too many times to count. Here's the short of it:

Easy to Use: Just pull out the thing, plug the business end into the cigarette lighter, flip the switch on the device, and plug in up to two devices. (Dr. Obvious says: There's no need to have the car turned on.)

Easy to Carry: The whole thing weighs just 2 lbs.; it's not as if you'll ever need to take the device backpacking, but my point is that it's never a hassle to pull out, put back, ad nauseam.

No Outside Juice Required: Requires no batteries, no charging, no sunlight because, you know, it runs off the car battery (Dr. Obvious says: Triple duh).

One Caveat: The inverter's internal fan hums rather loudly when in use. Not enough to disturb phone calls or music too much, but it's noticeably audible.

Verdict: Get one. If not this particular device, then be sure to pick one up that's got at least two 3-prong outlets... and, perhaps, even a USB. You'll rely on your inverter more than you'd expect.

~$40 from Amazon.

Lisa Katayama

Why so many plane crashes in 2009?

It's been a pretty bad year for airplane accidents &mdash 36 and (hopefully not) counting, including a cargo plane crash in the Congo just yesterday that resulted in seven fatalities. Is it just a series of freak accidents or a glitch in the airplane industry? To find out, I interviewed R John Hansman, aeronautics professor at MIT and director of ICAT.

BBG: Is there a bigger reason for the onslaught of plane crashes in 2009 or is it just bad luck?

RJH: There have been times in the past where a series of accidents had exactly the same cause and there was a clear problem to fix. In the early 70s, we didn't understand the meteorology of windsheer, and sudden changes in wind direction were causing control problems. 15-20 years ago, the leading cause of fatal crashes was controlled flight into terrain &mdash that's when a pilot takes a perfectly good airplane and flies it into the ground. This was solved by enhanced ground proximity warning systems, which give the crew warning if they're about to fly a plane into the ground.

That's not the case here. It's been a bad year, but there don't seem to be any systematic problems. The accidents have all been quite different. Commercial aviation is incredibly safe &mdash only about one in every 10 million departures result in accidents in the developed world. It's possible, though, to have a cluster of rare events like this. This year looks bad, but the last couple of years have looked incredibly good. What you're seeing is an effect of statistics in small numbers.

BBG: Human error is involved in more than half of all airplane accidents. Why can't we fix this?

RJH: It's easy but not very useful to identify human failure as the cause of an accidents. More importantly, what caused the human to make the error? Was there a problem in the design of the aircraft, in the procedure, or in terms of fatigue of the crew? It's generally a fair assumption that pilots don't want to be put at risk. The rate of human error has gone down &mdash as a percentage base, it's still high, but that's because the number of overall accidents has declined significantly.

BBG: What about the Air France crash? Is that still a mystery?

RJH: Parts of it will always be a mystery. We have a pretty clear indication that what started the problem was icing on the air speed probes. It was known that the probes on this aircraft needed to be changed, but it wasn't seen to be that urgent. It may have been that the combination of the faulty probes and thunderstorm conditions may have been too hard to manage. The plane had also gone into a simpler flight control system, or alternate mode, which limits what the pilot can do to minimize the possibility of human error. We have a message from the airplane that they went into alternate mode, but we don't have the flight data recorder so we'll never know how that manifested.

*Statistics and image courtesy of Planecrashinfo.com

Steven Leckart

Blockhead Stem: Cycling Do Or Don't?

The Blockhead Stem from cw&t costs $89, which seems pretty reasonable considering it's machined from 7075 aluminum.

Of course, you may be saying why on Earth would you want to put something so un-aerodynamic — with sharp edges — on the front of your bike.

Designer Che-Wei Wang explained to BBG:

The sharp edges are for aesthetic reasons. All the bike parts our there seem to focus on aerodynamics and weight, so we wanted to make something different. We [Wang and partner Taylor Levy] wanted to reveal the purest function of the stem, which is essentially a chunk of metal that has two holes in it. It's minimal and its fabrication is also simple. Starting with a solid block of aluminum the machine time required to mill the stem is low, cutting only what is needed to make it functional.

OK, maybe you're still not sold on the look. But certainly you can get behind their IP philosophy:

Blockhead Stem is licensed under a Creative Commons license. Take our design, modify it, make one for yourself. But please don't sell them because we need money to buy and eat dumplings. Give credit where it's due. We actually want you to go find your machinist buddy and see if he or she can make it for super cheap. We spent about a month searching for a quality machinist that can produce them on demand. If you find a better machinist please share.

Of course, this isn't full-on open source hardware because of the restrictions on selling modified versions of their design, but it's still close enough to make me smile.

Steven Leckart

New Sport: Stand-Up Paddle Skiing

Stand-up paddle boarding, for those who don't know, involves balancing upright on a thick, buoyant surfboard while using a one-sided paddle to propel yourself through the water, and even catch waves. "SUP" has been around for years, but is getting more and more popular, as evident by Laird Hamilton's championing the sport over at Gizmodo.

Looking to push the sport even further, Jason Starr of Colchester, Vermont spent the last five years working and refining his design for stand-up paddle skiing, which is exactly as it sounds and looks in the pic above: riding atop two skis while using a double-sided, kayak-style paddle.

Jason's even patented the idea. And not just the apparatus and design for the skis, but even the "method" itself, including — wait for it — the use of a jet ski to tow into surf on the skis.

Should any adventurous surfer gets sued for attempting to hang 10 on skis it'll be a total bummer.

[via InventVermont via Post Surf]

Steven Leckart

TMBG: "Electric Car, The New Machine"

They Might Be Giants' new kid's album "Here Comes Science" features this catchy, pro-EV ditty.

I'm not a parent, but I'll admit I'm digging this...

Lisa Katayama

42 Brompton folding bikes

Steven Leckart

What's This Guy Driving?

The Tri-Magnum is a fuel-efficient, reverse trike built from a motorcycle, usually a Kawasaki KZ900 or Honda Gold Wing. As evident by the design lines (not to mention the driver's 'stache), this three-wheeler was developed decades ago. However, you can still buy inventor Robert Q. Riley's $95 guide on how to build your own Tri-Magnum for $3,500, not counting the motorcycle.

Since the early 1980s, Riley's refined his reverse trike design quite a bit. The XR3 plug-in hybrid is essentially a re-tooled version of the Tri-Magnum.

After the jump, check out more photos of each vehicle...

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Steven Leckart

Bling Benz: Awesome Or Awestentatious?

Steven Leckart

"Home... is where I want to be, But I guess I'm already there"*

Constructed by artist Kevin Cyr, this tiny trailer is a "functioning sculptural piece." Translation: heavy and impractical (I'm guessing).

Of course, if you hooked up a GreenWheel, it might actually be plausible... until you hit any big hills.

[via Designboom via Trackosaurus Rex]

*"This Must Be The Place"

Lisa Katayama

Michelin tire ad by René Vincent circa 1916

I love the work of René Vincent, illustrator extraordinaire from the early 1900s. He did poster art for Bugatti, Shell, and Peugeot, among many others until his death in 1936. I saw this 1916 Michelin ad at the Concours d'Elegance yesterday &mdash I love that the tire dude is smoking a fat cigar while the rich family that owns the car is fixing his belly. There's something very endearing about the whole scene.

Lisa Katayama

Vintage gas pumps

Gas stations were so much more charming back in the day.

Lisa Katayama

The trunk of a Bugatti Type 44, circa 1928

Here's proof that, before cars had trunk space, they literally had trunks attached to their backs. This is the Bugatti Type 44 from the late 1920s, spotted at the annual Concours d'Elegance car show in Pebble Beach yesterday. The Ford Model A, which also came into production around the same time, also featured an attached trunk &mdash it wasn't until several models later that the trunk was integrated into the car.

Steven Leckart

"About as annoying to handle as a wet diaper"

Giant's latest folding bike, the Clip, is uniquely handsome. It has decent components. It folds relatively quickly/easily. It even rides smoothly. My one complaint?

From my full review over at Wired.com:

The little "D" above the fork seems like a natural carrying handle when the bike is folded. Right? Well, it is -- provided you've got the hands of an 11-year-old girl. Try as we might, we simply couldn't find any comfortable way to grasp the "D."

Not a deal breaker, but worth knowing before you spend $1000.

photo by Jonathan Snyder for Wired

Steven Leckart

As If Keeping Time Weren't Difficult Enough...

Everyone knows being a drummer kind of sucks. You sit in the back and watch the singer take all the credit. The guitar player's always stealing your lady (unless you're Mick Fleetwood). Your gear is HEAVY and, most importantly, no one ever wants to help you schlep it around.

Created by a Russian percussionist who was — I'm guessing — tired of setting up and taking down his kit at every gig, the "Moto Drum" is pure genius.

More photos at English Russia.

Steven Leckart

Tron-Watch '09: Blue-Green LEDS!

Behold, the Cobra XRS R10G radar detector. The design should look sort of familiar — it's copping Tron. Maybe not as much as this concept bike we spotted, but close enough, no?

[via Wired]

Lisa Katayama

Olympic cyclist predicts the future of bicycles

This is the future of commuter bicycles according to Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman. It can count calories, play music, solar-power your motor uphill, and has a locking device with fingerprint recognition to prevent theft. It's made of carbon fiber and the tires are puncture-proof. Of course, it doesn't exist yet &mdash Boardman predicts that it will be ready for market in 20 years. By then, though, this prototype will be way outdated and he'll have to think of a new one.

Bike of the future will never be stolen [Daily Mail]

Lisa Katayama

"Ship of Fools" made from a giant map

New Zealand designer Fletcher Vaughan made this sculpture of a boat &mdash his modernized objectified version of the Ship of Fools allegory &mdash out of a giant map of the world. He folded it origami-style and placed it out by a waterfront, where it could be swept by wind into the sea or drenched and destroyed by rain. "The illusion of simple paper construction," he writes, "represents the fragility of our planet and its inhabitants in the present day."

Fletcher Systems main page

Steven Leckart

Mini Cooper Thumb Drive

This mini 1959 Mini Cooper holds 4GB.

[via Akihabara News]

Rob Beschizza

Gadget lover builds real-life lollercopter

Wu Zhongyuan, 20, of Luoyang, China, built this real-life lollercopter from elmwood and steel pipe. It cost less than £1,000 to build, and Zhongyuan claims to have gotten it to 2,600 feet--enough to get in trouble with aviation authorities!

[Ananova
via Dvice]

Rob Beschizza

James May to rebuild Brooklands race track ... with Scalextric

Top Gear's James May is to build the world's largest Scalextric track, modeled on Brooklands. From the BBC:

May will use 20,000 separate sections of track to match the original 2.75 mile (4.42km) circuit and beat the current record of 1.59 miles (2.56km). Brooklands, in Weybridge, closed in 1939 and the track will have to cross a river and roads to complete a circuit.

Brooklands was the world's first custom-built racing track, with enormous banked corners. It was closed during WWII and never re-opened.

May to attempt Scalextric record [BBC]

Photo: John Chapman

Lisa Katayama

Advisor: Why my GPS is bad for my brain

I used to never get lost in San Francisco. I was a safe driver who obeyed traffic rules. Then I got a GPS, and everything changed.

I'm a closet road geek. I love thinking about how cities are built and how roads interconnect. When the new Octavia exit to the 101 opened up, I gawked at the pure genius that was highway construction for a month before I finally shut up about it. When I first moved to Bay area, I rode the pee-stained bus up and down the veins and arteries of San Francisco with a foldable city map and learned the names of all the side streets that crossed 19th Avenue, Geary Boulevard, and Market Street. By the time I got a car two years later, I had a map of the city imprinted in my geography geek brain.

At first, the GPS (I have an old Garmin) was a novelty--a tool for experimentation. It was fun to see how long the thing thought it would take to get from point A to point B. I was just the receiving end of a network of commands relayed through the voice of a nice British lady. But then it became a habit, and weird things started happening to me.

I started to forget how to get places without it. The map in my brain became a distorted blur. And then my driving became more reckless. I invented this game where I tried to beat the estimated arrival time that the GPS gave me. Often, that entailed running yellow lights and exceeding the speed limit. Sometimes, the GPS fell off of its suction cup on the windshield and onto the floor, and I would have to fumble around with my right hand while steering the wheel and shifting gears with my left. The worst was when it couldn't locate an address or a satellite signal. I would drive around in circles bouncing between rage and confusion. Why am I relying on this dumb machine? Why is this machine that is supposed to help me get places screwing with my innate sense of direction?

Ultimately, I think the GPS just made me lazier, stupider, angrier, and a worse driver. I wish I could say I'd rather be without one, but a part of me is dependent on it. I'm a recovering GPS addict who has been clean for several weeks, but it's still sitting in my glove compartment beckoning to be used.

Advisor is a new weekly column about how to juggle technology, relationships, and common sense. Got a story to tell? Email it to mango [at] tokyomango [dot] com.