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Filed under: Transportation

That’s not really a “your mom” joke, more of a statement that your mom is pretty neat and has good taste in electric cars — like this here MINI E. BMW just unveiled the first production MINI E to roll out of its magical electricity-imbuing factory, the first in a limited series of 500 for lease in California and metro New York to people way better looking than you. The bad news is that the all-electric MINI is part of what BMW is calling “Project I,” a test of sorts to see how well electrics hold up to real world abuse and to figure out usage patterns of real-life photogenic people — there’s little indication that the car in its current incarnation will be distributed any more widely than this 500 car run. Check out a plethora of sexy unveiling pictures at the read link to help offset the pain.

MINI E ‘unboxed’ in LA to the delight of car nerds, your mom originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Transportation

We’d stick out if were to drive the Helios concept car down the Long Island Expressway or the 405, but almost every other solar-powered car we’ve seen looked like an old Trabant cursed with further ugliness by a wicked witch, so considering the circumstances we’re impressed. The sadly-only-on-paper vehicle netted designer Kim Gu-Han the Best Use of Technology award at the 2008 Interior Motives Design Awards for its frill-neck lizard-inspired solar fan, which unfolds when the car is immobile. If the renders are any indication, though, it’s meant only for Martians — please tell Marvin we’re jealous, cause the eco-friendly cars we get now generally look like they were designed by someone with all the exuberance and colorful panache of Al Gore.

Helios solar concept car is bird-like in that it evolved from lizards, has wings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 11 Nov 2008 23:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Transportation

Some new details have emerged about LincVolt, Neil Young’s latest foray into green auto, and we’re more than happy to pass ‘em along to you. According to our friends at Autoblog, the LincVolt shares more than just a name with GM’s Volt, using a CNG engine to power the electric drive system so that the wheels are driven by the batteries alone. The car currently gets 50 MPG, but the LincVolt team are aiming at 100 MPG and a system that will achieve “over-unity” (generating more energy than is put in). The company has also launched a new website which will provide live data from Shakey’s very own vehicle (voltage, battery charge, speed, etc.) as well as the typical blogs and forums. If that isn’t enough, we’ve even included a video Neil driving his car, just in case you’ve never seen anybody drive a car before. Check it out after the break.

Continue reading LincVolt launches new website, more details about the conversion process emerge

LincVolt launches new website, more details about the conversion process emerge originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When I lived in San Francisco, there were two things people wanted to talk about: tofu corn dogs and how much Southern California sucks. Well, get ready to kiss and make up (if you’re of different genders), because the California High Speed Rail Association has posted a bunch of videos of their planned 220 mph electric bullet train system. More after the jump.

The High Speed Rail is expected to transport 100 million people a year and generate 230,000 permanent jobs by 2030, and if these videos are any indication, the beautiful California landscape will remain remarkably untouched for, well, at least 22 years.

Filed under: Transportation

Like it or not California, it’s about time you folks ponied up for a serious rail system. With the recent passage of Proposition 1A, the wheels have started to churn on a sophisticated bullet train system that will eventually link San Diego in the south with Sacramento in the north, with stops at most every major city in between (LA and San Francisco included). The 800-mile network of trains would operate at upwards of 220mph and cost around $45 billion to construct, but it’ll create 320,000 permanent jobs by 2030 and reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuel by 12.7 million barrels of oil per year. Unfortunately, there’s no set time frame for completion just yet, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see this one finished before that Anaheim - Las Vegas maglev project even gets off the ground.

[Via BoingBoing]

California high-speed train system to link NorCal and SoCal at 220mph originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

You’re a good person with noble motivations — you ride a bicycle instead of driving because it’s healthy and it doesn’t have a disastrously negative impact on the environment. We salute you, but not all of society appreciates your virtue like we do. In a sinister and systematic oppression of cyclists (we’re absolutely certain it’s intentional), many traffic lights are governed by sensors in the pavement that give a green light only after they’ve detected the change in inductance when a large metal car pulls up. Before you take up arms, though, take a look at this recently-patented device that sends out a signal that fools the sensors so cyclists don’t have to wait for a car to unwittingly play good Samaritan — we suppose we’ll try this out just in case before we incite a violent revolution.

[Via Core77]

Intersection sensor activator puts an end to cyclist discrimination originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Transportation

According to a report leaked by someone at Canadian electronics manufacturer Electrovaya, the company is teaming up with China’s Changan Auto Group to bring a new electric car to our northern neighbor — and it might be on the street as early as this year. Electrovaya is set to distribute the car (based on Changan’s popular Ben Ben five-door) possibly making this the first automobile from the People’s Republic to tap into the lucrative North American market. Of course, wheels like this won’t make you any more popular with the ladies (you’d probably want a Linc Volt for that), but we’re just happy that there are more green options out there.

[Via Autoblog]

Changan, Electrovaya teaming up to release electric cars onto Canadian streets? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, Transportation

While there’s certainly no shortage of folks working on sending robots to Mars, there’s also thankfully a few researchers focusing on making the trip a bit more bearable (and survivable) for us humans, and a group from a consortium of different institutions now say they’ve made some real progress on that front. Their idea is to use a portable “mini-magnetosphere,” which would protect a spacecraft from harmful solar storms and cosmic rays in much the same way the Earth’s magnetosphere naturally protects the planet. That is actually an idea that has been around for decades, and was shown last year to be at least theoretically possible, but it has only now been taken beyond the realm of computer simulations. That was apparently possible thanks to the use of an unspecified “apparatus originally built to work on fusion,” which allowed researchers to recreate “a tiny piece of the Solar Wind” and confirm that a small “hole” in the wind would indeed be all that would d be necessary to keep astronauts safe. Of course, the leap from the lab to an actual spacecraft is another matter entirely, but the researchers seem to think that there’s quite a bit of promise in the idea.

[Via PhysOrg, image courtesy of NASA]

Spaceship “force field” could protect astronauts on trip to Mars originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Nov 2008 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Transportation

It started out with allegations of stolen secrets and quickly gave way to plenty of jokes involving “bad karma” before ultimately winding up an in arbitration, and it now looks like the legal tussle between Tesla Motors and Henrik Fisker of Fisker Automotive has finally come to a close. That lawsuit, as you may recall, had accused Fisker (who worked on Tesla’s WhiteStar sedan) of stealing Tesla’s hybrid technology and using it in Fisker’s own car, the Fisker Karma. The judge in the case apparently couldn’t disagree more with Tesla’s claims, however, and has now cited “overwhelming” evidence in ruling in Fisker’s favor. For it’s part, Tesla simply said that, “we disagree with the ruling, and we’re focused on producing and shipping cars to our customers,” while Fisker is expectedly taking the opportunity to gloat a bit, saying that the ruling “completely vindicates” Fisker.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

Judge sides with Fisker in Tesla arbitration case originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Desktops, Peripherals

While not nearly as gnarly as Acrylic Cowboy’s inside-out case, the VENTO TA-F is probably more usable in most respects. ASUS’ new foldable PC chassis promises a 30% savings on storage and transportation, but alas, all that apparently goes away once you stock it full of internal components. At any rate, novice and expert DIYers alike will appreciate the “no-tools-necessary” clause, and the plethora of drive bays within will keep mobile data servers happy as a lark. Those who’d like to pick one up will have to look coast to coast at their leisure (thanks for the specifics, ASUS), but make sure to choose silver (TA-F21) or black (TA-F11) beforehand.

ASUS introduces VENTO TA-F foldable PC case originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 02 Nov 2008 22:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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