799px-Tesla_Model_S_Indoors_trimmedA stolen Tesla Model S 85D was tracked down using a smartphone app and  returned to owners within hours.

Katya Pinkowski, a Vancouver resident and Tesla Model S owner, went to see a concert a few days ago. When it was over, she returned to the car in an underground parking lot and found out it was missing. It is never fun to find an empty space at the place you left your car. After a car theft, it usually takes owners weeks or even years to retrieve their property. More »

Belber_Crocodile_Trunks_and_LuggageTwo Italian researchers have developed an entirely new mode of autonomous public transportation. Tommaso Gecchelin and Emmanuele Spera have created self-driving pods, called “Next” that could change the way we travel.

Different modes of autonomous public transportation vehicles are beginning to emerge all over the world, but what makes “Next” different is that it combines personal transportation with public transportation and it can act as a train, bus, or personal vehicle. “Next” consists of modular, energy-efficient pods that can travel on their own, like a personal self-driving vehicle, or can connect while in motion.

When the pods connect, passengers can walk through them the same way we walk to different compartments on a train. “Next” is electric and has six seats. More »

800px-Apple_StoreSpeaking on Monday at WSJD Live, the Wall Street Journal’s technology conference in Laguna Beach, California, Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook predicted there would be “massive change” in the auto industry in the coming years. Cook did not comment on numerous rumors and reports that Apple is working on developing its own electric car.

However, Cook repeated the two words “massive change” More »

CarPlay_iOS_in_carApple Inc is accelerating its efforts to build an electric car. The iPhone maker has designated building an Apple-branded car as a “committed project” and has set a target shipping date for 2019.

After the success of the in-car system called CarPlay, Apple now reportedly has ambitions to build and sell its own electric automobile.

People familiar with the matter claim that the electric car project code-named Titan currently has 600 people working on the prototype. It was also alleged that the leaders of the project have been given the go ahead to triple the size of their team to 1,800 people. More »

Rear_Seat_2008_LS_600h_LKeeping calm and alert while driving could become easier with the new health- monitoring car seat, called Active Wellness. According to the developer Faurecia, it is the world’s first car seat that actively monitors a driver’s physical and mental status and offers on-the-move therapy.

The Active Wellness seat has been developed over five years by Faurecia, one of the world’s largest automotive equipment suppliers. The Faurecia team has worked in collaboration with the Spine Research Institute at Ohio State University in the United States in order to develop tools to measure comfort in real-time and ways to help alleviate discomfort. They also teamed up  with NASA engineers to More »

800px-VW_Jetta_(V)_–_Frontansicht,_6._Mai_2011,_VelbertThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen of intentionally dodging air-pollution rules on almost 500,000 cars sold in the USA since 2008.

The agency alleged the automaker installed software on nearly half a million diesel passenger cars that allowed it to cheat emissions tests. The software, dubbed a “defeat device”, activates full emissions controls only during testing but reduces their effectiveness while driving. The result is that the vehicles emit nitrogen oxides up to 40 times the acceptable standard, potentially exposing people to harmful pollutants which increase the risk of respiratory conditions. More »

Backlit_keyboardThe connected cars may be catching everyone’s imagination at this year’s International Motor Show in Frankfurt. But the new technology also brings with it new dangers, such as hacking. More on the topic here.

799px-Tesla_Model_S_Indoors_trimmedYou have forgotten to plug in your Tesla after a long day of driving and the next morning you wake up to find out your battery is low or completely depleted. What about a robot which plugs itself in without any human assistance? You only have to stick the car in the garage and let the robot charger do the rest.

The California-based electric carmaker Tesla Motors has recently More »

800px-Tesla_Model_S_(108)Six severe software flaws have been discovered within Tesla Model S cars by cyber security researchers. That could allow malicious hackers to take control of the vehicle and put the driver at risk.

Kevin Mahaffey, chief technology officer of Lookout, and Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at Cloudflare, proved that Tesla Model S can be hacked, although the company has a better reputation for understanding of security software than most automakers. More »

800px-TOSY_Arm_RobotAn automotive assembly line robot killed a worker at one of Volkswagen production plants in central Germany last week, the company’s spokesman Heiko Hillwig said in an official statement.

The 22-old man was grabbed by a robot and pressed up against a large metal plate which crushed his chest. The tragedy happened in Baunatal, which is near Kessel and about 60 miles north of Frankfurt. The man was part of a team that was setting up the stationary robot when, suddenly, the machine grabbed him. Volkswagen officials did not release the man’s name and declined to give any further details about the incident because of the ongoing investigation. More »