GadgetReview

Chiggity check these decked out Scion DJxBs by Five Axis on display at this year’s SEMA auto show in Vegas.  They’ve got TVs in the doors, a grill in the back with a sink, amps up the yin yang, slotted turn tables in the roof with dance floor and a whole bunch of stuff that truly does pop!

More pics after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Scion DJxBs by Five Axis At SEMA Are Gadget Freaked

Oh air bags, how I do appreciate them, especially after getting in a head on collision.  Over the years, it seems like vehicles get more and more of them.  First it was the driver side air bag, then passenger, then curtain and side air bags, so what’s next?  The Seat belt Airbag, but of course.

Ford will start to install them in their SUVs sometime next year and according to them inflate in about 40ms.  The airbag belts, which deploy using a rush of cold compressed air, are designed to more evenly distribute the impact of a crash.  Often in crashes, even while wearing a seat belt you can experience bodily harm due to the belt’s tight grip, such as broken or bruised ribs.

Personally, I’d just prefer a giant bubble around me or fill the car with some sort of protective foam. …Continue reading: Seat Belt Air Bags Coming Next Year To An SUV Near You

Now this is actually a really fun idea–you know how, when you were a kid, you probably used to imagine various household objects as race cars?  Well, now you can do it for real with the RC Driver Tissue Box.

This isn’t just a fun idea, either.  It’s also highly useful.  I remember when I had the flu…I was on my back, barely able to move, and even something like getting up to go get a tissue to try and clear my nose sufficiently to breathe was like the labors of Sisyphus.  But the thought of being able to snag a remote and DRIVE my tissues to my sick bed makes me feel almost…happy, somehow.

But still, the idea of driving your tissues around the house is probably at least a minor freakout, so be careful.  It’d be terrible trying to, say, explain to the vet that you ran over your cat’s foot with a box of tissues.  They’re taking pre-orders on them now for $44, so get them before someone else does!

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Available next month, GM’s AutoNet will let you literally install a WiFi hotspot in your car.  The unit plus installation will cost $500 and there will be a monthly charge of $30 for a 1GB cap.  There is also a 5GB cap offered but no price is known as of now.

The range will last up to a radius of 150 feet away from you car and would be great for camping, tailgating, and beyond.  You could even have traveling video game competitions in your SUV while you drive from Inglewood to Compton.  Anybody like this product?

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Here’s a device that makes Big Brother look a lot more fun and accessible–the Driving Reporter Gadget.

It’s a USB device that’s also an in-car 16 channel GPS system that stores about 100 hours of your driving.  All the data, all the activities are routed into this thing so you know exactly where you were, where you turned, and where you went.  Not to mention your speed getting there.  It’s a lot like the black box on an airplane, just for your car.  Okay, granted, the Driving Reporter Gadget is also black in color, but that’s just a funny coincidence.

The device runs on a pair of AAA lithium batteries, and secures anywhere on your car via an attached magnet (doubly odd since this seems to at least have some limited memory right next to a magnet as part of the design.), and you can even watch your trip on Google Earth, which is awesome if you have a tendency to get lost and want to watch your own highlight reel to figure out how you got so abjectly butt-lost in the first place.

I’m a bit concerned about having a device tattle on you constantly, but for parents this may be a godsend.  They cost $229.95 each, so finding out where your car’s been is pretty easy.

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Whoa nelly!  Volkswagen has modded a stock Passat Wagon with a variety of sensors and a built-in computer system to enable the vehicle to park itself.  Of course, it doesn’t know how to avoid obstacles, such as people, and requires a schematic of the parking lot’s layout.

When you arrive at your desired location, you’d step out of the vehicle at say the restaurant’s front entrance.  Then with the tap of a button on your iPhone (but of course) the vehicle would go in search of an empty parking space.  When you leave the restaurant you ‘call’ your vehicle back.  Simple as that.

As for the equipment: the test vehicle, which is a Standford research vehicle, uses the preexisting front radar system (that’s part of the car’s cruise control system) and a camera mounted in front of the rear view mirror (this is currently available as part of VW’s night driving assistance).  The only thing used in this test vehicle that isn’t stock, aside from the computer, are something called LIDAR, which is like RADAR but uses light instead.

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It’s as if we need further proof that the iPhone can do just about anything.

Using the same platform used in the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge (an autonomous vehicle system) the Spirit of Berlin team built an iPhone app that allows a minivan to be controlled right from Apple’s smartphone over WiFi.  A forward facing camera transmits real time video to the phone’s screen and a set of buttons control the gas, break and steering wheel, which is tied into the phone’s accelerometer.

While I wouldn’t hurdle myself into shotgun for the proverbial ghost ride, I’d love to give this thing a whirl.

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The folks out at Dell have given us a pretty sweet gadget to check out.  Now, chances are, you’ve heard about a LOT of solar powered whatnot, especially right here.  And some of it is pretty strange.  Solar powered jackets, solar powered cars…well, now Dell’s going to bring you what may be the strangest solar powered device of all.

The solar powered parking lot.

I kid you not, ladies and gentlemen–Dell has put together a series of solar panel-laden paviliions in its parking lot designed to provide not only shade to the cars beneath in the hot sun, but also to take that sun and convert it into electrical energy by which employees can charge, at no cost to them, their plug-in hybrids and full-on electric vehicles.

The equivalent of free gas is a pretty nifty perk, and the crew out at Dell has to be feeling some love off of this one.

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Speed bumps are great and all, especially if they prevent unwanted deaths in your local neighborhood, but for those law abiding citizens they can be a menace on your car’s suspension, especially if you’ve got ground effects.  The speed sensing speed bump detects when a car is traveling slowing and flattens, thus rewarding those that follow the posted speeds.  For those that speed, though, the metal plates detect the sudden force and harden creating what is commonly known as a speed bump…or hump in some places.  Built by Mexico’s Decano Industries, each speed sensing speed bump will cost roughly $1,500 to install and that doesn’t include the inevitable repairs from tampering.  Stupid video demo after the ‘leap’ …Continue reading: Smart Speed Bump Flattens To Reward Law Abiding Drivers (video)

For those of you who live and die with your iPhone, now there’s a way for you to actually start your car with your smart phone of choice.  Viper has just announced their new iPhone app and vehicle module appropriately titled the Viper Smart Start.  From your iPhone you can start your car, turn on the heat, unlock doors and the trunk, and manage the alarm.  The app itself is not limited by any certain distance parameters as long as it receives a signal.  Sounds crazy right?

So while the App itself is free, the device that needs to be installed into your car is not.  Costing somewhere between $300-$500 depending on the make and model of your car, there’s also a annual fee of $30.  Available now at BestBuy.

Watch the fun informational video.

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