Automotive

CarChip 75-Hour Diagnostic Tool

Automotive, Gizmo of the Day / By /

CarChip 75-Hour Diagnostic Tool

You’ve been there before: The car starts acting up, and suddenly you’re as helpless as a baby, never sure if the mechanic is curing or just guessing and gouging. But now the on-board diagnostics (OBD) data that was once available only to professional mechanics can now be in your hands with Davis’ CarChip. The CarChip 75-Hour Diagnostic Tool plugs easily into the OBDII connector in your car, where it continuously collects and stores data from your car’s computer control system – data from its performance under the hood and behind the wheel. When you download this data to your PC, you’ll have an insider’s peek at how your car is being driven, what’s going on inside the engine, and more.

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Easy Quick Car Jumper Kit

Automotive, Gizmo of the Day / By /

Easy Quick Car Jumper Kit

Jump-start your car’s battery quickly and safely — without jumper cables, without popping the hood! The Easy Quick Car Jumper Kit connects your vehicle to any “live” vehicle, dashboard-to-dashboard, through the DC power sockets!

Simply connect one end of the Quick Jumper into the “live” good Samaritan vehicle, then the other end into the “dead” car. Turn on the “live” car and in 10 minutes a green LED illuminates to indicate the other battery is charged. You’re ready to go and you didn’t even get your hands dirty. It’s too simple! This clever device is completely automatic — with no buttons, dials or switches; it features built-in electronic system protection to ensure proper connections.

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Review: C-Car Car Finding Keychain

Automotive, Gizmo of the Day, Reviews / By /

Review: C-Car Car Finding Keychain

So there I was… in the dead of winter without having a clue where my SUV was parked. I was tired, cold and scared. Then I remember I was reviewing a C-Car! I pulled the C-Car car finding keychain out of my pocket, dialed the device to the car and walked in the direction of the arrow. A few seconds later I arrived at my car safe and sound!

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Putting the brake on electronics

Automotive / By /

by Bill Roberts, Electronic Business

Mercedes reverses its rush to add cutting-edge gadgets and features. A DaimlerChrysler executive recently raised a few eyebrows in the semiconductor world when he vowed to put fewer electronic gadgets in Mercedes-Benz cars and to take a go-slow approach to adding electronic features in the future. With automotive electronics being one of the fastest-growing markets for semiconductors, chip executives are naturally concerned about what their automotive brethren are thinking. Executives of semiconductor companies in the automotive field are always mindful of the different reliability and quality requirements of the automaker compared to the computer manufacturer. But the DaimlerChrysler executive’s speech appears to reflect primarily internal quality problems, which caused Mercedes to fall in customer satisfaction ratings, rather than any broad antielectronics trend.

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Aww… Flying cars still decades away

Automotive / By /

By ALLISON LINN, Associated Press

SEATTLE — It’s a frustrated commuter’s escapist fantasy: literally lifting your car out of a clogged highway and soaring through the skies, landing just in time to motor into your driveway. Researchers stress that the ultimate dream — an affordable, easy-to-use vehicle that could allow regular people to fly 200 miles to a meeting and also drive 15 miles to the mall — is still probably decades away.

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Satellite TV beams 140 channels into your SUV

Audio/Video, Home Theater, Automotive / By /

By Earle Eldridge, USA TODAY

First, there were navigation systems using satellite guidance for cars. Then there was satellite radio. Now you can get satellite TV with 140 channels in your SUV, minivan or large sedan.

While it’s feeding a seemingly unquenchable thirst for entertainment in cars, the technology also raises concerns about growing in-car distractions for drivers.

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Hybrid Cars Get Hot

Automotive / By /

By Preston Lerner, LA Times

Scott Shelton is a car guy. make that a Crazed Car Guy. Like me, he’s afflicted with a genetic disorder that causes his testosterone level to spike alarmingly when he’s in the presence of a high-powered vehicle. But the recent birth of his first child has forced him to reluctantly consider trading his Porsche 911 for a more practical sport utility vehicle or, horror of horrors, a minivan. It’s enough, frankly, to make a Car Guy ill.

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Trial examines role of dashboard electronics

Automotive / By /

Alaska DVD-murder case may be first of its kind.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004 Posted: 12:00 PM EDT (1600 GMT)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — When a pickup truck crossed the double yellow line along Seward Highway and killed two occupants of a Jeep Grand Cherokee, police initially thought the accident was another tragic mistake by a momentarily distracted driver.

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