While the large auto alarm companies were nowhere in sight at SEMA, some smaller upstarts were there to pitch innovative products. One of the coolest we saw was from Blackline GPS, which has teamed with radar detector icon Escort for the Entourage system.
It's a location-aware security system that allows you to track your car online or on a mobile phone. It has a GPS receiver and an accelerometer to allow an owner to track a car and also send an alert via text message or email if the car has been moved. It's available in two versions: The Entourage PS portable ($349.95) and Entourage CIS hard-wired model ($399.95). Both require an annual service plan that starts at $120.
Reporting by Doug Newcomb, Senior Editor, Technology
Among the numerous innovations we'll see in the 2011 Ford Explorer are these new rear seat inflatable seat belts. Ford says the new inflatable belts spread out crash forces over a much greater area of the body than conventional belts. The redesigned Ford Explorer is due out next year and Ford says it will eventually add the technology to its entire global lineup.
Ford has a collision mitigation system that reduces the smashing-into-the-rear-of-another-vehicle type of a crash.
Ford's Collision Warning with Brake Support uses radar to detect preceding vehicles that are moving ahead in the roadway. The system warns the driver of this danger with both an auditory and visual alert. The system will also pre-charge the vehicle's brakes and engage an electronic brake assist system to help the driver stop more quickly.
This system is combined with Ford's adaptive cruise control (ACC), so normally, the car will slow down when a target vehicle appears and keep back by a set interval. But excessive speed or a sudden slow-down of a lead vehicle may lead to a crash situation.
When the system detects that a collision is imminent, it warns the driver with an auditory warning and with a group of red lights projected near the bottom of the windscreen. The brake support is also activated, which enables quicker and harder deceleration.
Ford's Collision Warning with Brake Support only detects moving and slowing vehicles, not stopped vehicles.
And similar to other systems, Ford's system can't react to other objects such as light poles, animals, or road debris.
Yeah, I know, boring: every luxury carmaker has a similar crash mitigation system.
But Ford evaluated their collision mitigation system in a rather unusual way.
A new iPhone application called SmartStart from Viper allows you to start your car remotely as well as lock and unlock the doors. Sounds neat huh?
Of course, it's not as simple as downloading the app and firing away at your car. You're going to need a Viper alarm system and the SmartStart upgrade module. That'll run you about $500 unless you already have a Viper alarm system in which case it will only run a mere $300.
Oh, and you have to subscribe to the service, that's another $30 a year.
But once you do that, and download the free application of course, you can use your iPhone to perform all the same functions as the key fob that came with your car in the first place.
Ford's new F-150 SVT Raptor made an appearance in my driveway recently, and it created a bit of a stir. My tweenage daughters wouldn't ride in it. My wife didn't want any of her friends to catch her in the thing. They complained of the "kindergarten mess" graphics flanking the sides of it (an option, I told them) and compared it to a real-life sandbox toy (that part's right.)
On the other hand, the Metal Mulisha dude with the flat-billed hat down the street thought it was uber-cool. So do I. Who cares if it broke my floor jack? (To be fair, my aging floor jack popped a seal on the previous walkaround. The Raptor's burliness merely finished it off.)
Ford has a new parking system that automatically steers your vehicle into a parallel parking space. Using front and rear ultrasonic sensors and electric power steering, Ford's Active Park Assist can quickly and accurately get you into that street space.
But, you ask, "Doesn't Lexus already have this same parking system?" Yes, Lexus was the first to have a self-parking system and it was initially greeted with much fanfare, but that has since faded.
However, the two systems have significant differences in technical specification and performance. The result is that Ford's Active Park Assist is superior to the Lexus system.
Let's look at the Ford parking system and see how Lexus' parking guidance compares.
Two years ago 17-year-old Shaun Malone was pulled over for speeding. The Petaluma, California, police officer who issued the citation apparently had him at 62 mph on the radar gun in a 45-mph zone. Malone was fined $194. But that wasn't the end of the story.
Malone's parents had had one of those increasingly popular GPS tracking devices installed in their son's car. And they say that the data from the device (which automatically downloaded to their computer) shows that Malone was traveling at 45 mph at the time. They then hired an attorney. The case is still pending, and the city of Petaluma has reportedly spent $15,000 on the legal battle.
The defense has argued that a radar gun is fallible and could easily have picked up a car other than Malone's as he traveled down a six-lane divided road. The city attorney has argued that the defense has a conflict of interest, given that Malone's stepfather, Roger Rude, has promoted this particular GPS tracking device on the manufacturer's website (Rocky Mountain Tracking). Each side is arguing that its technology (radar, GPS) is instrumental in saving teenagers' lives.
Legal precedent is unlikely to be set in this case, but it could affect how California municipalities view both radar and GPS in future cases, say experts interviewed for this Christian Science Monitor piece.
My suspension walkaround series was bound to catch up with our long-term test fleet eventually. So today we'll take a tour of one of the many cars that spend but a week or two in our hands, the 2009 Hyundai Genesis Coupe.
This example happens to be a V6 powered 6-speed manual version with the Track suspension configuration. Everything you're about to see applies to the other versions of the car except a few, well, exceptions that I'll point out along the way.
We're not sure why anyone would take this much time to build a working model of a V8 out of Legos, but who cares, it's cool anyway. See the video after the jump to watch it run.
Mercedes-Benz joins the likes of the fuel-cell Honda FCX Clarity with its new model called the B-Class F-CELL. It will go into production late this year, and expect to see it on the road in the U.S. and Europe in early 2010.
The hydrogen-powered electric car lays down 134 horsepower and 214 pound-feet of torque to the front wheels, and has an estimated fuel economy equivalent to more than 70 mpg. The energy stored in its 1.4 kWh lithium-ion battery pack will allow it to have a 250 mile range. Top speed will only be 106 mph.
The B-Class F-CELL comes in a silver livery with 10-spoke alloys, heated leather seats, automatic climate control and Benz's COMMAND communications system.
Mercedes-Benz went back and forth in deciding to bring the compact B-Class to the States, and eventually decided not to. This version will be the first to be marketed in the U.S.
The automaker says it is cooperating with government authorities, energy utilities and oil companies to build hydrogen filling stations in Hamburg, Stuttgart and California.
Ford announced today that it has developed a working system that allows its plug-in electric vehicles to communicate directly with local power grids to help plan optimal charging times and conditions.
Already in use in several plug-in Escape test vehicles, the system is designed to give owners an idea how much charging is needed, where their vehicle can be charged and how much it will cost.
Ford also reiterated that it intends to build an all-electric version of its Transit Connect utility van next year, an electric Focus in 2011 and a next-generation hybrid vehicle in 2012.
A funny thing is happening to the tow ratings of the 2010 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup trucks: They'll increase significantly relative to the 2009 truck despite no apparent hardware changes.
Details of each configuration's new tow rating are still trickling in, but we know that the maximum GCWR (Gross Combined Weight Rating) is slated to increase to 15,500 pounds, up 1,500 pounds from last year. Tow ratings will more or less increase by a similar amount.
GM has released the following video that briefly describes how a pre-production quarter panel for the Volt was built.
It's nothing groundbreaking, and the music makes it feel more like some cheesy promotional spot for the UAW, but if you've never seen how parts are designed and stamped, it's worth the two minutes.
Few participants are as inexorably linked to a motorsports event as the Millen family is with Pikes Peak.
Rod Millen set an outright record at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb that stood for a thousand years (almost not an exaggeration), and his son Rhys has upheld the family tradition with back to back wins of his own. Last year, his time of 12 minutes, 31.06 seconds in a modified Solstice GXP was quick enough to set the record in the Time Attack 2WD division.
Rhys is running this year's hillclimb in a new ride--the Hyundai Genesis Coupe you've seen making the rounds in Formula Drift. Practice runs up the 12.4-mile hill have proven that his Genesis Coupe is stinkin' fast and in fine shape for this weekend's 2009 running of the storied hillclimb.
We chatted with Rhys over dinner in a steakhouse in idyllic Manitou Springs, a small town at the base of Pikes Peak, to pick his brain about the Genesis Coupe's potential to make the Solstice look slow.
