Every week, it seems like some pundit or other predicts the death of the auto industry. Most of the reasons they cite seem far-fetched, but a few have a ring of truth about them. One that fits in the latter category is ridesharing, an increasingly disruptive travel trend that's exploded in recent...Read More»
The smartphone has become a central component of daily life. It's where we go to make calls, send texts, keep up with endless Facebook feeds, and store frequent-shopper cards. In Iowa, it will soon be where motorists keep their driver's licenses, too. ALSO SEE: 2016 Audi Q7: First Look According to...Read More»
Remember AOL? Remember its subsidiary, MapQuest? One of the two wants to become relevant again by helping stranded drivers. (Hint: it's not AOL, which is probably beyond help.) MapQuest won't be towing cars or fixing flats itself. Instead, it's partnered with Urgent.ly to provide those services...Read More»
Once upon a time, aftermarket add-ons were marketed almost exclusively to motorheads. Apart from stereo upgrades and the occasional set of ill-advised Car Lashes, mainstream drivers didn't spend much time looking at specialty rims or undercarriage lights or insane suspension tweaks. But cars have...Read More»
Back in May, we told you about MonkeyParking, a new app that lets desperate drivers in San Francisco pay for parking -- or, more to the point, it lets them pay the owners of parked cars to leave prime spots. When MonkeyParking debuted, many feared that it would make parking in the Bay Area even...Read More»
San Francisco is not without its charms. The Bay is beautiful, the weather is pleasant in some of the city's microclimates, and.... Hmm. Did we mention the Bay? ALSO SEE: Pay-Per-Mile Road Taxes Coming To A State Near You? One of the complaints that many people have about SF is that it's far too...Read More»
Smartphones play an important role in our daily lives, but to drivers they are just as distracting as they are useful. Many automakers have begun integrating smartphone apps into the infotainment systems, and Jaguar and Land Rover will join these ranks with its new built-in suite of apps called...Read More»
No one likes taking in a car for repairs. We have to carve out time to drive it in or have it towed, we have to arrange for transportation back home or to a car rental shop, and of course, we have to shell out our hard-earned cash -- cash that could be better spent on vacations or groceries or bolo...Read More»
Spring is a terrible time to buy gas. The closer we get to May 1 -- the day that every fuel station in the country has to switch to summer-blend gasoline -- the higher prices typically go. That's because the supply of "regular" gas gets scarcer as refineries ratchet down production in advance of...Read More»
It's a beautiful day, the birds are chirping, the cars with the boom are booming softly in the distance. And then you see it: a bright orange parking ticket jammed beneath your windshield wiper. Trust us: we've all been there. Sometimes, we've known that we were at fault. We'd straddled the yellow...Read More»
On New Year's Eve in San Francisco, a six-year-old girl was killed and her family members were seriously injured when they were struck by a vehicle while crossing the street. According to TechCrunch, the driver of that vehicle, Syed Muzzafar, worked for Uber. Uber has caused a big stir the past few...Read More»
The sad fact is, cell phones aren't perfect. Sure, they keep us connected to friends around the globe, but they also make it possible for us to spend entire holiday dinners face down in Facebook, ignoring everyone around us. And that's to say nothing of mobile phones' tragic effect on auto fatality...Read More»
Connoisseurs of commuting could argue that Waze has single-handedly upended navigation technology. Think about it. Once upon a time, gadgets and apps had to rely on data from big corporations like INRIX to tell travelers about traffic ahead. Waze said, "Forget that. Why not let the drivers...Read More»
If you've ever driven a car like the Toyota Prius, you know the joy that comes with a know-it-all key fob. There's no fumbling in your pocket in the rain to unlock the door; so long as the fob is in your pocket, the car unlocks itself when you approach. Now, now matter what sort of vehicle you...Read More»
The smartphone is an amazing invention. It lets us place video calls to friends around the globe. It can sniff out cancer and chemical weapons. It even entertains us while we're waiting in line to buy the latest, greatest smartphone. But smartphones also have a dark side. They preoccupy us when we...Read More»
We are not what you'd call a bunch of goodie-goodies. We have prank-ordered pizzas for people we don't like. We have toilet-papered the yards of our friends and neighbors. We may have even consumed beer, then liquor, which as you can imagine, left us sicker. But few things make us quite as angry as...Read More»
Do you know where your owner's manual is? Did you read it from cover to cover when you bought your car? Do you read it these days? Chances are, the answer to at least one of those questions is "no". Maybe that's because you're a whiz at cars, or maybe you feel like you know everything there is to...Read More»
To some automakers, calling one of their creations a "chick car" is a slap in the face. They fight back, arguing that their cars have a broad customer base, not the narrow appeal that the name "chick car" implies. (It's worth noting that antonyms like "muscle car" don't elicit the same reaction. In...Read More»
We've known for some time that apps are coming to cars. The writing's been on the wall since the debut of Apple's App Store in 2008, which is about the time that apps began taking center stage in our daily lives. The problem automakers face is making those apps work efficiently and safely...Read More»
