New Volvos will harness cloud-based communication technology to alert each other about obstacles and road hazards ahead. Initially, the system launches across Europe for the 2020 model year. Volvo told The Car Connection that there are plans to introduce the feature to the U.S., but it was not...Read More»
Last Thursday, we reported on a rumored partnership between Toyota and Mazda involving a shared plant and collaboration on electric vehicles. The following day, Toyota confirmed that the rumors were true and provided additional details about the tie-up, including: 1. Plans for a joint manufacturing...Read More»
Vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems are a Very Big Deal that few people are talking about. This week, Cadillac tried to change that by announcing the roll-out of V2V technology on new models. Unfortunately, the timing of Cadillac's news was a little awkward. A recap When we think of major...Read More»
Vehicle-to-vehicle communications promises to be a very big deal. Allowing automobiles to "talk" to one another could dramatically improve traffic flow and slash the number of car crashes by more than half. Working hand-in-hand with self-driving systems, the benefits could be even bigger. Engineers...Read More»
Yesterday, the internet was ablaze with talk of hackers. Why? Because Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) released a report on potential security loopholes in our cars' onboard computers, based on data provided by 16 automakers. Should you worry about your own car being hacked? Yes and no. ALSO SEE: Six...Read More»
A year ago, Toyota announced plans to sell autonomous cars -- or at least semi-autonomous cars -- by the mid-2010s. Tesla expects to launch similar models around the same time, and Google could be operating on an even zippier production schedule. But what about Detroit? At least one domestic brand...Read More»
In May of this year, California's Department of Motor Vehicles published safety guidelines aimed at manufacturers of self-driving cars. A few days later, Google unveiled a prototype of its first autonomous car built in-house. The prototype looked dramatically different from the modified Toyota...Read More»
Connected cars, like autonomous cars, are coming. In fact, connected cars will likely arrive first, because the underlying vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) technology is simpler, cheaper, and enhances the effectiveness of self-driving vehicles by allowing them to "talk" to other cars on the road. Given our...Read More»
Vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems will make automotive travel dramatically safer and more efficient. So, what's the big holdup? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has yet to determine when V2V will be required on new passenger vehicles. At long last, however, the...Read More»
The Detroit Auto Show doesn't start until next week, but car fans are already feasting on lots of great auto news thanks to the Consumer Electronics Show. One of CES' biggest announcements involves an intriguing partnership between Audi, General Motors, Honda, and Hyundai. Along with tech firms...Read More»
We've spilled a lot of virtual ink over vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid communications. Both are promising technologies that could substantially reduce the number of traffic accidents and fatalities by allowing cars, traffic lights, and other elements of the driving environment to "talk" to...Read More»
There are many, many futurecasts floating across the automotive interweb. Some, like fuel-cell technology and autonomous vehicles, have caught the public's attention and spawned countless news stories. One that has largely failed to do so, however, involves the hacking of our increasingly...Read More»
Last week, Dykema released results from its 2012 Automotive Institute Survey, which polled 100 auto executives about their thoughts on the industry's future. Among the most interesting findings was the fact that respondents seemed more interested in vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) technology --...Read More»
![City of Detroit, by jdurchen [Flickr]](https://static.hgmsites.net/images/cache/city-of-detroit-by-jdurchen-flickr_100302031_151x113.jpg "What Keeps Auto Industry Execs Up At Night?")
America's auto market is on the road to recovery, but before sales return to pre-recession levels, the auto industry still has to dodge a few potholes. What might those be? To find out, you could ask economists, or dealers, or even consumers. But the Dykema Automotive Institute went straight to the...Read More»
Over the past decade, a number of high-tech tools have arrived to help make driving easier, simpler, and more automated. A new study suggests that the jump from those tools to fully autonomous vehicles could come sooner than we'd thought. The study is called Self-Driving Cars: The Next Revolution...Read More»
Yesterday, Robert Acker wrote an article for Mashable about the five things that automakers must do in order to make web-connected cars attractive to mainstream consumers. Acker's comments are insightful -- we wouldn't expect anything less from the GM of from Aha Radio -- but we have a few more...Read More»
They're often the worst kinds of accidents: Two cars head into an intersection, with one of the drivers perhaps running a light or not noticing a stop sign. And the result, too often, is severe injuries or fatalities as one of the vehicles is smacked in the side by another vehicle. In all...Read More»
