The EU SARTRE aka "the road train" is coming 'round the bend

The SARTRE project which "aims to develop, test and validate
technology for vehicles that can drive themselves in long road trains on motorways" is now a year into their 3-year investigation, and have released an interesting 8-minute video highlighting where they are so far.
I found it informative, interesting, and refreshing -- these are clearly smart people who are not naive about the challenges facing their project, and are considering the many human variables that can happen in real world traffic.

Like the Google Car, I think this is supremely valuable to the end user, who can now spend her time doing work, reading, eating, etc.
Unlike the Google Car, this seems more achievable in the short term, since the judgement calls are being made by human drivers, not by pure software.

Have your smartphone adjust your seat for you!

My friends at motorauthority.com have a great article on a smartphone app from Faurecia which custom-adjusts your seat based on your real measurements, as taken from a camera photo.

I'm hoping that by the time my old POC car is ready to be replaced, this will be available in vehicles in my modest price range. I'm often adjusting my seat to get comfortable in traffic, and I'm not convinced I'm doing it correctly... This would take away a lot of guesswork, and it has some other great features to boot!

Disaster in a tunnel?

This morning, the lovely and talented BitchCakes posted an entry in which she shares her fear of commuter disaster in a tunnel.

To which I commented:

In my city, I sometimes have to take a car tunnel that runs under a river. Every time I do, I have visions of that old Sly Stallone movie "Daylight".
There are a lot of bad drivers in my city, so I could easily imagine one of them panicking, hitting the wall, sideswiping me, and causing a big pileup, during which a semi truck punches a hole in the tunnel, allowing the muddy waters to flood in.

I can't look at faces while driving through tunnels for fear of being the one that causes the accident, but I DO make judgements based on the cars I see around me.
- The burgundy LeBaron -- probably a little old lady who looks like my grandma and weighs, like, 90 lbs.; I'd totally hoist her over my shoulder and get her to safety.
- The white minivan -- probably full of kids on their way to school; they'd probably (erroneously) look to me as a leader to get them through the burning wreckage floating on the icy water.
- The silver Escalade -- probably driven by a total douchebag who would step on my hands as he heads for higher ground at the end of the tunnel.
- etc.

So what do you think? Are BitchCakes and I alone  in our irrational fear of this scenario?

Golden Slumbers

Stellar rendition of a great song(s), sung by Paul McCartney and some superb backup musicians. ;)

Get thee home for some golden slumbers after a long week!

...Yeah, but can traffic thin enough for them to make the jump to hyperspace?

Image courtesy of buzzfeed.com

A better internal combustion engine?

I sit in traffic a lot, and am very interested in ways of commuting in a way that is more efficient in terms of time, and ecological footprint.


I came across this today, which is very interesting. These smart folks are working on an internal combustion engine which is more efficient, yields more power, and would allow "smart engines" where modules are turned off if idle and on when power is needed.

Not productized into a car yet, but looks promising. Might be a good stepping stone to non-fossil-fuel based cars.

Check them out at:
http://ecomotors.com/