Tag Archives: car
Amazon’s Echo Auto comes to the UK, Canada and parts of Europe
This AirPods Case Looks Like a Mini Cooper
So you have a pair of fancy and expensive AirPods. You could just carry around them in the standard, nondescript white case that Apple ships them in, or you could dress them up and make them your own. I choose to go with a more personalized look. Being a gearhead, I can think of no better place to store my overpriced earbuds but inside of a tiny car.
elago’s silicone AirPods case is designed to look like a Mini Cooper, and I think they did a damned fine job achieving that goal, capturing the shape of the classic British subcompact. It holds either an AirPods 1 or 2 charging case inside, while still working with wireless or plug-in charging via the cutout in its rear license plate.
Even cooler, the headlights and taillights glow in the dark, with a bluish glow up front, and red in the back. And if some other AirPods case doesn’t see them and rear-ends your AirPods, they’ll be okay since they’ll just bounce off of the rubbery silicone.
The elago Mini Car AirPods case comes in Fire Engine Red, Classic White, or a color I’m particularly keen on, British Racing Green. They’re available now over on Amazon for about 15 bucks each. Beep Beep.
[via The Gadgeteer]
Cyberattack forces Honda to suspend global production for a day
Toyota’s 2021 Sienna minivans will all be hybrids
Dyson finally unveils its cancelled electric car
Ford Solar Car “Cocoon” Patent Is Crazy Genius
The idea of using solar panels to give electric cars a little extra boost is nothing new. In fact, the 2020 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid has a solar roof that helps to run its electronics, and can give it a couple of extra miles of driving range each day.
Solar panels aren’t efficient enough at this point to fully charge up an electric car, but the more surface area a solar panel takes up, the more energy it can capture. If you could have a car completely covered with solar panels, it might produce a few more miles a day worth of power, if not more.
Recently, Ford Global Technologies filed a patent application for a unique kind of solar charging panel that basically blankets a car when parked.
The patent application (US 2020/0153383 A1), first reported on by the MachEClub, envisions a roof-mounted carrier that can release a retractable car cover with an embedded solar array. The tarp, made from a shape-memory polymer, would protect the car from the elements, while harnessing energy from the sun.
Since the flexible solar tarp would dramatically increase the surface area compared to a simple roof panel, it could capture much more solar power. The patent application also describes a variant of the invention which could automatically retract when it receives a signal that the driver is ready to retrieve their car from its parking space. It’s kind of a nifty idea, assuming the solar cover could hold up to being opened and closed all the time.
[via MachEClub]
This Formula 1 car-design bridges the gap between race-cars and fighter-jets
What’s the difference between an F1 car and a fighter jet? One of them has weapons.
Essentially, both vehicles are powered by incredibly capable and efficient engines, both focus on pure speed, aerodynamism, and minimal air-drag, resulting in forms that somewhat look similar… barring the presence of wheels on one, and wings on another. Andries van Overbeeke decided to bridge that gap a bit with his F1 car design that sports an almost jet-inspired outer form, with an elongated nose that cuts through the air like hot knife through butter, and a closed cockpit that doesn’t just resemble jet, it also complies with future F1 norms. The car makes use of high-performance metal alloys, with carbon fiber in limited places. Most load-bearing stress-absorbing components are generatively designed, to minimize mass while maximize performance, and by far the most interesting detail is the car’s nose, which comes with a unique hollow drill-shaped air intake that guides air into the car to keep it cool while it drives literally at breakneck speeds!
Designer: Andries van Overbeeke
Automatic to shut down and end support for its car diagnostics dongle
Chevy’s refreshed Bolt EV is delayed until 2021
So much for driving an updated Chevy Bolt EV in 2020. The company's Megan Soule told Electrek in a statement that it has pushed back the updated Bolt EV's release to 2021 due to the "current business situation" (read: the COVID-19...