When it comes to seat belts, Ford may have a better idea

Ford is introducing an inflatable seat belt for back seat passengers that it hopes will reduce injuries in front and side crashes.

The device will initially be available only as an option on the next-generation Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle, which goes into production next year. But safety experts say it has the potential to become widespread in the auto industry as car companies look for a marketing edge.

“The advancements in crash protection have focused a lot on front seat occupants, and this is a way to better protect rear seat occupants as well,” said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, an insurer-funded group that advocates higher auto safety standards.

“Safety is now a huge part of the competitive marketplace, and automakers are using safety as a way to sell their vehicles and as a way to show that they are ahead of their competitors.”

According to Ford, the inflatable seat belts are more effective than conventional safety restraints at holding a rear passenger in place during a front or side collision.

Much like front-seat air bag, safety sensors measure the severity of a crash and quickly inflate the seat belts if needed. Each belt’s tubular air bag inflates with cold compressed gas, which flows through a specially designed buckle from a cylinder housed below the seat. (Watch a video of the system in action.)

Ford said that 90% of the research participants thought the new devices were more comfortable than traditional seat belts. The increased comfort level could help narrow the discrepancy between front and rear seat belt use. Only 61% of rear seat passengers routinely buckle up, compared with 82% of front seat occupants, according to federal safety data.

AIDA: It's more than an opera

Between GPS, cruise control, voice-activated communication and entertainment systems and automated parking assist, we’re getting pretty accustomed to having our cars tell us what to do.

MIT and Volkswagen want to take that concept a few steps further with AIDA, a dashboard-mounted robotic device that use myriad sources of information to help you plan travel routes, dodge traffic jams, find heretofore unrealized entertainment opportunities and avoid running out of gas.

AIDA (which stands for Affective Intelligent Driving Agent) doesn’t actually control your car. Instead, it monitors features and systems such as the gas and brake pedals, the windshield wipers, seat position and fuel gauge and tire pressure to “learn” how you drive.

“When it merges knowledge about the city with an understanding of the driver’s priorities and needs, AIDA can make important inferences,” explains Assaf Biderman, associate director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab. “Within a week AIDA will have figured out your home and work location.

“Soon afterward, the system will be able to direct you to your preferred grocery store, suggesting a route that avoids a street fair-induced traffic jam. On the way AIDA might recommend a stop to fill up your tank, upon noticing that you are getting low on gas AIDA can also give you feedback on your driving, helping you achieve more energy efficiency and safer behavior.”

According to the MIT press release, “the project envisions that a kind of symbiotic relationship develops between the driver and AIDA, whereby both parties learn from each other and establish an affective bond.

“To identify the set of goals the driver would like to achieve, AIDA analyses the driver’s mobility patterns, keeping track of common routes and destinations. AIDA draws on an understanding of the city beyond what can be seen through the windshield, incorporating real-time event information and knowledge of environmental conditions, as well as commercial activity, tourist attractions, and residential areas.”

Sounds a bit intrusive, but watching the video of how the system would conceivably work, it seems pretty cool.

AIDA is reminiscent of the dash-mounted “robotic agent” that Nissan displayed in its PIVO2 concept car at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007. According to Nissan’s promotional brochure, the device “infers the driver’s condition. It not only gives necessary information for the operation, but also speaks to you to cheer you up or to soothe you accordingly.”

The MIT project is a collaboration between the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab, the SENSEable City Lab and the Volkswagen Group of America’s Electronics Research Lab.

No word on when it might actually reach the production stage or what it will cost when (or if) it does.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: MIT

TomTom iPhone GPS navigation app is priced and available

TomTom's anticipated iPhone application of GPS navigation is now available for $99.99, a price that might seem high but isn't when compared with in-car navigation systems. The announced "car kit" that includes a windsheild mount, however, has not yet been launched.

One feature that has garnered much of the technology media attention is the app's ability to tap into an iPhone contact from within the app, allowing your contact to select a destination or starting point from their own entry.

David Colker's article on the Technology blog today mentions one of the biggest complaints is that the vocal directions on the TomTom iPhone app do not include street names. Highlights of the product include IQ routes, which caluculate the fastest route based on data collected over the years from other TomTom users, turn-by-turn directions, voice-guided navigation and a combination app and holder for the car (shown here).

Read the entire post in the Tech Blog for more information.

-- Joni Gray

Photo credit: TomTom Inc.

Drunk driving could be 'safer' than texting while driving, study says

Everyone knows the law, though few of us abide. But the studies are rolling in and they're saying texting while driving is not only illegal -- it’s dangerous.

Sure, you might object to the evidence: there have been few conclusive empirical studies about the dangersof texting while behind the wheel, but if it’s important enough for Obama to convene a national summit about it, perhaps it’s worthy of a closer look.

Texting, also known as SMS (short message service), refers to the 160-character messages sent and received on modern mobile phones.

A Car and Driver study released in June, although not the most academic (because of its very small sample size), nonetheless revealed results that will make you doubt your ability to text and drive carefully at the same time.

Ford's EcoBoost technology looks to do more with less

With the wrapper finally removed from the sugarcoated exterior of the 2010 Ford Taurus SHO earlier this week at a national media preview, Ford's EcoBoost movement is unofficially in full swing. Basically, be prepared to hear a whole truckload of EcoBoost-centric news coming out of the Blue Oval's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters over the next few years.

Ford is really excited about its fancy but not-so-new EcoBoost technology, a new engine-building methodology that blends forced induction and direct injection into a high-powered yet efficient mechanical cocktail. For the rest of us that don't yammer on purely in marketing lingo, that would mean new, turbocharged powerplants.

Carmakers turn to Twitter

You've used the Internet to research your new car and find the value of your old one and visited online fan sites and noticeboards to get the most out of your shiny new ride.  But have you tracked a new car launch or auto product by Twitter?

Car companies are increasingly using the seemingly ubiquitous Twitter to inform and engage  potential and existing customers. But will the bold new experiment in social media work? Is the Twitter audience particularly receptive to overtures from auto companies? And what does it mean for the future of digital marketing?

Volvo recently used Twitter as part of a coordinated media strategy to launch its XC60 crossover while Land Rover tweeted about its product line at the New York Auto Show earlier this year. GM and Ford, meanwhile, are longtime Twitter users in areas including customer service and product launches.   Basically, Twitter allows a company executive or marketing team to engage in real time with an online audience that has chosen to follow short, rapid-fire updates, or tweets, on the company's latest developments.

Expert panel tries to guess the automobile's future

What is the future of the car and what will be different in 2020? Last week, at the New York International Auto Show, three participants in a Newsweek Executive Forum tried to answer that question. The panel consisted of Henrik Fisker, chief executive of Fisker Automotive Inc., Lou Rhodes, vice president for advanced vehicle engineering for Chrysler and Kevin Smith, editorial director of Edmunds.com.

Fisker said his company was on track to sell its electric vehicle this fall. He promised the car would deliver 100 mpg for most users and that it would have true mass-market potential.

When Newsweek senior editor and moderator Daniel Lyons asked what we’ll be driving in 2020, Fisker said, “You’re going to be driving a Fisker.... We will have plug-in hybrids that cost $20,000. And at least one-half of the vehicles in each niche will be hybrids.”

He also said, “What’s going to change is the way we generate electricity in this country. People will be able to drive in the cities, people will be able to drive only in electric mode."

This coming from a company with prices that will start in the $80,000 range, was an interesting viewpoint.  “The car industry," Fisker said, "has to reinvent itself and it has to happen now. We can do it because we start from a clean sheet of paper.” He said the company had raised an additional $85 million in venture capital money.

Chrysler's Rhodes has an unusual distinction. He raced in an ENVI electric car against the Dodge Challenger and won.

Back-to-back hybrid smack: Insight vs. Prius

 

In the handful of people who might actually enjoy seeing gasoline return to $4 a gallon, let's include marketing managers for the 2010 Honda Insight (shown left) and 2010 Toyota Prius (shown right), a pair of all-new hybrids set to do battle this spring. They'll be successful with gas at $2 a gallon, but they'd likely be smash hits if gasoline prices go back up.

Though both names are familiar, these are two new cars. The Honda Insight introduced gasoline-electric hybrids to the U.S. market in 1999, but that car was a little hot dog-shaped two-seater that never sold in big volume. Toyota was a little later to the hybrid party with the Prius, but it was a four-door with a usable rear seat, and it became a far bigger hit than the Insight. It still sells well - the Prius accounts for more than half the hybrid cars sold in the U.S.
  
For 2010, the Insight is back, but it's an entirely different car - in fact, the resemblance to the Prius is undeniable. It's a four-door hatchback with room for five, powered by a 1.3-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine, aided by an electric motor.
  
The 2010 Prius is slightly larger than the 2009 model it replaces, and is classified by the EPA as a "midsize" car, while the Insight is a "compact." Really, the difference in interior space is not that noticeable. The Prius' 1.5-liter four-cylinder gas engine is now 1.8 liters, and while the basic hybrid battery pack is essentially the same as in 2009, the rest of the drive system is, Toyota says, 90 percent new.
 
Here are the dueling hybrids in a nutshell:

Toyota finally takes on OnStar

Toyota said today that it would introduce a safety and driver assist system this summer in some Toyota and Lexus models. Dubbed Safety Connect, the system is Toyota’s first attempt to compete with GM’s popular OnStar product.

Introduced 12 years ago, OnStar currently has 5.7 million subscribers who pay $18.95 a month and up for such services as GPS tracking to locate a stolen vehicle and a button that calls for help in case of a crash or breakdown.

Systems on Toyota and Lexus vehicles will include similar safety features. Lexus will offer additional convenience services such as voice control of some of the car’s systems, such as the satellite radio.

It won’t offer everything OnStar does, such as a remote unlocking system and hands-free calling. But the Lexus version will have a few unique twists. The eDestination feature, for instance, will allow drivers to program directions to up to 200 destinations for the navigation system through the Lexus website.

GM took the latest move by its Japanese rival in stride.

“It’s not a surprise,” OnStar President Chet Huber told the Associated Press. “Frankly, if there was a surprise, it’s: What’s taken so long for those folks to get their technology to the point where they can launch some base services?”

Toyota said it would release pricing information later.

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo of Safety Connect from Toyota 

Car gadgets we're looking for at CES

The auto industry might be driving off a cliff, but the Consumer Electronics Show that opens Thursday in Las Vegas will be featuring many new (and often expensive) gadgets for your car. Here’s a sampling:

One of the most ambitious items is the Dreevo 2, a GPS unit that will not only provide directions but weather updates, local fuel prices, the location of speed cameras and -- here’s the best -- open parking spots. If it works, sign us up (unless it puts us in receivership).

MiRoamer is billed as the first Internet radio for cars, capable of receiving thousands of online stations from around the world. It will work only on Blaupunkt radios, at least at first.

HD radio, which offers improved sound, has not caught on widely so far, but it will soon be enhanced with real-time traffic info.

We'll have updates from Sin City.

-- David Colker

Photo: Workers set up the Samsung booth at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today. Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press