Have you ever pulled up next to a car at a red light just in time to see the driver lean over to the passengers seat and whack out a few lines on his laptop? I’ve seen it done many times (and I’m not counting the times that the person I witnessed doing so was related to me) and it never fails to make my heart skip a beat. Bottom line: Drivers who don’t keep their eyes on the road make me nervous.
Which is why I was very interested in the news that new technology being unveiled at this week’s 2007 Chicago Auto Show can help drivers check and answer e-mail while they’re speeding down the highway. The unit is featured in the new Ford Edge. It looks like a car radio, and it does in fact play the radio and CDS, but it can also read text messages and control a driver’s MP3 player via voice commands.
The high-tech device, which is a joint effort between Microsoft and Ford, is called Sync, and it will be available this fall in all of the manufacturer’s cars from Ford’s tiny Focus to its large Lincolns. According company executives, the unit has text messaging shorthand installed (for example, “LOL” for “laughing out loud,” and “CU L8R” for “See you later”), so it can read text messages. Basically, if you want to listen to a message while driving, all you have to do is push a button on the steering wheel.
But, the “Sync” was not the only technological breakthrough unveiled at this year’s Auto Show. The e-Flex propulsion system developed by General Motors is also causing quite a stir.
The new system is part of the company’s hybrid cars. Company engineers say the e-Flex system allowed GM to create a pure electric vehicle–the Chevrolet Volt– with an on-board range extender. The electricity comes from an extension cord that is plugged into the wall, while the range-extender is basically a tiny gasoline engine similar to the one found on a motorcycle. Together the electric and gas engines allow the Chevy Volt a potential range of 600 miles.
According to engineers, the car is still in its experimental stage and the new system has kinks to be worked out, including the fact that the 16-kilowatt hour lithium battery required to drive the Volt at highway speeds does not exist yet. That said; GM executives told reporters at the show that they are “full-speed ahead working with unknown, unannounced suppliers, etc., to put this battery issue (on the front burner) and resolve it.”
General Motors’ executives added that engineers are also working on a plug-in hybrid version of its Saturn Vue SUV.
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