new car technolgy

Mystery icons on your dashboard? Pictures tell the stories

Flashing rectangles on the navigation system? Vibrating steering wheels? Abrupt warning sounds? It’s enough to drive a driver into making a mistake or it can save their life. And then there are those icons. Less invasive and also simultaneously helpful and confusing, warning icons can also abruptly appear on your car or truck‘s dashboard without, well . . . warning. Some of the icons are commonplace, others are more difficult to decipher. MotorTrend.com, the online version of automobile magazine dating to 1949, has accepted the task in long form of explaining in alphabetical order 10 icons that can appear on your vehicle. What they mean? How serious are their arrival? Here are abbreviate explanations. ABS Sensor Warning Light The ABS

Read more

Automotive technology overload can ruin your day

The Interstate 680 South and Highway 24 West interchange in Walnut Creek, California, is a manic maze. It’s often a showcase for drivers’ worst behaviors. You can drive it a thousand times, prepare for a safe move to the proper lane and still face peril. The freeways’ designs don’t help. Rather, the awkward connection between the roads often prompts motoring lunacy. Cars cut across lanes at the last second and merging traffic from freeway ramps isn’t given proper access. But there’s a still a potential positive in the chaos. However hectic the traffic gets, modern automotive technology can help, except for when it doesn’t. Such was the case recently while approaching the 680 South to 24 West traffic mess in

Read more

2016 Honda Civic: Tech features, desert companions

Four model years ago, Honda introduced a new feature into its 2013 Accord and Crosstour models — Lane Watch. It’s a right-side camera that assists with blind spots. When the turn signal indicator is engaged for a right-hand turn, the camera shows the lane to the right of the car on the navigation system screen. One red (closest) and two yellow lines on the screen show the distance to the next vehicle(s). The Lane Watch feature has been added to other Honda models more recently, and it’s included in my 2016 Honda Civic (Touring), the vehicle I’m driving during the Tour of Utah bicycle race. Since leaving Sacramento on July 30, I driven more than 1,200 miles. During the long-distance

Read more

What’s wrong with the auto industry? Technology overload

Technology thrives in the automotive industry. Safety, performance and efficiency are improving in cars and trucks at a wickedly fast pace. Mobile device connection to the Internet, navigation systems, emergency response systems and driving habit-monitoring devices has revolutionized the auto industry. But as automakers continue to keep drivers connected in their vehicles at the same pace as when they’re not behind the wheel, is there reason for concern? Is too much of good thing not so good? Or, have consumers gained more confidence that carmakers’ ever-advancing innovation overrides the need for technology distraction concerns?   According to Harris Interactive, the marketing research company in Rochester, N.Y., that conducts the annual AutoTECHCAST study, the answer has slightly shifted toward the later.

Read more