Chicago maps its underground maze
StandardThe Windy City‘s smart city efforts include scanning its vast network of pipes. Mayor Rahm Emanuel sees an opportunity to focus on the future.
transportation
These smart cities in Italy put Silicon Valley to shame
StandardThe city of the future could help you find parking, detect potholes and keep you healthier. Sicily’s showing the world it can be done on a shoestring budget.
Your Phone Has a Car Engine Update
StandardTechnology that monitors a new car’s engine performance and sends detailed trouble alerts to an owner’s cellphone is now becoming available to owners of older model vehicles using inexpensive add-ons.
Drive Into the Future: Your car knows a lot about you. And it’s talking.
StandardFord Motor Co. wants to read car buyers’ minds.
A fantasy? Maybe. But by mashing together large databases and analytical algorithms, the Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker may have achieved the next best thing.
Driverless Cars Move Closer to Reality
StandardDriverless cars are no longer the domain of science fiction.
Toyota, Audi Prep Self-Driving Cars
StandardToyota Motor Corp. and Audi AG are throwing their hats into the ring of potential suppliers of self-driving vehicles.
Both auto makers confirmed on Thursday that they will be demonstrating autonomous-driving features at the Consumer Electronics Show in the coming week, signaling a new effort to raise the technology’s profile among consumers.
In a preview video posted to its website on Thursday, Toyota showed a five-second clip of one of its Lexus brand cars outfitted with various sensors and the caption, “Lexus advanced active safety research vehicle is leading the industry into a new automated era.”
Apple Makes a Wrong Turn as Users Blast Map Switch
StandardApple Inc.’s move to replace Google Inc.’s mapping software with its own on its mobile devices sparked a world-wide consumer backlash, marking a rare strategic blunder by a company more accustomed to rave reviews from users.
As Apple prepped its stores for the first sales of the iPhone 5 on Friday, the company faced vociferous complaints from consumers over the mapping application it released this week, which replaces the Google maps that have been part of the iPhone since the device’s initial 2007 release. The new maps come installed on the iPhone 5 and will be seen by other users who upgrade their iPhones and iPads to the company’s latest iOS 6 mobile operating system.
Cars Pump Up IQ to Get Edge
StandardLAS VEGAS—Auto makers want their cars to be able to drive into the cloud.
Manufacturers like General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Daimler AG‘s Mercedes-Benz Cars division are using the Consumer Electronics Show here to show off a set of computer services that operate online, or through the “cloud,“ and allow customers to remotely track their cars, diagnose what‘s wrong with them and potentially avoid collisions.
Sony Faces Suits Over PlayStation Breach
StandardPlaintiffs lawyers are targeting Sony Corp. with class-action suits after a breach of the company’s online-game network compromised the personal information of millions of users.
In one lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court’s Northern District of California, videogame player Kristopher Johns said Sony’s security was negligently poor and the company failed to encrypt personal information.
Big Blue dreams of a big green battery
StandardSAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Spike Narayan watched a Tesla electric sports car rocket from zero to 60 mph (100 kph) in less than four seconds and knew batteries would be the next big thing.
“It’s hard to understand you’re not in a gas powered Porsche,” Narayan said as he recalled the demonstration outside IBM’s Almaden Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley.
“Your head snaps back from the speed.”
The vision underscored the importance of battery power to Narayan and other IBM researchers who led a future-of-batteries conference that ended Thursday at the center.