Technology is often accused of making us lazy and of taking away our abilities to do what we once did manually. General consensus is that most improve our lives by making things easier or by automating mundane tasks, but sometimes it goes further than many are willing to accept. Case in point: autonomous driving. Are you ready to have the car do the steering for you?
In a recent report by J.D. Power and Associates brought to us by Shreveport Chevrolet, we find that young Americans are much more willing to get behind the wheel of autonomous cars than older Americans. The older one is, in fact, the less likely they are to allow cars to do anything for them, from speed control to accident avoidance braking assist. It’s a matter of trust, and apparently American youths are more trusting.
There was a time when MapQuest plus a good printer made a world of difference to travelers. Those of us who recall the pre-smartphone-navigation days remember plotting out trips and printing our directions from various services with MapQuest being one of the biggest and most trusted.
The daily commute is becoming more and more perilous. It isn’t the safety that we’re worried about today. It’s the rising costs of gas and the effect it’s having on our personal bottom lines.
Thanks to very strong demand for the new Volkswagen Passat—which is built at VW’s U.S. manufacturing facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.—the automaker is now looking to hire another 800 employees at the plant before the end of 2012. And remember, this is on top of the 200 new positions that Volkswagen previously announced there, bringing the number of new jobs created in Tennessee this year up to a nice round 1,000. All told, VW will employ about 3,000 people at the Tennessee complex by the time the current hiring spree is finished. [click to continue…]
Whether they’re astronauts or assembly-line workers, a wide range of folks are routinely in danger from repetitive-stress injuries associated with constantly gripping and releasing their tools. But that could soon be changing, both in outer space and at GM facilities a bit closer to earth: General Motors and NASA recently introduced the Human Grasp Assist device—aka, the Robo-Glove—to cut down on muscle fatigue among astronauts serving on the International Space Station. [click to continue…]
Ray Durham, the Chrysler Group’s vehicle line executive for SUV Vehicles, is this year’s Black Engineer of the Year President’s Award (BEYA) winner for his “exceptional career gains in government and industry, and in lifetime achievement.” The prestigious recognition was presented by U.S. Black Engineer & Information Technology magazine at the recent 26th annual BEYA Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Global Competitiveness Conference and Awards Gala in Philadelphia. [click to continue…]
The bottom line on GM’s bottom line in 2011: The automaker increased its full-year earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to $8.3 billion on overall revenue of $150.3 billion, representing increases of 18.6 percent and 11 percent, respectively. GM North America led the way, accounting for $7.2 billion of the company’s 2011 EBIT—a jump of more than 23 percent—and that performance, in turn, was built on Chevrolet’s impressive run of success here in the United States, where the Bow-tie division was the top-selling passenger-car brand in the industry. [click to continue…]
According to Winnipeg Used Cars, in an effort to boost sales through awareness, Honda is taking their CR-Z hybrid to the race track to show the world that a car doesn’t have to be either gas or electric to have performance. It’s a challenge – having a gas tank, batteries, and the larger-than-normal hybrid engine makes the vehicle exceptionally heavy compared to its competitors.
“Hybrids aren’t normally associated with performance,” said Bill Dupont of Pensacola Honda. “That’s been the challenge so far. People think gas OR electric when they think performance, not hybrids. I hope they can make a splash on the race scene.”
Ford’s very first plug-in hybrid—the 2013 C-MAX Energi—has now helped the automaker win its second consecutive Green Car Vision Award. The honor is given each year by the Green Car Journal and goes to the top green vehicle that is about to break into the big leagues. (Last year’s winner was the 2012 Ford Focus Electric.) [click to continue…]
