A Lighter Frame for a Stronger Bike · Dec 3, 05:50 PM
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Welcome to the inaugural episode of Technology Under Review Now. Every week, the editors and writers of Popular Science will take their T.U.R.N. breaking down the tech behind the newest gadgets, autos, computers, cameras and more. Dying to see something specific in action? Drop us a suggestion in the comments section. And be sure to tune in to popsci.com/TURN each week.
Buell did not break the mold when it made the 1125CR racing bike. Instead, it washed the mold away—to create a sturdier body.
Meet the New Boss · Nov 25, 02:04 PM
“Boss,” the brainchild of Tartan Racing (a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and General Motors), was the winner of the 2007 Darpa Urban Challenge, a competition of autonomous vehicles. The mission: execute tricky merging, passing and parking maneuvers as quickly as possible, while obeying California-state traffic laws.Hard Times at the LA Auto Show · Nov 24, 04:21 PM
The movement of the crowds at the semi-funereal 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show said it all. No one, it seemed, wanted to hang out with the most beleaguered of the Detroit automakers, Chrysler and GM. As plenty of attendees noticed, Chrysler’s large expanse of showroom floor was all but empty most hours of the day. Same across the room at the General Motors stand: Aside from a small group milling about the Chevy Volt, all was quiet.
No More Blind Corners · Nov 21, 05:54 PM
Nudge forward out of a garage, and cameras mounted on the grille and under the passenger-side mirror on the 2008 Lexus LX57 see around the corners before you do, sparing pedestrians that cross your path. A second camera provides a view of the ground beside the vehicle, so you don’t scuff those new tires on the curb.Hydrogen on the Road · Nov 21, 01:17 PM
Highways filled with hydrogen cars are still decades away, but that doesn’t diminish the achievement of rolling the first fuel-cell car off a mass-production line. To open up interior space, Honda developed its own fuel cell, a 100-kilowatt stack that packs substantially more energy into a 65 percent smaller space than other designs and squeezes neatly into the tunnel between the front seats. And by working through several generations of concept cars, Honda has gotten the once-experimental FCX to look and drive just like a gas-powered car.Test Drive: The Electric Mini · Nov 20, 06:03 PM
Regenerative braking, the process through which an electric car grabs otherwise wasted energy from the brakes as the car glides to a halt, is a brilliant bit of engineering for efficiency—take energy that's otherwise only good for burning up brake pads, and turn it into electricity that charges the battery.
It may also make the uninitiated driver want to vomit.
Getting the Drift · Nov 19, 01:01 PM
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Recently I was watching the animated movie Cars with my automobile-obsessed four-year-old son, when an interesting and unexpected physics item made an appearance in one of the scenes.
Lightning McQueen, the arrogant young protagonist race car, is astonished when he can't make a left turn on a dirt track. When "Doc" explains that McQueen must turn right to go left, Lightning is annoyed and dumbfounded by the seemingly ridiculous logic of Doc's proposition. But Doc is right (no pun intended). What he is describing is the phenomenon known as "drifting."
Chemical-Powered Cars Square Off · Nov 18, 04:16 PM
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The Parajet Skycar: From London to Timbuktu on Biofuel · Nov 12, 01:45 PM
If you were wondering, Timbuktu isn't some mythical city with a skyline of emerald buildings housing a race of unicorn-men. It's a real place, situated in the west African country of Mali, a city historians cite as an intellectual and spiritual center of the 15th and 16th centuries. It's also some 3,700 miles from London. Keep that in mind when you consider a scheme to cover those miles in a car that looks like an Everglades airboat designed by Luigi Colani.
Flying Saucers Come Home · Nov 4, 01:09 PM
Compressed-Air Cars Planned for Airport Test, US Launch · Nov 4, 11:39 AM
The idea of using compressed air to propel a passenger car has been kicking around tech circles for years. Now, Luxembourg's Motor Development International SA (MDI) may have the first viable angle to launching a first wave of air cars: airport transportation. Behold the AirPod, a four-wheel, multipassenger minicar set to be built in Nice, France. It's one of the brainchildren of Guy Nègre, a former aeronautics and Formula One engineer who's been messing around with compressed-air technology in passenger cars for nearly two decades.
The Gas Bug · Oct 30, 12:32 PM
E. coli has earned a nasty reputation for upsetting stomachs and killing people. But now scientists at LS9, a start-up in South San Francisco, are putting the bad bug to good use, genetically engineering it to excrete biodiesel. The fuel "burns just like diesel," says Greg Pal, the senior director at LS9 [see Breeding the Oil Bug, about the rise of microbial biofuels].
What Comes After Batteries? · Oct 29, 05:58 PM
Thanks in part to the inherent awesomeness of the word itself, it seems everyone is talking about ultracapacitors. Ultracapacitors store energy in an electrical field between two plates. They can charge faster than batteries, emit powerful pulses of electricity, and last almost indefinitely. Several companies make them, but the most hyped by far is EEStor. EEStor's ultracapacitors are set to power the ZENN City Car, an electric car with a 250-mile range that's supposed to arrive next year.
Report: GM Chooses Volt Battery Maker · Oct 29, 01:12 PM
Since early last year, two companies -- the Watertown, Massachusetts startup A123 Systems and Compact Power, Inc., a division of LG Chem -- have been battling for the contract to build lithium-ion batteries for General Motors's Hail Mary, the Chevy Volt, an electric car with a small gas engine on board for backup.
GM has yet to officially announce the winner, but Reuters reports that Compact Power is the victor. From our current issue, here's a look inside the fight to power the Volt.
Power Struggle · Oct 28, 06:15 PM
The battery that will power the Chevrolet Volt weighs approximately 400 pounds and, stood on end, reaches a height of six feet. The $10,000-plus, T-shaped monolith contains 300 individual three-volt lithium-ion cells, bundled together in groups of three, then wired in series and kept from overheating by an elaborate liquid cooling mechanism.