The United States Senate has already passed a bill that would require data-recording “black boxes” to be equipped on every vehicle for the 2015 model year, and the House is also expected to approve the bill. The primary function of the black boxes, which are known as Electronic Data Recorders (EDRs), would be to “capture and store data related to motor vehicle safety,” and access to the EDR’s information is only through an “interoperable data access port.” Interestingly enough, EDRs are already found in almost 80% of all vehicles, including models from GM, Ford, Kia, Hyundai, and many others.

Black boxes can record the date and time, along with engine speed, steering angle, throttle position, braking status, force of impact, seatbelt status and air bag deployment, and are meant to help automakers make vehicles safer. It is unclear who actually owns the data, though.

“The owner of the vehicle should be in control of the data,” Paul Stephens, director or policy and advocacy for the Privacy Rights Clearing House said to Wired. “And [law enforcement] would need a subpoena, just as you can’t go into someone’s house and grab evidence. But everything is subject to judicial procedure and it’s always possible to get a subpoena to get that information.”

The bill does allow first responders such as police, paramedics and firefighters to access the data without a court order, however, if it aids them in an emergency situation. According to Jim Harris, owner of Harris Technical Services, a firm that accesses and analyzes EDR data, the information can quickly change hands in certain situations. “If a car is in a crash and deemed a total loss by an insurance company, the insurer now owns the vehicle,” he said. “And the insurance company can access the data on the EDR can and possibly use it in legal proceedings against the former owner.”

Harris also warned that data from a car’s EDR can sometimes be wrong or misleading. “EDR data doesn’t stand alone,” he said. “We’ve found data records that did not match the physical evidence in a crash – not even close.” Other mitigating factors have to be taken into account along with EDR data, he said.

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Nevada is the first state to grant Google a U.S. license to test driverless cars. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed on Monday that it had approved the company’s application to test autonomous vehicles on public streets. Google will be required to have at least two people in the vehicle while testing it, however, including one in the driver’s seat. Prior to being approved, the Mountain View-based company had been testing the car on freeways in neighborhoods around Carson City and Las Vegas, according to Fox News. The tests showed the car was just as safe, if not safer, than cars operated by human drivers. “It gets honked at more often because it’s being safe,” said Nevada DMV Director Bruce Breslow. The driverless vehicles will be required to wear red license plates that contain an infinity symbol, which the DMV says represents their status as “the car of the future.” If testing goes as planned and the vehicles are ever used by the general public, the license plates will be green. “They’re designed to avoid distracted driving,” Breslow said. “When you’re on the Strip and there’s a huge truck with a three scantily clad women on the side, the car only sees a box.”

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Chrysler’s Mopar division plans to become the first car manufacturer to eliminate power cords from cars. The company on Monday announced its new in-vehicle wireless charging technology, which will be available in the 2013 Dodge Dart. “At Mopar, we look for every single opportunity to make our customers’ lives easier,”said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. Our industry-first in-vehicle wireless charging system is the perfect solution for those connected customers who are always on the go.” The wireless charging system is installed just below the center stack and in front of the center console. The unit features a built-in charging grid that is activated when a user places their iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or compatible MP3 player on it, and will begin to charge when the vehicle is started. As with other wireless charging options, a separate phone case will be required. The in-vehicle wireless charging system will be available for $199.99 plus installation, and the 2013 Dodge Dart is scheduled to be available in the second quarter of 2012. Read on for Chrysler’s press release.

Chrysler Group LLC Introduces Industry-first In-vehicle Wireless Charging

Charges iPhone, Blackberry, MP3 Players and Droid-based devices
New Mopar® Feature First Available on All-new 2013 Dodge Dart

April 9, 2012 , Auburn Hills, Mich. – Look mom, no wires.

After being the first to eliminate heavy, bulky owner manuals from its vehicles, Chrysler Group LLC, through its Mopar® division, will now be the first to eliminate unsightly dangling power cords in its vehicles by offering in-vehicle wireless charging.

The company will first make the technology available on the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart that arrives in dealerships in the second quarter of this year.

“At Mopar, we look for every single opportunity to make our customers’ lives easier,” said Pietro Gorlier, President and CEO of Mopar, Chrysler Group LLC’s service, parts and customer-care brand. “Our industry-first in-vehicle wireless charging system is the perfect solution for those connected customers who are always on the go.”

For easy access, a seamlessly integrated power bin, measuring 8.27 inches by 9.5 inches by 3.25 inches, is installed just below the center stack and in front of the center console. The bin has a built-in charging grid that is activated when customers place in their battery-powered device. The unit begins to charge when the vehicle is started. A phone case, specifically designed for a variety of smartphones, is required and included with the feature.

Mopar in-vehicle wireless charging is available for $199.99, plus installation (part number 82213216).

New York’s Auto Show is always packed with debuts, and this year wasn’t any different. From the 2013 BMW X1 and Mercedes-Benz’s 2013 CL-Class and GL-Class, to the 2013 Ford Explorer Sport, 2013 SRT Viper and many more, I took a spin through the show to check out some of the newest cars that will soon hit the market — and of course, look at a bunch of my favorite rides as well. The show-stopper for me? The matte blue Audi R8 GT, though I loved the Ford Explorer Sport, too. Catch all the McLarens, Aston Martins, Rolls Royces, BMWs, Bentleys, Mercedes-Benzes and more in our 2012 New York Auto Show photo gallery, which is linked below.

PAL-V’s “flying car” has successfully completed its maiden voyage in the Netherlands. The “Personal Air and Land Vehicle” flies likes a gyrocopter with the help of an auto-rotating rotor and a rear folding push propeller. On the road, the company claims the PAL-V ONE drives like a sports car. “We are very proud to announce this successful maiden flight of the PAL-V and we now invite investors to create the future with us,” said Robert Dingemanse, CEO and co-founder of PAL-V. “We know there is a lot of interest for the PAL-V. Prior to announcing these test flights, we were already approached on a daily basis by potential customers and dealers wanting to be part of this exciting project.” The copter-car hybrid features a flying range between 220 miles and 315 miles and a driving range of about 750 miles, and it is capable of reaching speeds of up to 110 miles-per-hour on both land and in the air. The vehicle runs on gasoline, however the company is currently developing versions that will use biodiesel or bio-ethanol. Read on for PAL-V’s press release and video demonstration.

Flying Car Makes Successful Maiden Flight

The Dutch company PAL-V Europe NV has successfully concluded test flights of its flying car, PAL-V (Personal Air and Land Vehicle). During the past two weeks, several test flights were conducted at the Gilze Rijen Airport (The Netherlands). The patented vehicle flies in the air like a gyrocopter with lift generated by an auto-rotating rotor and forward speed produced by a foldable push propeller on the back. On the road it drives like a sports car. No new infrastructure is required because it uses existing roads and airstrips.

Dutch Innovation

A team of top engineers has been working on the first prototypes since finalization of the design concept in 2008. Renowned institutes such as the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory and Delft University have also been involved in the development. The driving prototype was fully tested in 2009 and now the flying-driving prototype has made its first flights. The PAL-V complies with existing regulations in all major markets, which means that the vehicle is allowed both in road traffic and in the air.

Robert Dingemanse, CEO and co-founder of PAL-V commented: “We are very proud to announce this successful maiden flight of the PAL-V and we now invite investors to create the future with us. We know there is a lot of interest for the PAL-V. Prior to announcing these test flights, we were already approached on a daily basis by potential customers and dealers wanting to be part of this exciting project.”

Door-to-Door Mobility

A PAL-V offers the choice of flying like a plane or driving like a car. This means fast door-to-door mobility for private individuals as well as professionals and organizations. The flying range will be between 350 (220 miles) and 500 km (315 miles), depending on the type, pay load and wind conditions. Driving, a PAL-V will have a range of about 1200 km (750 miles). It runs on gasoline like a conventional car and there will also be versions that use biodiesel or bio-ethanol. It can reach speeds of up to 180 km/h (110 miles/h) both on land and in the air.

On the ground the slim, aerodynamic, 3-wheeled vehicle combines the comfort of a car with the agility of a motorcycle thanks to its patented, cutting-edge, ’tilting’ system. Driving, a PAL-V accelerates like a sports car and drives through curves like a motorcycle.

Flying, a PAL-V is like a standard gyrocopter. It is quieter than helicopters due to the slower rotation of the main rotor. It takes off and lands with low speed, cannot stall, and is very easy to control. This makes a PAL-V one of the safest types of aircraft. Obtaining a licence requires only 20 to 30 hours of training.

Thanks to its very short take off and landing capability, it is possible to land a PAL-V practically anywhere. For take-off, a strip of 165 meters (540 feet) is enough and it can be either paved or grass.

Governments are already preparing for increasing traffic with Personal Air Vehicles like the PAL-V. In the United States and in Europe government-funded development programs are determining the infrastructure of ‘digital freeways’ to provide a safe corridor using GPS technology. The technology is available today to allow personal air traffic to grow safely. PAL-V Europe N.V. is determined to play a leading role in this market.

These days when we think of wireless charging we think about using an accessory for our cell phones. Not long from now we may be using the same tech to power our electric vehicles. According to CNET, Toyota has invested in a company called WiTricity that, until now, has developed wireless charging solutions specifically for portable electronics. In a recent statement Toyota said that it “believes that resonance wireless charging is suitable for automobiles and aims for its early practical use.” Using magnetic near-field, WiTricity could potentially offer a wireless charging solution for cars, too. We’re imagining a future where, instead of pulling up to the pump, or plugging your electric car into an outlet, you simply need to drive into your garage to begin charging. “WiTricity power sources and capture devices are specially designed magnetic resonators that efficiently transfer power over large distances via the magnetic near-field. These proprietary source and device designs and the electronic systems that control them support efficient energy transfer over distances that are many times the size of the sources/devices themselves,” the firm said. Other companies, like HaloIPT, also offer wireless car-charging solutions, but this is the first we’ve heard of a major car manufacturer getting on board. Read

Mercedes-Benz is on an environmentally conscious tear as of late, launching two hybrid vehicles last year, and now an entirely zero emission fuel cell car this December. We were given an opportunity to test drive the new F-Cell vehicle in Manhattan and learn more about the car. For starters, when thinking about what Mercedes has done with this specific vehicle, it’s mind blowing in itself. A non-combustion engine car that is powered off of hydrogen with zero emissions. Did you ever think you’d see the day? As a car lover, just hopping into the driver’s seat of the F-Cell was an experience. Zipping around downtown New York City in the car was… just like driving a gas-powered vehicle, except, there was no noise. I’ve driven dual-mode hybrid cars before, and I have gotten used to not hearing an engine at some times, but no engine sound at all? Borderline ghostly. While the B-Class-based F-Cell has an all electric motor rated at 136 horsepower and 214 pounds of torque, it definitely didn’t feel underpowered. Plus, once we got over the sound of no sound from the engine, there wasn’t much to complain about. It’s the first fuel-cell car from Mercedes, and while it’s not exactly the most luxurious or stylish model in their lineup, neither is a Prius. Being powered 100% by hydrogen lends itself to one main issue: finding a hydrogen refueling station. Now, there are a couple around the NYC area (White Plains, NY, Wallingford, CT, Bronx, NY), but when the F-Cell touches down in December for consumer leasing, it’s going to be heading to the state of California — mostly Los Angeles and San Francisco where there are plenty of hydrogen stations. You might notice how we said leasing and not purchasing, and that’s because the car will only be offered by way of a lease, and while Mercedes wouldn’t confirm pricing information to us, we’ve heard it will run around $550-$750/month. Definitely on the higher end of the spectrum, but for a car that literally emits water instead of toxic sludge — representing the future of the automotive industry — all we can say is, sign us up.

Click on over to our Mercedes-Benz F-Cell vehicle gallery!

I couldn’t pass up taking a photo of this Tesla Roadster’s license plate just now. Can you come up with a better one?

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Mobile giant Nokia and car-systems specialists Clarion have announced a partnership to push a technology they are calling Terminal Mode. As the press release reads, “Terminal Mode, [is] a technology that will enable a totally new way of mobile devices and car infotainment systems to seamlessly work together.” This is a technology that Nokia and Clarion plan on supplementing with content from Nokia’s Ovi Store, and one hopes will be and “industry standard.” The idea is to create a back-end system, and front-end interface, that will become the standard for car manufactures, allowing both OEMs and consumers to customize and tailor their in-car experience. We’ve got the full release for you after the bounce.

Clarion and Nokia Team Up on Connected Car Technology

TOKYO, June 22 /PRNewswire/ — Clarion Co., Ltd., a global leader in car audio and electronics, and Nokia Corporation, the world’s leading mobile device producer today announced that they are collaborating on Terminal Mode, a technology that will enable a totally new way of mobile devices and car infotainment systems to seamlessly work together. Both companies say this collaboration will further boost the development of next-generation smart car infotainment systems.

Through this partnership Clarion aims to develop the smartphone interface that Nokia and Consumer Electronics for Automotive, CE4A are proposing as industry standard, as well as to build an application service business for in-car devices utilizing the Ovi Store application service by Nokia. Clarion is also targeting accelerated development and greater commercial dominance of in-car information systems for the Europe and North America markets where Nokia has a strong presence, as well as China and other emerging markets.

“By integrating the Terminal Mode technology into in-car information systems such as car navigation developed by Clarion, we will be able to bring to customers the vast array of applications and services available to smartphones on in-car devices. The integration of in-car devices with smartphones will provide better user experiences for consumers and lead to radical changes in in-car information systems,” says Tatsuhiko Izumi, president of Clarion.

“Through a stronger collaboration with Nokia and NAVTEQ, which supplies map information for our car navigation systems in overseas markets, it will be possible to utilize smartphone functions and services for in-car information system functions and support services such as intelligent transport systems (ITS), advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), and navigation coordination.

“Nokia believes that Terminal Mode is an ideal base for industry innovation, allowing existing and new kinds of services to be extended into the car,” says Vesa Luiro, Automotive Director at Nokia. “We are already committed to collaboration with the automotive industry and this alliance with Clarion will further improve the user experience in the car and enable consumers to access their favorite internet services and smartphone applications, wherever they are.”

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We’ve always wanted to hit the NY Auto Show and this year, Buick sponsored our trip. There weren’t many brand new announcements (we actually can’t think of a single one that we can remember), but we did spend some quick time going over some of the cars that caught our eyes. Don’t judge us. Check out the brief video we put together after the jump!

This post is part of our “Live Like A Genius” content series sponsored by Buick and the all-new 2010 LaCrosse.

We wanted to do something fun with car technology for the 2010 New York Auto Show… a little change of pace for BGR. This year, we’re doing some segments on all the different technology that goes into the latest and greatest vehicles currently available, and those that are about to hit the market. Buick has graciously sponsored our New York Auto Show coverage this year — they’ve even dropped off a Buick LaCrosse so we could see what kind of tech it’s pushin’. Look for our Auto Show coverage segments coming real soon, but for now, here’s a quick look at the 2010 Buick LaCrosse from a technology perspective.

This post is part of our “Live Like A Genius” content series sponsored by Buick and the all-new 2010 LaCrosse.

We won’t actually comment on how the car drives since that’s not what we’re really interested in, but as far as the interior goes, it ranges from pretty boring and bland, to pretty amazing. We’ll keep this really short, but here’s some of the stuff we’ve loved after playing with the car for over a week:

• The car has a 40GB built-in hard drive and can rip your MP3s right from the CD and store it in the car.
• What’s even cooler though, is that the same hard drive is used for caching the radio stations you’re listening to. That means you can literally rewind live radio up to 20 minutes in case you missed a song you wanted to hear, a contest — whatever.
• The LaCrosse is the first car we’ve seen to show a full visual weather forecast, and damn does it look nice.
• Bluetooth is a breeze to pair your phones with, and our iPhone connected perfectly to the built in USB port.
• The car features some great advancements like an air quality filter which continuously monitors the quality of the outside air and will automatically switch your A/C to recirculation, a great rear camera back up system with visual guidance, and a really solid and straight forward user interface.

Some of the stuff we weren’t too happy about?

• The car has this weird wrap around console that literally goes from the rear doors, all the way up the front, and continues onto the dash. It’s kind of futuristic looking, and makes you feel like you’re about to lift off. Cool at first, but the blue lighting kind of gets old quick. Plus it doesn’t really match with the Buick brand all too much, but maybe that’s just us…
• While the Bluetooth pairing of our phones went oh-so-smoothly, unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to sync our address book with the car. Worse than that, there was no recently called, missed, or most frequently contacted lists anywhere we could see.
• Is it bad we’re hoping for capacitive navigation screens in cars? The screen on the Buick was probably just as good as any other, but we had a couple mis-fires and it was a little bit frustrating when trying to get the weather or enter in a navigation point.

Click on over to our Buick LaCrosse technology gallery!

A lot of people loved our tech-focused segment on the all-new 2010 Mercedes E-Class and we’re following up with a nice video overview of the vehicle. We were lucky enough to meet with Bart Herring who is product manager for the E-Class series, and in addition to giving us a great presentation on the car, took some time to help put this video together.

Recently I visited Mercedes-Benz’s headquarters in Montvale, NJ to see their all-new 2010 E-Class vehicles. You might be thinking we’re pulling an Autoblog, but we’re not. If you knew the amount of technology and engineering in the new E-Class… well, you’re actually about to.

When you begin to look at how much effort, planning, design, testing, and money goes into creating a line of cars, you realize it’s not an easy task. Forget about competition from other manufacturers, just hearing and seeing the process of how it’s done was an incredible experience for me. We’re going to focus on just some of the technological features in the E-Class which is more than we could ever imagine, so once you add that in with every other component in a car, it’s really amazing. I was lucky enough to get a whole sense of how the process works and how it’s executed. I also test drove two 2010 E-Class vehicles, the E550 Coupe and the E63 AMG Sedan. Read on for my experience and an overview of some of the amazing stuff in the E-Class.

Disclosure: Mercedes-Benz North America is a past and present advertiser on BGR.

The E-Class has a feature called ATTENTION ASSIST which is amazingly cool and incredibly brilliant. Mercedes told us that people who drive when they are tired and drowsy get into car accidents roughly 100,000 times a year, almost as much as driving while intoxicated. What Attention Assist does is monitor around 70 different parameters to get a baseline of your habits and then compare it in real-time to your current driving habit. So, you turn on your car and go off for a drive on the highway. For the first 20 minutes, the intuitive system automatically is monitoring different things that you do. Stuff like how aggressive you are with the steering wheel, braking patterns, and much more. Once that baseline is measured, the system then can decide if your patterns changed for the worse and it wants to alert you. There’s an audible alert as well as a visual one in the instrument cluster.

Mercedes told us that in testing, Mercedes drivers typically have a heart-rate that’s reduced by 5% compared to other drivers of other brand vehicles. The reason they said is because of how much attention they pay to the cabin and the entire experience of making the driver feel like a driver, and a driver that’s driving comfortably.

Something else intelligent the new E-Class does is called Adaptive High Beam Assist. It uses a camera that sees oncoming headlights and taillights of cars in front of you. It then automatically softens the headlights as cars pass by you to ease the lighting and not blind them. It will even switch between high-beams and low-beams automatically. But the best part is that it’s all automatic and will auto-adjust your headlights to compensate for 1,000ft of road (including vehicles) in front of you.

The E-Class cars we saw were equipped with a bag load of safety features and it’s really great to see these things start to get implemented faster and faster on different cars from all sorts of manufacturers. PRE-SAFE Brake is another one of these technological achievements that you might wonder why it isn’t available until now. It makes use of something called DISTRONIC PLUS feature (basically think of it as adaptive cruise control that uses radar to see if another vehicle in front of you has stopped while you’re cruising at 75MPH), and what it does is actually stop the car for you in emergency conditions. We’re not talking about just slowing it down and slightly breaking, we’re talking 100% braking power. It works by sensing an impending rear collision (you about to hit another car in front of yours) and will sound about three warning tones.

If you’re listening to Bubba Sparxx too loud on your iPod and don’t hear those tones, and you don’t see the visual alerts because you’re emailing BGR a tip (not smart), the car will be able to detect that you’re a moron and apply around 40% partial braking to the car to slow you down 1.6 seconds prior to impact. But if all the aforementioned things fail, besides the fact you probably shouldn’t be operating a moving vehicle, the car will apply 100% full braking power 0.6 seconds before impact which will create an “electronic crumple zone,” dramatically reducing the impact for you. It doesn’t mean you won’t crash, but it’s an amazing safety enhancement that Mercedes is confident will reduce serious accidents on the road.

What about night vision? Well, Mercedes said they’re one of the only manufacturers to use an actual camera for their night vision implementation, and instead of detecting heat, it works as does a regular night vision product; it shoots out IR light and the IR camera captures it. We were told it enables you to see more or less 500ft in front of you which is unbelievable if you think about it. There’s also a person detection feature that will put people in boxes so you can accurately view them.

If you know me personally (funny guy, aren’t I?) or even follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I absolutely love cars. So mix that love of tech, gadgets, mobile devices, and everything else with cars and you can get an idea of why the E-Class is so interesting and incredible to me. It’s the most advanced vehicle I’ve ever driven and one of the most exciting just from the technology aspect itself. But, who are we kidding. The E63 would have had me excited if there was a rotary phone strapped to it. Just look at it.

The car can also pair up to 5 mobile phones via Bluetooth and will give you much-loved signal strength indicator in the COMAND display as well as load in your entire phone address book if you’d please. The navigation system actually shows a lot of POI data as icons now, so you’ll literally see a Sunoco sign if there’s one close to you, or a McDonalds, or what have you. Completely unnecessary yet surprisingly enjoyable. Something else interesting is that DVD-based navigation is no longer necessary in this vehicle as it uses a built in hard drive to store everything. There is also around 4GB of free space for you to copy MP3 files to and play back at your leisure.

Another great feature for us phone freaks is that pretty much all Mercedes have dedicated phone number pads.

What about suspension? Isn’t there some tech in there, too? Definitely. There are two different suspension options on the E-Class. One is a spring-suspension system and the other is AIRMATIC suspension which lets the driver select either comfort or spots mode at the touch of a button to fine turn their driving experience. We would have preferred even more control on the suspension, maybe four modes, like some other cars offer, but oh well.

There’s literally so much technology in this car — obviously why I jumped at the opportunity to do this article — that we could go on and on for a pretty long time. If the car senses an incoming collision the seats will move automatically to a more favorable crash position to try and protect the occupants, if the car is about to roll over, the sunroof and windows close automatically, there are up to 11 airbags in the car (9 standard) and a whole lot more. What’s great about all this technology though, is that it’s configurable. We often asked if you could disable almost every new feature they briefed us on, and the answer was always yes. We’ll be following up with a video post on the E-Class that will give you a more visual look at the car’s styling and design elements as well as a nice walk-through from our friend Bart Herring who is Product Manager for the E-Class series at Mercedes-Benz.

In-car video entertainment is hardly something uncommon these days. Any run-of-the-mill mini van or SUV can be fitted with a nice DVD / console entertainment system for a fraction of what it used to cost, typically directly from the dealer. If you want to give your front passenger something to focus on during those long trips however, it’s a slightly different story. Sure you can have your local shop slap a flat panel into your passenger-side visor but unless you’re a teenager you’re or prepping for an appearance on Cribs, you might get a few funny looks. Don’t sweat it though, Mercedes-Benz and Bosch might just have the cure for what ails you – assuming you can squeeze a new S-Class into your budget next year. The duo have developed a new display technology dubbed SPLITVIEW that will allow a single screen to display two different pictures depending on the viewing angle. Using a combination of clever pixel placement and a unique filter, SPLITVIEW will allow a centrally-located monitor in the dash to display navigation or control information to the driver while displaying a DVD or even TV channels to the passenger. The passenger will also have the option of using headphones, freeing up the car’s speakers for music or turn-by-turn navigation instructions. Pretty slick, eh? Expect SPLITVIEW to make its first appearance in production 2010 S-Class cars this summer.

Thanks, Robby!

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