tech

With amenities such as navigation with live traffic reporting and a phenomenal stereo system, Acura led the way in car technology with its RL and RDX models. Now it has taken the tech from those cars and loaded it into the full-size MDX SUV. We just got the 2007 Acura MDX in at CNET Car Tech, and this car gives us a lot to chew on. As with many SUVs these days, the MDX gets a third row of seats. With its relatively short body, the third row occupies most of the cargo area, so you can either haul six … Read more

A bunch of Web veterans are teaming up to offer an online forum for gearheads, giving car owners the chance to submit, edit, and control car-related content. Built on an open platform, CarGurus.com gives users a place to post their own reviews, photos, and wiki entries, and to ask questions of an audience of like-minded drivers.

The site, which has been in beta since March 2006, is the brainchild of Langley Steinert, co-founder and former Chairman of Trip Advisor; Simon Rothman, founder of eBay motors; and Matt Rightmire, a former vice president at Yahoo, among others. It will formerly … Read more

When I first saw the pictures of this house on Make Magazine's blog, I thought they were straight off the sets of one of the Lord of the Rings movies. Seriously, doesn't it look like the kind of place where you could open the door and expect to see see Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan inside sporting prosthetic foot fur? But, no, it's actually a "low-impact woodland home" in Wales that was built at a total cost of 3,000 pounds (a little under $6,000) and 1,000-1,500 man-hours over a period of … Read more

If you like to rock out in your car, but don't want to turn your ride into a mobile guitar amp, then this might be the answer: an in-car audio system jointly designed by Panasonic and Fender. The iconic guitar maker has teamed up with Panasonic to "create customized products for the global automotive industry."

The collaboration is an attempt to cash in on Fender's brand name and expertise in the musical instruments industry, and it's another effort by Panasonic to name-drop its way into the in-car audio market. Panasonic already supplies the likes of … Read more

The 2007 Detroit Auto Show ends on Sunday, and if you didn't get a chance to see it, you can enjoy the concepts, new models, and exhibits through our coverage. We've just posted our last video on the show, wrapping up the most important announcements and unveilings. For even more depth, take a look at our slide shows and blog entries about the show.

Click here to watch the 2007 Detroit Auto Show wrap-up video.

File this in the "not there yet" folder. A bunch of blogs have covered a new, solar-powered system for NEC monitors, yet none show how it looks. My mind's eye pictured a tidy, laptop-size solar panel. But when I received this photo from NEC, I couldn't stifle a chuckle. Who wants to claw their way to a corporate window seat only to have mammoth solar panels block the view? Oh, and try not to kick that battery pack.

The equipment is designed for big businesses that aim to cut costs with clean, off-the-grid energy sources, but … Read more

Dresser Wayne is working on a gas pump with Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit that would allow you to download music while waiting for your gas to finish pumping. The Ovation iX fuel pump would connect to the Internet and transfer the songs to your media device or a car stereo system via Wi-Fi. The media/fuel pump complete with touch screen was featured at CES 2007, according to Gizmag.

The device could be a good service for truckers with long hours to kill, but how would you get the full-service gas station drivers in New Jersey to use it?… Read more

A Vespa Granturismo might get 64 miles per gallon, but this little guy sure one-ups it. I read about it on ThisNext: it's called the GreenEmotor, or GEM (there does not appear to be any relation to the GEM electric car brand), and it's a zero-emissions electric scooter that gets the equivalent of 1,350 miles per gallon. More specifically, you'd get 1,350 miles of electric charge (a single charge will cost about 12 cents on your electric bill) for the $3 that you'd spend on a gallon of gas. The various GEM models range … Read more

Convergence is the name of the digital game at CES 2007. Music players become phones, phones become GPS devices, and GPS devices become music players. In the latest effort to combine two previously distinct products, JVC Mobile has integrated an 3.5-inch color LCD screen into the faceplate of a in-car stereo head unit to provide drivers with movies, music and directions in one after-market device.

The KD-NX5000, on display at CES for the first time, is an impressive product. Its 16GB hard drive-based navigation system contains 13 million points of interest and comes with a built-in RDS-TMC traffic tuner … Read more