Auto & Car Blog

Filed under: Gadgets, Japan, Tech, Nissan, Lifestyle

Those wacky kids in Japan can do all kinds of things with their cell phones that those of us in the U.S. can’t. Thanks to Nissan, Sharp Corporation, and NTT DOCOMO, the Japanese mobile communications company, they can now add car control to the list of possible cell phone features.

The phone uses the two-way communication of Nissan’s Intelligent Key System, the same thing you use on your G37. For now, it can only lock and unlock the car and start and stop the engine, but if it takes off we imagine they’ll add other options later. This is about convenience, not necessarily about sense — if your phone gets stolen, that makes your car one more thing that the villains can abscond with.

The phone won’t go on sale commercially until 2009, but will be demoed at the CEATEC exhibition in Japan later this month. You can read the full press release is after the jump, and get ready to overhear this in Japanese: “I called the wrong number and my car just drove off…”

[Source: NTT DOCOMO]

Continue reading Nissan, Sharp and NTT DOCOMO develop smart-key phone

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Filed under: Minivans/MPVs, Japan, Safety, Tech, Honda

What other automaker would spend the time and expense of developing a new airbag just because, you know, airbags could be better? The same one who developed a new rail car for the same reason. The Japanese automaker has developed a new airbag it claims will give drivers better protection in accidents. The shaped bag uses a spiral seam to induce more even inflation, which provides a larger surface area and creates uniform pressure around the bag more quickly than in a conventional airbag system. Thus, the driver is cushioned sooner. The i-SRS system also uses a gas release valve that helps control airbag deployment and pressure, and holds the gas inside the bag until a preset time. The technology is already slated to appear on the Honda Life in Japan this November.

Outside the vehicle, Honda will be adding a new multi-view camera to the upcoming JDM Odyssey, much like Nissan’s Around View Monitor. Four wide-angle CCD cameras will be placed in the front, back, and on the side mirrors. Each view can be seen individually or combined for a computer generated aerial shot of the car’s movements. Because they’re wide angle, Honda has also incorporated a view with the front camera that extends the driver’s line of sight in low-visibility intersections, such as when exiting a parking garage (see right pic). It sounds similar to the front-mounted camera system on the Rolls-Royce Phantom. Unfortunately there’s no word on when either technology will come to the U.S. Thanks for the tip, phaedra!

[Source: Honda]

Continue reading Only Honda: New i-SRS Airbag System and Bird’s Eye camera

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For the very first time, a fuel-cell vehicle has been made on hand for hired-car services thereby allowing the consumers with the opportunity to experience the performance and benefits of sophisticated uncontaminated technology. The latest version…

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Filed under: Diesel

With the advent of Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel and other emissions and particular matter reducing technologies, diesel is back in a big way in markets like the U.S. and down here in Australia. Of course the clear advantage diesel has over petrol in fuel economy is old news to the Europeans where favourable taxation rules have seen diesel passenger vehicles compete head to head with petrol vehicles for a long time. This huge market at home has meant that the European car makers have led the world in new diesel technologies like Common Rail and Turbodiesel Direct Injection.

But don’t expect the Japanese car makers to ignore a booming market - the share of new diesels in the U.S. car and light truck will likely double to around 7.5 percent by 2010. Japanese automakers have forged an early lead in petrol-electric hybrid technology in the US, leaving the German car makers counting on their reputation for cutting-edge diesel technology in a US market that is expected to shrink overall in 2007. And don’t expect the Germans to share the diesel market with anyone if they can help it. Bernd Gottschalk, head of the Germany car industry association VDA, said at the Detroit auto show, “The goal can only be to make life as difficult as possible for the Japanese.”

Related:

• Diesel V-6 could replace hybrid Honda Accord
• 2008 VW Jetta TDi coming with BlueTec and 50 state emissions
• Toyota to sell diesel hybrid in 2010

[Source: Playfuls]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.

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Filed under: Coupes, Sports/GTs, Etc., Japan, Marketing/Advertising, Supercars, Audi, Lifestyle

The Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong bought 13 Rolls-Royce Phantoms for shuttling guests around the city. The Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo has purchased just one car, and will leave the guest to drive himself. That car is an R8, finished in the hotel’s trademark Brewster Green, with a gold Peninsula logo outside, and cognac leather inside. To avail yourself of it — once you’ve gotten to Tokyo — you’ll need to book the Peninsula Suite, which goes for the ho-hum figure of ¥850,000 per night. That $8,000 U.S. every day to burble at single-digit speeds in Tokyo traffic, although you are allowed to take it outside of Tokyo. Come to think of it, the speeds probably don’t matter — if you have that kind of money, there’s a good chance you’ve got an R8 or better in your own garage already…

[Source: Asahi via German Car Blog]

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