Just a day after the company reported record sales and its first-ever quarterly profit, Consumer Reports announced that the electric vehicle manufacturer’s Model S has received the highest test rating of any car in its 2013 car ratings. And just to put a cherry on top, the notoriously tough Consumer Reports writers say that the $89,650 Tesla Model S comes close to, and just may be, the best car ever.

“This car performs better than anything we’ve ever tested before,” Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports’ director of testing says. “Not just the best electric car, but the best car. It does just about everything really, really well.”

Wow.

Because the batteries are in the floor, the car’s center of gravity is very low, Consumer Reports says, giving it superb handling. The Model S, which seats 7 with an optional jump seat, has “impressive power” and uses half the energy of a Toyota Prius, for a 200-mile range.

Here’s Consumer Reports video report:

Tesla’s 17″ touchscreen, which drivers use to control the vehicle’s climate and other systems, is “like a giant iPad,” and almost as simple to use, the report states. And despite the fact that Tesla has only been building cars for a few years, the Model S performs better than vehicles made by manufacturers that have been building vehicles for over a hundred years, Consumer Reports says.

Tesla earned its first-ever profit of $15 million this past quarter on record sales of $562 million. In the earnings release, CEO Elon Musk said he anticipates demand of 30,000 cars a year in the U.S., Asia, and Europe. But with reviews like this, he may want to revise that number significantly upwards.

One note for those of us who don’t have $90,000 in loose change under the sofa seats: Musk promised that Tesla’s next model will be much more affordable.

“The Model S is priced substantially lower than the Roadster, and our third generation vehicle will again be priced much lower than the Model S,” he said yesterday in a statement.

Several thousand Tesla owners have now purchased their cars by ordering and paying for them online after visiting a Tesla Store showroom.

No franchised dealers are involved.

That’s a model that Tesla Motors feels is crucial to getting its electric cars into the mainstream.

State and national auto-dealer groups strongly disagree.

Very, very strongly.

Taking it federal

Now Tesla’s ambitious CEO Elon Musk suggests that perhaps the company will attempt to ensure its legal right to sell cars directly at a Federal level.

In an interview last week with trade journal Automotive News, he suggested that two routes might be Congressional legislation or a Federal lawsuit alleging restraint of interstate trade.

He suggested that the company would rather fight “one federal battle” than “20 different state battles.”

Musk has been in the forefront of the fight to protect Tesla’s store-and-online-ordering model.

Most recently, he testified last week in Texas on a bill that would explicitly permit customers to buy direct from carmakers who sell “only all electric-powered or all battery-powered motor vehicles.”

In other words, from Tesla Motors.

State laws protect dealers

Ever since Tesla announced its plans to sell cars directly, with factory-owned Tesla Stores and Tesla Galleries acting only as display showroms, car dealers and their associations have denounced the plan.

They’ve also sued Tesla for violating franchise laws in several states–Massachusetts, most notably–and gotten laws changed in others to make Tesla’s model flatly illegal.

Most states have some variation of a law that says automakers cannot open wholly-owned dealers that compete with franchises selling the same brand.

Dealers feared in the post-war period that automakers would set up their own dealerships and give them preferential financial terms over franchised dealers.

But Tesla Motors has no franchised dealers to protect.

Changing Colorado law

Nonetheless, the Colorado Auto Dealers Association got that state’s law changed in early 2010 to forbid direct sales of any car by any maker soon after Tesla opened its first store there.

State auto-dealer groups are viewing the Colorado legislation as a model, and such efforts may pop up in other states as well.

Meanwhile, William Underriner, last year’s chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, told a group of Detroit journalists in December that the association has “a whole mess of lawyers in Washington” who work on state franchise laws.

NADA could conceivably deploy those attorneys to support state dealer group efforts in every location Tesla seeks to open a store or service facility.

David Westcott, this year’s NADA chairman, called Musk’s suggestion a “mistake” and vowed that NADA will “vigorously defend the franchise system.”

Auto dealers say that Tesla should use existing dealers who are already operating and know their local markets.

Musk counters that those dealers make the bulk of their profits from selling gasoline cars, meaning that they have little or no incentive to support a disruptive product like the all-electric Tesla Model S luxury sport sedan.

Dealers protect buyers

In an interview last year, Tim Jackson, who heads the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, detailed three reasons that dealers feel Tesla’s online ordering and company store model does not protect the company’s buyers:

• If or when Tesla Motors fails, independent dealers can continue to provide parts and service for the cars;
• Opening stores is expensive and time-consuming; Tesla should spend its money and resources more wisely; and
• The reputation of all auto dealers will be hurt if Tesla fails and strands its owners.

Tesla, it’s safe to say, likely disagrees with Jackson’s arguments.

Petition to White House

The idea of helping Tesla Motors to make its non-dealer stores legal seems to have at least some support among the general public, too.

A petition on WhiteHouse.gov urges the Obama Administration to “overturn franchise laws that limit auto manufacturers from selling their vehicles directly to consumers.”

Posted on Tuesday, the petition must reach 100,000 signatures by May 16 to be considered by the White House.

Thus far, it has fewer than 2,000–though we suspect that number may rise as Tesla fans and supporters get wind of it.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

The universal truths are as follows: Nobody lives forever. The Detroit Lions will never make it to a Super Bowl. Nintendo home consoles lack third-party support.

That last one is especially true, but that’s not stopping Nintendo from trying to prove otherwise. The Japanese gaming giant came out today with a few announcements about major third-party games on its Wii U system.

“Disney, Ubisoft, and our other third-party partners have a great lineup of exclusive games and unique experiences for fans of all ages,” Nintendo of America vice president of licensing Steve Singer said in a statement. “Their creativity spans every audience and genre, creating new ways to play that can only be experienced on Nintendo platforms.”

Disney revealed that it is bringing the game adaptation of the Planes film, a quasi-sequel to Cars, to the Wii U, Wii, 3DS, and DS systems on Aug. 6. Ubisoft confirmed that Splinter Cell: Blacklist is due for the Wii U on Aug. 20 with features exclusive to the console.

“Wii U offers our developers unique tools to showcase our fun franchises,” Disney Interactive senior vice president of publishing Javier Ferriera said in a statement. “No matter which Nintendo system you own, every member of the family will have fun playing.”

The newly announced games join previously revealed games from each publisher, including toy-based action game Disney Infinity (Aug. 18) and colorful platformer Rayman Legends (Sept. 27).

Along with those new announcements, Nintendo went over a list of other third-party games set for release on Wii U this spring and summer:

• Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
• Resident Evil: Revelations
• Fast & Furious: Showdown
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution – Director’s Cut
• DuckTales Remastered
• Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
• Mutant Mudds Deluxe

Even with those titles, the Wii U is still suffering a dearth of content. At retail, the only game of note headed to the console in the next four to five weeks is the fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us due out April 14. The next first-party game is Pikmin 3, which is due out sometime in spring.

The Wii U’s release schedule for the next several months is grim.

Between the games Nintendo mentioned above, weeks go by where nothing new releases at all for the hardware. Worse than that, the games that do release are often ports of year-old products.

Sure, Injustice, Rayman Legends, and Disney’s Planes are all hitting the Wii U as they simultaneously release on other platforms, but many of the aforementioned titles are older games. Lego Batman 2 came out in June. Deus Ex: Human Revolution debuted in August 2011.

It seems that Nintendo is trumpeting this third-party support because it’s the entirety of what it has to offer. That’s not good for a system that is struggling to find an audience. That’s not good for a system that Sony and Microsoft could make obsolete as early as this fall.

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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Electric car company Tesla just unveiled a new financing plan today so that people interested in getting one of its Model S vehicles can essentially turn the car back over to the dealership after three years of payments.

“We want to combine the best parts of ownership and leasing,” Tesla founder (and real-life Tony Stark) Elon Musk said in a press conference. “We want to make the car more broadly affordable for people.”

Tesla outlines all the federal and state tax credits offered to someone who buys an electric vehicle (between $7,500 to $15,000), which is enough to cover the 10 percent down payment on a Model S. Musk said monthly payments, after factoring in fuel savings costs and other maintenance, will be about $500 or less. The financing plan basically offers you the chance to sign up for a 5- to 7-year loan, with the option to get out of the deal after the first three years.

How can this be? Well, Tesla will buy back the car, which Musk asserts will increase or retain its value. Musk even went as far as telling people he’d sink his own money into this plan to ensure customers could walk away with no additional costs after three years.

“It’s a great peace of mind play, and if the claims match the reality, then this is completely different from any other financing model in the industry,” said JD Rucker of KPA Automotive. “In essence, you’re buying half the car much in the way a lease works but still gaining the benefits of ownership. They’re banking on low mileage, and I’m sure there’s fine print but it sounds like a ‘best of both worlds’ financing concept.”

But the average eligible driver still has a few hoops to overcome before it can truly make this beneficial to your wallet.

First of all the monthly payments factor in fuel, so the true monthly cost could be another $200 to $300 per month depending on your driving habits. Musk also noted emissions tests and such as other costs you would get to avoid paying with a Model S (like oil changes). Also, this is still a loan that banks must approve you for, so people with bad credit will still have a hard time. And there’s the matter of running out of fuel before you can get back to a charging station to think of, which could net you a handful of towing bills.

Still, if you’re interested in buying an electric car, this could sweeten the deal, Rucker told me.

“Only Tesla could pull this off,” Rucker said. added, noting that the niche market for people looking for electric cars combined with Musk’s panache make this possible. “It will definitely get prudent people in the right situation looking at Tesla.”

One is the remote control for my TV, another for my surround-sound receiver. One is for my blue-ray player, another is for the PVR, and yet another one is for no discernible purpose.

But if I wasn’t half the lazy idiot I sadly am, I could replace them all with a simple app on my iPhone or iPad, like Roomie.

We’re getting fairly used to our mobile devices being remote controls for the various aspects of our digital and not-so-digital lives. Your LG fridge has an IP address, can text you when food is going bad, and can be controlled by your phone. Home security systems that come complete with an app, and can tell you what’s happening in your home, are almost the norm.

OnStar gives your car a remote control too, and if it’s not exactly a James Bond-style actually-drive-your-car-by-remote app, it at least tells you the condition of your battery, how much gas you have, and lets you remotely unlock your vehicle. (Oh, and by the way, if you do want to drive your car by remote control, just buy the Chinese BYD Su Rui, an ordinary 5-seater sedan that yes, can be driven by remote control — at 1.2 miles per hour.)

Next week at VentureBeat’s Mobile Summit 2013, we’re going to be talking about mobile as a remote control for life. Security systems, cars, homes, appliances: everything modern, seemingly, has a remote control.

Even you.

One of the things we’re increasingly using our mobile phones/remote control is to control ourselves. Sometimes with little devices like a Fitbit or an Up, but often also simply with our phones and apps like Digifit, which monitors and tracks our fitness and workouts. Others help us get better sleep, stop smoking, and walk more, simply by letting us set goals, and then holding us to them.

One, the Gain Fitness app, helps us to manage our fitness with one simple feature: the workout streak tracker. Although the app does other things, it tracks every day you do a workout, and every day you do not. Miss one, skip one, or avoid one, and your workout streak is broken, and you start back down at zero. Essentially, it’s a simple motivational trick to make yourself do what you know you really want to do, but sometimes don’t feel like.

In essence, a remote control.

More on devices, gadgets, the internet of things, and the mobile computers we call phones that are enabling this remote control trend at Mobile Summit 2013, April 1-2 in Sausalito, California.

photo credit: Stéfan via photopin cc

Few companies have branding muscle like Disney’s, and the multimedia conglomerate is flexing it today to help hype gamers for its upcoming Disney Infinity.

Disney is working on the Skylanders-inspired Infinity title, which combines digital video games with physical toys. Today, it revealed a new set of interactive action figures based on Pixar’s Cars franchise. It previously demoed play sets based on The Incredibles, Monsters University, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Disney plans to release the game on June 18 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Wii, 3DS, and Windows.

Players of Disney Infinity can use the Cars characters like Lightning McQueen, Mater, Holley Shiftwell, and Francesco Bernoulli on its racing and stunt track levels.

Disney released the following trailer that shows the characters in action:

Disney Infinity: Cars gallery

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GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here!

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We are working with UK Trade & Investment to showcase the United Kingdom's thriving start-up and investment scene through a series of posts and video interviews at SXSW. Check out all of the coverage here. As always, VentureBeat is adamant about maintaining editorial objectivity.

In its push to grow beyond its San Francisco roots, ride-sharing service SideCar has reportedly purchased Austin, Texas-based competitor Heyride, according to an AllThingsD report published today.

The acquisition probably has something to do with the SXSW conference that’s held in Austin every year in early March. And as a new resident of this fair city, I can attest to its horrible traffic congestion during the morning and evening rush, which will undoubtedly be worse with an enormous event happening. That said, ride sharing services will likely see plenty of use during SXSW.

Much like SideCar, Heyride is an iPhone app that searches your immediate area for people who are available to transport you around town for a fee. That fee is determined prior to someone picking you up, and the transaction is done entirely over your smartphone, which eliminates awkward situations that involve breaking large bills or being surprised that the driver doesn’t have a credit card machine. You’re able to track your ride using the smartphone’s GPS and rate drivers once you’ve been dropped off.

Buying Heyride is a smart move for SideCar. Not only will it gain Heyride’s local user base, but it’ll also put the spotlight on SideCar and potentially take attention away from rival ride sharing service Lyft.

We’ve reached out to SideCar for more details about the acquisition as well as its plans for SXSW. And as always, we’ll update this post with any new information.

Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based SideCar raised a $10 million round of funding back in October from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures. Since launching last year, the startup has facilitated over 50,000 rides and grown a community of hundreds of drivers and thousands of passengers.

There might have been a time when I would have been surprised to hear that someone was using 3D printers to make a car. But, well, this is 2013.

The car in this case is the Urbee, a tiny three-wheeled economy car with an electric motor, internal combustion engine, and 3D-printed frame. Designed by the Manitoba-based Kor EcoLogic, the Urbee was manufactured using a Stratasys Fortus printer, which is able to cut down on parts by printing the Urbee in roughly 50 large blocks. 

While prototypes of the Urbee have been around for a few years, it’s only now that the team is finally ready to begin producing the concept with the Urbee 2, Urbee engineer Jim Kor told the Pioneer Press.

Predictably, cost is an early concern the Urbee, though Kor says that the price disadvantage could evaporate as 3D printing technology continues to evolve.

Printing the whole car should take 2,500 hours — or, roughly three months.

Popular ride-sharing startup Lyft got a green light today to continue operating while the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) re-examines its policies.

In their efforts to bring new transportation options to urban residents, these services have consistently butt heads with the authorities. In November, we reported that hefty citations were levied against Uber, Lyft and SideCar, prompting users to launch an online petition.

But today, the PUC agreed to suspend the $20,000 fine and cease and desist notice against Lyft. The State is taking six months to perform background checks and assess whether these services are in compliance. The CPUC has not yet reached any similar agreement with Uber and SideCar.

The CPUC is considering new regulations that could legalize ride-sharing. In December it issued a proposal for new rulemaking. The proposal states that this is “a situation not encountered before,” and that it will evaluate how these new businesses are using “mobile communications and social networks to connect individuals wishing to offer and receive low cost and convenient, sometimes shared, transportation.”

Lyft responded to the news by announcing plans to expand into Los Angeles. It has already begun recruiting drivers in its first new city outside of San Francisco.

Since it launched in August, Bay Area residents have become familiar with Lyft’s fleet of moustache-adorned cars. Payment is donation-based and often works out cheaper than a taxi. Users can order a ride from their smartphone in a matter of seconds, and a car will typically arrive in 10 minutes or less.

A commission press release said:

“The terms of the agreement are intended to ensure the public safety of both riders and drivers through the CPUC’s interim oversight of Zimride [Lyft's parent company] during the rulemaking through safety requirements that include continued proof of insurance, Department of Motor Vehicle checks, and national criminal background checks.”

This is a significant step forward in the protracted battle between ride-sharing services and State authorities. But the fight isn’t over. Today, users launched a Change.org petition to show support for Uber in an ongoing regulatory battle in Denver.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Honda is the latest in a string of automobile manufacturer that will bring Apple’s Siri voice control technology to its line of cars, the automaker announced today.

Integrating Siri technology into cars means there will probably be fewer “assholes on their cellphones” during your daily commute to work, and more regular “assholes.” Also, the technology does other useful stuff, like letting you control your iPhone or iPad without having to actually look at the device’s screen.

When driving, Siri will operate in “Eyes Free” mode. And some of the things you’ll be able to do include controlling music in iTunes, toggling between the phone’s audio and AM/FM radio, schedule appointments, look up sports scores, and buy movie tickets. One thing you can’t do is ask Siri to pull up a website, since that requires using your eyes for something other than concentrating on the road.

Honda said the Siri integration will be available in the 2013 models of its Honda Accord, Acura RDX and Acura ILX later this year. Right now, we don’t know if the integration will tack on any additional charges when you buy the car, but it does seem likely.

Apple first announced that it was working with automakers on Siri integration last year when it debuted iOS 6. Since then it has reached agreements to integrate the technology into vehicles produced by GM, BMW, Hyundai, and others.

Via MacRumors

Streetline’s system combines mobile technology with the “Internet of things” to streamline the process of finding a parking spot. It works with cities, garages, airports, universities, and other private parking providers to place ultralow power wireless sensors in parking spaces. This creates a system, updated in real time, of available places to park. This data is connected to the mobile apps, which drivers can use to navigate to an open spot. Streetline is in 30 locations in the U.S. and Europe and contains garage data for over 23,000 locations.

The “Internet of things” and connected cars are a hot space right now. A fleet of companies are attempting to solve the frustration that is urban parking. ParkWhiz, ParkingPanda, SpotHero, KurbKarma, and ParqPlace have all raised capital, but this is the largest round of funding this deal reporter has seen from a parking startup.

This third round of investment, led by True Ventures, also included new investors Citi and Qualcomm Ventures. Sutter Hill Ventures, RockPort Capital Partners, and Fontinalis Partners made follow-on investments. This brings Streetline’s total capital raised to over $40 million, not including a $25 million credit facility taken from Citi last year.

Streetline is based in Foster City, Calif. Read the press release. 

Pandora announced a new agreement today that will put its streaming music service into automobile maker Chrysler’s line of vehicles, it announced today at the 2012 Consumer Electronic Show.

While Pandora usually gives a lot of attention to expanding its profile on mobile devices (such as smartphones and tablets), it’s trying to enter your car, as VentureBeat reported nearly a year ago. That makes perfect sense for two main reasons: Regular AM/FM “free” radio isn’t that great anymore, and playing music in your car goes together like chocolate and peanut butter.

The deal with Chrysler is one of over a 1,000 partnerships Pandora has made to make its service available on other platforms. Pandora already has agreements with the top 19 automotive brands in the U.S, and its music service is now available in 85 different vehicle models and through 175 automotive aftermarket devices (aka stereo systems installed after the car was purchased.)

We’ve listed some other usage statistics Pandora released below:

• Listener hours for Pandora during the month of December 2012 were 1.39 billion, an increase of 54 percent from 906 million during the same period last year.
• Share of total U.S. radio listening for Pandora in December 2012 was 7.19 percent, an increase from 4.71 percent during the same period last year.
• Active listeners were 67.1 million at the end of December 2012, an increase of 41 period from 47.6 million during the same period last year.
• Pandora is now available on over 85 vehicle models, 175 automotive aftermarket devices and 760 consumer electronic devices.

Not content to let Google receive all the hype for self-driving cars, both Toyota and Audi are showing off their own driverless solutions at the Consumer Electronics Show next week.

Toyota is showing off one of its luxury models, the Lexus LS 600h, equipped with radar and camera equipment (see video below). Audi hasn’t revealed much about its self-driving vehicle, but it notes that it’s bringing a car that can find a parking spot and park itself without a driver, reports the Wall Street Journal.

Automakers have been slowly adding computer-assisted features to their vehicles, like parallel parking assistance and the capability to nudge cars back into their lines if they veer out. But it was Google that proved fully autonomous vehicles are possible when it announced its ambitious project in late 2010 (at which point the cars had already covered more than 140,000 miles without human intervention). Google claims self-driving cars will ultimately save lives, since they remove the human element that’s often the cause of accidents.

Partially due to Google’s efforts, Nevada approved self-driving car regulations in early 2012 and granted Google a license to test its vehicles in that state.

Like the 1990s search engine companies who were trounced by Google’s breakthrough search, car companies will be quick to show they’re keeping up with Google’s self-driving innovations. For consumers, this race toward fully autonomous cars is a good thing. Within 10 or 20 years, adding self-driving capabilities to your car could be as easy as (and perhaps standard) as cruise control today.

Today, Cisco and NXP announced they are making a strategic investment in Cohda Wireless, which builds hardware to make cars smarter and more connected. The technology creates wireless communication systems between cars, as well as between cars and infrastructure, to create a safer driving environment. It allows vehicles to interact with each other so drivers receive notifications about cars traveling at high-speeds, out-of-control vehicles, or traffic congestion, and have a better chance of avoiding a collision.

“Driving is really one of the premier use cases where we will be able to experience the power of the Internet of everything,” said Andreas Mai, director of product management for Cisco’s smart connected vehicles unit. “This technology allows cars to communicate with each other and with infrastructure like traffic lights. Various test sets have proven that this could prevent 80% of crash scenarios.”

Cisco has been working on smart vehicles for a few years now and recently funded a separate business unit to work on creating more connected cars. Even though new cars often come tricked out with safety features, millions of people around the world are still injured or killed in traffic-related accidents every year. There is still a long way to go, and by creating a stronger link between vehicles and their drivers, Cohda’s technology seeks to reduce accidents by making safety systems more dynamic and responsive.

“If you are driving and another car is approaching on a side road driving too fast, the system in your vehicle is aware of the other vehicle and can generate a warning so you can take steps to avoid the accident,” said CEO of Cohda Wireless Paul Gray. “If the time is too short for the driver to react, the vehicle may preemptively break. What this means for the driving public is significant improvement in safety.”

As this is a two-way dialogue, the technology is only useful if a significant number of cars on the road have it. Cohda has partnered with 12 car manufacturers in Europe to install the technology in their vehicles in 2015 (model year 2016). The equipment is also being tested in the US, with eight car makers engaged in trials in Detroit. While it is important for multiple car makers to collaborate to make deployment a reality, each manufacturer has control over how they implement the technology.

“From a driver-experience perspective, they want additional security for their vehicle, but there are a range of industry implications as well,” Mai said. “On the business side, the connectivity of cars will transform the automotive industry. We are going to be able to connect vehicles to the Internet, which means applications in the entertainment space, location-based service space, and insurance space. The insurance industry is very keen to understand better what really happens in the event of an accident. Then there are the services you can provide. Remote diagnostics mean that abnormalities can be detected and customers told when a service is needed.”

Cisco’s expertise in software and networking and NXP’s experience with building semiconductors will help Cohda bring the technology to market. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Kia Motors has signed a new agreement with Google that brings the search giant’s Maps and Places web services to its in-dash navigation system, the auto maker announced today.

The Google services will be integrated into Kia’s UVO eServices navigation, according to the car manufacturer. (Previously, Kia had partnered with Microsoft for this.) UVO with Google Maps will enable Kia owners to send directions from their mobile devices or the web directly to their vehicle — a useful feature when planning your voyage. You’ll also be able to check out nearby venues featured through Google Places.

The new partnership makes sense for both companies. Kia owners get a dose of upgraded navigation and venue data services, while Google happily grabs some additional users that were previously tied to Microsoft Maps.

The first Google-integrated UVO car is expected to be the 2014 Kia Sorento, which will go on sale at car dealerships some time in the first quarter of 2013.

Come 2013, the federal government may require cars manufacturers to install black boxes, the event data recorders that store information about your driving, into every vehicle made for sale. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants you to weigh-in on whether this is OK with you or not.

The NHTSA proposed the new rule early in December, but it is looking for “comments” on the rule, to be submitted by Feb. 11. It notes that “comments … are most useful if submitted within 30 days.” You can comment online, through snail mail, and hand delivery if you’re in Washington, D.C. You can find instructions for comments on the government regulations website.

Black boxes record information when a car is performing certain potentially dangerous actions such as swerving and abrupt braking. It also takes note of how fast a person is driving, whether the seat belts are in use, how many people are in the car, and other data points.

The agency specifically states that this data will be used to “understand vehicle crashes more precisely.” It’ll also give this information to manufacturers so that they can create new safety features and implement these into future car designs. The proposal also states that it could give out data to emergency response teams, who can gather as much information as possible before arriving at the scene of the accident.

As Wired notes, EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has a section on black boxes and asks questions about who will own the data, what types of data can be collected now and in the future, and if consumers should be told the black boxes exist before the purchase the car.

Car image via Shutterstock

A day after Apple’s new iPad mini tablets hit retail shelves, people are already starting to do creative things with it.

For example, the guys over at Soundman (who also do the Amplified web show on Revision3) have already installed the smaller tablet into the dashboard of a 2010 Volkswagen CC.

The iPad mini connects using Bluetooth wireless, and is held in place within the dashboard by using magnets. Yes, that means you don’t have to leave your new $330 toy within your vehicle for eager thieves to steal. That’s pretty useful unless you just enjoy paying for new side windows and cleaning up shards of glass.

The smaller size of the iPad mini make it a far more practical option than the regular 10-inch iPad, and certainly easier to use while driving than an iPhone/iPod Touch.

The down side to having this installed into your car is that you risk some really boring drives if you ever lose your iPad mini. Still, it is pretty cool. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.

The US is home to more than 250 million registered passenger vehicles, making it the largest market for cars and trucks in the world. Of these vehicles, how many are under-used? Left to wallow in dark garages or gather dust in lonely parking lots? I do not have numbers on this, but I do know that a startup called Local Motion is working to give these cars their chance around the block.

Local Motion is the first company to graduate from the Lemnos Labs hardware incubator program. The startup manufactures a module that can be installed in any vehicle to make it more shareable. Corporations, university campuses, and municipalities often have fleets of vehicles available for their employees’ use, but do not manage these fleets in the most cost-effective or convenient way. Local Motion’s “employee mobility programs” makes vehicle sharing more efficient.

“We are trying to build better transportation networks,” said cofounder Clement Gires. “There are 2 million cars in the U.S. in fleets and those cars are meant to be shared, but the existing infrastructure is not as efficient as it should be. We provide a smarter link between the infrastructure on the ground and the people”

The technology not only replaces keys, but also transmits and collects data. Users can see available vehicles from their smart phone and hold one for immediate use. When they arrive at the parking lot (or wherever), a little light indicates the appropriate bike, car, or scooter, and it can be accessed by swiping an employee badge. GPS, accelerometer, and other monitoring technology tracks where the vehicles are and their “health status.”

“We are trying to leverage all the data collected in field,” Gires said. “How long are the vehicles moving? Where are people going? How many times a day do people take them out? How many people are on board every trip? We use this data to understand and anticipate mobility patterns at different times of day, and tell companies where to distribute their cars, what types of vehicles to have, and how many. This will save businesses a lot of money.”

Local Motion began deploying the technology two months ago at the Google campus in Mountain View, which has 150 electric vehicles and 2,000 bicycles in its fleet. The team is also targeting universities like Standard, which has 400 small electric vehicles and 1500 cars, and other large, local corporations. Ultimately, the vision is to install the technology in the vehicles at the manufacturing stage.

When Gires and his cofounder John Stanfield first started out, they were working on accreting “the most shareable vehicle ever.” However, they realized that instead of adding more vehicles to the equation, they could have a greater impact by optimizing the vehicles that are already in the market.

Local Motion was the first company  Lemnos Labs invested in, and for a while, the 4-wheel, 4-seater electric golf cart lived in the incubator’s warehouse and shared work space in SOMA. Since officially opening its doors earlier this year, Lemnos has added 9 hardware startups to its portfolio. After developing the product and successfully raising a $1 million seed round, Local Motion has moved on to its own work space in Burlingame.

Lemnos Labs was founded by Jeremy Conrad and Helen Zelmen, two MIT grads who made the pilgrimage to Silicon Valley to found a startup. They were interested in creating a hardware company, but saw that there was not a firm ecosystem in place to support them. Instead of starting their own company, they chose to nurture others.

Participants in Lemnos labs receive warehouse space, access to prototyping and testing facilities, and equipment including a full electrical bench, irons, a light machine, drill press, a grinder etc… They also have access to legal services, introductions to suppliers, mentorship, design reviews, and guest speakers, as well as an investor network.

Even though the overhead expenses can be higher for hardware companies than software companies, Conrad said there is greg excitement surrounding the potential of these companies and platforms like Kickstarter are making it easier to bring a hardware product to market.

“Hardware matters because there are a lot of problems that can’t be addressed on the software side,” Conrad said. “We happen to live in the physical world, it will never go away. That is why we are passionate about this. The perception may be that is is too hard, but there has been a radical shift in the past 10 years of what it takes to get a hardware company of the ground. These companies are showing us what they can do.”

To be accepted into the program, a startup must demonstrate that it has a manufacturable, scaleable product with real-world applications. The goal is to give startups the resources to prove their concepts, create a working prototype, or sell production hardware. Basically, to make enough progress to raise funding and venture out on their own.

Now that they have raised a seed round, Local Motion intends to expand the product and deliver it more broadly. Gires said he would like to get 10 big, local customers in the next year with more than 50 cars each. This initial investment came from Tim Draper of Draper Associates, Jerry Yang of Ame Cloud Ventures, Ash Patel of Morado Ventures, and Tony Hsieh from the The Vegas Tech Fund.

Tesla Motors is facing a formidable opponent it may not have sufficiently appreciated: the auto dealers of America, and their state associations.

Tesla, you may remember, is selling its electric cars online, not through franchised, independently owned dealers, and delivering them directly to buyers from the factory.

In doing so, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] has removed the two parts of car shopping that customers clearly hate most: haggling and buying.

Its Tesla Stores, it says, are simply educational showrooms where no cars are actually sold.

Dealer groups–who view the approach as a dire threat–do not believe this, and they are both changing state laws and suing Tesla to prevent the company from opening its stores.

By the beginning of this month, Tesla faced lawsuits in four states over its stores.

Conciliatory, polite

Last week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in, posting what was for him a relatively polite, conciliatory response to those challenges on the company website.

“In many respects,” he wrote, “it would be easier to pursue the traditional franchise dealership model,” which would save Tesla money and broaden its distribution much more quickly.

The problem, he argued, is that any conventional dealer has a fundamental conflict in explaining the advantages of battery electric cars when they rely on gasoline vehicles for the bulk of their sales and profits.

The 2012 Tesla Model S is so different from any other car, he said, that consumers require a great deal of education before they can even start to think about buying.

That’s what the Tesla Stores do, he wrote: let the public learn about the Model S from product specialists–who are not on commission–and, critically, about electric cars in general.

“Their goal and the sole metric of their success is to have you enjoy the experience of visiting so much that you look forward to returning again,” Musk said.

Contrary to spirit of the law?

He acknowledged existing state laws and pledged that Tesla follows them. “We do not seek to change those rules,” he wrote, “and we have taken great care not to act in a manner contrary to those rules.”

In respect to two lawsuits filed against the company, he said Tesla believes they are “starkly contrary to the spirit and the letter of the law.”

Musk noted that they were filed in one case by a Fisker dealer, and in the other, by “an auto group that has repeatedly demanded that it be granted a Tesla franchise.”

He also noted that U.S.-style franchise laws do not exist elsewhere in the world, and described Tesla’s plans for service facilities in some detail.

Laws in 48 states

Source: Photo courtesy GreenCarReports

An early version of the Tesla Model S.

In 48 states, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), franchise laws forbid or severely restrict the ability of automakers to sell vehicles directly to the public.

The specific wording of those laws varies from state to state, but most are based on the rationale that letting big automakers sell cars to customers would stifle competition.

And there’s some history–from half a century ago–that supports the notion that franchised auto dealers may face unfair competition from factory stores selling the same cars.

Tesla Motors, of course, doesn’t have a single franchised dealer.

It has only factory showrooms, and the only way to purchase a Tesla Model S is to order it online.

[UPDATE: NADA upped the ante. It said in an e-mailed statement it was seeking a meeting with the startup automaker to explore "serious concerns about Tesla's intentions."

Its chairman William Underriner told reporters the dealers' group "has 'a whole mess of lawyers in Washington' who work on state franchise laws," which presumably NADA could deploy in every state where Tesla has or seeks to open a store or service facility.]

Changing Colorado law

But dealers insist that Tesla’s showroom workers are part of the sales process, even though they can’t take money for cars.

They view that as a violation of state laws, and are fighting the company on several fronts.

In Colorado, for instance, the state dealer association got a bill passed in 2010 that amended the laws governing dealer operations and their business arrangements with automakers.

The bill, which was signed on March 22, 2010 and took effect immediately, prohibited Tesla from opening any further stores in the state.

As the association wrote in its 2010 End of Session Report:

An existing provision in Colorado law already prevented a manufacturer from operating a dealership so long as they were not [sic] franchised dealerships. This statue [sic] narrows provision [sic] so a manufacturer that has any dealerships in Colorado, whether franchised or not, is prohibited from operating a dealership.

A Tesla Store in Colorado had opened in 2009, spurred in part by interest in a then-active $42,000 tax credit for the purchase of a Tesla Roadster.

Asked for comment on the 2010 Colorado legislation, Tesla spokeswoman Shanna Hendriks said only:

Tesla’s business model was developed in the best interests of consumers and the advancement of electric vehicle technology. In doing so, we have worked closely with regulators to operate within compliance of all current state and municipal laws.

That’s as close to a “no comment” as you’ll get. Tesla currently has just one Colorado facility, in Lone Tree, south of Denver.

Dealerships: the best way to protect buyers

Source: Tesla

A Tesla Roadster

Two weeks ago, Tim Jackson, president of the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, spoke at length with Green Car Reports on dealers’ reasons for opposing the Tesla model and fighting its stores.

It’s really, he explained, all about protecting consumers. He offered three different reasons for the group’s action.

First, he said, independent dealerships usually continue in business to provide service even if an auto company or brand shuts down the supply of new cars.

If Tesla were to fail, he pointed out, it would close all its company-owned stores and service facilities, leaving Tesla owners without recourse.

Owners of Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs, Hummers, Saabs, Daewoos, Isuzus, and other vanished makes got varying access to service and parts through independent dealerships long after they disappeared from the market, he maintained.

Second, the dealers feel–as Musk acknowledged in his letter–that Tesla could spend its money much more wisely than on building its own stores.

Imagine, Jackson suggested, what Tesla could do if it applied the money it’s now spending on stores and service centers to its product development plans instead.

And third, he argued, all auto dealers will be hurt if Tesla fails.

If that were to happen, and consumers were left high and dry without a place to have their Tesla cars serviced, he said, it would do great damage to the good reputation of all auto dealers.

Jackson acknowledged that most car buyers have no idea automakers are legally forbidden from selling cars to them directly.

He reiterated the association’s position that the public is best protected by having independently owned dealerships, rather than direct sales by carmakers.

Like Apple, like Tesla

The model for the Tesla Stores is none other than Apple’s outrageously successful chain of retail shops. In fact, both companies’ stores have been designed by the same man, George Blankenship.

“The [traditional] model is that [carmakers] do a bunch of research, hold a bunch of focus groups, and they decide that this is a car we should build,” Blankenship said at the July opening of the Portland store.

“They design that car, they engineer it and manufacture it, and then they sell it to some dealer who then tries to sell it.”

“That’s just not how we’re doing it.”

Meanwhile, Tesla has said it had already logged more than 1 million visitors in its various stores by mid-July.

And the company is moving forward with plans to open 10 more stores in high-end locations by the end of this year.

Heading into January, Musk wrote, Tesla will have 19 stores, three galleries, and 26 service centers in the U.S.–including service centers in cities where it has no showrooms.

This story originally appeared on GreenCarReports.com, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

Top photo: Elon Musk, by jurvetson via photopin

“Big data” to the rescue.

Now that at least some cities have open public data, anyone with a little programming skill, the inclination to use it, and the burning desire to know, can check. For instance, if the distribution of when tickets are issued is heavy at the end of the month, that could be a sign of quotas that need to be filled.

That’s exactly what Robert Picard, a university student and intern at alternative search engine DuckDuckGo,  did, grabbing a public dataset of tickets issued from 2009 to 2011 in Baltimore. I talked to him this afternoon.

“The original dataset is about two million tickets,” he told me. “I live in Jacksonville, but used data from Baltimore because it was the only place I found any.”

After removing traffic camera tickets (which wouldn’t be affected by quotas, theoretically) as well as correcting for more frequent dates and the fact that only eight months have 31 days, Picard graphed the remaining tickets in a normalized view. The normalized view shows positive (above the line) when more tickets are issued than an expected average, and negative (below the line) when fewer tickets are issued than expected.

Source: Robert Picard

Above the line is more tickets issued than a straight average, below the line is fewer tickets issued.

The data certainly shows a lumpiness. It doesn’t show an average number of tickets issued on each day or in each week. In fact, the date shows more tickets issued near the end of the month — and the beginning of the month.

A possible explanation:

Departments have quotas, and officers do rush to fill it, and that enthusiasm or emphasis carries over into the first week or so of the next month, at which point officers forget about tickets for a while until they are reminded again in the last week of the month.

That’s conceivable, Picard told me, but it’s just one hypothesis. Based on the data alone, he couldn’t really say with certainty why more tickets were being issued on those dates.

Ultimately, I guess, big data can’t answer all questions, and a full explanation has to go beyond the data to the rationale behind behavior.

photo credit: Thomas Hawk via photopin cc

If so, however, Americans will have to warm up to a 4-seater bubble of a car with a 15-liter gas tank (about four gallons), a 624 CC two-cylinder engine with under 40 horsepower, and under three cubic feet of storage space.

Tata Group billionaire boss Ratan Tata says, however, that Tata is redesigning the Nano for both the U.S. and European markets. So those vital statistics will probably improve.

If so, they’ll increase that sticker price. Currently, the Tata is the cheapest new car available today, selling for the equivalent of $3,500 in India, which means that an average worker for Wipro, the massive business services outsourcing firm, could buy about two of them with her annual salary. Or, if you go by the national average, an Indian worker would spend three years of his salary to buy the Nano.

Source: Tata

Tata Nano interior

The price won’t be a problem in the U.S., obviously. Features will.

Tata Nano’s top speed of 65 mph and its cramped interior definitely will not appeal to all in spite of the success of the Austin Mini, Smart Cars, and the Fiat 500. Nano is two feet shorter than the Mini and decidedly bare-bones inside.

Currently, the heater is optional in the base model, and it has no options for A/C or heated seats. Headrests are a highlighted feature, as are a low fuel warning lamp and an interior cabin light.

The redesign will need to add a few more features before the Nano excites too many Europeans or Americans, including government-mandated airbags and other safety features. While they’re at it, a Bond-style remote control, like this $10,000 Chinese car, wouldn’t be a bad idea.

But you can’t deny that the car has a funky appeal to it … and a very cheap, small, efficient car might be just the ticket for young urbanites. At that price, who wouldn’t be tempted?

California just added its name to the list of states allowing driverless cars to operate on public roads — and inadvertently made David Hasselhoff’s work on Knight Rider a bit more relevant to future generations.

Governor Jerry Brown signed bill SB1298 into law today, thus adding automated vehicles to the state’s safety standards and permissions. This is, of course, wonderful news for tech giant and California native Google, which has been developing its own driverless car for the past few years. Brown even visited Google headquarters to sign the proper documents.

California joins Nevada as the second state to allow driverless vehicles on the road. Under the new law, a person is still required to sit behind the wheel while driving the car in case the automated technology fails to function. (Nevada’s law isn’t as strict.)

The state did post a video of Brown’s visit to Google HQ  online earlier, complete with Google CEO Sergey Brin on a podium wearing some slick Google Glasses. However, that video is now marked private for some reason. (My guess is that it’ll get fixed soon-ish.)

NEW YORK — There’s a lot riding on Ford’s new Fusion sedan: Not only does the company need to reclaim lost mid-size market share from the likes of Toyota and Honda, but it also needs to prove that it can appeal to consumers interested in eco-friendly hybrid and electric cars.

Ford’s off to a strong start with the hybrid version of the new Fusion, which has received a 47MPG rating from the Environmental Protection Agency for both city and highway driving. That’s fairly close to the mileage from Toyota’s Prius, which gets around 50MPG on average, and it bests other hybrid sedans like the Camry and Honda’s Accord.

“The new Fusion is part of our plan to offer vehicles with the very best quality, fuel efficiency, safety, smart design, and value,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement today. “We are absolutely committed to class-leading fuel efficiency as a reason to buy Ford vehicles.”

The Fusion hybrid’s 47MPG mileage makes for simple and effective marketing. Today at a launch event in Times Square, the company had dozens of people holding up “47″ signs and cheering on the figure.

Mulally joined TV personality Ryan Seacrest on stage to give away a new hybrid Fusion model, which ended up going to a speechless Canadian tourist.

To take on Chevy’s Volt, Ford will offer the Fusion Energi, a plug-in hybrid version of the car. The company estimates the Energi will see around 100-plus MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent).

Earlier this year, we got a look at the company’s first all-electric car, the Focus Electric. But where that car looked like something your grandmother would drive, the new Fusion line features an aggressive and sporty look that will turn heads.

On the non-hybrid end, Ford will offer a 2.5-liter standard Fusion (26MPG average), a 2.0-liter EcoBoost model (26MPG average), and a 1.6-liter fuel-sipping EcoBoost (29MPG average).

Photos: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Tesla likes to do things its own way.

So while the company still refuses to report sales in the usual manner–at the end of every month like every other automaker–it does release bits and pieces of data on its corporate publicity site.

On Thursday, Tesla Motors [NSDQ:TSLA] said that since June 22, when it started deliveries of its 2012 Model S, it has built 50 cars.

Of those, 29 are destined for customer deliveries–it says more than 12,200 buyers have put down deposits for the all-electric sport sedan–and 21 will go to Tesla stores for display.

Tesla is now building 10 cars a week, and company spokesperson Christina Ra told the San Francisco Chronicle that it intends to build 50 more in the next two to three weeks.

Production of the 2012 Tesla Model S will accelerate thereafter, and the company is standing by its goal of 5,000 deliveries of the car during calendar 2012–with 10,000 or more next year.

Collectively, those first 50 cars have already covered almost 40,000 miles, two-thirds of that distance during short test drives offered to depositors on the company’s “Get Amped” drive program.

The first Model S sedans to be built are all Signature Series cars with the largest 85-kilowatt-hour battery pack, which is rated by the EPA at 265 miles of range.

The lengthy post Thursday on the company’s site also detailed a few minor specifications changes that it attributed to the need for maintaining high production quality levels.

VP George Blankenship noted that Tesla had temporarily deleted both the lighted vanity mirrors and the rear-seat reading lights from early Model S cars in order to maintain acceptable quality.

Wires remain in place for the rear-seat overhead lights, but the company said that it would be a while before it provides the lighted vanity mirrors due to concerns over the quality of parts provided.

This post originally appeared on GreenCarReports.com, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

Photo credit: Tesla Motors

[ UPDATED ]

Sorry, NASCAR fans. Probably the most important motorsport event in the world is 24 Hours of Le Mans. It’s the world’s oldest continually-running car race, and somewhat surprisingly this year, four of the top six contenders are hybrid cars.

Audi R18

Two are from perennial all-star team Audi, and two are from a team that’s been absent for a decade: Toyota.

Car technology is often tested and perfected in the racing world. The list of innovations that moved from race cars to street cars is long: rear view mirrors, crumple zones for crash safety, paddle shifters for automatic-like manual transmissions, crash recorders, turbo chargers, seat belts, and more.

That’s why it’s important that hybrid cars are appearing — and performing — in the most demanding automotive conditions imaginable. Technologies developed here are making their way to the daily driver car, and the research and development costs are borne by high-profile racing teams.

Both the Audi and Toyota teams are using regenerative braking systems to achieve the hybrid designation. During hard braking before a turn, the cars capture some of the energy used to decelerate and then apply that energy to the wheels to help the car speed up again after the curve.

Toyota TS030

The Audi hybrid system is partially mechanical: as the R-18 e-Tron hybrid quattro slows, a flywheel spins up, grabbing some of that energy, which is converted into electricity and then applied to electric motors driving the front wheels. The Toyota system is a little different — it stores power in a capacitor and then applies energy to the rear wheels.

Early results for the hybrids have been good: As of hour eight, one of the hybrid Audis is leading, and until a crash caused by another driver, one of the Toyotas was in third place. The other Toyota briefly held the lead until a mechanical issue dropped it into the pits.

Few cars survive Le Mans unscathed. The race is known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency for a reason. But it’s encouraging for people who appreciate breathable air that the hybrids are starting and running well.

[ Updated: 5:15 ]

This is the crash that took the first Toyota hybrid out of the race. As you can see, it is in no way the Toyota drivers’ fault:

Image credits: Audi, Toyota, esbobeldijk / Shutterstock.com

Car buyers are notoriously fond of focusing only on the purchase price of new vehicles, without much thinking about the total cost of ownership.

For electric cars that may cost twice or more what a similar-size gasoline vehicle does, that’s a problem.

Still, two separate pieces of evidence begin to make a compelling case for the huge running-cost advantages of plug-ins.

They’ll prove useful in conversations over the next few years, as friends, relatives, and neighbors question electric-car buyers about their new vehicles: why they did it, how much hassle it may be to plug in, and–of course–how much it cost.

Gasoline vs. electricity price in $/gallon equivalent, under 3 scenarios (by Max Baumhefner)

First is a post entitled Buck-a-Gallon Gas for Life?

Author Max Baumhefner, a Natural Resources Defense Council staffer, simply plots the equivalent cost of gasoline and electricity under different oil-price scenarios.

Gasoline is high, higher, or very much higher; electricity stays cheap regardless of what happens to oil prices.

Even more compelling is a chart (at top) from the Edison Electric Institute, showing the volatility of gasoline prices and the minimal variation in electric costs over the same period.

In other words, plugging in your electric car to recharge it is the equivalent of paying a dollar a gallon for gasoline–forever.

Second is State of Charge, a study issued last month by the Union of Concerned Scientists on a variety of electric vehicle issues. (We’ll cover more of that study later on.)

It found that electric-car owners in 50 of the largest U.S. cities who cover 11,000 miles a year will save from $750 to $1,200 annually compared to traveling the same distance by buying gasoline at $3.50 a gallon.

While most early electric car buyers have other reasons than saving money, the running-cost advantage has to be better explained if plug-in cars are to reach a broader audience.

And while payback may still be hard to achieve, the lure of “buck-a-gallon gasoline forever” or “$1,200 a year in your pocket” may be enough to get fence-sitters more interested in plug-in cars.

Whereupon they may go for test drives, and discover one of the benefits that automakers (inexplicably) haven’t focused on: Electric cars are simply nicer to drive.

What do you think? How would you make the case that electric cars can save someone money?

Leave us your thoughts in the comments below.

This article originally appeared on Green Car Reports, one of VentureBeat’s editorial partners.

Similar to the way that hardcore PC enthusiasts overclock their CPUs to squeeze out extra performance, Ford is preparing a car with an “overclocked” turbocharger.

The 2013 Ford Focus ST will have a turbo that provides extra power for longer than normal, giving drivers up to 15 seconds of extra power for passing cars, accelerating quickly to highway speeds, laying rubber, or otherwise impressing people in the passenger seat.

Turbos work by forcing extra air into the combustion mixture, by using a very high-speed turbine. Because this turbine spins so quickly (150,000-200,000 RPM), it can burn out if it runs too long. As a result, most turbos are designed to add an extra boost of power when it’s most needed, then bleed off extra power before the turbine melts. In most cars, that happens between 3,000 and 4,500 RP (the rotational speed of the engine, not the turbo).

With the Focus ST, by contrast, the turbo remains engaged, even beyond 4,500 RPM — but only for 15 seconds at a time.

“The turbo itself is specified for sustained, high output performance, but they’ve programmed the ECU — the car’s equivalent to the CPU — to dial in more boost past 3,000 RPM to give it that extra something,” said Lisa Schoder, engineer and Focus ST Marketing Manager, in a press release from Ford.

Car enthusiasts have been accomplishing similar things themselves on turbocharged cars for years. This is done by installing custom ECUs (or reprogramming the stock ECU) in order to play with the power curve and extend the range at which the turbocharger engages, a technique also known as “chipping” the car. However, that runs the risk of damaging the turbo (or the engine itself) — and it plays havoc with emissions, too.

“This is a factory-overclocked car,” Ford spokesman Chris Terry told VentureBeat. “But unlike these homespun things, the cooling system is very, very robust. Ford expects people to drive the hell out of these things and not have them blow up.”

The Focus ST is aimed at performance enthusiasts in other ways. With a top speed of 150 mph, it not only offers turbocharged acceleration, but high speeds and sports car handling. That’s pretty good for a four-door sedan.

Although the car won’t be available until August, Ford is accepting pre-orders today. Adding a little extra incentive for the geeky, overclocking, gadget-loving crowd, Ford will throw in a GoPro HD Hero2 camera for the first 1,000 people to place an order. The Focus ST will also be on display at the upcoming E3 video game convention in Los Angeles, June 4-7. VentureBeat’s games crew will be providing tons of news from E3, so watch this space for more updates.

Semiconductor maker Microchip Technology will acquire smaller rival Standard Microsystems for about $939 million, a move that will help Microchip enter the car tech market, the company said Thursday.

As we noticed at January’s CES conference, car tech is taking off in a big way this year. More than any other time in the history of CES, car manufacturers showed up to show off all the advancements they have made in tech. Microchip Technology’s buy today will tap into this trend because Standard Microsystems (SMSC) manufactures chips that control data transfers in many cars, including models for BMW, Audi, and Daimler.

“SMSC is the leading vendor of media networking technologies for automobiles, with over an 80 percent share in the luxury market,” Thinkequity analyst Sujeeva De Silva told Reuters. “But it’s moving fast in the mainstream market in cars like Toyota, Volkswagen and GM.”

Microchip Technology will pay $37 per share for SMSC, or about a 41 percent premium over SMSC’s close of $26.24 on Tuesday. That’s a decent premium, but the company signalled that it needs to expand in the auto market before it missed its ideal chance.

“We believe SMSC’s smart mixed-signal connectivity solutions aimed at embedded applications are an ideal complement to Microchip’s embedded control business,” Microchip President and CEO Steve Sanghi said in a statement. “This acquisition will expand Microchip’s range of solutions as SMSC contributes exciting new products and capabilities in the automotive, industrial, computing, consumer, and wireless audio markets, significantly extending our served available market.”

Car picture from CES: Kevin Krejci/Flickr

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Ford is in the process of making big changes to its overall strategy, and its first all-electric car, the Focus Electric, helps show how the company is evolving.

The company’s new direction offers “the power of choice” to consumers by producing gas-only, electric-only, and hybrid models of all of its cars and trucks, with the first all-electric model coming from the popular Focus line.

This strategy closely mirrors what Samsung is doing with its mobile devices: If you have the ability to make every possible combination, you theoretically create the best chance of connecting with consumers of all tastes.

Today, I was able to the test drive the Focus Electric at a Ford event in New York, where I live. (Don’t tell Ford, but this was the first time I’ve ever driven in Manhattan!) I don’t have a car in New York, but as a son of the Midwest, I know how important cars and trucks are to the vast majority of U.S. consumers.

With recent spikes in the price of gas, more people than ever are taking interest in hybrid and electric vehicles. In particular, the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf have earned many headlines for breaking new ground. Now Ford will take its stab at the market with the Focus Electric.

On the outside, the Focus Electric looks quite a bit like any other Focus. It’s not a remarkable look; if it drove by me on the street, I wouldn’t turn my head. But when driving the car and comparing it to gas-powered vehicles, it feels quite a bit different.

The most noticeable difference was the silence. The engine is almost impossible to hear, meaning music, talk radio, or outside noise was easier to process. Sadly, the included speakers didn’t sound particularly good. Even with bass and treble pumped up, the music sounded pretty flat.

When it comes to the smoothness of the ride, the Focus Electric excelled. Not only was it smooth, but the regenerative braking made it super easy to stop with just a light tap on the brake. Every time you brake while going faster than 10 miles per hour, the car regains energy.

The Focus Electric isn’t terribly powerful and maxes out at 84 miles per hour in speed. It also isn’t suited for long trips, as one full charge will only take you about 80 miles. Funny enough, Men’s Health is testing the Focus Electric by driving it across the country, which will be challenging especially in the middle of the continent, where charging stations are rare.

Sadly, the cost of the Focus Electric ($39,200 before rebates or adjustments) is pricey. But like all new tech, the cost will steadily drop over the years. The target audience (for now) will be highly affluent consumers who already own one or two cars but want a commuting-tailored vehicle. Additionally, its audience could simply be early adopters that love future-reaching tech or hardcore green types.

The Focus Electric will be available in New York, New Jersey, and California in the next few months, and it will be in a total of 19 states by the end of 2012. A European launch is also scheduled for late 2012.

Here are some photos of the Focus Electric from today’s event:

Also, here’s a short video of my test drive in Manhattan below:

Terrafugia, a Massachusetts company that’s making our dreams of flying cars a reality, has already taken 100 pre-orders for its second-generation flagship model The Transition.

We’ll take two.

The cars successfully completed their first test flights March 23, and are set to make their public debut later this week at the New York Auto Show. The cars will sell for nearly $300,000 and are slated to be on the roads and in the skies within the year.

Only yesterday, Terrafugia officially took the wraps off the Transition, saying, “From home, to the airport, to where you really want to be. All in the Transition Street-Legal Airplane, all on super unleaded autogas, all on your schedule.”

The Transition is a two-seater that runs on normal gasoline and can be parked in a normal garage. Essentially, it’s a street-legal airplane classified as a light sport aircraft. The pricetag for prospective buyers will be $279,000. That’s a bit more than your average small aircraft, but without the hangar and jet fuel costs to worry about.

“The successful first flight of this production prototype Transition marks a critical move toward initial production and first delivery,” said COO Anna Mracek Dietrich in a release. She added that the prototyping program has included two Transition aircraft and that it’s “being used to develop and inform the manufacturing tool-up and compliance program necessary to begin commercial deliveries.”

Terrafugia, which was founded by pilots and MIT engineers, has taken funding from multiple private investors. The company’s goal is to meet customers’ needs for world-changing but still practical air and land vehicles.