Technology

In an automotive landscape increasingly dominated by screen overload, driver-facing monitors, and overly complex menus, vehicle owners are making their voices heard: the best technology is the tech you barely notice. According to the JD Power 2026 U.S. Tech Experience Index (TXI) Study, smart tech that operates seamlessly in the background—such as smart ignition, digital keys, and automated driver aids—yields the highest customer satisfaction and fewest headaches.

Flock's standard cameras are stationary. They read plates along with a vehicle's make, model, color, and other identifying details as it passes a fixed point. Placing that same capability inside a rideshare car means the collection zone travels with the vehicle. Every airport run, grocery trip, apartment-complex pickup, or late-night fare becomes another data point fed into the network.

Google’s Gemini AI Overviews feature has been telling users that Flock Safety’s surveillance cameras are packed with valuable gold and copper, a claim that appears to have originated from fabricated reports circulating online. It isn’t true. The cameras do contain both metals, but only in trace amounts consistent with any consumer electronics device pulled off a shelf, as Futurism reported.

Modern vehicles are expensive, and it’s not just the gigantic figure on the window sticker that hurts. You have to consider the price of everything else involved with automobile ownership.

The sit-down racing game. Is there any more of an immersive arcade experience? With the wheel in one hand, the shifter in another, and pedals sitting under your feet, you can almost forget that the Recaro you’re sitting in is formed out of hard, durable, vomit-proof plastic as you carom around a virtual track at triple-digit speeds.

I love a good road trip. Getting out there, seeing parts of our continent that can only be experienced from a long-distance drive. I firmly believe one could spend their entire lifetime roaming around North America, and still not see everything this massive chunk of land has to offer.

With a twist of the key or poke of its start button your vehicle’s engine should fire up with the urgency of a physician responding to a code blue.

Chinese car makers are pushing their way into American buying tendencies in any way they see fit.

The U.S. government is holding firm on restrictions targeting Chinese automotive tech—restrictions which effectively ban Chinese vehicles from entering the American market, regardless of where they're produced.

Direct injection offers numerous benefits over port fuel delivery but could it be a bigger headache than it’s worth?

“I was not prepared for the level of terror from this bobsled. I swear to God, I thought I was going to die.”

Technician Paul Kennaley witnesses something frightening almost every week: customers who ignore warning lights in their vehicle instrument cluster but fail to take proper (if any) action. Frequently, this results in expensive problems.

PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Rivian is known for its outdoorsy, tech-forward trucks and SUVs. They’re subtle and all-electric.

After years of teases, the popular open-world driving game is heading to the Land of the Rising Sun.

Sim racing fans will get a wealth of content just in time for the holidays.

Maybe you’ve been in this situation: stuck on the side of a road, a punctured tire needing to be changed out for the spare one in the trunk. You have a pair of options, do you choose to change the tire yourself, or do you call for roadside assistance. Both options can take a while to get you back on the road, especially if you’ve never changed a tire yourself before. And even if you have, sometimes it can take some serious elbow grease.

Apple's latest operating system, iOS 18, brings several enhancements to CarPlay, making the in-car experience more intuitive and feature-rich.

The U.S. Commerce Department is set to propose regulations that would ban Chinese software in autonomous and connected vehicles with Level 3 automation and above.

The rumored Apple car is inching closer to production, with a new hire from Lamborghini.

It looks like the Sony car is a go or at least something like it, will come soon. Honda has finalized a deal with Sony, to make EVs by 2025.

The biggest leaps in automotive technology over the past few years haven’t been in propulsion; they’ve been in driver safety. The average new vehicle is safer than it’s ever been, with highly advanced, sophisticated systems that can literally “see” the road and warn of – or react to – potential threats.

If you are an experienced off-roader, you have likely used a winch more than a few times. If you have vast experience pulling yourself or others out of sticky situations, you have likely had a traditional winch hook slip and cause an even bigger problem. The little safety latch that holds a rope or cable in place will help in some situations, but that piece is not load bearing, so if the line shifts, that little latch quickly breaks. When that happens, you can suddenly lose your load, but this can be prevented with a closed system winching set up from Factor 55.

Data. It’s changing the world, from smartphones to airlines to connected appliances, every industry needs information to survive. Customers demand personalized experiences and businesses demand analytics to make the right decisions, from “anytime, anywhere” home delivery services to industrial manufacturing. Without a doubt though, very few applications can match the advantages you gain when you use your own data from a connected vehicle to help you save money on your car insurance.  

Great road trips are the perfect time to leave behind the worries of urban life for something a little simpler – just you, your car, and the open road. But that doesn’t mean you  can’t leave all your tech accessories behind. That’s precisely where the Jackery Solar Generator 500 comes in – the ideal road-trip companion, keeping your gadgets fully loaded, so you can make the most out of all your exciting car adventures, travels and journeys.

As clickbait-y as that headline reads and sounds, it’s true.

Codemasters has announced F1 2020, which races on to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Google Stadia this summer.

Stroll down the oil aisle of a typical auto-parts store and you’ll be confronted with a literal wall of lubricant.

Cost is often the first thing that comes to mind when motorists think of gasoline. Many will drive halfway across town to save a couple cents per gallon. Additionally, purchasing regular-grade fuel to save money can be an exercise in false economy, especially if your vehicle is designed for premium gas.

What is traction control? Well, before we get into that, let’s talk about traction itself.

Owners of the Cadillac CT6 will soon be able to use Super Cruise on more than 200,000 miles of American and Canadian roadways.

When it comes to gasoline-electric hybrid cars,  Toyota is way ahead of rivals.

Having a dash cam in your vehicle is the easiest way to ensure you have a reliable witness in he said/she said arguments after a car accident. The ability to prove you weren’t at fault, that the light was green, or that you were cut-off could save you hundreds of dollars by avoiding insurance rate hikes and traffic tickets. Thinkware’s F70 is an affordable dash cam that packs a lot of features into its small size.

The Acura RDX was entirely redone and this new generation model is more high tech than ever before. Besides a handsome new style and better driving dynamics, the new RDX also got an entirely new infotainment system and interface, and this is the first time it has been implemented in an Acura vehicle.

Automakers around the world are under intense pressure to cut the amount of fuel their vehicles consume and the byproducts expelled from tailpipes. True to form, Mazda is going its own way.

You might think your car’s braking system is relatively simple.

Honda might be looking back to early aeronautics in its latest bid to make variable compression engines simpler and sturdier.

When roadways get snowy or crusted with ice, you’re probably going to wish you had a Subaru.

We’ve all seen a dog that has been left in a hot car during the summer (hopefully) with the window cracked a little bit so they can get some fresh air and a slight breeze.

It’s a rare occasion when an automaker develops a brand-new engine family. Scarcer still are clean-sheet V8 designs. But bucking modern trends, Ford has created an all-new big-block gasoline unit for use in heavy trucks.

Updated January 2019

In the quest to find a new car, there are a lot of questions that need to be asked. Questions about cargo room, technology, options, luxuries and other various elements will come up more than a few times while shopping for a new car. However, from the car driver’s perspective, there are just three main questions: 

How comfortable is the driving experience? 
How fun is it to drive? 
How good is the car on fuel?

SEE ALSO: Manual Transmission Supra Still Being Considered

A major factor in answering those three questions has to do with the right transmission. Let’s face it, manual transmissions aren’t for everyone. They require familiarity and a level of perfection to get just right. With a traditional automatic transmission, drivers have been able to experience a fairly comfortable, yet less engaging experience. Still, an automatic transmission can leave any driving enthusiast unsatisfied. Luckily, progress has been made in the world of automatic transmissions that can help alleviate those woes.

A new patent application filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office could provide some insight into what’s in store for the Ford Mustang Hybrid.

Toyota has filed a patent for a virtual sunroof that could show moving images of the car’s exterior.

How does the 2019 Ram Heavy Duty pickup deliver more torque than its rivals?

The brand-new Mustang Shelby GT500 is the hottest thing to come out of Dearborn in years. Here’s what will make super snake rain fire and brimstone like the biblical end of days.

Self-driving cars will require greater connectivity, computing power and overall capability than what’s available in today’s vehicles. But they might need even more than that: trust. 

Nissan debuted a more powerful, longer-range version of its popular Leaf electric hatchback at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Chinese startup Byton unveiled a new vehicle at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show, well, sort of.

Self-driving vehicles are coming. Whether they’re six months away 20 years into the future remains to be seen, but automakers are hard at work on them, including Daimler, which just unveiled a self-driving tractor trailer at CES.

The technology industry seems to have an obsession with putting the word “smart” before things.

Resembling some sort of creepy animal (a mechanical cow, perhaps?), the Hyundai Elevate is a concept that can actually walk.

Nearly two dozen civilian attacks on self-driving prototype vehicles owned by Google subsidiary Waymo have been recorded in Arizona since the company began testing there in 2017.

Back in 2016, a consortium of automakers representing more than 99 percent of the U.S. auto market agreed to make automatic emergency braking a standard feature on virtually all new cars by Sept. 1, 2022.

The 2020 Mazda3 rides on a brand-new architecture, features newly designed powertrains and is equipped with some of the newest technology around. It truly is an all-new car, but how have engineers managed to deliver a high-quality, efficient vehicle at a mass-market price?

The 2019 Hyundai Santa Fe will be offered with a new fingerprint scanner start system.

What is the 2019 Mazda3 program manager’s favorite part of this all-new compact car? You’ll never guess what it is.

Mazdas are expected to drive with a finesse belying their mass-market price tags, to connect with motorists in a way rival vehicles simply don’t. After all, it is the zoom-zoom brand.

Cadillac does it. Porsche does it. Audi does it. Even Mercedes and BMW. It’s a Hot V turbocharger. Why go against the norm when it comes to snail placement? This is why, and how it works.

Infamously, Porsche charges extra for every little feature. In spite of this, even entry-level Panamera sedans come standard with one of the best infotainment systems on the market today.

Volkswagen has filed a trademark application for the term ‘ID. Light’ with the EUIPO, adding yet another wordmark to its growing portfolio of ‘ID’ names.

Generally, when I set out to do a car review, it involves doing a lot of groundwork and a great deal of planning. Plus coffee. Gallons of coffee.