Category Archives: blog
Call us a little biased, but we’re big Nissan fans.
Back in 1983, Bill opened the shop that would later be named Independent Motors — but for those very first two years, the concentrate was Nissans and Datsuns. Since then, Nissan has gone on to create one of the most legendary sports cars of the ‘90s, one of the leading premium makes (Infiniti), and two of the best-selling sedans in America.
For all you other Nissan owners and fans out there, we’ve found twenty four fantastic blogs dedicated to the Skyline, Infinitis and other Nissan vehicles.
Nissan Skyline and GT-R Blogs
2009GT-R.com
Whether you choose the original Skyline GT-R or the upgraded Two×Two version, 2009GT-R.com writes about them all. Read about the different generations of the G-TR; review the buyer’s guide for them; and then scroll through the rest of the blog for the latest news, reviews and other headlines about this beloved Nissan model. Posts are somewhat infrequent, but with movies and a comprehensive collection of all things GT-R, this site is a good resource.
Middletown Nissan
Based in Middletown, Connecticut, Middletown Nissan sells used and fresh Nissans and the parts you need for them. When the GT-R is in the news, you can bet that this blog is covering it. Dig back through a few years’ worth of archives or learn all about the brand-new two thousand sixteen Nissan GT-R with a movie that Autotrader made outlining all the reasons that this fantastic vehicle should be on your wish list.
Japan Fucking partner Blog
Japan Playmate Inc., a used vehicle resource, covers Nissan extensively on its website and blog. Check out breathtaking photo shoots of your dearest Nissan Skylines and then learn more about buying a used Skyline of your own right on the site.
One Man’s Lonely Adventures In His R33 Skyline GT-R
The possessor of the blog One Lonely Man’s Adventures In His R33 Skyline GT-R has been a car fan his entire life. He explains what led him to the Skyline GT-R:
“But being in the US, [I] never could buy a Skyline GT-R, as they were not sold here. Hence when I came to Japan, after learning how to drive on the wrong side of the road in a hand-me-down Honda Civic, I traded up to my one thousand nine hundred ninety seven Skyline GT-R…That was in June 2005. This blog began when I very first began to get serious about modifying and improving the car.”
You can learn more about modifications that you can do yourself by reading his insightful posts.
GT-R USA Blog
If you’re into modifications or doing your own car repairs, then the GT-R USA Blog is a fine accompaniment to the Skyline blog above. This one can instruct you how to switch out your car’s oil coolers, finish with illustrations and other helpful pictures. If you just like looking at awesome cars, don’t worry: This blog has slew of pictures to satiate that longing.
Infiniti Blogs
NICO Club
The NICO Club (brief for Nissan Infiniti Car Owners) has forums dedicated to Datsuns, SUVs, trucks, Infinitis and other Nissans. While you can and should click around and make fresh pals over the Internet who share your love and skill of these vehicles, the homepage is a good resource for Infiniti news. Read interviews with builders who make car parts, scope out reviews for the latest vehicle products, or learn more about an Infiniti if you’re thinking of buying one.
Infiniti Blogger
The aptly-named Infiniti Blogger calls itself “the best place for the latest Infiniti news.” There’s an up-to-date list of auto dealers (albeit just in Washington), an inventory list, and of course pictures and in-depth posts about the latest Infinitis coming down the pike. The featured dealer post can help you find the Infiniti that you just read about on the blog.
Berman’s Auto Blog
Infinitis are covered on Berman’s Auto Blog, but the writers here also have a love Subarus and Nissans (sound familiar?). This dealership writes about Chicago events while introducing fresh and used Infinitis to tantalize potential buyers. You can even browse through the available inventory online if you’re thinking of purchasing one of these fantastic cars.
Autoblog Infiniti
Many of you very likely already use Autoblog for doing preliminary research when buying a fresh car. Make sure to check out the site’s page on Infinitis, which, while it does feature specs of the latest cars, also posts photos, movies and news. As you read a post, you can see a listing of fresh and used Infinitis near you on the side of the page.
Gray-Daniels Nissan Brandon
A Nissan dealership in Brandon, Missouri, the Gray-Daniels Nissan Brandon blog is flawless for shoppers in the area who are interested in finding the best Infiniti for them. Browse through posts, each with a movie, that include descriptions of the used cars for sale.
Sawgrass Infiniti
Another dealership, this one located in Tamarac, Florida, Sawgrass Infiniti is a useful blog to have in your bookmarks even if you don’t live anywhere near Florida. While some posts are dealership-centric, others cover the latest auto shows and which Infinitis were on display there. If you’re in the market for your very first car, you can even learn about how your credit score impacts your capability to buy a vehicle.
Bonita Springs Infiniti
This South Florida Florida Infiniti dealership is based in Tamiami, but the Bonita Springs Infiniti blog is more than just listing after listing of available Infinitis. You can also check out the coolest, must-have accessories you need for your car as a fresh Infiniti proprietor. If you do happen to live near Florida, don’t miss the post about the best coastal drives that will make you feel like king or queen of the world.
Pepe Infiniti Blog
Of course, when you buy a fresh car, if you haven’t driven an Infiniti before, there’s a period of adjustment. Let the Pepe Infiniti Blog in Fresh York help you get through those very first transitional days with ease. You can learn how to switch out your car key’s battery, how to use the navigation system (accomplish with movies) and how to sync up your HomeLink receiver to your Infiniti.
Other Nissan Blogs
Renault Nissan
This is the official blog of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, a partnership inbetween Japanese automaker Nissan and French automaker Renault. The site violates down its news according to categories like partnerships, emerging markets and sustainability.
Briggs Nissan
Retailing such Nissan vehicles as the Versa, Rogue, Pathfinder, Leaf, Juke, Frontier, Cube and Altima, Briggs Nissan in Manhattan, Kansas, has a renowned blog that Nissan paramours will meticulously love. As the year completes and the car manufacturer racks up awards for safety and engine superiority, you hear about it here very first. Some of the posts are Kansas-centric, but generally, anyone who’s a fan of Nissans can find something fine in this blog.
Robbins Nissan Blog
The writers of the blog for the Robbins Nissan dealership in Discreet, Texas, are indeed pumped right now about the two thousand sixteen Nissan Titan and the various engines you can choose for it. If you want to read more about the color studio for the Juke or detect the perks of the Nissan app, the posts here dive into these topics and more.
Peruzzi Nissan
With fresh and used cars in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania, Peruzzi Nissan is another must-see blog for first-time Nissan owners. Make sure you’re keeping up with maintenance by reading the post that includes a detailed to-do list. If you’re ripped inbetween getting a brand fresh car or one from 2015, another post highlights the major differences inbetween the two thousand fifteen and two thousand sixteen Rogue. Compare the amount of cargo space, MPG and the fuel economy.
Continental Nissan Blog
Buying a fresh car is fairly an investment, so it helps to do your research and know what you’re getting yourself into. Inject Continental Nissan Blog, which outlines the price of upcoming two thousand sixteen vehicles, the release dates for these cars, their specs and their safety ratings. There’s no need to second-guess your decision when you’re this well-informed.
Ardmore Nissan
This retailer may cater to those in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, but the Ardmore Nissan blog is for any Nissan paramour out there. The posts are written from the angle that possessing a Nissan will simplify your life, and, if you purchase a newer model with electrical power steering and tire alerts, you’ll find that this car will make things better. There’s even a helpful post about receiving auto services for your car.
Inhabitat
Inhabitat includes cars in its topics of concentrate, but only wise e-cars. Nissan plans on producing an extended-range version of the Leaf next year, and you can learn all about it here. The vehicle is estimated to be able to travel more than one hundred miles before you need to recharge its battery.
Junior Nissan
A Nissan dealership in Frederick, Maryland, Junior Nissan is also a fan of the Leaf, and the blog’s writers are partial to the Titan and the Versa. Both of those vehicles have detailed research pages that the staff at Junior Nissan have put together. All features of the car are summarized, and, if you happen to live in the area, you can book a test drive online after you’re done reading.
Boardman Nissan
Albeit Boardman Nissan serves customers in Boardman, Ohio, on a regular basis, its blog is total of general knowhow for readers anywhere who want to dig deeper into the safety and environmental benefits of driving a Nissan. Don’t feel ripped inbetween two models when you can review the post that pits the Sentra against the Versa. That ought to help make the decision a bit lighter for you.
Belleville Nissan
The colorful Big Dave Johnson is in charge of the blog for Belleville Nissan in Ontario, Canada. He personally writes the in-depth guides and private reviews of the latest Nissan cars, having tested them out himself. Some models he’s written about include the two thousand fifteen Versa Note SV, the two thousand fifteen Sentra SV and the two thousand fifteen Pathfinder Platinum.
Six Speed Blog
If you choose that kind of individual writing from car aficionados who share their own practices from behind the wheel of Nissan cars, then Six Speed Blog will be another compelling read. Albeit there aren’t a ton of posts, the ones that are available have had a lot of time and love put into them. Each post also has a enormous gallery of pictures of the various Nissans from almost every conceivable angle.
Step Aside, Boys: thirty Motorcycle Clubs for Women
Update: Thanks for all the love everyone! Due to all the interest we’ll be revisiting this topic soon! If any of you are railing nearby, please make sure to stop by our auto repair shop located in Boulder, Colorado to say hi!
When you think of motorcycle gangs, one pic typically comes to mind: Burly dudes with beards and a entire lot of leather railing their hogs.
Let’s challenge that pic. All over the United States, women-only biker groups gather at community events, give to charities, rail around their respective cities and generally display the world that motorcycles aren’t just boys’ fucktoys.
Women in the Wind, Worldwide
Women in the Wind was founded in one thousand nine hundred seventy nine when founder Becky Brown placed an ad in her local newspaper in northern Ohio seeking other women to rail with. Her very first women-only rail featured a group of 11. Today, her organization counts more than one thousand three hundred members in the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, all of whom are united under WITW’s purpose to unite women motorcyclists, promote a positive pic, and educate members on bike safety and maintenance.
Venice Vixens, California
“We’re all a little different, a little crazy and a lot of joy!” the Venice Vixens promise. You can find these California ladies at events around the area and on any track in the city. The women in this club are even sometimes known to hop aboard a filth bike.
East Side Moto Honies, California
Another West Coast women’s club, the East Side Moto Stunners are based in the Los Angeles area. Albeit they’ll often participate in races, the group stresses that “it’s not about competition, it’s about challenging courage and constancy in our clear vision of going for it and encouraging others to come along. If it’s not joy, it’s not worth doing.”
Leather & Lace MC Nation
An international group created in one thousand nine hundred eighty three by Jennifer Chaffin, the Leather & Lace MC Nation isn’t just about railing. Members also help children across the country through charitable work. The group has two primary goals: To get more people interested in motorcycle groups, and to do what they can to increase the wellbeing of children in various communities. There’s most likely a chapter near you.
Sisters Eternal WMC, Texas
Established in 2013, Sisters Eternal WMC in Houston has two chapters in the city. Members of both groups often blend together and string up out at the various events the group attends via the year. Participating in the National Coalition of Motorcyclists events and joining the Texas Confederation of Clubs and Independents, these women are serious about motorcycles getting a good rap. The members choose cruiser style motorcycles and are open to fresh members joining, but that has to be your bike of choice.
Bella Gypsies, California
Making their home in the San Fernando and the Santa Clarita Valleys, Bella Gypsies came roaring into existence in two thousand ten after founders Minnie (the club’s president) and Lynne (its vice president) put their goes together and created the group. Seeking to unite a “sisterhood of motorcycle riders and bikers,” these women drape out when possible, go for rails and love each other’s company. They also give back through charity. They emphasize an understanding that, in most women’s lives, family becomes a primary responsibility.
Women on Wheels, Worldwide
You don’t necessarily have to be a rider yourself to get involved with Women on Wheels; all enthusiasts, no matter their railing skill level, are welcome. This community nonprofit group has members of all ages, from their late teenagers to their 80s. Women on Wheels is so beloved that it was bestowed the Hazel Kolb Brighter Picture Award by the American Motorcyclist Association in 1993.
The Litas, Worldwide
Spanning forty five cities in eight countries with more than six hundred members, the Litas a global collective of women riders. “We all have different backgrounds, interests, jobs, lives, but find common ground when we cruise the canyons, scraping pavement and letting go of all inhibitions,” they write.
Ribbon Riders, Florida
Ribbon Riders supports breast cancer survivors of both genders. This nonprofit club, established in 2008, features members all touched by breast cancer, whether they had it themselves or just knew someone who did. Since the club’s founding, its members have raised $250,000 that has directly benefited over two hundred sixty patients battling breast cancer in Central Florida.
Rainier Ravens, Washington
A brand fresh group founded in 2015, Rainier Ravens‘ creators had long been involved in various motorcycle communities around the world. Sponsored by motorcycle accessory companies Touratech and Triumph of Seattle, plus the Rainier Beer brewery, the group has become a presence in the Seattle area. They have meetings each month to plan events and other appearances.
The Scarlet Headers, Colorado
A Denver club that directly inspired the Rainier Ravens above, the Scarlet Headers strive for their members to “feel comfy, accepted and encouraged to treatment the motorcycling community. A place to learn, give back and grow. Each woman unique with a different style, machine and background all share one passion — the power of two wheels.” The women have recently rebuilt their own vintage motorcycle and plan to donate it to a charitable organization.
Lady Bikers of California
Seeking to “make California a little smaller,” Lady Bikers of California welcome members from all over the state. They’re very receptive to fresh riders joining and aren’t picky about what type of bike you rail. Each year, the group hosts its own International Female Rail Day; the next one takes place May 6–8, 2016, in Fresno.
Boston Area Bike Enthusiast Sisters (B.A.B.E.S.)
While many of these motorcycle club members call themselves stunners, only the Boston Area Bike Enthusiast Sisters actually can put it in their group’s name. Founded in 2001, the group is more of a sisterhood than a club. Members are of varying ages and “promote safety in numbers.” There are eighty five members at the time of writing, and more are always encouraged to join. The group is very involved in Boston charities and believe in providing a bell to all members to battle against evil road spirits.
Sirens Women’s MC of NYC
Established in 1986, the Sirens Women’s MC of NYC rightfully calls itself the longest-running motorcycle club for women in Fresh York City. There are more than forty members, which also makes this group among the largest in the state. The women are very into LGBT awareness and pride and even appeared in the Fresh York City Pride Parade the same year the club was founded. It’s become a yearly tradition ever since.
Two Wheel Foxies, Florida
St. Petersburg’s Two Wheel Foxies may have a lot of awesome women riders, but they’re into more than just motorcycles. They also link up with businesses and charities in Florida to make a difference. The group hosts events at least monthly, sometimes more than that, where they plan rails on some pretty interesting routes.
Diamond Girlz MC, Massachusetts
Diamond Girlz MC is another Boston-area. Founded in two thousand seven by Courtney Bouchard, aka Mz. Pink, the group is built on being piles of community, sisterhood and respect. Members partake in community service and give their time and donations to various Boston charities. All members must have their own motorcycles, have a Massachusetts driver’s license and be at least Legitimate.
Distinguished Divas Motorcycle Club, Wisconsin
Milwaukee’s Distinguished Divas Motorcycle Club was created in two thousand nine and is a very valuable group in its home city. The women in this club spend a lot of time railing and almost just as much time volunteering and helping out such organizations as the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Self-Esteem Workshop for Foster Care Youth Ladies, Milwaukee Women’s Center Helpline, the Next Door Foundation Annual Walk and the House of Love annual unity rails.
Throttle Sisters MC, Idaho
One of the only women’s motorcycle clubs in Idaho, Throttle Sisters MC is a petite and tight-knit group. “The purpose of Throttle Sisters Motorcycle Club is to participate in club planned/sponsored or chosen events that support our local railing community and to promote a sense of community and empowerment among women riders,” the members explain on their website.
The Miss-Fires, Fresh York
A Fresh York City staple, the Miss-Fires cheerfully accept fresh members, as long as you’re at least Legal, have a valid license and own a motorcycle. Of course, even if you don’t fit the criteria, you’re invited to any of the group’s social events and other meetings. If you also love racers, classic cars, mopeds and mud bikes, you’re in good company, because the women here are into vehicles with any number of wheels.
The Dahlias, Michigan
Hailing from Detroit, the Dahlias were founded by Valerie Jones and Hayley Suder. They couldn’t find any all-women motorcycle groups in their area, so they determined to embark their own. They’re still recruiting fresh members, so now could be your chance to get involved in something spectacular.
Valley Vixens MC, California
Valley Vixens MC represent the San Jose area. Since 2009, the club has amassed members who “have a trust, loyalty, understanding, love and respect for yourself and all of your sisters.” This group doubles as a nonprofit that helps people in poverty and those who are sick.
Wind Sisters RC, South Carolina
The Midlands chapter of Wind Sisters RC operates out of Elgin, South Carolina, and has a handful of members. Prospects are welcome to attend any of the events that the club hosts, such as its annual chapter party on May 2nd at restaurant Gadget of Lugoff. This is the fourth event for the Wind Sisters, and it includes prizes, games, vendors, drinks and food.
Chrome Angels, Texas
Indicating Tarrant County, Dallas and other parts of North Texas, the Chrome Angels are scattered across the entire state. These women will instruct you to get better at railing if you need a few pointers and even suggest safety classes. The group has a handful of Texas sponsors, like Succeed On Purpose for women-owned businesses, Cycle Center of Denton, Grapevine Kawasaki Polaris, Moto Liberty, Cyclone Motorcycle Rescue & Transport, Thunder Roads Texas Magazine and Willhoite’s Restaurant.
Motor Maids, North America
Since its founding in 1940, Motor Maids has grown to 1,300 members in Canada and the US. Linda Dugeau created the group, which was originally founded in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, there are chapters in almost all fifty states.
Stilettos on Steel, Nationwide
Railing a motorcycle, regardless of gender, is all about safety, and Stilettos on Steel wants to educate as many riders as possible about how to avoid accidents. Much like Motor Maids above, this group has various chapters across the country. Members get a membership card, a patch and can join a locked Facebook group, so you always know which events are going on near you.
Organized Chaos, Illinois
Organized Chaos in Chicago is an eclectic group of women with all sorts of backgrounds, jobs, lives and hobbies who have one thing in common: their love railing. The group has a unique symbol, too, which is explained on the club’s website: “The gold represents and starts with our individual selves, our individual strength, morals and integrity; it embarks with us and extends beyond ourselves. The silver represents what we bring to each other, our sisters, in the form of support, encouragement, and connection. The bronze represents what we suggest to our community, our neighbors, and all those outside ourselves and our sisters.”
Bomber Ladies, LRC, Georgia
Everyone does what they can to support the troops, but Bomber Chicks, LRC out of Savannah, Georgia, go above and beyond, often mailing care packages to soldiers serving the country. They have a few chapters in Georgia and a handful of other states. All fundraisers and events the women participate in directly benefit troops.
Faribault Harley-Davidson Lady Riders, Minnesota
You might have your own Harley-Davidson dealership near you, but does yours have its own women’s motorcycle club like the Faribault Harley-Davidson Lady Riders of FHD? This group has garage parties across the year, typically in March and April, and even hosts its own H-D Railing Academy courses for fresh riders who want to understand their bikes better and feel more convenient railing.
Distinctive Lady Ryders, Arkansas
The Distinctive Lady Ryders in Little Rock are a joy bunch. This charitable group always hosts an annual Bike Bliss event each May; this will be the third year. On May 7, 2016, coinciding with Motorcycle Safety Month, the women will be on arm for a meet and greet. Later in the day, accompanied by police escorts, they’ll lead a 60-minute rail.
Baby Janes MC, California
How many of your wishes do you actually recall? For the founders of Baby Janes MC, it only took one to create this Orange County group in 2011. Baby Janes aims to make you feel nostalgic for the 70s, “a time when rock-n-roll was hard, sleek and cool. There was leather and lace, choppers had queen seats with 30″ sissy bars, and cold beer and warm dust made the day.”
Future Cars: Tomorrow’s Technology Is Being Developed Today
On October 21, social media was abuzz on what was dubbed Back to the Future Day, the day Doc Brown and Marty McFly traveled ahead to in the 2nd film. The movie, like many futuristic representations in film and television, didn’t fairly hit the mark. We’re still waiting for those flying cars.
It begs the question, however: What is the future of road travel? Are we living it now with the emergence of driverless cars? Will there be yet another revolutionary technology that we can’t even fathom?
No need to guess. The future of vehicular and road technology is already here today.
Is Driving Our Preferred Method of Travel?
You know the screenplay all too well: You’re sitting in your car after work, anxious to get home, but you’re caught in bumper-to-bumper gridlock. As you and a parade of other vehicles leisurely inch along the highway, you can’t help but wonder whether there are just too many cars on the road.
The reaction is yes and no. There’s actually a phenomenon called “peak car” that addresses this very concern. Thomas Frey at Futurist Speaker defines the term as when “the number of cars in the world reach its peak and auto sales overall begin to decline.” Frey points to two thousand seven as the year of peak car, but Brad Plumer at Vox suggests we’ve yet to hit peak car, despite the popularity of ridesharing services such as Sidecar, Lyft and Uber.
Plumer shares a superb chart (here) that shows September two thousand fifteen had some of the highest 12-month rolling averages for road travel in a very long time, marking a Four.Three percent leap from just a year prior.
In other words, Americans are driving more.
Why? “There are more people in the United States with each passing year, which generally means more drivers,” Plumber of Vox explains. All those claims of peak car in two thousand seven (others put it at 2008) failed to take into account economic circumstances, he says.
“The two thousand eight recession had far-reaching impacts: It meant that fewer people had jobs and fewer people were commuting to work. Many junior Americans weren’t making enough money to buy their own cars. There was less truck traffic on the road. But now that the economy’s picking up again, driving is going up with it.”
What About Bikes?
An economic recession would have given millions of people a good reason to switch to pedal power, too, right? Bikes are far cheaper modes of transport than cars, and most American cities have made efforts to become more bike-friendly in the last decade.
But bikes don’t seem to have caught on all that well. Walker Angell of streets.mn, a site about Minnesota transportation, points to a investigate from the National Bicycle Dealers Association (NBDA) that found people have been buying and railing fewer and fewer bikes for the past fourteen years.
The NBDA reported that 43.1 million people possessed a bicycle in 2000. That’s one hundred forty eight riders for each thousand people. However, as of 2014, the number dropped to just 35.6 million bike owners, now just one hundred eleven riders for each thousand people.
Angell muses that a petite core of bikers have given the rest of the urban cycling world a bad name. “Perhaps most of all they don’t want to be associated with ‘those cyclists’ — the ones who run crimson lights when others have right-of-way or block traffic because they-have-a-right-to-the-road,” Angell writes.
“…They don’t want to be associated with people who have irritatingly bright blinkie strobe lights that blind them when they’re driving. They don’t want to be confused with people whose common pose is an anti-social knuckle up in the air gesticulating to the car that just passed them too close.”
That may not be a problem in Boulder, tho’. Erica Meltzer at the Daily Camera reported this summer about the city’s right-sizing pilot program, a test that witnessed four city roads shrink to increase the size of bike lanes. Those who feel jumpy railing along skinny, narrow bike paths can now be more secure, especially since the roads targeted get an average of 15,000 to 20,000 trucks and cars a day on those streets alone. (By September, the Boulder City Council had begun to roll back some of the right-sizing program.)
So, it shows up that overall many people still choose driving over biking as their primary means of transportation. That seems unlikely to switch, and this is why some of the thickest innovations in private transportation involve vehicles. No flying cars yet, but there are some cool things on the horizon.
The Self-Driving Car
Self-driving car technology is still very much in the test phase, but it could get to market within a few years.
Jeffrey Miller of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers writes at Live Science that one major component to developing self-driving cars that still needs further work is vehicle-to-infrastructure (V21) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications.
“Presently, self-driving vehicles are guided by computer vision technology — whether it’s Lidar/Ridar (laser or radar technology) or camera-based sensing — when operating on public roads,” he says. “However, V2V and V2I are communication methods that will totally convert how vehicles will ‘see’ the road and interact with its environment. Both V2V and V2I are dedicated brief range communications (DSRC) devices that work in the Five.9GHz band, have a range of approximately one thousand [meters] and can support private data communications as well as public.”
Miller says that car manufacturers still have a ways to go as they test V2V and V2I technology. He predicts that these technologies won’t be integrated in most self-driving cars for another three or five years.
But once manufacturers implement these technologies, self-driving cars will be less accident-prone “by permitting vehicles to be in constant communication with each other as well as their environment.”
“Key to implementation will be a high invasion rate of vehicles able to communicate with each other,” Miller says. “This will enable self-driving cars to access further data and information regarding their environment, and will work in harmony with already available sensing technology (radar or movie cameras).”
Safety
Many major car manufacturers are working on their own self-driving vehicles, including Audi, Tesla and Mercedes-Benz. Uber and Google are also working to build one. Safety is a top priority for each of these companies. However, we’ve already heard stories about one of these cars getting into a fender bender.
Natasha Lomas at TechCrunch wrote a lump about the Google self-driving cars and the accidents these have been involved in: eleven total in six years. However, the company thought that human drivers in either the Google car or the other vehicle were responsible in each example.
Overall, tho’, self-driving cars are still widely believed to be a safer way to drive compared to humans behind the wheel. Lauren Keating at Tech Times shares research from the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which found in two thousand fourteen alone that 32,675 people were involved in a fatal road accident in this country. “Because the majority of these accidents are caused by human error, self-driving cars could potentially reduce the rate of automobile-related deaths — and save the U.S. over $400 billion (Two percent of the U.S. GDP) in total annual costs of accidents,” she writes.
Keating spoke to Ryan Hagemann from TechFreedom, an automation and robotics company, who collective his thoughts on the safety of self-driving cars. “In theory, if you have one hundred percent fully autonomous vehicles on the road…while you still might have accidents on the margin in infrequent situations, you’re basically looking at anywhere from ninety five to 99.99 percent reduction in total fatalities and injuries on the road,” he says. Keating caveats this, telling that for those percentages to become a reality, every single car on the road would have to be self-driving.
Public Sale
While two thousand fifteen has promised a lot of innovation, the self-driving car is not going to be ready tomorrow. Bill Howard at ExtremeTech touched on the topic at the beginning of the year, estimating that these could become available as soon as two thousand seventeen or as late as 2020.
Miller, in his lump at LiveScience, agreed with the latter, writing that Nissan plans to sell its very first self-driving car in 2020. “While consumers, and even some experts in the field, noted that this was an aggressive timeline, it didn’t seem like an unattainable purpose,” he says.
Self-driving cars, once they become available, may have limited functions compared to later models that will come down the pike. “The very first cars will be self-driving on limited access roads such as interstate highways,” Howard writes. “They won’t be self-driving in urban areas however. They may be autonomous on rural roads with crossing traffic and pedestrians, farm vehicles, and crossing cars. At the least, they’ll help drivers with the monotony of long-distance trips.”
The problem preventing more widespread travel? “There are many situations that autonomous cars are still pretty far from knowing how to treat,” says Shlomo Zilberstein, a University of Massachusetts Amherst computer science professor who spoke to Carl Franzen of Popular Mechanics. Zilberstein was involved with General Motors and the development of that company’s self-driving car.
“If we could transition to all autonomous cars tomorrow, it would be simpler than a mixed situation with most cars still having human drivers,” Zilberstein told Franzen. “…But once you have people, you have to cope with the uncertainty and complexity of human behavior.”
Until these hurdles are overcome, that two thousand twenty release date for the very first self-driving cars doesn’t sound too bad.
Impacts on Traffic
Back to the issue of sitting in traffic: If cars were self-driving, would traffic still be a problem?
It’s not yet clear, it seems. Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic’s CityLab notes that “shorter gaps inbetween cars means more cars per lane,” which seems promising. But then he spoke with Imperial College London’s Scott Le Vine, who did a examine on self-driving cars and how quickly they accelerate or decelerate.
Le Vine’s research involved a four-way intersection simulation where every fourth vehicle is driverless. He did sixteen simulations in total at sixty minutes each, each replicated one hundred times, and in each simulation he adjusted the rate of acceleration and deceleration. Some screenplays featured relatively jerky stops and takeoffs — akin to the speed of light rail — and others were as sleek as high-speed rail.
“Acceleration has big impacts on congestion at intersections because it describes how quickly a vehicle embarks to budge,” Le Vine said “…Think about being stuck behind an 18-wheeler when the light turns green. It accelerates very leisurely, which means that you’re delayed much more than if you were behind a car that accelerates quickly.”
Overall, Jaffe doesn’t believe that self-driving cars are ready for the rigors of traffic at this time. “In the baseline situation, without any driverless car, each vehicle experienced a delay of twenty seconds at the intersection,” he writes. “When driverless cars accelerated and decelerated in the style of light rail, the congestion worsened from four percent (21 seconds) to fifty percent (30 seconds). The number of cars traveling through the intersection — at 1,793 in the baseline script — also fell inbetween four percent (1,724 cars) and twenty one percent (1,415) cars.”
But Peter Wayner at The Atlantic believes self-driving cars can cut down on urban traffic. “The unsticking of the urban roads is one of the side effects of autonomous cars that will, in turn, switch the landscape of cities — essentially eliminating one of the bearing symbols of urban life, the traffic jam total of honking cars and fuming passengers,” he writes.
“It will also redefine how we use land in the city, whipping out trillions of dollars of real estate to be used for more than storing cars. Autonomous cars are poised to save us uncountable hours of time, not just by letting us sleep as the car drives, but by unblocking the roads so they flow quicker.”
He, too, used a simulation (you can witness a movie of the simulation here). Essentially, Wayner believes that because self-driving taxis (or Ubers) don’t need to park often, city streets will be less clogged with cars attempting to find a place to park.
“Some parking garages have installed sensors that count the number of empty spaces, and signs to share this information to keep people from driving down total aisles,” he elaborates. “When autonomous fleets take over, they’ll have access to similar databases. The cities will very likely keep a few parking spaces around for cars that need to pause, but most will very likely be repurposed as parks or retail locations.”
Developing Vehicles and Technology
Self-Driving Car with Breathing Instructions
This fall, Colorado governor John Hickenlooper tested a form of a self-driving car, as covered by the Denver Post’s Monte Whaley. Hickenlooper took a cruise in an altered two thousand fourteen C7 Corvette Stingray designed by Sam Schmidt, a Verizon IndyCar Series Team holder and former IndyCar driver.
Schmidt, whose racing career ended after a crash in two thousand left him paralyzed, thought it would be interesting to take the Stingray and add sensors and infrared cameras on the dashboard (“which detect head tilts and instruction steering,” Whaley writes).
Hickenlooper, on his test drive, was able to drive by using a tube that gauges pressure. By sucking or sucking into it, he was able to slow the vehicle down or speed it up.
Hydrogen Cars
Albeit hydrogen fuel has its detractors, Honda is clinging tightly to its hydrogen car concept. Andrew P. Collins at Jalopnik writes that the car manufacturer developed a zero-emission sedan called the Clarity Fuel Cell Concept. If all goes well, it will be available for purchase in March two thousand sixteen in Japan and then come to the US.
“Hydrogen is an enormously appealing automotive fuel source because it packs tons of explosive energy without emitting the noxious chemicals a gasoline or diesel-burning car kicks out its tailpipe,” Collins explains. However, he goes on to call it “futile” because “there’s very little infrastructure to support a car that runs on anything besides gasoline, diesel or to some extent electro-stimulation.”
Self-Driving Buses
While many have accepted self-driving cars as the future, what about trucks, buses and other vehicles? Julia Eddington at The Zebra’s Quoted looked into this idea recently. She highlighted London’s Meridian Shuttle, a self-driving shuttle bus that made its debut earlier this year.
The Meridian Shuttle is only intended for relatively brief trips — say, from one airport terminal to another. It’s only about the size of a large golf cart, and it only travels thirteen mph, but the United Kingdom is embracing self-driving tech: It has already developed an initiative for self-driving vehicles called the Greenwich Automated Transport Environment or GATEway.
The Toyota i-Road
Another solution to urban transport is the scooter-sized Toyota i-Road, which Matthew Ankeny of Gear Patrol bravely states could substitute Citibikes as a means of transportation in Fresh York City and eventually beyond. This electrical vehicle can go moderately swifter than the Meridian Shuttle, achieving speeds up to thirty seven mph.
“The i-Road has a steering wheel, two pedals, an e-brake, a seat belt and two doors,” Ankeny writes. “…At the turn of the ignition, the i-Road calibrated itself, providing a puny wiggle right and left, to find center, then sat silently, ready to go. Rear-wheel turning took a 2nd to get used to — it’s like pushing a shopping cart from the front — but the i-Road’s drive quickly became intuitive. The i-Road is far from a spectacle powerhouse, but it treats well enough.”
Another busy company is startup Next, which has created a entire fresh means of transportation. Just check out the movie below of the Next in activity:
In November, Guillaume Renouard at French business site L’Atelier reported on the Next Future Transportation Inc. project, which “intends to provide a modular system which both meets the requirements for future road passenger transport and offers added facilities in line with people’s fresh expectations,” he says. “One of the most innovative ideas is without doubt the potential for the vehicles to link together into a sort of train compartment which can be reconfigured en route. Passengers would be able to budge from one car to another, switching from congested modules to areas with more space, without the ‘road train’ having to stop.”
If that sounds even too futuristic for the movies, it isn’t. Each Next module has a set of wheels, meaning that they’re good for highway, residential street and other road use. These would need to be charged after so long, but the company has already thought that far ahead, writing that when the modules meet up that they can all charge from a thicker main battery, or that each module can have its own smaller battery for charging on the go.
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop
One of the most arousing developments in transportation in latest years was when Elon Musk publicly released his designs for what he calls The Hyperloop, a regional transport system that looks like a pneumatic tube system for sending mail via a building.
“The Hyperloop…is a transportation network of above-ground tubes that could span hundreds of miles,” Alex Davies at Wired writes. “With utterly low air pressure inwards those tubes, capsules packed with people would zip through them at near supersonic speeds.”
Davies reports that Hyperloop Transportation Technologies has signed on engineering company AECOM and vacuum company Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum to further develop Elon Musk’s Hyperloop. Additionally, space engineers from SpaceX and Boeing are involved in the effort. If all goes according to plan, the very first Hyperloop could be designed and made next year in California.