Automobiles777 articles archived since 1845

Is There a Future for Wilderness?

Wilderness is dead, long live the Wilderness Act. On Sept. 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson and the U.S. Congress signed into law the Wilderness Act.

Childhood of Tomorrow: the Art of Simon Stålenhag

Some artists find a synthesis of style and subject that causes their work to resonate deeply within us. We experience new memories and ideas while we look at their images.

Nice Grill: You Look Like Your Car (and Your Car Looks Like Your Dog)

Photograph by Glen Mitchell In a recent article over at Slate, I reviewed an astonishing new set of findings from Japan showing that subjects can correctly match people to their pets when given only a paucity of physical cues...

City-Scale Congestion Pricing Picking Up Steam

What is congestion charging? Congestion charging or pricing is the practice of setting up cordon tolls around the city on a large-scale to charge entrants for entering during peak hours...

Secretive Company Claims Battery Breakthrough

The Michigan start-up Sakti3 says its solid-state cells more than double the energy density of today’s best Li-Ion batteries

Robot Made of Shrinky-Dink Polymer Folds Itself in 4 Minutes

The robot begins as a flat sheet and uses heat to get into shape

Self-Driving Cars Get New Laws in California

Self-driving vehicles get new laws in California

Top 10 (Transport) Sights in Paris

Few tourists travel explicitly to see a city’s or country's mode of transportation, but I dare say that besides transport nerds such as myself, there are examples which qualify as must-see, including Japan's Shinkansen high-speed train, Lisbon's old tram system, and the streetcars of New Orleans, among others...

Pure Lithium in Battery May Generate More Powerful Battery

Stanford researchers claim they have made a breakthrough in creating a lithium anode

British Rail's Shocking Defiance of Standard Metrics

I spent about a month in the UK earlier this summer, and that meant I took a lot of train trips. I love riding trains: the feeling of endless possibility I get when I look at the departure boards, the countryside rolling by, the fantastic people-watching, the two-hour delay between Edinburgh and Manchester because a [...]..

Google's Cars Sniff Out Natural Gas Leaks to Deliver Cleaner Air

Of all the things to be leaking methane on Staten Island in New York City—corroded gas pipes, sewers, the Fresh Kills dump—who would have suspected the mail truck?

A Car That Is Smarter Than Its Driver Can Cut Pollution

Smart cars that can save drivers' lives as well as fuel

Scientific American Debunks Claim Gustave Whitehead Was "First in Flight"

It has been claimed (yet again) that Gustave Whitehead flew a powered, controlled airplane before the Wright brothers did

Could Consuming More Energy Help Humans Save Nature?

Even before I arrived at the annual “Dialogue” of the Breakthrough Institute, an Oakland, California, think tank that challenges mainstream environmental positions, I was arguing about it...

Car Outsides Made to Power Auto Insides

The trunk of a car, made of a new carbon composite, can also run LED lights and the dual use could help electric vehicles

Can Open Patents or Zippy Race Cars Spur Electric Car Sales?

Electric cars, no matter how sexy, still have a battery problem

The Right Car Handled the Right Way Can Drive You up the Wall

Young physicists find the specs to keep a race car off the beaten track

"Fastest Car on the Planet" Set for Testing in 2015 [Video]

After breaking the sound barrier of 1,223 kilometers per hour with Thrust SSC, a British team is building Bloodhound SSC to cross the 1,600-kph mark

Google Reveals New Self-Driving Car

The small prototypes lack steering wheels or pedals and are limited to a maximum speed of 25 mph

BMW to Deliver Electric Car in China in September