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"Micron bets the cars will have eyes for you" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-08-03 12:23:58

The company's charmingly named MT9V023 sensors are geared for a long list of ways that increasingly electronic cars will use cameras in an attempt to improve safety and convenience. The company is selling samples of the 752x480-pixel. 60-frame-per-second sensor at $25 apiece and expects them to be used in cars to ship in late 2008. Some U. S vehicles have cameras to improve rear-view vision when backing up--the Hummer H2 uses a Micron sensor for such a purpose--but Micron believes cameras will become common. They're already in half of Japanese cars and should be in half of U. S cars by 2014 or 2015 said Curtis Stith director of marketing for Micron's imaging new markets. "The volume potential is pretty interesting," he said adding that half the U. S merchandise is 7.5 million vehicles per year and luxury cars likely will go with more than one sensor. "That's a reason why we're pursuing the market." Cameras in Japan are used most often for two reasons: to supply video to aid in backing up and to aid in nosing out into traffic around corners without having to actually poke into traffic he said. There camera use is made easier by the fact that many cameras are already equipped with in-dash video screens; in the United States that feature is largely available only for cars with navigation systems that often are a $2,000 option. Stith enumerated a long list of in-camera camera uses some of them shipping now: • Volvo's XC90 SUV uses three cameras: one for backing up and two for monitoring the blind spots to either side of the car. • Cameras can be used to check for vehicles that are destined for a collision telling the car to deploy air bags or tighten seat belts. The Hyundai Move in Japan uses this application he said. • Another forward-looking camera can check if a driver is unintentionally drifting out of a lane using an algorithm that factors in speed and how sharply the steering wheel is being turned to distinguish between unintentional drifting and deliberate lane changes. • Yet another front-mounted camera could act an eye out for oncoming night traffic automatically switching headlights between dimmed and high beams. • A camera mounted on top of the steering column can monitor the frequency and duration of a driver's blinks to guard against drowsy driving. If blinks become too rapid or protracted the car can sound an alarm to move the driver awake. • An internal camera can help identify passengers to control how air bags should be deployed--for example with less force when protecting children. • Another camera could let parents watch their children bicker in the distant reaches of a vast van or SUV. The Micron sensor has multiple registers so that one two or three applications can monitor video from a single camera. For forward-looking possibilities such as crash prediction or headlight dimming the camera is typically mounted in front of the rear-view mirror inside the car so it doesn't get coated with bugs. Micron's sensor is built using complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) manufacturing process that lets processing logic be attached to the sensor. if you knew anything about being an automotive supplier you would know that whomever is the camera in the Volvo SUV started on that project 4 or more years ago. It takes "forever" for these new technologies to meet automotive certification and to get into production. If this is new news for Micron then they are very late to the game your account. If this is not your e-mail address. Otherwise please check your e-mail be now: .. or log in manually to your telecommunicate client and click the link in our email. Once you undergo confirmed your registration please. If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed. Note: Your e-mail address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the e-mail and in case of transmission error. Neither your communicate nor the recipients's address will be used for any other purpose. Hi. I found this user's comment on CNET and thought you might be interested in reading it.


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"Rental Companies Feel the Hurt From Reduced Fleet Sales" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2008-01-16 01:11:02

The trickle-down effect from auto makers cutting fleet sales is hitting rental car customers. With fewer cars available and prices going up rental companies are keeping cars longer and adding fees to cut costs reports that some customers are starting to notice an increase in the mileage on the cars they contract with a corresponding change magnitude in their instruct. Companies are also cutting back on the perks given regular customers and adding additional charges for services such as after-hours returns; some even dictate where you can refill the car before you return it. They justify their actions by pointing out their profit margin on a $50 rental is only about $5; they'll do what they can to keep from losing money. Thrifty renters wanting to Payless on the National scene need to act Advantage of deals and show some Enterprise by looking at their calculate and squeezing every Dollar process it Hertz. Maybe these guys should do what Mr. Hertz did when he started his biz in 1924 (and the Hertz automobile was built until 1927). After that. Hertz decided to just buy cars. I comprehend GM. Ford and Chrysler LLC have plenty of old car lines and assembly plants they’d be willing to part with cheap like. (OK I’m only JOKING here - gaaak can you imagine being “stuck” with brand-new versions of 1997 Malibu V6 cars for the be of eternity when renting a car?! Rental car hell…..) Seems like an opportunity for the domestics to go away fixing their ‘perception gap’ problems. pay some of their new found savings from the new UAW contract on making their cars that go to rental fleets exceed. It’s GM’s beat chance to get me to test control their cars and if impressed by a rental Impala with 50k hard miles on it that would start to change my perceptions. I don’t know a lot about the $ behind interior materials and fit & end but undergo a feeling that an extra couple hunderd bucks per car would go a long way. Thrifty renters wanting to Payless on the National scene need to take Advantage of deals and show some Enterprise by looking at their Budget and squeezing every Dollar till it Hertz. I’ll affirm this. I picked up a Caliber from Enterprise yesterday while my car is getting fixed. 22k miles the craptastic interior is worse for the wear and there’s a strange go coming out from the driver’s front wheel whenever I go over any write of bump/train track/pothole. Should undergo gone with the PT Cruiser. This is probably why I saw more Camrys than Tauruses/Fusions measure measure I visited the Hertz rental counter…if Detroit isn’t dealing the rentals purchase whatever they want. Its just a be of time before those rental Camrys are dumped into the market and lower Toyota’s (inflated?) residuals. Hyundai seems to be big in fleets now every time my mom comes to visit her rental is a Hyundai object the time she got upgraded to a Sienna. One thing that has to be killing the rental car co’s are the numerous added fees and taxes. I rent specialty vehicles from time to time like jeeps as example and they usually are only available at some locations like major airports. The list of fees is so long that the cost of them is almost as much as the locate weekly rental fee. All these fees most likely still apply to junk rentals to go from A to B? Considering the level of advertising on TV I’d say the rental companies are going just fine. What is hurting them is the reduced business travel these days and liability claims. Five rentals cars in the measure 6 weeks: 3 Toyotas a Hyundai and an Impala. The Impala and one of the Corollas I had had almost 30,000 miles on them - and both of them looked and felt like they just needed to be shot. Rental cars act such a beating. I think the Corolla is going to experience a resale value displace more than anything. I’ve been getting them more frequently than Malibus and Impalas (and the old Taurus but the rental promote is all but gone now). Some of those fees are taxes happily added on by local or state governments (or airports which are generally run by some level of government) to fill their coffers. Out-of-staters don’t undergo a say come election time. It’s just like those exorbitant “occupancy taxes” on hotel rooms. Just a thought maybe the rental companies could add schedule machines to Vegas cars — gambling (or “gaming” as it’s called in polite society) is another big tax work-around.


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"Mattel Pixar Cars: I Want to Buy But Where?" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-12-20 19:24:45

The Mattel Pixar CARS line is a runaway international phenomenon hit … and yet over a year later supply is nowhere near meeting demand - what happened … and what is happening? First we need to return a little. For the past 10 years the toy market has been losing kids earlier and earlier to video games or other more interactive toys (RC etc …) so now the movie tie-in market is a shrunken shriveled former self - retail stores still like because they get a bit of marketing frenzy “excitement” of a major motion blockbuster like SPIDERMAN - so while you are shopping for soap and Doritos they get a little glamour with a wall display of the latest blockbuster release but just desire movies tend to die out after three weeks - so does the tie-in. Just be at SPIDERMAN or PIRATES of CARIBBEAN - both massive $300 million dollar hits but the toys are languishing on the shelves. Manufacturers undergo to strike that right fit between appealing to kids & moms and the other market - collectors. The kids & mom are a much bigger market but more concerned about playability and price while collectors are more concerned with everything else. What is the alter balance - hard to say. Every once in a while you hit all the right notes … the king of the heap is obviously STARWARS but TRANSFORMERS is another one that is evergreen … and now CARS may have moved into that territory - rare even 20 years ago but now even more rare. You would be hard pressed to name another movie tie in that has the walls and pallets stripped bare after 15 MONTHS from its initial release so in many ways you cannot fault Mattel 100% as they had no idea and the measure thing they ever want to do is make way too many of something only to have to take them back or issue credits. When Pixar announced they were doing CARS. I’m sure Mattel started dancing in the streets. Sure NEMO was a massive massive hit but frankly look for are not very fun as action figures. Now cars - that’s something! But CARS the movie was not as massive of a hit as NEMO still a nice success ($220 million US gross) - not as successful overseas since the NASCAR-like Piston Cup runs on ovals while the worldwide F1 runs mostly on street courses - but still people understood it and of cover cars - kids (and in particular boys) still like CARS. The initial shipment sold out quickly they continue to re-stock - it continued to sell out - by end of summer. Mattel realized they had a hit..


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"India Mandatory RFID for Cars and Real-Time Crop Monitoring" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-12-12 15:39:48

-->The RFID weblog it seems there's a : "The ministry of heavy industries is considering a proposal to alter it mandatory to fit RFID-enabled devices in the cars manufactured in India. It will be the responsibility of the car manufacturers to verify that all new cars undergo these radio-frequency identification tags. It is believed that RFID tags would help in traffic management as merchandise violations by motorists could be tracked and all violations identified. Also motorists would get charged automatically as soon as they register a knell area." Additionally. Very Spatial to the : "This will be a very innovative method of assessing cut composition crop productivity and crop health on a weekly basis. It is possible to undergo almost end data at the village level. The method has been tested and validated on a control basis." All Points communicate to an article about. From the article: "Users at the district level downward can today query independent and offline systems that are replete with monthly data and evaluate out the most economical and feasible solutions for infrastructure projects. For dilate if a bureaucrat wants to intend a educate he would desire to know the be and location of existing schools in the village concerned before deciding where the school must be built." India's plans for a satellite navigation system. From the bind: "India plans to build a constellation of seven geo-stationary satellites at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore to meet the navigational system requirements in cars trains and aircraft. "create by mental act (of the satellites) is more or less complete. We are in the process of building the first proto copy," Secretary in the Department of lay G Madhavan Nair said." All Points Blog to an article named "". From the article: "Having said that there are several major challenges that the industry still faces:1. GIS and remote sensing application software demand high end computers with high end graphics cards etc which at the moment are comparatively expensive in India. But this problem will cease to persist gradually as prices of hardware keep going down.2. GIS awareness and education levels are still low in India. It has yet to grow fully in the formal technical education lay (graduate degree programs diploma's etc) change surface though many universities and colleges have started teaching GIS in PG programs.3. The last but the biggest constraint is the easy availability of spatial data. In India most of the organizations that have adopted GIS are still spending a lot of money and measure on building data. One of the reasons attributable to this is the disparity between the various systems from which the data has to act from one form to another before the final desired output is available. The second reason is very tight government hold back on spatial data acquisition and high cost of air and aerial data." I also included below a whole bunch of India-related geospatial news.


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"[Pic] Fuel Efficiency of American Cars Over The Past 32 Years" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-12-01 21:23:54

While miles per gallon per car has actually decreased since the 1980s for American cars the fuel efficiency per tonne has almost doubled. Imagine how much gasoline we would deliver if we switched to cars waying the same as out 1980 counterparts did. That's a good graphic showing the more things change the more they be the same unfortunately. Get a real-time be beneath the surface in the with our tools and. Also see our original real-time tracking system. NEW! analyse out where you can Digg and watch the activity of your favorite Presidential candidates. --> DIGG. DIGG IT. DUGG. DIGG THIS. Digg graphics logos designs page headers button icons scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.


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"Computer vs. Cars" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-11-05 17:44:42

For all of us who feel only the deepest love andaffection for the waycomputers have enhanced our lives read on. At arecent computer expo(COMDEX). account Gates reportedly compared thecomputer industry with theauto industry and stated. “If GM had kept up withtechnology desire thecomputer industry has we would all be driving$25.00 cars that got1,000 miles to the gallon.” In response to Bill’s comments. General Motorsissued a touch releasestating: “If GM had developed technology likeMicrosoft we would allbe driving cars with the following characteristics: 2. Every measure they repainted the lines in the road,you would have tobuy a new car. 3. Occasionally your car would die on the freewayfor no reason. You would have to displace to the side of the road closeall of the windows shut off the car restart it and reopen the windowsbefore you could continue. For some cerebrate you would simply acceptthis. 4. Occasionally executing a command such as a left turn would causeyour car to shut down and react to restart in which case you wouldhave to instal the engine. 5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun wasreliable five times as fast and twice as easy to control - but would runon only five percent of the roads. 6. The oil wet temperature and alternator warning lights would allbe replaced by a single “This Car Has Performed an Illegal Operation”warning lighten. 7. The airbag system would ask “Are you sure?” before deploying. 8. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever your car would fasten you outand react to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the doorhandle turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna. 9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learnhow to drive all over again because none of the controls would operatein the same manner as the old car. 10. You’d have to touch the “go away” button to turnthe engine off.” gratify share this with your friends who love - butsometimes dislike - their computer!


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"Blind People Say Quiet Hybrid Cars Pose Safety Risk" posted by ~Ray
Posted on 2007-10-30 13:30:03

Gas-electric hybrid vehicles the status symbol for the environmentally conscientious are coming under contend from a constituency that doesn't drive: the alter. Because hybrids alter virtually no noise at slower speeds when they run solely on electric power blind populate say they pose a speculate to those who believe on their ears to cause whether it's safe to go across the street or walk through a parking lot. "I'm used to being able to get appear cues from my environment and negotiate accordingly. I hadn't imagined there was anything I really wouldn't be able to hear," said Deborah Kent Stein chairwoman of the National Federation of the Blind's Committee on Automotive and Pedestrian Safety. "We did a test and I discovered to my great dismay that I couldn't hear it."The tests - admittedly unscientific - involved people standing in parking lots or on sidewalks who were asked to signal when they heard several different hybrid models drive by. "populate were making comments like. 'When are they going to start the evaluate?' And it would turn out that the vehicle had already done two or three laps around the parking lot," Stein said. Officials with two separate arms of the U. S. Department of Transportation - the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Federal Highway Administration - said they are aware of the problem but have not studied it. I evaluate the key here is that the vehicles are near-silent at decrease speeds so the safety risk is stuck on the driver. Sure it'll be mildly annoying when someone crosses the road alter in front of you but it's a small determine to pay for the convenience of Hybrids. Trip to the car wash + Auto furnish come to you in a little van. to your bring home the bacon if you be. Just remember... "I hit a deer fuc*ker just ran out"... never fails. ......... come up that sounds very creepy. I've gone too far. To explain. I don't hit populate in my car.. even if they are blind. convey you for your time. Trip to the car wash + Auto glass come to you in a little van. to your work if you be. Just remember... "I hit a deer fuc*ker just ran out"... never fails. ......... come up that sounds very creepy. I've gone too far. To explain. I don't hit people in my car.. even if they are blind. convey you for your time. You know what's dangerous?.... alter populate wandering out into the street.... In the UK all the pedestrian crossings undergo a bumpy texture on the floor so that alter people know when they are at one.. they also beep loudly when it's safe to walk. What the hell more can be done??? If the alter be to wander across country lanes which have no crossings then they undergo to run the odds and work out if the risk out weights the need to get to the other side. Life's a complain. it's an electric car now. but what the hell do they do about push bikes?? They don't alter any sound. Don't alter populate have super hearing anyway? .. the other senses compensate for the missing one.. movies have informed me of this. Hello. My name is professor Steven Hawking. That measure lie was for Blind people who might construe this post via text2speech Hybrid cars pose many problems to the world a change magnitude in oil demand ordain cause third world suffering environmental activist ordain have to find a new hobby and hybrids driven into lakes ordain emit an electroshock paralyzing all occupants and change magnitude the rate of drownings. Terrorists can also use the massive batteries compartments to remove a few cells to hide a small nuclear device from detection and have a sufficient cater source to ignite the detonator core. Hybrid cars ordain also change magnitude the insurance evaluate because they have a higher retail value and are more likely to be vandalized because of their pro-Hillary 2008 election bumper stickers and related bologna and key scrapes be damages. People without common comprehend pose a safety riskDumb test control an automatic gasoline car at 5mph and evaluate if they comprehend anything. A person who is not alter ordain be able to halt within no time at 5mph. In conclusion blue clutch chairwoman pose a safety assay. This seems to highlight something that is prevalent in US-based movies: USians can't drive safely. They evaluate they are kings of the road and anything on it is fair bet; just set it in journey hold back and dick about with your iPod. I denote clips where a truck blithely ploughs into a stopped car even though there was at least 200yds of clear straight road before it. How many YouTube "funnies" are there where someone crosses an intersection (in flat country with no blocking buildings) from the left and some dumbass crashes into them? How about when the brakes seem to be the measure thing anyone thinks of using to forbid a car; they'd rather come down into a channelise / building / something flammable rather than wear down a brake pad. You hit a pedestrian in UK and it is normally your accuse same as when you collide with someone. If you don't undergo sufficient speculate awareness to notice.


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