Google Developing An Apple CarPlay Competitor

Though Apple was the first to roll out its new in-car operating system called CarPlay, Google is hot on its heels with a design of its own. Automotive News reports that an Apple CarPlay competitor from Google could be revealed by the end of this month.

The Apple CarPlay OS debuted in the Volvo Concept Estate concept earlier this year, showcasing a system that seamlessly integrates the capabilities of the iPhone with the Volvo’s infotainment system. Listening to music and using your phone’s navigation system are just a few features of CarPlay, which in the Volvo Concept Estate at least could also control the HVAC system and seat warmers.

Google isn’t sitting by idly though, and they’ve already worked to integrate key features, such as Google Maps, into a next generation of vehicles spearheaded by Audi. Rumored to be called Google Car Link, it’s been co-developed by the Open Automotive Alliance, which includes GM, Hyundai, Honda, and of course Audi, the likely candidates to get this smartphone-integrating operating system first. Google has also patented a hand-gesture control system for cars, something that could come into play with this new OS, and lets not forget about the autonomous Google Car.

The Google v. Apple tech war is spilling over into the auto industry, and nerds the world over are taking sides.

Source: Gas 2.

Terra Motors Unveils Electric Scooter With iPhone Dock

Terra Motors Corporation this week announced the release of its new A4000i electric scooter, which includes a smartphone connection.

The Japanese company said it is the first to mass produce a wireless, smartphone-connected scooter.

The two-person bike comes with a built-in iPhone dock, which can collect and store details like electricity consumption, remaining battery life, average speed and mileage, and navigation information. The Tokyo startup intends to learn from that data to help develop more services over time.

"Smartphone connection can provide new service to customers," the company said in a news release. "[The] electric scooter will be more than means of transportation."

Demand for scooters in Asia is especially strong — accounting for about 80 percent of the worldwide market — due to growing gas prices and high levels of air pollution. As a result, more than 30 million electric bikes are sold each year in China alone. Still, maintenance problems and supply chain issues keep electric scooters from competing with the more popular gasoline motorcycles.

Terra Motors hopes to change that with its A4000i, which will sell in mostly Asian markets for about $4,500, and is compatible with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, 4S, and 5. An iPhone-less A4000 model will also be available, but pricing has not yet been determined. By the end of 2015, the company aims to sell 100,000 electric scooters worldwide, including its older SEED model.

The white-and-blue motorcycle boasts an average range of about 65 km (40 miles); its removable lithium-ion battery can reportedly last up to 50,000 km (31,000 miles). A full battery charge takes about 4.5 hours.

Motorists have been traveling with smartphone-connected cars for years, but usually via an auxiliary cable and a USB charger plugged into the cigarette lighter. Apple last month introduced its solution to snaking cords: iOS in the Car — a service that integrates iOS devices with a vehicle's in-dash system.

Source: PC Magazine

New iPhone App Helps Locate Your Nearest Charging Station

Even though there is electricity everywhere, electric vehicles supposedly face an uphill battle without a formal “charging infrastructure.” But a new app for the iPhone crowdsources private outlets for public EV charging.

The app is called Plugshare, and in addition to providing you with the locations of public charging stations, also informs you of people who may be willing to lend you some juice from their own outlets. The app even lets you contact other Plugshare members who may be willing to let you plug in to their outlets if you’re in need of some juice.

Car communities are very tight nit groups of enthusiasts, whether you’re talking about Mustangs and muscle cars or electric vehicles. To get the most out of this app, you’ve got to create an account, which allows you to contact other members if you’re in need of a charge. Since it was just released this week (and not for the Droid, BOO) there aren’t many people on board. Yet. But this app will be pivotal in connecting EV drivers with one another, and fostering that sense of community so key to all successful automobiles.

Many places are working on installing a proper EV infrastructure, but until then, many EV drivers may have to rely upon the kindness of the EV community to make their commute.

Yeah, there’s an app for that.

Source: Gas2.0

Florida Man Scores His Chevy Volt in Washington DC Market

Happy Volt Owner in Tampa, Florida











Here is a great testimonial from a determined Chevrolet Volt driver who resides in Tampa but got his Volt in the Washington, DC market. Not sure where he plans to get his car serviced should the need arise, but he has his Volt!

From GM-Volt.com:

A year ago I had to make a decision. The lease was up on my Infiniti G35 and I had to decide what car I was going to get next. I love the G35, so much that I have had three in the past 10 years. I didn’t want to get locked into another 3-year lease, and I didn’t want to buy. I wanted an electric car. My wife has a Ford Escape Hybrid, and we love that car too – but I wanted an electric car, not just a hybrid.

I researched online and there were virtually no options. Most of what I found were conversions or conversion kits, or were concept cars with no future launch date. Then I found Tesla. Wow, what a car. There just happens to be a dealership near me, and they let me take one for a drive. I immediately called my wife and asked “Do you want to go for a drive in an electric car?”. The Tesla is super fast…and super expensive. It was a great experience to drive it and made me even more motivated about getting an electric car, but clearly not practical for me or my wallet.

I also found the GM Volt blog started by Lyle. I immediately added myself to the wait list (#749). This car looked real, affordable, and would allow long road trips for business or vacation too. But it was not coming out for a year.

So I called Infiniti and they let me extend my lease for a year. I religiously followed the GM Volt blog, and was a little devastated when I found out Florida was not a launch market. So I got creative and ordered a car from a dealership in the Washington DC area, red with white trim. Here is the timeline of my volt getting home to Florida.

December 9: I was told by GM that I would probably not be taking delivery until January. That was cutting it close to the end of my lease, but still doable. No Volt for Christmas though

December 14th: I got another call that the Volts were shipped priority and would arrive this week! So I bought a plane ticket to DC to pick up my Volt and drive it back to the sunshine state.

December 19th: Bought $20 worth of gas for Infiniti @ $3.05/gallon, hopefully last gas purchase for that car.

December 20: Downloaded “Road Trip Lite” for iPhone. I plan to track all fuel purchases for the Volt. I know the GM app does that, but this includes odometer, date, charts and more.

December 22: Landed in DCA…very cold here. Dealer picked me up at airport and drove me to the dealership. Everyone came up to meet me “The Volt owner is here”. The dealer hid the Volt in their “car wash garage bay” as everyone was trying to test drive it and sell it. Funny.

Volt #169 is mine!

The dealer walked me thru the car: we setup onstar, I downloaded app, I connected the iPhone to the build in Bluetooth, and I connected it to the USB port allowing control my iPod from the built-in touch screen (sweet) and I was on my way.

December 23: Left Baltimore at 6:10AM. Still lots to learn about the dash, controls, and features. Nothing like a 1,000 mile trip to learn a new car.

The generator kicked in early in my trip, before DC actually. I didn’t really even notice it for a few moments, it went really smooth. I noticed a slight high-pitched whine when generator charges the battery (immediately after I took my foot off the accelerator). Curious if anyone else hears this.

Fillup #1: Hallifax NC. 6.57 gallons, $3.079/gallon, $20.21 total. Guy at gas station asked me about it “I didn’t think they needed gas”, we talked for a moment.

Fillup #2: South of the Border (I know 4.82 gallons, $2.959/gallon, $14.28 total. Two more people “nice car”, one wanted to see under the hood, I obliged.

Fillup #3: Savannah, GA. 8.16 gallons, $3.099/gallon, $25.28 total.

Total: Baltimore to Tampa $59.77

During the next couple days I gave many “demo drives” to family and friends. Everyone is really impressed. But this new car category takes a lot of explaining. GM will need to do a lot of work to get over this education hurdle for the mainstream public I think. The good news is everywhere I go people are asking me about it

In addition to the OnStar App, I have also since downloaded the Chevrolet app, which includes the entire user manual. I also scanned the the mobile bar codes (QR codes) in the manual to view instructional videos available. Well done Chevrolet.

December 26: Finally home. The last leg of the trip I only got 46mpg, and I felt disappointed. Then I realized I was disappointed in 46mpg!!! The standard is now high, and I love it.

Want the Most Control Over Your New Nissan Leaf? There's An App for That

GM has shown off their Chevy Volt iPhone application for quite some time now, which can work in conjunction with OnStar and now Nissan has their own app. Just released last week is the Leaf version of a useful program that allows remote control of many functions that are extremely useful for electric vehicles. Wouldn't it be lovely to tell your car to cool the cabin on a muggy 90 degree day before slipping behind the wheel? What about sending the charging system instructions to commence late in the evening when electricity rates are lowest? These are but two of the many features this new iPhone app is capable of performing for the new Nissan Leaf owners.

From our friends at AllCarsElectric.com:

2011 Nissan LEAF iPhone App

Enlarge Photo

We know. You’ve put the deposit down, agonized over the charge station installation and felt a pang of jealousy when you discovered your 2011 Nissan LEAF won’t arrive for another four months.

But while all hopes that Santa is bringing that new electric car may be lost you can at least pass the time with the LEAF iPhone app. That is of course, if you own an iPhone.

Quietly uploaded to Apple’s app store last weekend to coincide with the first customer delivery of the 2011 Nissan LEAF, the iOS application allows LEAF owners to communicate with their car via Nissan’s CARWINGS telematics system.

For those of us still waiting for a car, Nissan decided to include a demonstration mode in the application. Even if you haven’t ordered a LEAF this enables you to download the free application and have a little play.

We couldn’t resist.

Switch On, Setup

On launching the app you’re given a simple choice: set up the program with your personal details for your own 2011 LEAF, or launch the application in demonstration mode. The application remembers your itinal choice, so next time you launch it it goes straight to whichever mode you've chosen. Clicking 'sign out' at the top of the screen enables you to switch between real and demonstration mode - great if you have a car but want to show the app to a coworker without disturbing your own car's charging cycle.

2011 Nissan LEAF iPhone AppGallery

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Main Display

The main screen of the iPhone app shows the car's current status, with everything from state of charge and estimated range through to charging status, estimated charge completion time and climate control. Along the bottom of the window in the familiar place to iPhone users, are six icons representing the charge, climate control, update, contact and settings screens.

If you've used an iPhone before the applciation will feel fairly intuitave, although we do feel that the main screen does feel a little cramped as as much information as possible is displayed.

Email or Text Notifications

Part of Nissan's tech-drive in the LEAF includes the ability to request data from the car in real time. This is achieved by the iPhone applciation routing a request over the Internet through Nissan's own telematics system. Nissan warns that commands and status requests can take up to 5 minutes to be executed by the car.

However, the user can request important status updates, like charge completion notification, to be sent as either emails or text messages. If you're always loosing your phone or find it stays in your bag at work, having the car email you is an excellent way of staying in touch.

The one thing we feel should be noted, however, is that the iPhone application is not in direct contact with the LEAF. In order to find out the latest status of the car, an update has to be requested by the user. You can configure the application to update the status automatically at startup, but if you're using the iOS and run the application in the background, we think such updates won't happen.

Cool For Cats

One of the main features of the application besides setting remote charge options is the ability to preheat or precool the 2011 LEAF. As with the charging screen, Nissan allows users to pre-set a date as well as a time for cooling to take place, meaning a car can be left for days and still activate charging or climate control when required. We can see these features being particularly useful when returning to your car after a few days away, espeically if your return to the car involves a cold airport parking lot.

John Duncan takes delivery of one of the first 2011 Nissan LEAF EVs, near Portland OR, 12/15/2010

Enlarge Photo

It Does What It Says

Without a real Nissan LEAF to play with, we have to admit the application loses its novelty quite quickly, since the demonstration mode offers very little. But if you have an iPhone, iPod or iPad and have a LEAF on order you can go and download it to see for yourself. You will need a U.S. iTunes account

, however.

If you have your LEAF let us know how the app works in real life. We'd love to know.

GM Announces Chevy Volt Has "An App For That"

This is very cool and what is sure to become the norm for the automotive industry.