Articles by Richard Read

Drivers see warning signs all the time, but we don't always heed their advice: "Reduce Speed". "Watch for Falling Rock". "Wildlife Crosses This Road". However, a very simple message posted to an electronic sign in Arlington, in the US state of Virginia, is having a much bigger impact. It reads, "Don't hit the car in front of you", and what's weird is, motorists seem to be paying attention. According to the Arlington County Police Department, the area around Washington Boulevard and Route 50 sees an unusually high number of accidents. In fact, between April and June, 15 collisions occurred there -- more than anywhere else in the county. In July, someone at the ACPD got the bright idea to post the very simple message "Don't hit the car in front of you" to one of the electronic signs stationed in the area. Afterward, the number of accidents began to plummet. Since July 1, the department has responded to just two. That's a drop of about 87 per cent. Even weirder: the sign was changed in late August. In other words, its effect on commuters seems to be lingering. No one fully understands why the sign had such an impact. It might've been a fluke, a coincidence. Then again, it might've been that the sign's simple message caught drivers off-guard, snapping them back to attention instead of being lulled into complacency by their daily commute. But hey, with stats like those, no one's really complaining. www.thecarconnection.com  

Small cars are big business these days. Thanks to stricter regulation of fuel efficiency and tailpipe emissions, everything seems to be downsizing, from the family sedan to the rough-and-ready work truck. But though they may shrink, few will ever get as pint-sized as the car custom-built by Austin Coulson. At 25 inches high, two feet wide, and four feet long, it's only suitable for tiny teens who haven't hit their growth spurt, or possibly Snooki. Also watch: Clarkson designs and drives tiny car But despite its wee dimensions, Coulson's car has everything it needs to be street-legal, including approved headlights, an up-to-snuff windshield (with wiper), and of course, a horn. Thanks to those bells and whistles, it now carries a set of Texas registration plates, too. Also watch: World's smallest production car hits Sydney In the video, Coulson says that he hasn't verified the vehicle's fuel economy, but he knows that it can earn at least 5.2L/100km. However, since the gas tank can only hold half a gallon of fuel, he's only able to travel about 36km before filling up again. Coulson hasn't landed any deals to put the vehicle into production, but it did earn the title of Smallest Car in the World from Guinness World Records. So there's that. Watch video here.  

It's hard out there for a car thief -- and it's getting harder. Once upon a time, all the bad guys needed to do was find an unlocked vehicle. Now, they've got to fight their way past kill switches, LoJack devices, and OnStar -- not to mention the impending arrival of digital license plates, voice-identification, and fingerprint-recognition. But all those gadgets pale in comparison to the latest theft-prevention tool. According to Mashable, Isao Nakanishi and his colleagues in the graduate school of engineering at Japan's Tottori University have developed a prototype for a safety system that uses brain waves to identity drivers. The system takes samples of brain waves from a driver and stores them in a database. If a vehicle begins moving and the driver's brain waves don't match those on file, the vehicle is disabled. The system can also tell if a driver is drunk or falling a sleep, since brain waves in those circumstances vary significantly from samples taken when a motorist is fully awake and sober. Though it's still in the very early stages, the system is ultimately intended for use on mass transit vehicles or on those that carry large sums of money or valuables. However, we could easily envision a day when this technology might roll out to mainstream cars. OUR TAKE Nakanishi's system has a few potential shortcomings. For starters, if the goal is to protect buses and armored cars, it doesn't do much to prevent those vehicles from being hijacked, provided the bad guys keep the approved driver behind the wheel. And in emergency situations, there would need to be some kind of override to allow unauthorised persons to drive a vehicle. But ignoring those flaws, what's most interesting about this technology is the future it points to, the same future that includes Apple's new fingerprint-recognition software. It's a future in which all the accessories we know and loathe -- keys, wallets, credit cards -- become useless. Or more accurately, they become us, as our own bodies are transformed into passcodes. Tinfoil-hatters, we're sorry, but the future isn't looking so bright. www.thecarconnection.com  

Last week, Samsung did it. This week, Apple may do it. And earlier today, Nissan totally did it in the middle of the Frankfurt Auto Show: the company debuted its very own smartwatch.Its called the Nismo Watch, and Nissan says that it's capable of doing many things, including:Connecting a driver to her car, using an app on the driver's smartphone as a bridge.Notifying drivers of fuel efficiency and other auto info.Tracking a driver's heart rate, as well as other biometric data.And, of course, receiving "tailored car messages from Nissan", which could mean recall and safety alerts, or maybe just ads.Watch video here.The device that debuted in Frankfurt is technically just a concept, but Nissan says the Nismo Watch will soon appear in stores. It'll be available in black, red, and a black-and-red mix.The watch is controlled with just two buttons, and it's powered by a lithium battery, which users charge via a micro-USB cable. Nissan says that battery life should be about seven days per charge, under normal conditions.Whether we like it or not, 2013 will likely go down in history as the year of wearable technology. Earlier this year, select influencers and techies got their hands on Google Glass. We've also witnessed a slew of smartwatches from Kickstarter startup Pebble, tech giant Samsung, and all points in-between.To see Nissan wading into the wearable technology wars may come as a surprise, but the underlying software has been in the works for a while. On the racing front, Nissan has been developing projects like JukeRide, which monitors vehicles and road conditions to give drivers a winning edge. The Nismo Watch is basically a scaled-down version of such goodies for the everyday (wo)man.The real question isn't whether Nissan has any business in this field, it's whether smartwatches are a smart investment. To be sure, the Nismo Watch looks good -- far, far better than the chunky, un-funky Samsung Galaxy Gear, which has managed to underwhelm most critics. But in the grand scheme of things, the face may be more valuable real estate than the wrist.That's in part because for now, smartwatches are just handmaidens to smartphones. The Nismo Watch looks great, but for it to be really useful to drivers, it needs to pair with a phone. That's because the phone is a bigger, more powerful piece of hardware, capable of doing things that the watch simply can't. The only reason the watch seems practical is because we keep our phones in pockets and purses, making the wristwatch a convenient intermediary. (If someone comes out with a really nicely designed cuff-style watch with a large-ish screen, we'll revisit this theory.)But watches lose mostly because devices like Google Glass are ergonomically superior. They have built in screens that can scale quite large thanks to nifty phenomena like the parallax effect. They allow us to keep our heads up during interactions with friends, strangers, buildings, and, of course, the road. That's not to say that heads-up devices -- wearable or not -- aren't distracting, but they're potentially less so than watches and mobile phones.Our hunch is that smartwatches like Nissan's will be a hit with fans and niche consumers, and that's about all -- but then, that may be all Nissan's hoping.www.thecarconnection.com 

YouTube is not for the timid. It's a cacophony of crap, most of which consists of (a) shaky cell phone footage of stadium concerts shot from nosebleed territory, (b) 12-year-old vloggers yelling inarticulately into their webcams about how their parents just don't understand, and (c) videos of cats sleeping.But every so often, once in a blue moon, something interesting happens out yonder in the Wild, Weird West. This video shows a young man who spends roughly a minute and a half talking about his battles with depression and alcoholism, while his face remains blurred and his voice is distorted.Then, something remarkable happens: as you'll see above, the image and the sound eventually clear, and the man speaks directly to the camera: "My name is Matthew Cordle and on June 22, 2013, I hit and killed Vincent Canzani. This video will act as my confession."Detroit News reports that Canzani was killed in Columbus, Ohio when his Jeep collided with Cordle's vehicle, which was travelling the wrong way down the interstate. Cordle was taken to a hospital and treated, but he had not previously been charged in the killing. According to Franklin County Prosecutor, that will soon change.The video was posted by Because I Said I Would, which describes itself as "a social movement dedicated to bettering humanity through the power of a promise". That fits with Cordle's message, which centres around encouraging motorists not to drink and drive.Cordle's move is a brave one. Cynics might see it as a way of encouraging leniency from the courts, but he didn't need to post a video to YouTube for that. We commend him for the apparent honesty of his confession and the sincerity of his plea to other drivers.Watch video here.www.thecarconnection.com 

We are not what you'd call a bunch of goodie-goodies. We have prank-ordered pizzas for people we don't like. We have toilet-papered the yards of our friends and neighbours. We may have even consumed beer, then liquor, which as you can imagine, left us sicker. But few things make us quite as angry as seeing a car without the correct permit whip into one of those bright blue parking spaces.Thankfully, the New York Times says there's an app that allows folks like us to report d-bag drivers who use parking spots meant for the disabled. Even better: if the driver is fined, 20 per cent of the fee will go to charity.The app was conceived by a non-profit organisation called Parking Mobility. According to the group's website: "Disabled parking abuse is rampant. Studies show that more 1-in-4 vehicles in disabled parking do so illegally. No matter what priority cities give disabled parking enforcement, city enforcement agents (police, etc) cannot be everywhere at all times."Using Parking Mobility's app is easy. When you see a car that's wrongfully parked in a disabled spot, just take three quick photos with your smartphone: one of the rear of the vehicle showing the make, model, and license plate; a wider one of the parking spot, showing that the vehicle is clearly parked there; and one of the car's windscreen, proving that there's no disabled parking tag.After that's done, use the app to upload the photos to Parking Mobility's database. Parking Mobility will tag the time, date, and location of the photos, then submit them to the proper authorities. As simple as that sounds, however, the app does have a couple of drawbacks. For a start, it's not available in Australia yet, having just launched in the US.On a technical note, the city where the violation takes place has to be enrolled in Parking Mobility's reporting program. On the non-profit's website, there's no easy way to tell which councils have already signed up.On a personal note, as much as we loathe able-bodied motorists who park in disabled spots, Parking Mobility is only one step above snitching. We know that snitching is The Thing right now -- "If you see something, say something" and all that -- but the Playground Code of Ethics has been firmly embedded in our brains. Sorry.If you'd like to give the Parking Mobility app a try, there are versions for Android, Blackberry, and iOS devices, all of which are free. For a complete overview, check out the short video above.www.thecarconnection.com 

We spend a lot of time dissecting auto ads, trying to figure out what those commercials convey about a particular car brand. But cars themselves -- specifically, their design -- also help define a company's brand.A Lamborghini, for example, makes a bold impression. The car's sharp, aggressive lines imply that the owner is a smooth, affluent go-getter. (Or a complete d-bag, depending on your point of view.)Other brands aren't so in-your-face. Some fade into the background. They're the automotive equivalent of khakis: inoffensive and people-pleasing. (Or dull and lifeless, depending on your point of view.)Volvo has vacillated between those two extremes. In the 1980s, Volvos were immediately recognizable by their unique, boxy silhouette. At other times, we've have a hard time distinguishing them from other auto brands. What does the future hold for Volvo? We've just been given a clue thanks to a new concept car.VOLVO CONCEPT COUPEIn 2010, Ford sold Volvo to Chinese automaker Geely. That raised plenty of concerns among fans. Would Volvos be completely reworked for Chinese consumers? Would the company be micromanaged into submission, losing the safety features that have long been associated with Volvo? Or would Geely simply leave Volvo alone, letting it do its own thing?The first answers we got to those questions came in 2011, when Volvo revealed the Universe Concept, part of the company's new brand strategy, "Designed Around You". Somehow, the Universe managed to be offensive and bland all at the same time. The future wasn't looking especially bright.Thankfully, Volvo went back to the drawing board. The results of its efforts are displayed in the newly unveiled Concept Coupe, one of three concept vehicles that Volvo plans to debut in the coming months to show off its new look. The first production model to reflect the Concept Coupe's aesthetic will be the XC90, arriving in the latter half of 2014.In its press release, Volvo doesn't reveal much about the Concept Coupe, other than to say that it "takes design cues from the P1800, a car made famous by Roger Moore in British TV drama The Saint". We also learn that there's a large touch screen on the centre stack, a heads-up display, and a cabin that sits slightly further back than usual.The video above gives a fairly thorough walkaround of the concept car. It's got some luxury appointments, and the lighting -- both front and rear -- seems very appealing. A few of our team find the forward section a little chunky and the cabin a tad bulbous, like a junior version of Chevrolet's Code 130R Concept, but others like it. Whatever the case, the Coupe is clearly an improvement on Volvo's Universe Concept. But is it ready to come off the drawing board?www.thecarconnection.com 

It's a sad fact: for some drivers, our dashboards and centre consoles look increasingly like the backs of our home televisions. There are wires plugged into stereos, cables running to chargers jammed into cigarette lighters, wires hastily wrapped and thrown over shifter knobs. When will the madness end?For General Motors fans, the answer is: next year. According to Bloomberg, that's when GM will begin rolling out Powermat wireless chargers to vehicles across its four product lines, eliminating our need to plug cellphones into charging stations. (Provided our phones or their cases are capable of wireless charging, of course.)You might recall that Toyota was the first automaker to offer wireless charging. Thanks to its close relationship with Powermat, GM was in line to take that trophy via the Volt, but it was beaten by the 2013 Toyota Avalon -- a model we no longer have here, getting the locally built Camry-derived Aurion instead.GM hasn't announced the list of vehicles to offer the new technology. In fact, GM hasn't announced anything about it at all, preferring to keep the matter hush-hush “for competitive reasons”. It's the folks at Powermat who've been blabbing. While there's no confirmation yet that the wireless charging will reach the GM (Holden) cars offered in Australia, with the parent company's move towards more globalisation of models, it's a feature that should easily travel.www.thecarconnection.com 

Kia has released a new commercial for the Soul -- featuring the same digital hamsters that have become synonymous with the Soul brand. But what's really interesting is that the Kia Soul commercial is backed by “Applause”, a brand new single from pop star Lady Gaga -- a single that was released just two weeks ago, and might've been released even later if it hadn't leaked to the internet ahead of schedule.That suggests that either (a) Kia's production team picked up the single very late in the game, after its release, or (b) they've been working with Lady Gaga all along and rushed the clip onto the airwaves to coincide with the song's debut. Both of those scenarios seems weird for a number of reasons, but most importantly:1. Major music artists are usually reluctant to place their music in advertisements. So we haven't really heard Lady Gaga's music in commercials. Does this mean the pop star's catalogue is open for business?2. In previous ads for the Soul, Kia used tunes by LMFAO and Black Sheep, which are very bro-friendly. Lady Gaga? Not so much. Is this a shift in marketing strategy? Is Kia's marketing team targeting Little Monsters now? Or is it just a coincidence?www.thecarconnection.com 

Here's a sobering thought as you head off in your car to work -- or the weekend. According to the Pulitzer Center in the US, 1.2 million people die on the world's roads every year -- and that figure is likely to get worse as the number of cars in service climbs. The problem is particularly bad for emerging nations.As the authors of the article explain: The toll is highest in the developing world. Poor countries account for 50 percent of the world’s road traffic, but 90 percent of the traffic fatalities. Road accidents will soon become the fifth leading cause of death in these countries, leapfrogging past HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other familiar killers, according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) most recent Global Burden of Disease study.Grim as that sounds, the statement makes sense. Developing nations lack the road safety infrastructure -- such as protective barriers and well-lit roads -- and safety regulations found in the developing world. Such things have reduced the number of traffic fatalities in first-world countries.What's more, in parts of the developed world, road traffic appears to have peaked and people are relying more on public transport. In developing countries, those options are less available, forcing both motorists and pedestrians onto dangerous roads. Worst of all, traffic fatalities are part of a vicious circle, preventing poor nations from growing more rapidly. According to Jose Luis Irigoyen, a highway safety expert at the World Bank, in low- and middle-income countries, traffic fatalities reduce GDP by 1 to 3 percent. That's money that could otherwise be funneled back into developing countries.As you'll see from the map embedded below (click "view fullscreen" to review the most data), the Pulitzer Center has compiled fatality stats for most countries on the planet. Compare the Australian estimated fatality rate of 6.1 per 100,000 to that of other nations, like the Dominican Republic, Iran, and Thailand. Pay particular attention to the way in which people were traveling when killed: in a car, on a motorcycle, on a bike, or while walking.The map is missing a good bit of information, but even so, it raises plenty of intriguing questions. Map of highway fatalities around the globe (via the Pulitzer Center).www.thecarconnection.com