A New Jersey bridge where a train derailed last week, releasing a hazardous chemical into the air, had a series of rail alignment problems leading up to the derailment, the National Transportation Safety Board’s top official said Monday. See the photos here. Some of the problems were reported the day before Friday’s derailment. NTSB chairman […]
Automotive/Transportation
Japan’s New Auto Sales Drop in November
TOKYO, Dec. 3 (Kyodo) — Japan’s new auto sales edged down 0.4 percent in November from a year earlier to 393,942 units, due partly to the end of the government subsidy program for the purchase of environmentally friendly cars, industry bodies said Monday. The decline was modest compared to a 5.7 percent drop the previous […]
Couple Convicted of Stealing GM Trade Secrets
A former General Motors engineer with access to the automaker’s hybrid technology was convicted along with her husband of stealing trade secrets for possible use in China. Shanshan Du won a transfer within GM in 2003 to be closer to the technology and then copied documents until she accepted a severance offer and left the […]
Subaru Named 2012 Design Challenge Winner at LA Auto Show
Subaru Highway Automated Response Concept (SHARC) named 2012 Design Challenge winner at LA Auto Show LOS ANGELES, Nov. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Subaru Global Design wins the 2012 Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge competition after the presentation of its SHARC (Subaru Highway Automated Response Concept) vehicle. As a futuristic model for 24-hour highway monitoring, […]
Mazda to Make New Plant in Mexico Export Base for Global Market
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 29 (Kyodo) — Mazda Motor Corp. intends to turn a new plant to be built in Mexico into an export base for the global market, Mazda President Takashi Yamanouchi said Thursday. Yamanouchi said in an interview with Kyodo News that the automaker can have an advantage in terms of tariffs, when it […]
Chevrolet Unveils 2013 Sprint Cup Car
Chevrolet unveiled its 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup car Thursday. The matching Chevrolet SS passenger car, a new rear-wheel drive vehicle that will be available in showrooms in August, will be unveiled in February around the season-opening Daytona 500, when it will debut on the track. “As a passionate race fan, the debut of the SS […]
Global Formula Racing
Wing inserts on Formula One racecar helps to provide faster racing speeds. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) initiated Formula SAE in 1979, a program in which students design, build, and race an open wheeled, single-seated racecar. Within the program Global Formula Racing (GFR) emerged in 2010, a team in which students from Germany and […]
Japanese man’s childhood dreams give birth to giant robot
(Reuters) – Like many Japanese, Kogoro Kurata grew up watching futuristic robots in movies and animation, wishing that he could bring them to life and pilot one himself. Unlike most other Japanese, he has actually done it. His 4-tonne, 4-meter (13 feet) tall Kuratas robot is a grey behemoth with a built-in pilot’s seat and […]
Electric Vehicle Maker to Open Chicago Plant
A company that makes commercial vehicles powered entirely by electricity for FedEx, Coca-Cola, DHL and other corporations is opening a manufacturing plant in Chicago. Smith Electric Vehicles Corp.’s new plant is expected to create hundreds of jobs and boost the city’s growing battery and electric vehicle sector. Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed the company’s decision and […]
Ah, that new car smell: NASA technology protects spacecraft from outgassed molecular contaminants
Outgassing — the physical process that creates that oh-so-alluring new car smell — isn’t healthy for humans and, as it turns out, not particularly wholesome for sensitive satellite instruments, either. But a team of NASA engineers has created a new way to protect those instruments from its ill effects. For some people, the best part […]