Light bulbs that connect to the internet? Elevators that reach into space? Robots that show up for work in your place? These are a few of about 100 ideas that Google is reportedly toying with inside Google X, the name of a "top-secret lab" somewhere in the Bay Area. The New York Times wrote about it this weekend after speaking to a dozen people that are aware of the project. According to the Times, robots (and I don't mean the .txt file) play a big part in Google X: Robots figure prominently in many of the ideas. They have long captured the imagination of Google engineers, including [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Cars | Google: Labs | Google: Other

That image appears to be the first crash involving one of Google's self-driving cars. (The one on the right with the gear on top.) According to Jalopnik, it happened earlier this week near Google's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Jalopnik speculates that Google's Toyota Prius rear-ended another Prius. A Google spokesperson told Business Insider that the accident actually happened while a human was in control of the car: Safety is our top priority. One of our goals is to prevent fender-benders like this one, which occurred while a person was manually driving the car. Google's [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Cars

At the TED 2011 conference this week, Google has been giving extremely rare demos of its self-driving cars. TED attendees have even been allowed to travel inside them, on a closed course. Below, some video of the action. Google's Robot Cars Google's Sebastian Thrun, the software engineer who heads the project, gave a short talk at TED in Long Beach, California, about the effort — including a touching opening about how he was influenced to research ways to make driving safer by after a childhood friend had been killed by a car. Thrun showed a video montage of the auto-driving cars on reg [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Consumer | Google: Cars | Top News

There have been a number of comments in forums and tweets that people aren't seeing the Google Maps' "send to car" option any longer. The following comment is representative: The send to car option is gone from the Google Maps Beta: there is only a send to email and send to phone option.  Is it gone forever.  This seems to happen with every Google maps Beta.  I find this feature very helpful and use it all the time. Yet for me and others I've spoken with the "send to car" option remains very much an option on Google Maps. Just last year Google was promoting the fact that it now users c [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Top News

Bing has landed its first deal to provide in-car search capabilities with today's announcement of Toyota Entune at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Entune is Toyota's new navigation system, a combination in-car hardware and mobile phone application that will be available in select Toyota vehicles later this year. Entune features Bing for Mobile (with Bing Maps) as one of its featured apps, giving drivers access to Bing search results via the dashboard's touch screen or by using Bing for Mobile's voice search capabilities. Users will first need to download the Entune app to th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Microsoft: Bing Cars | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Features: Cars | Top News

When I read the headline on Jalopnik I immediately thought of the recent runaway train movie "Unstoppable." Did one of the systems fail; did the vehicle run a red light; did it hit another car? Nope. None of the above. What actually happened, apparently, is the "driver" got a ticket for talking on a cell phone, which is against the law in California while driving without a hands-free unit (per CA vehicle code section 23123). There was no actual violation by the car itself. The guy behind the wheel thought he got a pass and so was chatting away when "Johnny Law" pulled the car over. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Cars | Google: Legal

Imagine this: You're driving across town to catch a concert by a new artist that friends have been talking about for weeks. Only you're not really driving. The car is driving itself. And you're actually paying as much attention to the video screen on your car's dashboard as anything. You've already bought the singer's latest album and it's stored in your car's hard drive. As you listen, some ads pop-up on the screen inviting you to "like" the artist on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. There are also ads offering tickets to see her perform, but you don't need those. You do need a pla [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: AdWords | Google: Cars | Google: General | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Top News

Google's mission is "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful." Their next step into that realm is making auto driving cars. The Google Blog announced Google has "developed technology for cars that can drive themselves." Yes, auto-driving cars, like from the movies and high tech TV shows. Google's reasoning behind this move is to make the roads safer and reduce accidents. Google said they have been testing this for a while and have already driven 140,000 miles with trained safety drivers who can override the system at any time. Google explaine [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Google: General | Google: Labs | Google: Mobile | Google: Transit | Top News

There's "send to car" and "send to TomTom;" now there's "send to Garmin" (GPS devices). As with TomTom devices, Google Maps and routing can now be sent directly to Garmin personal navigation devices. Click the "send" link above the map and this window appears: Separately, Garmin said it's integrating Google Maps content and local search into its Garmin Mobile subscription service. Yahoo has similar deals with car OEMs and with personal navigation device maker Dash. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Cars | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Partnerships | Search Features: Cars | Search Features: Send To Phone

TomTom, the maker of personal and in-car navigation devices that just won a bidding war ($4.2 billion, 2.9 billion euros) with competitor Garmin for digital mapping provider TeleAtlas, has announced a partnership with Google. Google Maps will now give users the option to send maps or business listings to TomTom devices. Google (and Yahoo) already offer "send to car" for BMW and Mercedes cars. MapQuest has a similar deal with GM's On Star telematics system. Here's a video demonstration of how it works: According to Google, the system should be live now in the US, Europe, Middle East [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Search Features: Cars | Search Features: Send To Phone

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at one point that one of the reasons Google wanted to get into radio advertising was that the company couldn't reach users during the morning or afternoon commutes. That's all changing very quickly. Both Google and Yahoo have almost simultaneously announced in-car mapping and local search functionality. As an extension of its earlier "Send to Car" Maps partnership with BMW, Google has introduced in-car local search for BMWs in Germany. Here's a video that partly illustrates the functionality. Google has also expanded the Send to Car Maps functionality to Italy [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships | Search Features: Cars | Search Features: Send To Phone | Yahoo: Cars | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships