We bring you the behind the scenes story of how electric car startup Fisker Automotive spent over a billion dollars, took down a government loan and ultimately delivered about 2,000 cars, a small fraction of what it originally promised. Read more »
Given how CES is now a barometer for such a wide array of technology segments, GigaOM Research decided to ask our readers which way the tech winds will blow over the next year based on what they saw in Las Vegas. (Subscription required) Read more »
Personal computers and broadband were work tools before gaining wider adoption in consumer homes. Now, I wonder if 3D printers can make the leap from engineering and office tool to the next must-have machine in the home? How would that change the world? Read more »
Cars are becoming a platform for connecting their occupants to their data, their cloud services, to their auto maker, to other cars. If you think you’re car’s smart and connected now, just wait till you put it on your data plan. Read more »
Intelligent and simple design is the key solution to creating meaningful experiences out of the connected world. Come hear from our speakers on this topic at RoadMap, including the CEOs of Instagram and Tumblr, designers Yves Behar and Tony Fadell, and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams. Read more »
Already, workplaces are changing because of trends like BYOD and gamification. But other emerging technologies are also altering what our workspace looks like and how we collaborate. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Because battery chemistry is such a hard problem, it’s pretty natural that we’re turning to the power of analytics, big data, cloud computing and all those other fun IT buzz words to solve it. Read more »
The U.S. government continues to give small grants to early stage next-generation battery technology in an effort to boost innovation in the U.S., and provide energy storage for electric cars and the power grid. Read more »
Once everyone has a smartphone, it’s clear that if you want to know where someone is, you just have to find their phone. GM is counting on that, testing a wireless pedestrian system in vehicles that uses Wi-Fi Direct to detect and avoid walkers and bicyclists. Read more »
Cheap, abundant natural gas is changing the game for energy in the U.S., and that means a renewed push for natural gas cars. Read more »
Overall, between 2012 and 2017, more than 900,000 light-duty PEVs will be sold in the United States. But there remain hefty inhibitors to mainstream plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) use, including limited vehicle driving range and large battery packs, not to mention steep prices. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Ford is finally showing off its biggest push to date into the electric car market: an electric version of its Ford Focus. For GigaOM TV’s Green Overdrive show, we bring you a test drive! Read more »
The Ford Motor Company, which will typically spend up to $100 million on a TV-rich ad campaign when it launches a new car, is creating its own original reality competition series on Yahoo to spark interest in its new Focus Electric model. Read more »
While wind power is one of the cheapest forms of clean power, it’s also one of the most fickle, and to combat that problem, utilities are experimenting with energy storage, and in particular batteries. Read more »
Ford envisions a future of 4 billion cars that communicate with one another as peers, sharing information such as their speed, direction and the moment they brake with all of the other vehicles on the road. It’s a revolutionary vision, but it’s also a very scary one. Read more »
This year’s CES was the biggest in the show’s 44-year history. It boasted 15 miles of exhibit hall aisles, 3,100 booths and 153,000 attendees. It is easy to be jaded by the endlessly repetitive products, but the thousands of innovations point toward a future of connectivity. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Fisker has been rushing to fix the problem with the hose clamp for the batteries on its Karma electric car. It says that the “majority” of its customers’ and dealers’ cars with problem batteries have either gotten new batteries or have been repaired. Read more »
The federal gas tax is not at its lowest level in history. But it’s really, really close when you adjust for inflation. And that comparable low rate stands as one of the big reasons it should be hiked. Read more »
By 2020 it is estimated that 20–50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet. Many of these devices will be collecting health data or will be connected to health and medical devices in the home, the hospital or the wider environment. The Internet of things (IoT), meanwhile, refers to the growth of sensors and things that connect to the Internet via RFID, Bluetooth, ZigBee and satellite. In health care, its growth is likely to open new disruptive business opportunities for services that add value to the data collected. This paper provides a preliminary overview of the landscape of opportunities and drivers in the current health and health care environments and highlights some of the challenges that remain. Companies mentioned in this report include IBM, Arrayent Health, Kaiser Permanente and Ford. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
After I wrote my recent article about Bluetooth integration with car audio, Ford contacted me about the Microsoft SYNC system. I took it for a test drive (literally). A new Ford may just be about the best (and probably most expensive) iPhone accessory out there. Read more »
Siri may be the hottest personal assistant since I Dream of Jeannie, but Apple’s artificial intelligence is only the tip of the iceberg as we combine ubiquitous connectivity, sensor networks, big data, new AI and programming into a truly connected network. Read more »
Imagine if your car could know about a huge pothole just ahead. Or a traffic snarl. Or both. Would that be of interest to you? USC researcher Bhaskar Krishnamachari is working to enable a peer-to-peer network of “smart” cars that share information as they travel. Read more »
The trials and tribulations of the solar industry dominated the third quarter as warnings about a storm of dangerous market forces in the industry finally reached an outcome with Solyndra’s bankruptcy. But not all was dismal for the cleantech industry during the quarter. Car sharing continues to reduce resource consumption, and much capital flowed to that sector. On the data center side of the industry, Google provided insight into exactly how much energy the tech giant uses, as well as the carbon footprint of its data centers. Companies mentioned in this report include Solyndra, Zipcar, Airbnb and Silver Spring Networks. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
It’s been over a month since the Solyndra news came out, but it’s still dominating. Because it just won’t go away, here’s my top five list of projects that the DOE also backed with loan guarantees and that are showing some early signs of success. Read more »
The relationship between car sharing companies and automotive manufacturers bears scrutiny, says GigaOM Pro analyst Adam Lesser in his weekly column. Read more »
The number of connected devices is steadily on the rise, but it’s not smartphones or computers that will lead us to the 50 billion connected devices expected by the year 2020. Rather, the Internet of Things — numerous smart objects that speak to the web and ... Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Thanks to mobile broadband, access to a driver’s calendar and entertainment preferences and smart engineering, the Ford Evos is an example how the cloud can power cars of the future. Check the video to see how this is a natural progression from smartphones to smarter cars. Read more »
The impact of digital technology has shattered long-established monopolies and ways of making money in the newspaper publishing industry. Today, publishers must find ways to subsidize content-creation costs directly, and this report examines a few different approaches, from more flexible paywalls to charging users directly for access and mimicking the business models of other industries, such as online gaming. Companies mentioned in this report include Ford, Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Smartphones are increasingly becoming the remote controls of our lives. Car owners can use theirs to check on the battery level and driving range and adjust the climate control system. An MIT project explores new ways to use smartphones to help drivers cut fuel costs. Read more »
The team approach is becoming popular in the electric car development space. General Motors and LG Group announced Thursday a plan to co-develop electric vehicles in order to speed up their deployment. Read more »
Ford and Toyota are working together on standards for the next-generation of networking and Internet-connected services in their vehicles. The move shows just how important connectivity is becoming for car companies, as vehicles are becoming the latest devices to have an always-on wireless connection. Read more »
If you buy an electric car will you be more likely to buy solar panels? That’s SunPower and Ford are hoping, and have launched a new initiative to bundle a deal for a Ford Focus Electric vehicle and a SunPower solar rooftop system. Read more »
Many of the electric cars I’ve test driven are immediately surprising because of one thing: they’re often times completely silent. But now after some concerns that silent electric cars equal deadly electric cars, some auto makers are developing digital noises to add onto these battery-powered rides. Read more »
The car, and in particular the electric car, is the latest device to get plugged in to the cloud. Coulomb Technologies, which makes networked electric-vehicle charging stations, plans to start selling cloud-based services for managing electric-vehicle charging. Read more »
Recent developments in the vehicle industry suggest that 2011 could be the year of the car as a major platform for apps. From BMW’s support for Apple’s iPod Out feature to the emergence of Nokia’s Terminal Mode, a system that integrates mobile applications and the car, automakers and app developers are jumping on board the in-vehicle app movement. This report examines that landscape, its major players and their offerings, and how the market is shifting from device to car and, eventually, to the cloud. Increased broadband speeds, electronic vehicles and social apps such as those powered by Twitter will play major roles on this journey. Additional companies mentioned in this report include Ford, BMW, Geely, Nissan and Google. For a full list of companies, and to read the full report, sign up for a free trial. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
U.S. startup Nuvve is setting its sights on the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) market with a 30-car project in Denmark that it says will sell plug-in car battery power to help stabilize the grid. Can the model scale? Read more »
Startup Streetline, which uses wireless sensors and cell phones to find parking spots for drivers, announced it has raised $15 million from Fontinalis Partners, the investment fund from former Ford CEO Bill Ford, as well as RockPort Capital Partners and Sutter Hill Ventures. Read more »
Ford is developing a futuristic wireless technology based on a form of WiFi and GPS to enable cars to “talk” to each other and help avoid crashes and potentially reduce fuel consumption. We checked out Ford’s demo in San Francisco on Wednesday and shot this video. Read more »
Ford is working on a technology that enables cars to talk to each other, and could help cars avoid crashes and reduce fuel consumption. The technology won’t be available at least for another 5 years or so and is based on WiFi and GPS. Read more »
