“The conversations and questions raised at the conference will no doubt be the ones sparking new ideas and concepts in the days ahead, further advancing this quickly evolving sector of the automotive and technology industries,” said conference chair and a leading automotive tech expert Doug Newcomb.

LOS ANGELES – No trend in the auto industry is more topical than advanced technology platforms. To underscore that fact, the LA Auto Show confirmed that two dozen automotive tech experts from companies such as Aha Radio, Auto Alliance, BMW, Delphi, Ford, Gracenote, Hughes Telematics, INRIX, J.D. Power & Associates, Kia, Livio, Pandora, QNX, Sprint Velocity, Strategy Analytics and others, have signed on to participate in the 2013 Connected Car Expo (CCE).

The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) and J.D. Power & Associates, as part of its Western Automotive Conference, have also joined forces with CCE. Together they will address the increasingly important role the dealer plays when training, selling and servicing technology with the end…

Continue reading Top Automotive Tech Influencers Headline LA Auto Show’s Connected Car Expo

(Lyndon Johnson photo)

Our 2014 Subaru Forester was a pre-production model, according to our Subaru media contact. Therefore, you wouldn’t be totally surprised if it had a couple of issues during our week-long test, right?

The first issue was related to the car’s Tire Pressure Monitoring System and may not have been the car’s fault at all, according to Subaru National Manager of Product Communications Dominick Infante. While driving along in a somewhat spirited manner on a twisty state highway that is a favorite of motorcyclists, the TPMS warning light illuminated in a series of flashes, then went on solid.

I pulled over as soon as possible to check the tires visually and realized, furtively, that I didn’t have a tire pressure gauge on my person or in the car. But all tires looked normal and sounded normal given a hearty thump of the open palm, and I couldn’t hear any air escaping. I drove a couple of miles into a nearby town and obtained a tire pressure gauge from a local two-bay tire and auto parts…

Continue reading Fun with Forester: The Subaru Forester’s Little Issues

Hyundai Vehicles Now Include Three Years of Complimentary Assurance Connected Care Service (PHOTO: Hyundai Motor America)

COSTA MESA, CA – All new Blue Link-equipped Hyundai vehicles will come standard with three years of complimentary Assurance Connected Care service, Hyundai announced at the 2013 New York International Auto Show. Assurance Connected Care is powered by the automaker’s Blue Link telematics platform, which now has enrolled over 400,000 subscribers. Assurance Connected Care makes Hyundai the only non-premium automaker to offer a…

Continue reading Hyundai Vehicles Now Include Three Years of Complimentary Assurance Connected Care Service

The new StickyCup windshield mount detector accessory from ESCORT. (Photo: ESCORT Inc.)

WEST CHESTER, OH – ESCORT, Inc. has announced the release of its new windshield mount detector accessory fittingly named “StickyCup.” The new StickyCup is a full-featured bracket mount that includes a semi-sticky gel ring on the cup surface that improves cohesion and detector support on the windshield.

StickyCup works with ESCORT’s category leading products including the…

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Arcadia is a cloud-based electrical system CAD tool. (PHOTO: Cadonix)

BURR RIDGE, IL – British company Cadonix has launched a ground breaking product that may change the way automotive electrical system design is performed.

The company has introduced Arcadia, the world’s first cloud-based general & automotive CAD tool, offering schematic design, animated circuit simulation & analysis, electrical networking, harness design and full design rule…

Continue reading Your Next Car’s Electrical System May be Designed Completely On The Internet

Continue reading Chevy and Kenwood getting the fine Nuance of the Voice Recognition Situation

The Nissan Titan PRO-4X cabin was a nice place to spend my commute and an all-day trip. (Lyndon Johnson photo.)

While I was largely unable to find trucky things to do with our test Nissan Titan PRO-4X, I did spend a fair amount of time in the saddle, so to speak, and came away impressed with its interior quality.

The PRO-4X trim included, in our tester, leather bucket seats up front and a leather 60/40 split bench seat in the second row. Those front buckets featured bright white-and-yellow PRO-4X logos embroidered into them, and the driver’s seat had eight-way power adjustment. That same logo was stitched into the black carpet floor mats. The black leather seats were set off by white stitching, and the steering wheel and console-mounted shift lever were wrapped in a similar treatment. The leather felt high-quality and supple, for a truck.

(Lyndon Johnson photo.)

So, the seats and control surfaces made a great first impression. Looking harder, however, revealed the Titan PRO-4X interior, no matter how nice, still has trucky roots. The dashboard and some parts of the door panels and center console remained hard plastic, as you might expect in a base-grade work truck….

Continue reading Truckin’ In a Titan: Nissan Titan PRO-4X Interior Well-Appointed

Skeptical about the Kia Cadenza’s credibility in a sea of more established $40,000 cars? Perhaps three years of free maintenance visits would change your tune. At least, that’s what Kia’s hoping for. (Photo courtesy Kia.)

The Kia Cadenza we told you about is the most expensive Kia ever, but the Korean automaker is going to throw in free maintenance for three years or 37,500 miles to make it appealing.

According to the press release from Kia, the Cadenza will come with complimentary scheduled maintenance visits during the first three years of ownership or the first five factory-scheduled service intervals, whichever comes first. The release said the complimentary maintenance visits make the Cadenza an even stronger value. With its starting price north of…

Continue reading Kia to Give Cadenza Owners Free Maintenance for 3 Years/37,500 Miles

2013 International CES was huge for technology industry.

ARLINGTON, VA – The 2013 International CES was huge and staffers from all the TechnologyTell.com sections were there to bring you the latest technology products. Now an independent audit has confirmed our crack staff’s findings about the the annual trade show in Las Vegas—the show was indeed huge.

Seriously, the 2013 CES, held January 8-11, 2013, in Las Vegas, spanned more than 1.92 million net square feet of exhibit space and welcomed 152,759 industry professionals and media folks like me looking for free food in the press room.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), owner and producer of the International CES, has announced the results of the independent audit that confirmed a record number of international industry professionals – 36,206 – from 150 countries attended the 2013 International CES.

Serving as the launchpad for technology innovation and the world’s best venue to witness the entire consumer technology ecosystem, the 2013 CES featured 3,282 exhibitors from around the globe and a record number of startup companies, including the 150 exhibitors in Eureka Park. The independent audit, performed by Veris Consulting, LLC, confirms CES’ status as the world’s leading innovation event as…

Continue reading Audit Verifies The Obvious — Technology Industry Is A Big Deal

This latest innovation is one of the many technologies jointly developed over the last 15 years to deliver leading automotive safety products that are continually improving with updated safety features, power consumption and reliability. This 65 nm Flash technology also serves as the foundation for TI’s Hercules safety MCU open market products.

“We are excited to be the first automotive ESC system manufacturer to offer leading-edge safety features…

Continue reading Texas Instruments And Continental Collaborate On Microcontroller Used In Advanced Automotive Safety Applications