Hang up and Drive – Infograph shows the dangers posed by texting while driving

July 2, 2012 at 4:03 pm

(via Mashable)

This awesome infograph below from Mashable.com illustrates the dangers associated with the texting while driving .. To think about nearly ~1.3 million crashes that happened in 2011 had a cellphone involved makes me shudder..

DWI: Driving While Intexticated

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Houston, we have a problem! Texas Woman Arrested for Warning Drivers About Speed Trap

June 29, 2012 at 2:52 pm

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An Infographic View of Auto Theft in the United States

June 27, 2012 at 4:46 pm

via TopSpeed.com

Some quick facts:

  • In 2010, there were 737,000 vehicle thefts and only 56% of those vehicles were ever recovered.
  • The average loss per vehicle was $6,152. Not exactly a small number by anyone’s standards.
  • What’s worse is that, if you own a Honda Accord, Honda Civic, and Toyota Camry, you are more likely to be a victim because these were the top three vehicles stolen in 2010.
  • The Ford Mustang made up a total of 9,116 instances of car theft in 2010, so we can only imagine how many of the top three vehicles were stolen during that time.

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Motorcycle Diaries: Part II (sans Che’) – Beautiful photo essay from a foreigner who rode 12,500kms through South America on his 150CC motorcycle

June 22, 2012 at 11:56 am

Imgur via Reddit

Awesome road trip story as narrated by Redditor rufflesdance… with NO GPS!  If you are an avid motorcyclist and harbor a desire down in the trenches of your mind, I sincerely recommend you to check out the comments section of his Reddit post where he has shared info. and answered tons of questions from fellow motorcycle enthusiasts. It was mindboggling how much he has learned and observed as he shared many little nuggets of wisdom from this road trip. If you have a hard time reading the detailed narrative underneath each of the photographs, click here. Drop a note in the comments section if you like this post.

 

Changing Paradigms – Guardian’s Interactive World Map of CO2 Emissions Paints An Intersting Picture of Globalization Since 1980

June 21, 2012 at 7:15 pm

via Guardian UK

This awesome interactive data visualization by Guardian, UK show how much the emissions profile has changed and shifted over the past few decades.. One shocking statistic I learned from this graph below is that the total CO2 emissions of Equitorial Guinea, small country in Western Africa, have increased by a whopping 3,390% Yep. !!!! Check out:

Feast Your Eyes – Ahead Of Mass Market Release Tesla Teases Audience With Assembly Line Eye Candy

June 19, 2012 at 6:53 pm

(via autobloggreen)

It is always an awesome sight to see how machines build another machine.  As it happens, I can’t help but think if this venture succeeds, that would mark the first time Detroit really faced a serious challenge from Silicon Valley.. June 22nd, the announced delivery date for first batch of customers (other than the ones who got the Founder series) is just few days away and let’s see what is going to happen.. Hit or miss, you gotta love the boldness of Elon Musk to enter into this venture and fight the carmarking heavyweights of Detroit and other global auto industry powerhouses.

In Russia, Police Obeys You – Citizen Tells Cops to Hang Up Cell Phone and Wear a Seat Belt; Police Comply; NO SHOTS FIRED

June 13, 2012 at 6:53 pm

Via Reddit

I cannot imagine a US citizen/resident uttering these words to a cop in uniform on his/her beat: “…why are you not wearing a seat belt? remove the mobile phone, you are on duty & in the official car, stop breaking the rules…” That’s exactly what is being told to a couple of cops in Russia and they comply, POLITELY!

Breath of Fresh Air – An Interview with Fellow Transportation Geek, Bryan Mistele, CEO @ Inrix

June 12, 2012 at 3:59 pm

I have had the privilege of listening to Bryan in person at many industry-related events over the years but never heard some of the things he has shared in this awesome interview with Channel Next Cast. He goes into details about his entry into the business and how his company is innovating the transportation data to solve the congestion, in addition to offering excellent advice for wanna-be innovators & entrepreneurs. It is truly refreshing to see a dynamic youngster like him bring the much needed innovation and fresh, outside the box thinking towards solving the age old transportation problems – primarily congestion.

One interesting fact that I liked from Bryan’s interview: He is not a fan of red light cameras (like most of us) and he thinks traffic congestion problems can be solved for the large part in the next 10 years. Hmmm!

For those interested, here is a graphic from today’s Wall Street Journal article that covers INRIX and other start-ups working on transportation-related “big data“.

CARDATA

Image Courtesy: Wall Street Journal

Summary of the interview (made available by ChannelNextCast on YouTube.com):

Bryan Mistele wants to eliminate one of society’s biggest issues — traffic. How’s he going to do it? Find out in this episode of nextcast.

Growing up, Bryan knew he wanted to run his own tech company. After spending time in high school working with electrical engineers, he wrote down a life goal: start and be CEO of a two hundred person tech company. Now with 300 employees, he and his team at INRIX are tackling the ever-present problem of traffic. Bryan tells Jeff how they’re making this worldwide problem completely personal, by optimizing technology and getting people where they want to go. He also shares his secrets of success with Jeff — the perfect combination of persistence and naivete. * When Brian left Microsoft, he thought INRIX would be completely funded within a month. Twelve months and 70 rejections later, his company finally came to life. He credits this with a healthy balance of persistence and naivete. “Venture capitalists all told us we would be crushed…now we are the leader.”
* He also says he owes much of his success to wisdom gained in his early years, working at an electrical engineering firm. Following their advice of finding a partner who shares your career goals led him to the wife who encouraged him to persevere in the face of VC rejection. “If I hadn’t had that person in my life I never would have gotten off the ground,” he says. * It’s always been Bryan’s dream to run his own tech company, from the time he wrote it down as a life goal at age 16. He noted that in a big company, your future is tied to someone bringing you along up with them. Now, as a CEO, “whether it succeeds or fails, it’s up to me…and I like that.”
* Is this a trend? Our second nextcast guest who says he’d eliminate traffic cameras, Bryan explains that they actually cause more accidents than they prevent. What other improvements to the world of traffic does Bryan have to offer? We’re less than a decade away from seeing them all come to life.

Google Celebrates 79th Anniversary Of The First Drive-In Movie Theater With A Doodle

June 6, 2012 at 5:43 pm

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV7ppqSzfuY&hd=1′]

It all started 79 years ago on June 6.  A bloke named Richard Hollingshead debuted movies in an outdoor setting. As cited in WebProNews  “Hollingshead’s drive-in opened in New Jersey, June 6, 1933, on Admiral Wilson Boulevard at the Airport Circle in Pennsauken, a short distance from Cooper River Park.”  And today Google has unveiled an awesome doodle on its home page to celebrate this milestone that brought together movie watching & transportation together for the first time.  Of course, some people are upset that Google decided to put aside the other historic milestone on this nation’s calendar – D Day, which also happened on the very same day! But hey, I’m quite okay with this this one!

Mountain of Stupid: Why are these stupid bikers not in jail for endangering the lives of everyone on the road…

June 4, 2012 at 5:34 pm

(Source: via Reddit)

[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_5G6oOwv3o‘]

Seriously, this video tells you how far America has deteriorated into the abuse of law. The attorney clearly knows what is wrong here (over speeding: speed at impact ~110mph; at times nearing 140mph-160mph as shown in the helmet cam recording) but he still presents the case without any qualms and goes  on to showcase this as a milestone achievement for his firm.  It is clearly the motorcyclists fault and I’m curious to know how this attorney claims to have gotten compensation from multiple insurance companies! (Either he is lying through his teeth or have some stupid layers representing the insurance companies?). As the Redditor pointed out this is a mountain of stupid.   Of course, the operator of the motorcycle is dead, which leaves me wondering if the police have pressed charges against the rest of this reckless crew of bandits who put everyone else (and their own lives) at risk in this high-speed thrill ride. Stupid. A Mountain of Stupid!