Dashcam footage of a TIE fighter crash

Something tells me this might be a hoax...

Private toll road solves a major problem for British commuters

Free enterprise tends to be much more reliable than government bureaucracy, and you can usually count the former when the latter breaks down—which happens more often than not. In this case, the solution to a seemingly insurmountable traffic problem was a private toll road:


I would love to see more stories like this.

(via 22 Words)

Google unveils its self-driving car

From the official Google blog:

We're planning to build about a hundred prototype vehicles, and later this summer, our safety drivers will start testing early versions of these vehicles that have manual controls. If all goes well, we'd like to run a small pilot program here in California in the next couple of years. We’re going to learn a lot from this experience, and if the technology develops as we hope, we'll work with partners to bring this technology into the world safely.

If you'd like to follow updates about the project and share your thoughts, please join us on our new Google+ page. We're looking forward to learning more about what passengers want in a vehicle where their number one job is to kick back, relax, and enjoy the ride.

While I think this is a brilliant concept, coupled with amazing technology, I don't believe I'll be relinquising control of the steering wheel anytime soon.

Guy builds his own Delorean time machine

Try to compete in the business world, get sued by the government

A group of teens turned down opportunities to attend Harvard, Princeton, and MIT to open their own rental car company called FlightCar. Yeah, I know. Crazy, right? But these kids believed their business model was sure to out-compete even the big rental companies like Hertz and Avis, and that's all part of the American dream.

Here's how the business is described on FlightCar.com:

FlightCar lets people parking rent their vehicles out to other travelers. Every rental is insured up to $1 million, and every renter is pre-screened. Depending on the size and model year of the vehicle, you'll also make up to $10/day in cash! To get free parking, click on "List Your Car". Or, to rent a vehicle, use the menu above.

For owners:

1. List your car on FlightCar. It's free! FlightCar runs a driving record check on every renter. Regardless of whether it's rented, you're guaranteed free parking for your trip.
   
2. On departure day, give us a call 10-15 minutes before you reach the airport, and come to our lot to drop off your car. From there, we'll have a black car drop you off curbside at your terminal of departure or another location within a 10 minute radius.
   
3. When you return, call us at 1-866-FLIGHTCAR (354-4482), and we'll send a black car to pick you up at the curb. If you'd like, you can even take a cab, and we'll refund you the fare. We'll even give you a check if your car is rented.

For renters:

1. Search FlightCar to find a sweet vehicle you'd like to rent! Enter your driver information and you're ready to go.
   
2. On arrival day, give us a call at 1-866-FLIGHTCAR (354-4482) when you land. A black car will pick you up right at the curb and take you to our location. A FlightCar team member will meet you there with your rental car.
   
3. When your rental period is over, give us a call, and return the vehicle to our location. A FlightCar team member will greet you and help you with your bags. From there, we'll have a black car drop you off anywhere within a 10 minute radius.

The brilliance of this model is its simplicity. No high overhead. No fleet of cars to maintain. Just good service.

And too good to be true, it seems. San Francisco International Airport complained that FlightCar should have to pay the same extortion fees other rental car companies pay. The city is now suing FlightCar claiming that these three teenagers are in violation of California's Unfair Competition Law. Hey, at least they didn't try opening up a lemonade stand.

I will certainly be following this story. It will be interesting to see if it's possible to fight City Hall. If not, these kids will probably be forced out of business and consumers will have one less way to save money. Unfortunately, that's how we stifle the competitive spirit in America.

Canadians trying to jump an above-ground pool with a Jeep

It's nice to know that America doesn't have a monopoly on stupidity. But at least they had sense enough to wear helmets.

Dog's incontinence causes truck to crash into house

From KRCR TV

Nothing all that interesting here. Just your average "dog pees in truck, slips onto accelerator, causing truck to crash into house" story.

Extreme Barbie Jeep racing

Those of you who thought those kid-sized Barbie Jeeps were just for little girls, think again.


(via The Poke)

A disguised Jeff Gordon takes an unsuspecting car salesman on a test drive he'll never forget

UPDATE: If, like me, you were a little worried for the salesman, don't be. Turns out the video is a fake.

German driver stopped for speeding has entire mobile office in his car...just like police officers

When German police pulled a car over for speeding on the autobahn, they found the driver had an entire mobile office set up in his vehicle. Mounted on a wooden frame in the passenger seat was a laptop, printer, router, wireless internet stick, and WLAN antenna, all plugged into a power inverter.

There wasn't any evidence the equipment was in use while he was moving, so the driver only received a speeding ticket.

If you thought the interior of that car looked familiar, it's because it looks like just about every police car in America.

You probably haven't thought much about it, but distracted driving among police officers is a problem. A Minnesota study found that 14 percent of crashes between 2006 and 2010 involving police vehicles were caused by distracted driving, half of those due to squad car computers.

A family of Imperial Walkers out for a drive

Car with built-in drive-in theater

Since drive-in theaters are going the way of the dodo, why not just take one along with you? The Smart ForStars from Daimler allows you to do just that. All you have to do is pull up to a flat wall and turn on the video projector mounted in the the hood. Bluetooth technology connects the car to your smart phone, allowing you to watch movies virtually anywhere.

I wonder if it would work while driving through thick fog.

(from Daimler, via DVice)

How to park your grocery car(t)

I don't really know why, but I found it amusing to see these two grocery carts, complete with plastic cars attached, all by themselves at the far end of a mall parking lot.

Drunk Germans cheering on woman parking

I don't know if parallel parking is a popular spectator sport in Germany or not, but these drunk soccer fans sure seem to find it exciting.

Man stranded in the desert converts his car into a motorcycle and drives to safety

Before Tony Stark built his prototype Iron Man suit in an Afghan terrorist camp, Emile Leray had his own MacGyver moment in the desert.

The French electrician was driving through the Moroccan desert in 1993 when his Citreon broke down 20 miles from the nearest village. He didn't think he could make it on foot, so he did what any enterprising 43-year-old man would do: he decided to build a crude motorcycle out of parts from his car.

Using a hacksaw and a small assortment of other tools, Leray went to work. He shortened the car's chassis, reattached the axles and two of the tires, placed the engine and gearbox in the middle, and fashioned part of the rear bumper into a seat. 12 days later, he drove himself to civilization.

Read the full story here.

Hot Wheels Double Loop Dare in real life

Drivers Tanner Foust and Greg Tracy accomplished something every little boy dreams of doing after picking up his first Hot Wheels car. They set a Guinness World Record at the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles by racing their cars through a six-story double vertical loop.

The car no one wants to drive

It is rather puzzling why the Chevy Volt hasn't lived up to expectations. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend an extra $15,000 on a car that might save them up to a whole $2.00 per day on gas?

(via The Circle Bastiat)

A Smart Car driver with a sense of humor

How to parallel park in New York City

By NYC standards, this guy is really good at parallel parking:


Unlike this New Yorker.

End oil changes forever?

I've never been very mechanically inclined, so I'm not the kind of guy to get underneath a car and change the oil myself. In fact, if you ever see me under a car, call 911, because I've been run over.

But oil changes can be quite expensive, especially when it comes to engines requiring synthetic oil. That's why the possibility of virtually eliminating costly oil changes seems rather intriguing:

The secret is the Frantz oil filter. It uses a roll of toilet paper as the filter.

"An oil filter that uses toilet paper. What a joke!"

It is not a joke. But the universal customer response is initially something like this.

The toilet paper filters out everything larger than half a micron. This removes virtually all metal particles. The oil stays clean physically 100% of the time. There is no grit to wear out metal parts.

Toilet paper also removes water, thereby reducing all acid creation to zero: no water -- no acid. The oil is pure chemically.

Oil does not wear out. It just gets dirty. A roll of toilet paper keeps oil clean all of the time.

Change the toilet paper once every 5,000 miles, add a quart of oil to replace the oil absorbed by the used roll, and your engine's oil stays clean. The engine will not wear out for 500,000 miles. The car's body will wear out first.

Read the rest here.