Stacker
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April 12, 2022
What kind of data is your car collecting about you?
Stacker compiled a list of common data types cars collect about their drivers from news stories, expert accounts, and management consulting reports. That includes simple data—like the feedback from the sensors that already dot the car to monitor its component parts—or the car’s location as determined by global positioning satellites (GPS).
Popular Mechanics
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December 13, 2021
Solid-State Batteries Are Here and They're Going to Change How We Live
Some very different solid lithium battery projects have a lot to tell us about the future of portable energy. Will solid-state batteries help speed up the rise of electric vehicles?
Stacker
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October 23, 2020
Most stolen cars in America—and steps you can take to avoid losing yours
Is your car aging, parked on a high-traffic street, and in good shape? You could be driving one of the most commonly stolen cars in America, from perennial favorite family sedans to iconic trucks and SUVs.
Popular Mechanics
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May 13, 2020
The Mixed-Up Story of the 1979 Porsche 935
The internet went wild over a $500,000 Apple racing car replica. The story begins with the Porsche 935, which Porsche developed as the racing model counterpart to the 911 Turbo.
Popular Mechanics
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April 2, 2020
Let's Find Out If You Can Drive a Car on Cheese Wheels
As parents all over the world scramble for projects they can safely do while stuck inside with their children, the experiment we're about to show you is decidedly not kid-friendly.
Popular Mechanics
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January 23, 2020
HR Email Tries to Car Shame Employee, Backfires Spectacularly
The internet’s heart is racing over a viral tweet where, the poster purports, an employee is asked by HR to buy a new car that’s less of an eyesore. Let’s get into it and crunch some numbers.
Popular Mechanics
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January 21, 2020
These Tiny Nuclear Power Stations Could Be, Well, Huge
Rolls-Royce has taken a sharp right turn, from making million-dollar luxury sedans to researching cutting-edge small modular reactors (SMRs).
Popular Mechanics
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January 9, 2020
Building a Homemade Gas Station Is a Terrible Idea
Las Vegas police have found a “homemade gas station” in someone’s backyard. With two fuel tanks, a fuel pump, and a hose long enough to reach the street, it would be hard to claim this was anything other than an illegal fuel business.
Popular Mechanics
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January 9, 2020
Why Farmers Still Insist on Buying Really Old Tractors
Minnesota’s Star Tribune reports that farmers are flocking to 40-year-old tractors at auctions. The appeal is twofold: While classic tractors are cheaper to maintain, simpler to use, and much simpler to repair, they’re still also far cheaper than comparable new tractors.
Popular Mechanics
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December 23, 2019
This $1.1 Million All-Electric Fire Truck Is Wild
Business Insider reports that tech economy hub Menlo Park, California has balked on plans to order a revolutionary electric fire truck. The fire district’s board of directors said their “no” vote came down to the cost: over $1.1 million by the time the truck is shipped and certified.
Popular Mechanics
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December 12, 2019
First All-Electric Plane Flies for Just About 15 Minutes
A completely electric plane has made its longest flight ever at just under 15 minutes. The plane is a collaboration between MagniX and Harbour Air. Like an electric car, it runs on a parcel of lithium ion batteries.
Popular Mechanics
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December 4, 2019
Ford Is Making Car Parts from McDonald's Coffee Waste
CNET reports that Ford and McDonald’s have combined their efforts in order to make car parts using recycled coffee chaff. By combining recycling with coffee, Ford’s stock as the official brand of dads continues to rise.
Popular Mechanics
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December 2, 2019
What Happens When You Cryogenically Freeze a Car Battery
By dousing batteries in liquid nitrogen, scientists found they reduced volatility to zero and had inert batteries that could be shipped in batches in refrigerated trucks instead of in individual $11,000 explosion boxes.
Popular Mechanics
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November 20, 2019
Science Says This Is the Best Way to Grab Your Steering Wheel
Researchers in Japan have conducted a very small, very specific study on how hand position on the steering wheel affects how our muscles work, which in turn distorts how hard we believe we have to work to turn the wheel.
Popular Mechanics
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November 19, 2019
Bill Gates's Secret Solar Startup Has Generated Extreme Heat with Mirrors
CNN Business reports that scientists working in “stealth mode” have announced a way to turn solar energy into extreme heat that could be used by industry and to make hydrogen fuel. Startup Heliogen, funded by Bill Gates, has built a solar plant where large mirror panels point the sunlight toward each other to harness and multiply heat, a phenomenon called concentrated solar power.
Car and Driver
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November 18, 2019
Yellow Lights Are Too Short, and One Man's Trying to Change That
When engineer Mats Järlström's wife got a red-light ticket in 2013, he examined the footage and fought the ticket in court based on his observation that the yellow light wasn't long enough. His city of Beaverton, Oregon, had a law on the books requiring a 3.5-second yellow light. Before Beaverton, cities like Dallas, Chattanooga, and Nashville had already been caught shortening yellow lights by 2008.
Popular Mechanics
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November 15, 2019
Yellow Lights Are Too Short
In 2013, I was driving below the speed limit (Chicago traffic!) through a yellow light just as an oncoming driver decided to turn left without the right of way. She crashed into me and totaled my car. Sweden-born engineer Mats Järlström is a crusader for safer yellow lights, which cities have shaved shorter and shorter to increase ticket revenue.
Popular Mechanics
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November 12, 2019
Formula One's Path to Total Carbon Neutrality
Engadget reports that Formula One (F1) will achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. In its own press release, F1 says its current hybrid power unit, plus some extras, will allow it to move toward total carbon neutrality and, in turn, help upgrade the world’s one billion combustion-engine vehicles.
Popular Mechanics
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November 11, 2019
Should Ships Have Speed Limits?
Container ships and other ocean liners in the industry deal with a lot fewer of the complications that overland vehicles face, and limiting speed could be an easy way to kick off an industry move to reduce emissions by 50 percent in the next three decades. Some within the industry disagree with the idea of speed limits, but all are united to reduce emissions—they just disagree how best to do that.
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