garages
Latest
Survey sez LED lit parking garages seem safer
We had a sneaking suspicion that there was an ulterior motive behind Raleigh getting lit up as the "world's first LED city," and aside from savings tons of dough on energy bills over the next decade or so, it seems to make motorists feel a good bit safer, too. According to a before and after survey conducted by Mindwave Research, the number of respondents who "perceived the garage as very safe increased by 76-percent after the LED fixtures were installed." Admittedly, the newfangled lighting certainly added a new level of brightness to the situation, and the number of individuals who gave the garage an overall rating of "excellent" increased by 100-percent in response. The (unnecessarily lengthy) survey also added a few more minor figures to further prove that LED lighting is simply superior to the other stuff , but we're not yet sure if Cree will successfully use this ammunition to grab even more contracts to freshen up the city lights.
Future BMWs will self-park in your garage
Anyone whose garage is so packed full of junk that getting in and out of the car is nearly impossible will appreciate a new feature set to debut on future BMW models that allows you to stand outside while your Bimmer parks itself (as well as unparks itself, we assume, or this tech wouldn't be very useful). The German manufacturer recently released a video of this self-parking wizardry -- you can catch it by following the Read link -- which shows a happy homeowner simply pushing a button on his keyfob to fire up the motor, retract the side-view mirrors, and send the car on a controlled journey to its home just inches from another luxury ride. The system leverages distance-sensing technology that we've seen before from Mercedes, Toyota, and the like, but requires a reflective lens on the garage wall to operate, which unfortunately precludes its use in public parking lots. Still a pretty useful feature, but if it takes three years to find its way into commercial vehicles as BMW anticipates, we'll probably already have the parking covered with those self-driving models we've been promised.
