RoadRage
Latest
LED screen shows happy thoughts in your rear window
When I commuted by car every day, I always wanted to build an LED display that would communicate my displeasure with my fellow motorists. My lack of engineering know-how put paid to the idea, but thankfully someone has turned the idea into a product, albeit with a focus on the niceties. CarWink is the brainchild of Wei Cheng Chou, a Taiwanese electrical engineer who studied at California's exclusive ArtCenter College of Design. It's a little display that tells other motorists you're full of love rather than, say, where to stick their genitalia.
Augmented reality may save you from road rage
When you're driving, it's all too easy to rage at fellow motorists who are either in a hurry or taking their sweet time. After all, you don't know the context. Are they in a real predicament, or just careless? If TUe researchers have their way, though, you'll know when to cut some slack. They've developed a mobile app, CarNote, that uses augmented reality (displayed in front of you through a periscope lens add-on) to let fellow drivers signal their intents and feelings. If you're in a rush to the hospital, for instance, you can notify commuters behind you so they don't honk their horns or chase you down. There are limits to how often you can use it, so habitual speeders can't just leave it on to excuse their behavior.
Man returns phone to carrier... without leaving car
When we talk about phone use leading to traffic incidents, this is not typically what we mean. It seems a gentleman in Korea -- we'll simply call him "Kim," since that's the only name we have for him -- got just a little upset when his shiny new Samsung handset still wasn't working after sixteen calls and two in-store visits to carrier SK Telecom. What really set the dude off, though, was a SKT employee suggesting that the phone be replaced with a different model when the original was out of stock (what nerve!). Next thing you know, Kim's chilling outside SK Telecom headquarters, filled with rage -- and, oh yeah, a 4,000 pound Mercedes with "Delinquent SK" scrawled across it. Them's fightin' words, of course, and SKT tried to get him to skedaddle. The attempt backfired, though, when Kim skedaddled right through the building's revolving doors. Lesson to carriers: do everything in your power to replace your customers' defective phones after a maximum of fifteen support calls. Lesson to customers: if you aim for the glass instead of the door, you can probably make it into the building without as much damage to the front end.
Irate driver rams fellow motorist due to cellphone use
You should already know that the Grand Canyon State isn't exactly kosher with rampant tailgating, so actually ramming someone's vehicle due to a personal conflict you have with them isn't likely to get you a whole lot of mercy. Subsequently, a 58-year old male is facing jail time due to his inability to turn the other cheek when he drove up on another motorist who was casually yapping on their cellphone. Rather than simply signing to hang up or doing nothing at all, Mr. Asselin felt it was in both of their best interests if they had a verbal exchange whilst cruising down the avenue, and to make matters worse, the curiously enraged driver reportedly ran the talker into oncoming traffic where the cellphone-using victim narrowly escaped death. Notably, several witnessed deemed the whole event akin to something we'd see "in a movie," but unless you've got Transporter-like skills, we wouldn't recommend trying to reenact this in your home state, no matter your feelings on driving while connected.[Via Fark]
Horntones blasts any tune through your car horn
What better to compliment your electrophoretic bumper sticker than yet another device that enables you to adequately express your road rage in a unique and an ear-catching manner? Horntones, of course, which offers drivers the ability to blast out their favorite tune at any swerving, unnerving, or otherwise annoying motorist ahead of you -- and it's sure to have a bit more impact than the meek "honk" (or "clap") your whip emits right now. The FX-550 strangely resembles an average aftermarket satellite radio controller, and is wired directly into your vehicle's horn system in order to blast out one of eight tunes with a press of a button, while new jams (or better yet, sound clips) can be added via USB. So if you're yearning to crank out your favorite angry song with absolutely no mids or lows, essentially ensuring public humiliation while you're attempting to appear incredibly macho, you can snap this novelty up for a reported $149.99 when it lands in April.[Via Uber-Review]
Arizona implements Lidar gun to nab tailgaters
While we can't say we're exactly fond of notorious tailgaters ourselves, we won't be the first to agree that fines in "the hundreds of dollars" are exactly fitting for those who like follow closely. Nevertheless, the Arizona Department of Public Safety is taking a note from Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, and Oregon by implementing a radar-based tracking system to calculate just how far back a car is from another while cruising on the freeway. Laser Technology's Lidar (no known connection to Liger) works essentially like a speed gun, except it boasts a higher level of accuracy and the ability to calculate the distance between passing cars down to the tenth of a second. Arizona cops are reportedly loving the new machine, as it's "basically impossible" to argue with, and supposedly "educates the people who get pulled" because of it. So if you get a thrill from seeing just how close you can come to kissing that bumper ahead of you, or you just get a testosterone rush every time you get behind the wheel, you may want to put a few seconds (at least) between you and your closest roadmate when rolling through AZ.[Via Slashdot]
Volkswagen crafts electrophoretic bumper sticker, road rage imminent
Volkswagen is making absolutely sure that it doesn't fall behind the curve with regard to technology, as its Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, CA is hard at work on an electrophoretic bumper sticker. While this creation may not go far in producing more aerodynamic vehicles or burning less fuel, the novelty factor is high nonetheless. The company states that its sure-to-be-popular add-on is a "wafer-thin, highly flexible foil that can display text and images like a computer monitor," and envisions drivers of the future letting fellow roadsters "know how they're feeling as moods change." While we can't imagine the tell-tale sticker having much good to say while stuck in rush hour traffic (or just after being pulled over), it's just one more distraction to keep from paying attention to what matters most.[Via CNET]
