CarDomain Network sold to Source Interlink Media

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[Correction: This post has been updated to correct the identity of the sellers.] CarDomain Network Inc. has been sold to Source Interlink Media, a Southern California media company with dozens of niche publications, websites and other products geared toward car fanatics, action sport junkies, home technology geeks and other enthusiast communities. Launched in 1998 by… Read More…

Q&A: How Wikispeed makes 100 MPG cars using lessons from tech companies

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Our guest on the latest GeekWire radio show and podcast was Joe Justice of Wikispeed, a project that’s aiming to disrupt the auto industry with a 100 mile per gallon car. Wikispeed is taking a very unconventional approach to engineering and development of these cars.  They utilize lean manufacturing methods, a movement that has been popular… Read More…

Kinect in the car: Microsoft sees gestures, facial tracking in next wave of auto tech

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Microsoft’s Kinect sensor has already expanded beyond the Xbox 360 to Windows PCs. Next stop? The car. People will be able to interact with their cars using gestures, the system will know who they are using facial recognition, and advanced data mining will provide new insights into the state of our cars and how we… Read More…

Microsoft allies Ford and Toyota to collaborate on technology standards

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A new partnership announced between Ford and Toyota this morning is attracting lots of attention, primarily focused on the companies’ plans to collaborate on a new hybrid-electric system for light trucks and SUVs. But also notable is the news that they plan to “collaborate on development of next-generation standards for in-car telematics and Internet-based services.” That’s… Read More…

Airbiquity lands $4M as company sees growth in ‘connected car’ services

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Another Seattle area company that’s building some of the underlying technologies for the “connected car” has scored a new round of cash. Airbiquity, whose customers include OnStar, BMW and Ford, just landed $4 million in fresh capital from existing investors, including  Acorn Ventures, Ignition Partners, Kirnaf Ltd, Shell Internet Ventures. Total funding in the company… Read More…

Follow-up: What Microsoft and Toyota are actually doing, and how it’s different

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The news today that Microsoft and Toyota are working on a cloud computing system for cars — described by the companies as a global platform for next-generation telematics applications — is the type of announcement that’s a little tough to grasp on the surface, in terms of the real significance. So it actually helped today… Read More…

Microsoft + Toyota: Cars or the cloud … or both?

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Microsoft and Toyota will be announcing a “new collaboration between the companies” on Wednesday afternoon, and the involvement of CEOs Steve Ballmer and Akio Toyoda means it’s probably something noteworthy. The scheduling of the news conference is generating speculation that Toyota will be adopting Microsoft’s automotive technology platform. Microsoft already powers the in-car information and… Read More…