Driving causes obesity, according to Ga. TechA new study heading into medical journals preaches that the more you drive, the bigger your gut's going to be. Georgia Tech data hounds have taken a look at 10,500 Atlantans and found that, the closer people lived to their daily errands, the less likely they were to be obese. Those who lived in the city were 35 percent less likely to be clinically fat, and if they lived within a half-mile of errands, they were seven percent less likely. The study was scheduled for the June issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine-which can't be found next to the over-18 magazines at our Borders.
China's Geely Could Be Number OneBefore long, experts say Chinese cars will come to the States. And Geely Automotive could be the first to actually "bring it on" to the Koreans and Japanese, according to Automotive News. The industry paper says that Geely wants to bring over its Uliou four-door, which is based on old Japanese designs and in China comes with a Daihatsu-derived engine. The company is trying to certify the vehicle for sales in the States and is already signing up dealers, which will be handled by an Arizona-based importer. The Uliou-God, please grant it a new name or do something about the VW Touareg-could be priced way, way less than $10,000 if it makes the trip across the Pacific.
NHTSA wants regular info from black boxesSo-called "black boxes"-devices that measure speed, braking distances, seatbelt use and other driver behaviors-should not be mandatory on new vehicles, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said in a report in June. The report from the safety agency came as many automakers are equipping their cars and trucks with the capability to record such information-and in many cases have used the data to defend their vehicles against lawsuits charging sudden acceleration and other murky safety issues. About 15 percent of vehicles now on the road have the data recorders, the NHTSA says, and between 65 percent and 90 percent of 2004 vehicles have some sort of recording ability. Though it doesn't want the devices made mandatory, the agency is interested in gathering and interpreting data collected by the devices already in service in a specific way-some 42 different pieces of data, the NHTSA says. As such, the agency is requesting automakers to outfit car computers to collect the data it wants by September 2008 and to inform buyers of those vehicles that their cars and trucks are capable of reporting the information.
Alcokey stops drunk driving before it starts, literallyPreventing drunk driving is the goal of a new Saab concept that's much smaller than a whole car. The palm-sized "Alcokey" is the long-awaited (well, for nervous parents) melding of a vehicle's ignition key and a breathalyzer. The key contains a mouthpiece into which the driver must blow; if the level of alcohol in the driver's breath is too high, the key will block the engine from starting. Lacking only a Binaca attachment to clean up bad but not alcoholic breath, the device could be marketed as a dealer-installed aftermarket accessory for about $300, Saab estimates. The concept is a response to concern over drunken driving in Saab's home market of Sweden.