World of Automobile

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Reading While Eating for July 12: It’s Too Darn Hot

Marko Djurica / Reuters Lightning strikes over buildings during a thunderstorm in Belgrade, July 11, 2011. Thunderstorms are common during the summer in Serbia.

Here are some chill links to help you cool off in this sweltering July heat wave. It helps to think about cold places …

Get Down! Film buffs will love this montage of cinema’s most memorable bank heists. (The Daily What)

A Long Ride: A car shaped like a banana is setting out to travel the world. (NPR)

Tune in: Listen to this clip of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (circa 1888), the first sound recording for commercial use. Article here (The Daily) and sound here (National Park Service).

Don’t Try This At Home: A skate shoe brand owner is building a skateboardable house for himself. (Thought Catalog)

Tin-Tin: Get ready for the movie version of The Adventures of Tintin. (TIME)

What Should I Watch Tonight? See this map of the U.S., based on Netflix local favorites in each state. (BuzzFeed)

Keep It Cool: With temperatures going up to 100°F on the East Coast, stay cool by watching this slideshow of animals eating frozen treats. (LIFE)

Design FAIL: Hitting the waterslide is another way to stay cool, but stay away from this one. (Huffington Post)

View the original article here

Soccer Star, Model, Mechanic? David Beckham Helps Stranded Motorist

David Beckham’s path to a Knighthood just got one step closer.

The LA Galaxy soccer star has been spending the off season back home in the U.K., training with Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur (some would say to engineer a move back full-time) but he put sports to one side Wednesday, all in the name of being a Good Samaritan.

(More on TIME.com: See pictures of David Beckham.)

Becks noticed that a motorist had broken down on a roundabout and duly pulled over to assist the stranded family. Paul Long was taking his two children to school when he came to a stop. “We were on the A10 roundabout, which was pretty dangerous,” Long told the BBC, “and had been stuck there for about 10 minutes. Eventually I saw a car pull over in the distance and a man in a hoodie got out. He pulled the hood down and as he got nearer to the car I realised it was David Beckham.”

(More on TIME.com: The top 10 British invasions.)

Long continued with this tale of goodwill. “He asked if we were OK and I said we’d broken down and could he push us to the side. When we’d pushed the car to safety – and I have to say another man stopped to help by this point – he asked if we were OK and I said: ‘David Beckham, I love you, mate.’

NewsFeed not only expects a movie to be made about this heroic gesture but for David to change his surname to BeckhAAm by the end of the week.

View the original article here

Study: Drivers Are Dangerously Distracted By Their Dogs

Bambu Productions / Getty Images

Man’s best friend may not be the best driving companion.

Unrestrained dogs can be a dangerous distraction to drivers and increase the risk of accidents, according to a survey conducted by AAA and Kurgo, a manufacturer of pet travel products. The AAA/Kurgo online poll sampled 1,000 dog owners who had driven with their pets in the last year.

(PHOTOS: Man’s Best Friend, Muted)

Overall, nearly six in 10 respondents (56%) reported driving with their dogs at least once in the past month, and more alarmingly, nearly one in five drivers (19%) have taken a hand off the wheel to keep their pet from jumping into the front seat. Other doting drivers confessed to letting their dogs sit on their laps (17%), feeding them treats (13%), or snapping photos of them (3%). (If you own a dog as cute as Boo, the Facebook sensation, then how can you resist, right?)

That being said, 83% of drivers understand the perils of petting their pups in a moving vehicle, but only 16% use a pet restraint. Many have never considered buying one (39%). Others don’t think they need the devices because they think their dogs are calm enough (42%), or they don’t deem them necessary for short car rides (29%).

(MORE: Rural Washington Alarmed By Killer Dogs, But Are They Really A Threat?)

But that’s not an excuse, according to AAA National’s Traffic Safety Programs Manager Jennifer Huebner-Davidson.

“An unrestrained 10-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert roughly 300 pounds of pressure, while an unrestrained 80-pound dog in a crash at only 30 mph will exert approximately 2,400 pounds of pressure,” she said in a press release. “Imagine the devastation that can cause to your pet and anyone in its path.”

So next time your dog whimpers and begs to sit up front, try to resist the puppy eyes.

VIDEO: A French Hound Hunt Sniffs Controversy

Olivia B. Waxman is a TIME contributor. Find her on Twitter at @OBWax. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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NFL Star Junior Seau Drives Car Off Cliff

Charles Krupa / AP Photo File photo, New England Patriots linebacker Junior Seau (55). Police have responded to a report of a shooting at the Seau's home in Oceanside, Calif., Wednesday morning, May 2, 2012.

Man Texts About Needing to Stop Texting, Then Drives Off a Cliff

Matt Henry Gunther/Getty

Texas college student Chance Bothe’s last words prior to driving his truck off a cliff were in the form of a text message: “I need to quit texting, because I could die in a car accident.”He miraculously survived, but Bothe’s story has become an ironic example of the dangers of texting while driving.

By now, most drivers are at least somewhat aware that texting and driving is not a winning combination. From states outlawing text use while driving, to the highway billboards across the country urging drivers to just focus on the road, to statistics related to texting-related crashes, there are plenty of warnings to suggest that we probably shouldn’t do it.

And, yet, we often do it anyway.

(WATCH: ‘Texting While Driving’ Get Put to the Test, Literally)

It was last January that Bothe’s truck flew off a bridge and plummeted into a ravine, and the 21-year-old has spent the last six months in intense recovery in the hospital. According to WAFF, Bothe had a “broken neck, a crushed face, a fractured skull, and traumatic brain injuries.” He also had to have doctors bring him back to life three times.

“My face was broken from my cheekbones all the way up,” Bothe told the New York Daily News. Bothe even had to learn how to speak again.

Now, Bothe believes it’s his mission to urge other drivers to stop texting, lest they wish to experience a similar fate. “I know I died like three times but God didn’t keep me away from coming back here,” he told ABC 13. “I have a higher purpose in being here. And I think it’s to tell everyone not to text message and drive.

“Don’t do it. It’s not worth losing your life,” he told ABC 13.

According to Distraction.gov, 3,092 people in 20110 were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver—a driver who was either texting, eating, adjusting their radio, or talking on their cell phone. 416,000 people were injured in accidents from these same types of distractions.

A study by Car and Driver Magazine in 2009 pitted the dangers of texting while driving against the effects of driving drunk to see which would be more dangerous, under the same conditions. Measuring the time it takes to brake after being alerted by a red light to stop, the reaction time was recorded for when legally drunk, reading email, and sending a text. Texting, by far, elicited the slowest response time.

It will take awhile for texting to garner the same social stigma as drinking and driving, but Bothe hopes his story can be a cautionary tale that it’s just not worth it.

MORE: NTSB Calls For a National Ban on Cell Phones Behind the Wheel

View the original article here

Monkeying Around: Primates Dismantle Car at Zoo

These monkeys made a Mercedes into their own personal playground at a British zoo.

Who knew monkeys could be so destructive? Zookeepers at the Longleat Safari Park in southwest Britain drove a new toy into the macaques’ enclosure – but it didn’t stay driveable for very long.

(More on TIME.com: See photos of endangered primates)

The monkeys, clearly fascinated by the black Mercedes station wagon, prowled all over it as they ripped off hubcaps and mirrors. The gang of nearly 100 monkeys was celebrating the reopening of their “Monkey Jungle” exhibit at the zoo.

It’s safe to say these monkeys won’t be getting drivers’ licenses anytime soon. They would bring a whole new meaning to road rage.

View the original article here

Tech-Savvy Thieves Switch Keys During Test Drive to Steal Porsche

Guenter Schiffmann / Bloomberg / Getty Images A Porsche Panamera similar to the one stolen sits on display outside a Porsche dealership in Stuttgart, Germany.

The cast of Gone in 60 Seconds would be proud. No forced entry, no threats; just a devious plan that netted two thieves a $148,000 Porsche.

As the story goes, two men in their 20s showed up to Princeton Porsche in Lawrence, N.J. Monday to test-drive the Porsche Panamera. They claimed one had just won a nice chunk of change in a legal settlement and was looking for a new set of wheels.

(PHOTOS: Car Design as High Style)

After the spin around central New Jersey, the men took off. And the next day, so did the Panamera they had driven earlier. Police think that the thieves handed the dealer a fake key after the test drive. “It looks like they may have done a switcheroo on the keys of the car,” Lawrence Police Lt. Charles Edgar said.

The dealer, who accompanied the men during the test drive, noticed the car was missing upon opening shop the next morning. How could this have happened to such an expensive car with such a (presumably) expensive security system? Simple: the car features a keyless ignition system, with no physical key. An electronic key sits in the driver’s pocket allowing one-touch access to opening the doors and turning the car on. Sounds like a fast pass for a simple switcheroo for these techy thieves.

Nick Carbone is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @nickcarbone. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

(READ: Porsche: A Smart Investment for a Single Guy)

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