Gizmodo: smart car

Designers Create iQ Font With Tiny Toyota, Custom Software

Jack Loftus — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:00:00 EDT

Designers Pierre And Damien strapped professional race car driver Stef van Campenhoudt in an iQ car, set him loose beneath a camera and custom software built by Zach Lieberman, and then proceeded to create a faster take on fonts. Updated.

The camera tracks four points on the corners of the Toyota iQ by way of colorful stickers. The camera above, mounted to a crane, takes those points and delivers them to software that creates the shapes, punctuation and all-important letters and numbers that make up a font.

You can actually download this font here, although we doubt it will make you type faster or anything. It was only a ~~Smart~~ Toyota, after all (although I was personally amazed this kind of car could drive like that).

Updated: Ugh. That's a Toyota. Sorry to all you Smart car owners out there. [Vimeo - Thanks, Tom]

BMW's Smart Car Doors Stay Shut When Danger Is Around

Andi Wang — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:16:13 EDT

Getting out of a car parked on a busy street can be dangerous. Good thing BMW has created a prototype of a smart car door that won't open if it detects hazards coming at you.

BMW has teamed up with Technical University of Munich in creating these smart car doors, which have produced positive results so far. They expect these doors to be available on the market within the next 12 months, although the doors might be licensed to other manufacturers instead of BMW's own cars.

I can see this type of technology being useful when I have to park along extremely busy street in San Francisco. But then again, I can also see this being a safety hazard: For instance, being taken hostage in your own car and needing to jump out at a stoplight as a biker approaches your door from behind. Or being John McClane, having to jump out of the vehicle as your car goes flying at helicopters in the sky. Yipee-kay-ay mother serious-relationship-haver! [CraveUK via CNet]

Topia One-Seat Electric HUVO Prototype Might As Well Be Shaped Like a Coffin

Jack Loftus — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:00:00 EDT

With the arrival of Topia's one-seater prototype, I think it's finally safe to say the SMART car has something it can take in a fight. Called the HUVO, this diminutive electric car forgoes features like "well-being" and "sanity" for "lightweight" (330 lbs.) and "Jesus Christ watch out for that MINI Cooper!" To save weight and development costs, the HUVO is made out of materials that would make any contemporary golf cart proud; mainly plastic, ceramic, more plastic, and a bit of high-tensile steel plate. Although, as the headline implies, if HUVO goes into production Topia should probably just make the thing out of a nice, sturdy wood, and save your immediate family a step at the funeral parlor.

[Tech-On]

SMART Car Vending Machine Only Dispenses Marketing Materials, False Hope

Jack Loftus — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 15:30:00 EDT

Here I was, credit card in hand, ready to fly across the Pacific and purchase my very first SMART Car from a vending machine, when I'm told it's just some advertisement. Sure, SMART Cars can't float (they can barely survive the SUV-congested streets of the U.S.), and the Japanese steer on the opposite side of their automobiles than us Yanks, but this was the promise of a car via a vending machine. I would have figured out a way to bring it home and make it work. To paraphrase the late, great comedian Mitch Hedberg, things are just better when they fall.

[PlaySmart.jp via Trends in Japan]

Video: Smartcar Slams Into Concrete Barrier at 70MPH

Charlie White — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:22:46 EST

Thank goodness there was no one sitting in this Smartcar when it hit the wall at 70mph, but even though the German-made Mercedes vehicle is tiny, it's built like a truck. Remarkably, the door still opens after that tremendous impact. Maybe the Smartcar isn't a deathtrap after all.

Although we still doubt such a crash would be survivable, this demo certainly changes our opinion of the safety of the diminutive Smartcar. We saw these cars all over the place on a recent trip to Montréal, and thought they looked way-cool, gadgety and almost toy-like. You might be seeing such cars around the United States sometime next year, and you can reserve a 2008 Smart fortwo now for $99. [SmartUSA, via New Launches]