Restoring A Vintage German EV

When you think of EVs from the 90s, GM’s EV1 may come to mind, but [bleeptrack] found a more obscure CityEL three wheeler to restore. This Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) is no spring chicken…

Art Exhibit Lets You Hide From Self-Driving Cars

In the discussions about how dangerous self-driving cars are – or aren’t – one thing is sorely missing, and that is an interactive game in which you do your best to not be recogni…

Ford Patent Wants To Save Internal Combustion

There’s no doubt the venerable internal combustion engine is under fire. A recent patent filing from Ford claims it can dramatically reduce emissions and, if true, the technology might give c…

Create Virtual USB Sticks With A Raspberry Pi Zero

Playing back music files from USB sticks is a common feature these days, and is built-into the infotainment system in [Folkert van Heusden]’s Opel Astra. Unfortunately such USB playback featu…

Extracting SecOC Keys From A 2021 Toyota RAV4 Prime

With the recently introduced SecOC (Secure Onboard Communication) standard, car manufacturers seek to make the CAN bus networks that form the backbone of modern day cars more secure. This standard …

How Much Longer Will Cars Have Cigarette Lighter Ports?

Depending on the age of your car, it might contain a round 12 V power outlet in the dash, or possibly in the elbow compartment. And depending on your own age, you might know that as the cigarette l…

Open Vehicle Monitoring System Is The Window To Your EV’s Soul

Electric cars have more widgets than ever, but manufacturers would rather you don’t have direct access to them. The Open Vehicle Monitoring System intends to change that for the user. [via Tr…

Can Car Parts Grow On Trees?

Cars don’t grow on trees, but Ford is designing car parts from olive tree cuttings. [via Electrek] Ford is no stranger to designing parts from plants for their vehicles. Henry famously liked …

Tesla’s Plug Moves Another Step Closer To Dominance

Charging an EV currently means making sure you find a station with the right plug. SAE International has now published what could be the end to the mishmash of standards in North America with the J…

A 555 Can Even Make Your Car Indicator More Visible

Modern cars often come with white marker lights or daytime running lights that are on all the time, as a supplement to the primary headlights. The problem is that in some vehicle designs, these add…

ESP32 Used As Wireless CAN Bus Reader

The CAN bus, accessible through the OBD-II port, is the channel that holds all the secrets of the modern automobile. If you want to display those for your own perusal, you might consider this nifty…

Keeping A Mazda’s Radio On After The Engine Shuts Off

Have you ever pulled into a car park with your favorite song blaring, only to lament the fact that the music cut out when you stopped the engine? Some modern cars are smart enough to keep the radio…

Building An Animated Turn Signal For The Mazda MX-5

Turn signals in most of the world are mandated to be a flashing orange light, distinct from other bulbs on a vehicle. However, there has been a trend in the modern era to go for fancier animated tu…

That’s Not A Junker… That’s My Generator

If you live somewhere prone to power outages, you might have thought about buying a generator. The problem is that small generators are cheap but — well — small. Big generators are expe…

Ballistic BMW Blocks Both Bullets And Booms

Maybe you like to live dangerously. Like, James Bond dangerously. Well, we won’t judge, but we will pass this along — BMW has created the ultimate driving machine for shootouts and war …

Students Set EV Acceleration World Record

Humans have a need for speed, and students from the Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) have set a new acceleration record for an electric vehicle with a 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 62 mph) time of 0.95…

Jailbreaking Tesla Infotainment Systems

With newer cars being computers on wheels, some manufacturers are using software to put features behind a paywall or thwarting DIY repairs. Industrious hackers security researchers have taken it up…

Get MOST Into Your Pi

When looking the modify a passenger vehicle, the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus is a pretty easy target. In modern vehicles it has access to most of the on-board systems — everything from …

Watching Paint Dry For Over 100 Years

A Model T Ford customer could famously get their car “in any color he wants, so long as it’s black.” Thus begins [edconway]’s recounting of the incremental improvements in car paint and…

A Different Approach To EV Conversions

While there are a lot of exciting electric vehicles finally coming to market, many of us feel nostalgic for the fossil cars of our youth. [Mihir Vardhan] restored his grandfather’s car with a…