• What goes well with a liveried chauffeur? Perhaps a parking spot that costs a million bucks. The first parking spot in NYC listed for $1 million is in a private garage at 66 E. 11th St. [url]
• One of the first automated parking garages opened in NYC in 2002 -- and it dropped a few cars before working out its bugs. But now, car owners don't have to worry about parking attendants (like Richard Edson) taking cars out for joyrides... [url]
• When cars can drive themselves, they'll just drop us off, circle the block and/or park themselves somewhere (hopefully in a good neighborhood). They could also meet up with their other robot-car friends at the automated parking garage and waste time chatting about power converters.... [url]
• To find some more bizarre/crazy stuff, check out some things that other StumbleUpon users have found. [url]  

• A New York City traffic study found that male drivers were responsible for 80% of car accidents in which pedestrians were severely injured or killed. Blame it on testosterone, which increases aggression and risk-taking. [url]
• A University of Michigan analysis of 6.5 million car accidents in the U.S. between 1998-2007 found that female drivers were responsible for 68.1% of all crashes. Apparently, women have trouble navigating intersections, as they were most often hit on the driver's or passenger side while trying to turn left or right. [url]
• A more recent UK study showed that women are actually better at parking than men, dispelling the myth that men have better spatial awareness than women. According to the professional driving instructor who created the study, men learn and perform better during driving lessons, but it's possible that women retain what they learn better than men. [url]
• Let the car park itself. Many automakers, including Ford, Toyota, and BMW, are offering self-parking systems in their vehicles now. While they can guide cars into parking spaces with minimal driver involvement, they aren't always reliable. [url]
• To discover more interesting car-related content, check out what's driving around StumbleUpon. [url]  

• The 24 Hours of LeMons is an endurance race for clunker cars (no cars worth more than $500), but this year, they've added a prize for autonomous vehicles. The X Ceedingly Bad Idea Prize will award $50,000 to a driverless junker that can cross the finish line without hurting anyone. [url]
• Wired has interviewed several autonomous vehicle experts, which means a lot of hedged predictions on the future of self-driving cars on public roads. But automated airplane pilots seem to have gained more acceptance than replacing human drivers on the roads. [url]
• NATO troops in Afghanistan have successfully received resupply cargo from an unmanned helicopter. Kaman Aerospace's K-MAX can carry 3.5 tons of cargo about 250 miles, and it may help reduce human casualties (for one side of battle, at least). [url]
• To discover more interesting robotics-related content, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

Others, including Honda, have argued that TrueCar could open the door to unscrupulous dealers trying to sell a more expensive car or more options once they get the customers in the door — which Honda said reflected poorly on the brand. Honda also threatened to cut off marketing dollars to dealers who promoted its cars on the site below the invoice price, a price that is supposed to represent something close to the dealer’s cost (though dealers usually make more money on other manufacturer incentives and programs).

• Bridgestone has designed some air-free tires from recyclable plastics. These tires aren't quite ready for full-size cars yet, but maybe someday no one will have to check the air pressure in tires. [url]
• Replacing steel in cars with composite materials will make our four-wheeled friends lighter and more fuel efficient. Unfortunately, carbon fiber car parts are still a bit too expensive, but that could change.... [url]
• Car parts from mad cows? Does anyone want to drive a car made from infected cow skulls, brains, nerves, eyes, tonsils and spinal cords? Oh, Canada! [url]
• To discover more interesting car-related content, check out what's driving around StumbleUpon. [url]  

• Converting a classic VW bug into an all-electric vehicle sounds a bit pricey at $25,000. But the battery pack could outlast the vehicle and also serve as a backup power supply for your house? [url]
• What do you get when you combine the front end of a 1957 Chevrolet, the mid-section of a 1958 Impala, and the bold tail fins of a 1959 Chevy? A pretty funky-looking car, apparently. [url]
• Local Motors has built the first crowd-sourced military vehicle, the XC2V, in just a few weeks. DARPA sponsored this "proof of principle project" to demonstrate how quickly a new military vehicle could be prototyped. [url]
• If you want to re-paint your car on a really tight budget, you could actually do it for about $50. Rustoleum, FTW! [url]
• To discover more interesting car-related content, check out what's driving around StumbleUpon. [url]  

Ah, Disney.  You have to love a group of people with the ability to compartmentalize their views on matters like intellectual property to the level of these folks.  We're talking about a company that plants its mouse-shaped flag firmly in the land of family values...and then attempts to oddly trademarks a term associated with military operations and death.  This same company is part of the chorus of folks out there decrying the public domain as a wasteland of unused creation... despite the fact that many of their best-selling products are built off of public domain works. I mean, this is the bastion of creation that hired a guy to do some remixes for them...and then refused to release those works.

And so it will come as a great shock to perhaps a couple of loin-cloth clad pygmies somewhere in the Amazon Rainforest when reader JMT alerts us that Disney, all-powerful harborer of their intellectual property, managed to be so inspired by a New Zealand-created supercar (called the Hulme CanAm Spyder) that they pretty much copied the design exactly for their upcoming Cars 2 movie.  The link to the New Zealand Herald discusses the situation with the car manufacturer's director, Jock Freemantle:

"Everybody is telling us, 'it's your car'. I have had emails from around the world saying it looks like our car. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery."

Oh, if only Disney had the same perspective as this Kiwi with the possibly single most-fun-to-say name of all time.  Why is it that Disney, grim reaper of the copyright/trademark realm, has no problem with this?  It's not like this is even the first time the Cars movie series has dealt with this kind of thing, having been through the court system over publicity rights concerning a car in the first Cars movie.  Take a look at the image comparison below and decide for yourself how closely Disney's car resembles the CanAm Spyder (hint: if your determination is anything other than "Disney's looks exactly the same, except Disney's looks like they fed a bunch of Skittles to pigeons and then made them fly over the car to, er, color it," then you're insane).  The irony of this rip off design bearing the name "Rip" in the movie isn't lost on anyone, either.

To make this as clear as day, the issue is not that Disney used a real life car as inspiration for one of their cartoon movie characters.  Rather, the problem is that if the roles in this story were reversed, Disney likely would have pooped its pants as a result from filing a lawsuit with the kind of speed that'd put the Spyder supercar to shame.  As one recent commentor put it in an unrelated story, Disney: Sue Thyself.

• Latex from dandelions can be used as a plastics modifier for various car parts such as floor mats, cup holders and interior trim pieces. That's nice, and dandelions can make a nice salad, as well... [url]
• Biodegradable car parts could be made with natural fiber composite materials. But will the cars biodegrade before or after 10 years or 100,000 miles? [url]
• Adding soy oil to rubber sounds like a good idea -- until little woodland creatures start chewing on your electrical wiring. Rabbits have been known to eat through that new-car wiring... [url]
• Getting the keratin from feathers into plastics could help turn a waste product into useful materials that aren't made from petroleum. But all the 3 billion pounds of leftover chicken feathers won't even put that much of a dent in petroleum-based plastics production. [url]
• To discover more interesting car-related content, check out what's driving around StumbleUpon. [url]  

The bill's definition of autonomous vehicles is unclear, even circular. Autonomous driving exists on a spectrum. Many vehicles available today have autonomous features, while falling short of complete computer control. Surely the bill's authors do not intend to require that, for instance, today's self-parking Lexus LS 460L be tested and certified.