By John LeBlanc for MSN Autos Canada
Paper road maps? They are so old school, right? What with the advent of Global Positioning System navigation systems — either built right into vehicles or as a portable handheld device — the idea of unfolding a map to figure out how to get someplace in your car has become as anachronistic as rolling down your car windows by hand.
By David Arnouts, AutoWeek
In a video that looks like something cooked up by elementary-school students, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey touts its new, free smartphone app called Police Tape. The application allows users to review their rights on the spot and to record both video and audio when stopped by police.
Once recorded, files can automatically be uploaded to external servers, where they are retained and examined by the ACLU for possible civil liberties violations.
By Mark Atkinson for MSN Autos
I know, I know... we've covered Super Bowl commercials to death last week in the run-up to this year's big game. But one spot that's really impressed is music supergroup OK Go using a Chevrolet Sonic hatch to create the 'music' behind the band's latest single, Needing/Getting.
OK Go are tied to using social media and other digital tools to get their intensely choreographed videos out to their fans, but this one blows out all other previous efforts.
By Dale Jewett, AutoWeek
Teenage radio listeners might have to look somewhere else besides the family Ford for the Playboy channel or Howard Stern.
The new generation of Ford's programmable MyKey system will let parents block "explicit" radio channels on the Sirius/XM satellite service in their cars.
That would cover Playboy's and Stern's channels, as well as more than a dozen music channels, such as rapper Eminem's Shade 45 and the hard-rock Boneyard.
The new MyKey will be standard on the Taurus and the Explorer next year, Ford says, and will be an option on other models.
MyKey also mutes the radio until the seatbelt is buckled. It allows parents to preset a top speed limit between 65 and 80 mph (105 - 130 km/h) for the vehicle and prevents the driver from deactivating some safety technologies, such as traction control. The system was first launched on several Ford vehicles in summer 2009.
Justin Couture
Reportedly, the first word to come out of his mouth was "car," and since then it's evolved into a life-long passion. Justin is a fan of passionately engineered vehicles, but in general, loves the industry as much as the cars it produces. Justin is the Assistant Editor of MSN Autos, and manages The Passing Lane.
Mark Atkinson
Mark has a decade’s experience driving and writing about thousands of vehicles, and two decades before as an inveterate car nut and race fan. He’s also a first-time father, so you’ll need to excuse the occasional half-awake daddy rant about how his daughter’s car-seat won’t fit.
John LeBlanc
After a career in advertising and marketing, John decided to turn his jaundiced eye towards the world of cars. Since then, he's become one of Canada's most vociferous critics of the industry, delivering objective analysis of the new car scene.
