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Alex Severinsky, a Soviet emigrant who began his career developing antitank-warfare instrumentation, patented a system for powering gas-electric hybrids in 1994. Toyota used his system for the Prius without permission or payment. Until this week. More »
]]> http://jalopnik.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5592533&view=rss&microfeed=true VW recently filed patent drawings for a Jetta coupe. Looks like the concept, no? [CarScoop] More »
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Lamborghini is known for scissor doors, Mercedes for gullwings, Koenigsegg for dihedral syncro-helixes. Ferrari wants to outdo them all, patenting a door design that lifts part of the fender too. More »
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Mark Twain once said "a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." Thanks to radio and the web, it can now travel all the way around the world. Remember that list of automotive April Fools' Day jokes? Remember that C&D and Automobile joke about Toyota securing Olds' naming rights? Someone took it to be the truth. And that person was Ron Chapman, filling in for Paul Harvey on his extremely popular ABC Radio show. Ugh. In case you were curious, the appropriate Trademarks are here and here, and they are both owned by GM and good until 2011 according to the US Patent and Trademark Office. The crappy urban legend in the making below the jump. More »
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Arguably, GM killed the Pontiac Fiero just as it was getting all the kinks worked out — the fires, the Chevette front suspension (and Chevy Citation rear), the Revellesque build quality. By the last year of production, 1988, the plastic wonder was actually a decent driver that barely ever burst into flames. But could it be coming back? The Left Laneers did some rooting around the US patent office yesterday and came up with this bit. It seems GM reregistered the Fiero name earlier this year. LLN speculates it could be used for the on-again-off-again Pontiac Solstice coupe, though we have out doubts. No matter. Something may or may not be in the works, and we'll be paying attention. Oh, and Pontiac's in the process of re-upping "Firebird," just in case you thought that was the more important story. More »
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