Jalopnik: Pbs

"Car of the Future" Nova Episode Stunk, But Here's The Interesting Part

Ben Wojdyla — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:20:00 EDT

Yeah, so, that Car of the Future episode of Nova with Click and Clack just wasn't all that good, sorry about that. The episode should probably have been called "Moments of forced laughter from two funny old guys in between John Lithgow talking down to the viewer about the car of the future". However, buried in the muck and mire of that episode was an interesting segment about the Rocky Mountain Institute and their work with lightweight materials, like in their Hypercar above, built with all carbon fiber superstructures and components.

Roasted testicle jokes aside, the founder, Amory Lovins — stop it — is the applied physicist behind the Colorado think tank and has some interesting things to say about the direction of cars to come. Take a couple of minutes and head over to the Nova website and listen to him talk about the challenges and opportunities for making cars better, stronger, faster, and more efficient. Okay, now you can make jokes about dangley bits. [Nova]

Car Talk's "Click and Clack" are headed to ...

Ray Wert — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 08:20:00 EDT

Car Talk's "Click and Clack" are headed to TV as an animated series starting summer 2008. [Reuters]

Car Show We Don't Watch Names Honda Fit "Best of the Year"

Ray Wert — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:35:00 EST

PBS's MotorWeek, which is like Top Gear without humor, high production value or entertaining hosts, has named its "Drivers' Choice Awards" for 2007. Most of the choices aren't that surprising: Lexus LS as the "Best Luxury Sedan" and Ford Shelby GT500 for the "Best Performance Car." The one thing that sticks out is the Honda Fit, which is not only the "Best Small Car" but also the "Best of the Year." This is a year after the Honda Civic was named "Best of the Year." Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising given that those who would get up early to watch a car show on PBS are also in the small car and Honda-buying demographic. The full list below the jump:

BEST OF THE YEAR
Honda Fit

BEST SMALL CAR
Honda Fit

BEST FAMILY SEDAN
Saturn Aura

BEST MINIVAN
Hyundai Entourage/Kia Sedona

BEST CONVERTIBLE
Volkswagen Eos

BEST LUXURY SEDAN
Lexus LS

BEST SPORT SEDAN
Infiniti G35

BEST PERFORMANCE CAR
Ford Shelby GT500

BEST SMALL UTILITY
Honda CR-V

BEST LARGE UTILITY
Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Yukon

BEST CROSSOVER UTILITY
GMC Acadia/Saturn Outlook

BEST PICKUP TRUCK
Chevrolet Silverado/GMC Sierra

BEST ECO-FRIENDLY
Toyota Motor Corporation

BEST DREAM MACHINE
Jaguar XKR
Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Porsche 911 Turbo

– Matt Hardigree

Drivers' Choice Awards [MotorWeek]

PBS's "Nova" to Feature DARPA Grand Challenge Tonight

Mike Spinelli — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:10:19 EST

Prop-heads set your Tivos on stun. PBS's "Nova" tonight will feature a look at last October's DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle race, on a episode it calls "The Great Robot Race." The program will follow contestants in the lead-up to the race followed by the competition, in which a Volkswagen Touareg named Stanley, built by the team of Stanford University and Volkswagen Electronics Research Laboratory (ERL) won by completing the 132-mile desert course in six hours and 35 minutes. Geek rating: A[sum(X[j]*Y[j], j=1,10)]+.

Related:
Four Entrants Finish DARPA Grand Challenge [internal]