On the recent events which dreadfully happened in Japan because of the killer quake and tsunami, General Motors announced that people living on affected areas can push the OnStar button to be connected to Crisis Advisor, a feature which gets them help from the proper authorities to get them to safety as soon as possible.

OnStar customers can contact such as emergency services, provide points of contact for assistance like food, shelter, or hotel accommodations. If they have no power, they can access the Internet or charge phones or stay in contact. They can also get weather and other updates. Federal emergency management agencies can also be contacted for assistance.

Over at the recent Geneva Auto Show, if you recall the explosive action-packed film Terminator 2, then this car will give you a trip down memory lane while warping into the edges of innovation. Audi’s MTM R8 V10 BiTurbo is a polished aluminum body work that took 700 man hours to get it done as it is. This reminds me of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s out-of-this world enemy T2000 which is like a mercury taking shape of anything it trips to.

Just what is under its hood? It’s got a 5.2 liter FSi V10 engine with six-speed manual transmission. This packas a whopping 777 hp with top speed of 224 mph.

You don’t have to go to the nearest bath room to get your hair done with this.

Maybe becasue of that everyday stressful gridlock we are experience on our way to work or going home. Consulting firm Accenture says that according to their study,49 percent of people are comfortable in a driverless car. The study focuses on the users’ frustrations of the performance and complexity of certain electronic devices, such as mobile phones, TVs and computers.

If you could recall, Google has successfully driven a robotic Prius for over 140,000 miles through heavy traffic in San Francisco and Los Angeles. There are also other model having autonomous technology features like lane departure warning systems, adaptive cruise control, crash avoidance and self-parking systems.

I for one, is agreeable to this, if only the manufacturers assure a failsafe technology from the get-go. This prevents any accidents to occur while reducing traffic jams, exhaust pollution and improve fuel cost. Who knows, we could develop a great bond with our vehicles?

Now that you have souped up your roadster with a mean turbocharger, body kit, and posh interior, there’s only one thing left for you to do: not getting it stolen. Little did I know that there are many types of alarms the market offers these days. These alarms suit up the type of alarm you want in your ride. Carsforgirls gives a rundown on these alarms from the passive and activa alarms, silent ones, factory, to the after-market alarm. Fee free to read them.

It won;t be long before electronic vehicles will go mainstream in response to save the environment and quest for alternative fuel. This is evident through the launch of EVs like the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf. And what better way to capitalize this move than to put up recharging stations just like what the Tennessee Valley Authority has done with their solar-power recharging hubs.

And according to Kicking Tires, “The TVA and the Electric Power Research Institute, where the first stations will be built, have come up with an innovative design that will deliver power from solar cells on top of a carport to three “refrigerator-sized” battery packs stored indoors. When drivers plug in, they will draw from the solar cells but also from the grid. The idea is to have the cells partially charging vehicles when they’re plugged in but also sending electricity back to the grid when no one is charging. The storage capabilities of the batteries allow cars to recharge first with stored energy before drawing from the grid.”

They hope that they will have 125 of these stations operational by the end of the year. Not only that, they hope they would influence other motorists in practicing the EV-way, like what the best types of batteries to use, what suitable temperatures are during extreme heat or cold, and how often will drivers use the recharging stations.

One dilemma that a station costs around $50K-$100k to build and they will give away free electricity. How will the TVA retrieve that investment is another matter.

Although its not a bit related but I just had to post this because of the level of hilarity. First you wrongly started your vehicle. Then, when you set yourself on fire, you scram to the gas station to put it out. First question here is: WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU THINKING?! According to the post from Jalopnik, three people got seriously hurt when trying to restart their van by pouring gas from a bucket into a water bottle DIRECTLY into the van’s carburetor. Yes, it started all right and ran. But it exploded right after it stalled. The people from the van was gutted with fire then ran to the gas station. While a woman was ran over by the van.

Call me heartless, but you should have a proper mindset in that kind of situation. Not merely pouring gas on an open bucket and fill it into a bottled water to pour it in the carb.

Gone are the days when the slowpoke solar-panel cars hover around the race track like overgrown cockroaches. Thay can only do so much with speed since they don’t have enough ponies to match up with mainstream vehicles at the major thoroughfare. Today, manufacturer are at par with speedsters with updated technology and revved up engines driven by the heat of the sun. Today’s fastest according to Guinness Book of World Records goes to Sunswift IV of Australia with a top speed of 55 mph, beating out previous champ Sunraycer from General Motors.

Designed by a group of enthusiastic students of University of South Wales, the IVy uses 1,2000 watts of energy, or equal to the amount of power used by an  oven toaster. The light weight is comprised by carbon fiber, weighing about 1/10th the weight of an average car. It is more aerodynamically sound, which gained speed with little amount of power. However, it would take a while before it hits the streets. The technology is still in the development stages. And it is already helping hybrids and Evs operate more efficiently. Would IVy makes its way into Formula One, which is the testing ground for the technology to be used mainstream?

You know how your old car collectible can look even more legit? Well, the secret lies in the paintjob. But hold your horses since this is not about treating chips and cracks on the surface of your car. That’s a difference science all together. What I mean here is giving your car its due cred by restoring the shine of its original finish. Here, there’s one gadget that could be your trusty partner— a paint thickness gauge.

By using this tool, you can accurately determine whether your car has been repainted or not. If the paint gauge indicates 10 plus mils, the car has most likely been repainted and is not, pardon the pun, staying true to its color.

What you can do here is to carefully rub off the excess mils (ideally, it should only have six to eight mils total of paint, of which two to three are primer) using special compounds and quality polishing pads till you’ve completed the restoration task.

Electric cars will go mainstream, indeed. Along with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, the first batches of the all-electric 2011 Nissan Leafs have arrived in dealerships specifically in the San Francisco Bay Area. Meanwhile, Volts had been rolled out to California, Texas, New York, and Washington DC.

This week, Leafs will also be sent to Arizona, Oregon, Seattle, Southern California, and Tennessee. There will be another round of deliveries come next week. By early next year, Nissan expects to have them Leafs delivered to as far as Hawaii and Texas. And by 2012, they will be rolled out nationwide.

Consider it passe, but at least Ford is now doing all they can to equip their vehicles with the much-needed safety precautionary measures to beef them up. Such is having all of their models with Rearview Camera System.The camera features a low light capability with the intensity of the vehicle’s reverse lamps to lighten up the image even in dark parking spaces.

Included in the equipment stage are full-sized pickups, vans and crossovers like the Ford Explorer. The camera is most especially handy since they have winches to haul and tow load form behind.