In an effort to facilitate ticket purchasing, SNCF -- France's public rail system -- will commence a 1,000 user trial of its Weneo smart card system this Fall. Riders will be able to purchase tickets with the small USB dongles at turnstiles via RFID. Once the balance is depleted, users can refill their accounts by plugging the devices into a computer, whereby they're transported to the SNCF's online hub. Since only the rider's account number is stored in the RFID portion of the smart card, this system allows commuters hassle-free ticket purchasing, all while keeping important information privy from hackers - information that some RFID devices seem to have problems keeping secret. If all goes well, SNCF expects to expand the use of Weneo nationwide by 2010.

[Via Wired]

The only thing worse than getting a punctured tire is trying to use a flimsy scissor jack to change it. Break down on a dirt or snow-covered road and you probably have as good a shot at losing your hand as you do fixing a flat. Not so with the Titan, which may look like an exhaust-powered whoopee cushion, but can actually haul cars (even lifted rigs) up into the air on nearly any surface. Just run a hose to the exhaust of a running car, and the $120 (and up) balloon will gently raise the vehicle aloft -- and by "gently" we mean "really, really slowly." It's probably a little faster than calling AAA, but not as easy as Superjack's remote-controlled kit for lazies. If you have the patience, check out the vid after the break for six minutes of tire-changing action.

[Via Autoblog]

It's not that texting from planes is currently impossible, it's just not terribly reliable. Thanks to Avidyne's Q4-bound MLX770, however, all that is about to change. The two-way datalink receiver will not only enable pilots to have access to the radar mosaic for most of the world along with weather conditions, but it will add support for text messaging right from the MFD. And we're not talking about CPLDC -- we're talking bona fide SMS. To keep pilots from chatting away too much unnecessarily, the system will limit messages to 32 characters, and beyond that, each message sent will run between $1 and $2. And to think, we actually have the nerve to gripe about $0.20 texts...

[Via FlightGlobal]

Toyota hasn't made a huge secret of its plans to develop and sell a plug-in version of the Prius, and it sounds like the wheels are turning a little faster than we've heard -- fleet testing of plug-in models has been pushed up to early 2009, with the goal of having "several hundred" on the road by the end of the year. Still no timetable for actual retail sales, so you'll have to be a wheelman for a government or commercial fleet to get your hands on one -- good thing all those modders have the rest of us covered.

[Via Autoblog Green]

We've seen GM's carefully managed Volt PR campaign, but that hasn't stopped our friends at AutoBlogGreen from combing the net for a better look, resulting in these apparent snaps of the center console and the production exterior rolling along the set of Transformers 2. The shiny, rounded all white center console with touch sensitive interface? You're probably thinking what we're thinking. At least the exterior shot -- which shows off a "Volt" badge on the A-pillar -- is a bit more clear. Of course, this might just be a movie-only iteration and any number of things could change before those batteries get out of Malibus and into proper rolling stock... but we'll just sit back and keep our fingers crossed, at least until 2010.

Read - Chevy Volt Interior
Read - Chevy volt Exterior

Tire monitors are nothing new, but Pirelli's taking the idea a step farther by inserting sensors and microchips directly into the tires themselves. The Cyber Tire and Cyber Tire Lean can measure pressure, temperature and vehicle load, sending the information along using RFID. The self-powered Cyber Tire Lean, which will hit the market first in 2010, embeds the sensors in strip glued to the inner lining of the tire and communicates in one direction only; the proper Cyber Tire with directly embedded sensors will arrive later, and is being billed as an "intelligent tire" that will interface with vehicle systems like ABS and traction control to "correct wrong behavior in advance." Sure, okay -- but please tell us all this stuff can get switched off when we need to do some wicked burnouts, okay?

[Via Autoblog]

Ford invited us to its swanky Premier Auto Group headquarters in Irvine, California to talk about the future of Sync and demo the latest iteration of their infotainment platform coupled with Sirius Travel Link. According to the company, Sync v2.0 debuts in November, bringing tighter integration with Ford's syncmyride.com portal, providing owners with in-depth online vehicle health reports. Also in the cards is E911 support, which automatically places an emergency call as soon as the vehicle detects airbag deployment. Sync 3, scheduled to debut "sometime in 2009," will bring traffic, news, sports and weather to Ford vehicles without requiring navigation or a monthly subscription. On the infotainment front, however, 2009 Ford vehicles with the navigation option can subscribe to Sirius Travel Link for $7 a month, enabling real-time traffic info, coast to coast weather, local gas station listings sorted by price, movie show-times and sports scores. Peep the gallery below for a smorgasbord of screens.

First things first -- when we say "partially" propel, we mean partially. Nippon Yusen and energy distributor Nippon Oil are teaming up to spend around $1.37 million in order to equip a car-hauling cargo ship with 328 solar panels. Rather than just provide energy for the crew's on board entertainment system, it will be the first solar installation to actually produce a smidgen of power for the boat's engine. If successful, the panels would provide 0.2% of the ship's energy consumption for propulsion, and they're hoping to raise that to a whopping 1% by 2010. Gives a whole new meaning to "baby steps," huh?

We'll be honest -- we still kind of prefer the days when hacking Wiimotes and other household gadgets was the preferred method for extracting more enjoyment from one's vehicle, but we suppose there's no stopping progress. Starting in 2009 (a few years too late for the Fast & Furious crowd), General Motors will begin to offer up a $295 Reconfigurable Performance Display option in the Cobalt and HHR SS. Said display will enable easily distracted drivers to quickly see how many Gs they're pulling, enable / disable Traction Control, Stability Control and Competition Mode, and get a visual on boost, cam phaser angle, spark advance, engine torque, etc. Oh, and it totally adds 10-horsepower when installed alongside a spare NoS sticker.

[Via Autoblog]

It's not clear what the exact problem is, but every major airport in the country is currently experiencing flight delays because of an FAA computer problem at a facility south of Atlanta. All that's being said is that the system that processes flight plans is having troubles, but that all flights currently in the air are fine and should land safely. Given that a single FAA computer failure has caused over 17,000 passengers to be stranded in the past, we're not too optimistic that these delays won't get worse and worse -- but then, nothing about air travel really inspires optimism lately, does it?

Update: All better now. Too bad air travel is still generally a dismal nightmare.

QinetiQ just (unofficially) smashed the record for an unmanned flight by a solar airplane, sending its Zephyr craft into the air for a staggering 83 hours and 37 minutes, more than double the official record by "Global Hawk" in 2001, and a good margin more than its last flight. The plane was guided by autopilot and satellites to a height of 60,000 feet, and powers off the sun during the day, prepping its rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries for the night. Zephyr is being built for reconnaissance, communications and unofficially setting really bad-ass flight records.

[Via USA TODAY]

We've been tracking the AirCar for near centuries in Engadget Time, but MDI's little car that could-maybe-possibly seems to have finally taken to the streets. The car has been seen sporting French plates, meaning it's actually been approved for use there -- unsurprising, considering the car's 2009 planned launch in France, but exciting nonetheless. The car boasts a 50 mile range running off of compressed air, and can stretch that further by heating up the air with another power source. It might not solve world hunger, but we're just happy to see compressed air playing a featured role outside of cleaning our keyboard and propelling Airsoft pellets at our cat.*

*We're kidding. Cats are awesome.

[Via AutoblogGreen]

No surprise here, but the kids from MIT were (presumably) right all along. The three students who were muffled just before presenting their case at Defcon have finally been freed; the now-revoked gag order had prevented them from exposing insecurities in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority ticket system, but during the same court setting, the MBTA fessed up and admitted that its current system was indeed vulnerable. Of note, it only confessed that its CharlieTicket system was susceptible to fraud, while simply not acknowledging any flaws in the more popular CharlieCard option. Pish posh -- who here believes it doesn't have dutiful employees working up a fix as we speak?

At long last, "you are now free to surf the intarwebz while flying." Okay, so maybe it has been possible in the past, but American Airlines is taking a huge leap forward in the US market today by giving passengers aboard long-haul Boeing 767-200 flights the option to hop online during the trip. The GoGo service, which is being provided by Aircell, will charge customers $12.95 for access to the world wide web, though Reuters points out that VoIP calling is "not available." Delta, US Airways, et al. -- time to get with the program.

[Via Dallas News, thanks Travis]