Mini Countryman to be first production car with internet streaming radio? -- Engadget

Mini Countryman to be first production car with internet streaming radio? -- Engadget

PODCAST: Get Out of My Black Box

Toyota continues to hit potholes and unintended media acceleration, and this week its black boxes, a rising death toll and questionable paperwork. Meanwhile, a new study indicates fatter people may be safer when they get in a car crash. Volvo rolls out a totally over-the-top back-seat entertainment system. What happened to looking out the window and watching the scenery roll by? A bunch celebrities -- including George Clooney -- have signed the hood of a Chrysler 300 that will be auctioned to raise money for Haitian relief efforts. And Matt gets a new coworker in Pulitzer Prize winning car columnist Dan Neil.

GetThisShowOnTheRoad Feb 17, 2010.mp3

FLO TV Moves to Automotive Application

I'm not a big believer in TV in the car and I don't know if you ever need more than a DVD player, but here is FLO TV getting into the back seat.

[PODCAST] Toyota Recall Media Hype Exploitation

Matt finds an online mapping tool to help him avoid the snowpacalypse but its too late; Recalling the best Super Bowl ads; David rants about the media hype around the Toyota recall, thus adding to the noise; Fiat discloses plans for new Chrysler models, including the 500 and the sexiest vehicle shown at the Chicago Auto Show was a Honda minivan: Not a good sign for the car industry.

GetThisShowOnTheRoad Feb 12, 2010.mp3

Jon Stewart takes on the Toyota Recall

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Toyotathon of Death
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Distracted Driving Index Declines 12% and Now Stands at 15.8%

SmartDrive Systems, a leader in fleet safety and operational efficiency, released the Q4 2009 SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index of 15.8%, a 12% decline from the Q3 level of 17.9%. The SmartDrive Distracted Driving Index is a quarterly benchmark of the commercial fleet driving distraction rate, and provides fleet safety professionals with an ongoing measurement of causes and trends in driving distraction to help them put safer drivers on the road.

Increased national focus on distracted driving, with new state and federal regulations, helped fuel a decline in overall commercial driver distraction rates, SmartDrive says.

VW Should Learn From Toyota's Mistakes

Volkswagen is looking to overtake Toyota as the largest auto maker in the world, moving up from third place. But perhaps it should learn from Toyota's problems with gas pedals, which some argue is the result of the Japanese auto maker's relentless pursuit of sales and global market share.

Meanwhile, smaller car companies like BMW and Honda have remained healthy and profitable amid the global economic crisis that has tanked auto sales in almost every market. Ford and GM have mostly dismantled their brand empires built in the '80s and '90s as they sought to become giant companies.

Bigger hasn't proven to be better and in fact, may actually be the wrong road to take for car makers in almost every case. There appears to be a certain size that a car maker needs to be to gain economies of scale, but as they seek global sales domination the efficiencies reached through size crumble.

[Podcast] Auto Sales Accelerate, Except for Toyota's Pedal Problems

We're looking for a good sound, maybe a klaxon, to announce our monthly discussion of U.S. auto sales. For January, sales rose, helped by fleet sales and a strong showing by Ford and Chevrolet. Toyota's troubles accelerated and U.S. officials are looking deeper into the Japanese company's handling of the gas pedal recall. Matt recounts his trip to the Philly auto show and David gets a costly diagnosis for his middle-aged Mazda. Will Matt get lured into another season of Nascar fantasy?

GetThisShowOnTheRoad Feb 3, 2010.mp3