Road Trip: National Harbor to Richmond, VA

The day was already off to a less than auspicious start. My flight into National Airport, just outside of DC, had gone smoothly enough despite being a bit late. The shuttle to National Harbor was uneventful enough, despite requiring a much longer wait than originally expected. Things started to come apart at the seams, however, when I stopped at the Hertz rental car counter in the hotel to pick up the car I had reserved. Apparently, they had a few cars that were delayed in coming back and despite the fact that I had a reservation to pick up the car at 3:30PM, the earliest a car would be available would be 6PM. Since I was expected to be in Richmond, about 2 hours away, for dinner, that just wasn't going to cut it. Throw in some surly service from an overwhelmed counter rep and my patience was wearing thin. Figuring that the airport location would have more cars, I called for a shuttle and headed back to the airport.

Arriving at the airport location, I headed for the Hertz counter. The large number of people sitting around waiting should have been a clue, but I was hoping for the best. I approached the counter and as the guy pulled up my reservation on the computer, it was looking like things would finally be going my way. We went through nearly the entire process before the rep at the counter informed me, with an air of "sucks to be you," that there was a 90-minute wait for a car. Running out of time, I gave the rep a piece of my mind, in no uncertain terms, before canceling my reservation. Taking a step back, head full of steam, I looked down the row of rental car counters and picked out Budget, mostly because there was absolutely no one in line. Before I even began the process, I asked the counter rep if they had cars available immediately and he assured me that he did, although they only had coupes left: one Mustang and one Camaro. Before deciding, I inquired as to whether the cars were V6 or V8 versions - the Mustang was six-cylinder, but the Camaro was an SS with the V8. Jackpot!

Innovation: Audi Traffic Light Assist

Image courtesy of Yahoo! Autos

It is rare that new driver assist technology catches my attention these days as I find much of it extraneous and believe that it has a tendency to promote laziness and poor driving habits. However, at CES this year, Audi introduced a new piece of technology that not only has my interest, but just might be something that I would actually use myself. Called Audi Traffic Light Assist, the technology showcases the ability for Audi's cars to receive information about the upcoming traffic lights along the current path and have a countdown display in the center gauge cluster, helping the driver determine how long before the current light will change. Ostensibly, this means that with just a little forethought, this could help a driver make every green light along their route, allowing them to optimize their travel time.

As a side benefit, this technology could help alleviate some traffic jams as well as help reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing the amount of time that cars spend idling at stoplights. Display the information on a head-up display in cars or via a helmet, like the upcoming Skully AR-1, for motorcyclists and it could become one of the most useful pieces of automotive technology to have been introduced since in-car GPS.

This is one piece of driver assist technology that I not only hope makes it from concept into production, but I hope spreads itself throughout all manufacturers as it would have some genuine benefits and could be something that makes driving a little more enjoyable and a little more predictable.

Test Drive: 2014 BMW 535d xDrive

Diesels and sport together seems counter intuitive. The oil burning motors are better known for providing superior torque for towing and superlative fuel economy in passenger cars. But when a manufacturer best known for its sport sedans throws its weight behind diesel motors, any enthusiast worth his salt has to at least sit up and pay a bit of attention. This is why I recently found myself behind the wheel of BMW's latest entry into the sport diesel market, the 535d. Combined with BMW's xDrive AWD system, the twin-turbocharged inline-six, this luxury sport diesel (that seems like quite a contradicting mash-up) seems to be the model that BMW is banking on as its volume seller in the 5-series line-up for New England.

However, given BMW's reputation for providing excellent sport sedans, can a car that plays on so many contradicting ideas continue to deliver the ownership experience that make BMW's so popular with their buyers? Or is this just the latest in a long line of odd disappointments from what was once the most storied sport sedan manufacturer on the planet?

Innovation: Augmented Reality for the 2-Wheeled Lifestyle

Image courtesy of Indiegogo

As long as I have been a motorcycle rider, I have always thought that it would be awesome to be able to get some sort of a heads-up display that could project an image onto the visor of my helmet. The display could help track speed, gear, and possibly even provide directions if linked to a GPS unit or smart phone. Other functionality that we can already get with existing helmet communicators should be integrated as well, allowing hands-free calling via a Bluetooth connection to a mobile phone and also music playback. There have been a few solutions that have attempted to accomplish pieces of this, but none that provide a truly integrated experience that is safe and easy to use.

Lucky for me, LiveMap and Reevu are two companies looking to change the way we think about helmets.