The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is on a mission to help create a transportation system that makes us fitter, not fatter The agency, which promotes and protects public health and safety, is pushing active transportation systems in a big way, and it’s fitting in light of the undeniable fact the United States is getting ever fatter. The number of states with an obesity rate of 30 …  Read More →

Craig Henderson drove 1,478 miles from from Blaine, Washington to Mexico without stopping to refuel, burning just 12.4 gallons of diesel for a stunning 119.1 mpg. And he did it in a car he originally designed in 1984. Henderson rolled into Chula Vista, California, at the wheel of the Avion four days after he left home. The Avion is a car he built with Bill Green 26 years ago as a prototype high-mileage vehicle he hoped to sell. The business... 

Small but interesting nugget of news out of Ford, which says it will use a liquid-cooled and heated battery in the Ford Focus Electric we’ll see late next year. Ford is still developing the car, but the prototype we drove had a 23 kilowatt-hour lithium ion pack, which makes it about the size of the air-cooled pack in the Nissan Leaf . By using active thermal management, Ford says it will maximize battery life and range and optimize charging... 

We’re jealous of the folks who get to drive the Zerotracer. It’s a sporty, two-seat, enclosed motorcycle that weighs less than 1,400 pounds, can do zero to 100 km/hr (62 mph) in less than 4.5 seconds and has a top speed of 150 mph. The Oerlikon Solar Zerotracer is among the cool zero-emission vehicles competing in the Zero Race , an 80-day around-the-world race without tailpipe emissions. As cool as the …  Read More →

Editor’s note: Jeremy Hart, an occasional contributor to Wired.com, is driving around the world with a few mates in a pair of Ford Fiestas. He’s filing occasional reports from the road. The Wild West is still wild. As we pull into Scottsdale, Arizona, during Ford Fiesta World Tour 2010 , we get word there’s automatic gunfire coming into El Paso, Texas from across the border. This worries us, …  Read More →

Matt Dieckmann believed the future is electric, and he died hoping to prove it. Dieckmann, the 29-year-old founder of Electric Race Bikes, was killed Monday following a collision with a car in his hometown of Santa Rosa, California. He reportedly was testing a new electric motorcycle at the time. We met Dieckmann, pictured above on the left, at Infineon Raceway during the first TTXGP electric motorcycle race of the season and found him incredibly... 

Looks like the Cygnet, which is nothing more than a reworked Toyota iQ wearing an Aston Martin badge, is headed to the United States. Aston Martin’s been hinting for a while now that it would build the crazy mashup . It always made sense for the European market, where an upscale urban commuter that beats big-city congestion charges might sell well. But Automotive News , citing absolutely no one, says Aston Martin plans to bring the car... 

General Motors has sought a trademark for the term “range anxiety,” providing a glimpse into how it might market the Chevrolet Volt. “Range anxiety” refers to the nagging concern you’ll be stuck miles from home with a dead battery, and it could be an impediment to the widespread adoption of cars like the Nissan Leaf . The Chevrolet Volt , which rolls into showrooms at the end of the year, avoids this by using a... 

Space Exploration Technologies, better known as SpaceX, hopes launch its second Falcon 9 rocket in late October. The goal is putting its Dragon capsule in orbit for the first time. The launch is part of a design and test program started in 2008 after the Southern California company, founded by Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, received a NASA contract for flights to the International Space Station. The $1.6 billion contract, for 12 cargo delivery... 

When Doug Small started drawing up plans for a homebrew electric car, he wanted to start with something lightweight, easy to work on and stylish. Naturally, he decided on an MG TD. Purists needn’t worry, however, as no British roadsters were harmed during the construction of this electric car. This is a replica TD, a mere fiberglass shell atop the remnants of a Volkswagen Beetle. Small, who lives in East Moline, Illinois, chose an old... 

The feds, eager to make fuel economy stickers easier to understand even as new technologies enter the market, suggest assigning all new vehicles a letter grade based upon their efficiency. The best fuel misers would, as you’d expect, get an A while the worst guzzlers would get a D. Assigning each new car an overall grade based on fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions would the biggest change to vehicle window stickers in 30 years.... 

What’s the most exciting part of setting a land speed record in an electric vehicle? Roger Schroer, who drove the student-built Buckeye Bullet to a record-breaking 307.7 mph, says the true thrill comes from witnessing the teamwork involved in building the car. No, that’s not the feel-good copy of a cheesy press release. He says setting a land speed record in the Buckeye Bullet feels more like a successful experiment than a thrill... 

Editor’s note: Few topics we’ve covered have generated as much debate among readers as Rick Cavallaro and his colleagues proving a wind-powered vehicle can travel downwind faster than the wind. Although we don’t expect this to quell the debate, Cavallaro and John Borton recount their adventure here. Brainteaser , n — A puzzle that requires mental/cognitive activity to solve and generally includes thinking in unconventional... 

The age of the automobile started exactly 125 years ago when Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent for his revolutionary “riding car,” a two-wheeled machine driven by an internal combustion engine. His machine looks like a motorcycle with training wheels. But under the strictest etymology — the Greek auto means “self” and the Latin mobilis means “mobile” — the riding car was the first automobile. The... 

The age of the automobile started exactly 125 years ago when Gottlieb Daimler filed a patent for his revolutionary “riding car,” a two-wheeled machine driven by an internal combustion engine. His machine looks like a motorcycle with training wheels. But under the strictest etymology — the Greek auto means “self” and the Latin mobilis means “mobile” — the riding car was the first automobile. The...