automobile

All eyes will be on Ford during the company's press conference at the 2013 International CES. The event kicks off at 4 p.m. PT (7 p.m. ET) on Monday, January 7, and CNET will be there to cover it live. We'll have a live video stream, along with a live blog chock full of news and analysis, as it happens.

You can tune in to the blog and video stream here:

Siri's full functionality is coming to two Chevrolet cars next year, General Motors announced today at the Los Angeles International Auto Show.

Siri will be available to customers who buy the Chevrolet Spark and Sonic. The virtual personal assistant connects wirelessly with the Chevy MyLink infotainment system and allows people with the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 with iOS 6 to perform a host of Siri-related tasks.

According to Chevrolet, Siri will be available in Eyes Free mode, letting users make voice-activated calls, access their calendars, and listen to and compose text messages. However, Eyes Free mode won't … Read more

Televisions weren't the only product late Steve Jobs wanted to revamp. According to one of Apple's current board members, Jobs was eyeing automobiles too.

That tidbit came during an interview with J. Crew CEO and Apple board member Mickey Drexler at Fast Company's Innovation Uncensored conference in New York last month. The outlet released a video of the interview late yesterday.

"Look at the car industry; it's a tragedy in America. Who is designing the cars?" Drexler said. "Steve's dream before he died was to design an iCar."

Drexler suggested that … Read more

Over the last few years, the passenger car has evolved from a gas-guzzling hunk of steel into what some have called the largest piece of consumer electronics in your life.

So, while it's fitting that the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2012) will likely be a jumping-off point for the next stage of development on car infotainment, connectivity, and safety technology, I still find it a bit odd to see so many cars sharing the floor with the likes of 3D TVs and compact digital cameras. Now that the car has established itself as a cornerstone of CES 2012, … Read more

I confess I'm a bit anticar these days. Hey, if you need one, you need one. Sometimes it's unavoidable. But I tend to side with those who think that too much of our shared public space has been given over to the motorized monsters.

Still, I'm not immune to a touch of the ohhs and ahhs when it comes to a cool auto. And I readily admit to being seduced by quaint old vehicular contraptions like the cable cars that are so famous here in CNET's home town of San Francisco.

So if I had a spare $2 million lying around, I might be tempted to scoop up a beautiful little gizmo that's going up for auction early next month.

It's the oldest running car, or so says RM Auctions, the house that's overseeing the sale. And as you can see from the photos here, it's a steampunk lover's dream come true. Can you envision puffing down Main Street on cruise night in this black beauty? Or bringing it to Burning Man and quite simply crushing every other "art car" like a grape?… Read more

MUNICH, Germany--I might have thought I was in Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Guggenheim Museum, but that was just a visual trick brought on by the spiral ramp.

Actually, I was at the BMW Museum, the car-maker's homage to its eight decades of making automobiles, motorcycles, and engines. And with 125 of its most beloved machines displayed for its biggest fans and most loyal customers, it was hard not to be taken in by the history of what the company long called the "ultimate driving machine."

As part of Road Trip 2011, I took some time to … Read more

DEARBORN, Mich.--The car design game has come a long way since the pad and paper Lee Iacocca and his team used to design the first Mustang in 1964. To show the high-tech tools that give birth to cars these days, Ford Motor Company rolled out a look behind the scenes at its 2011 Forward with Ford conference here.

A major theme for the design portion of Forward with Ford was the automaker's focus on the "global convergence of design," or the concept that social media and other world-shrinking technologies are merging concepts of design expectations and preferences among consumers. Cars must look as good on French roundabouts as they do on American freeways, and the qualifications for that motorway beauty are becoming increasingly similar from consumer to consumer and country to country. … Read more

Raising federal fuel economy standards to as high as 56 mpg in the 2025 model year would yield fuel savings to consumers that more than offset higher vehicle prices, a new study found.

But lifting corporate average fuel economy to 62 mpg would result in vehicle price increases that exceed fuel savings over a five-year period, according to the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research.

The report highlights room for compromise on the Obama administration's preliminary proposal to raise CAFE to between 47 mpg and 62 mpg from the 2017 to 2025 model years.

Environmental groups have pushed for 62 … Read more

The Volkswagen Beetle enjoys a long and storied history. And now, it's moving into its third generation.

The Volkswagen Beetle is arguably one of the most recognizable cars on the road. First launched in the U.S. in 1949, the car was a staple in the country for 30 years. Over that span, Volkswagen sold nearly 5 million Beetles in the U.S. alone. After being discontinued, the Beetle was brought back in 1998. Through 2010, the New Beetle's sales topped 477,000 units in the U.S. All told, more than 22.5 million Beetles (first- and … Read more