Japanese City Offers Special Taxi Service Exclusively for Pregnant Women For a few years now, pregnant women in Tokyo have enjoyed special maternity services from the city’s leading taxi companies. Taxis have helped women get to prenatal appointments and acquire priority status in the event they go into labor. Recently, the administrative district Iwata Prefecture received its own maternity taxi service called “Sankyu,” an offer from taxi company Furusato Kotsu. – Link
How a College Kid Made His Honda Civic Self-Driving for $700 Who needs a Tesla when you can build your own automated copilot using free hardware designs and software available online? Brevan Jorgenson plans and software downloaded from the Internet, plus about $700 in parts — and took his grandma for a spin. – Link
What the Richest Americans are Driving Now Wealthy Americans: They’re just like us! At least in terms of the vehicles they buy, that is. A new study by a customer service software firm focused on the brands most commonly purchased by high-income Americans—and you won’t find a luxury sedan or sports car among the top choices. – Link
Cover Your Old Car Personality With ‘New Car Smell’ Cologne Want to seem like you’re into cars, without having to actually give a damn about cars?* Ally Financial debuted some conceptual “New Car Smell” scent options at this year’s NAIAS that might be able to help you out. – Link
The hidden new business opportunity in autonomous cars As self-driving cars continue to become more of a foregone conclusion, it is time to shift our attention to the ramifications of this revolution in transportation. Specifically, with computers literally taking the wheel, what will driving-less drivers do with all this newly found free time? – Link
A new app turns your smartphone into an accident-detecting dashcam Uber drivers’ livelihoods depend on being able to stay on the road. If a driver gets in an accident, no matter whose fault it is, that threatens their ability to make a living. Nexar, an AI dash cam, is trying to help drivers and their ride-sharing employers by stopping accidents before they happen. When accidents do happen, Nexar will provide video and data to prove what went down. – Link
Mobileye outfits 4,500 for-hire cars in NYC with collision avoidance tech Mobileye’s long-game is focused on autonomous driving, but some of the tech that feeds into that can have an impact now, including advanced collision avoidance systems. The company has announced that it has completed the installation of accident prevention tech across 4,500 for-hire vehicles used by drivers for services including Uber and Lyft in New York City, as part of a partnership with transportation insurance provider Atlas Financial Holdings. – Link
Scot Wingo joins Spiffy, his latest startup, as CEO Serial entrepreneur Scot Wingo has signed on as CEO of his latest startup, on-demand mobile car wash Spiffy, a move that coincides with the business raising $5 million in outside capital and expanding via an acquisition. – Link