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Seeing the Detroit Auto Show via drone

Seeing the Chevrolet display at the Detroit Auto Show is worth doing this year, and not just because of the new Corvette Z06, Volt and Bolt concept. In order to attract the new kids, The Bowtie has gone what the old kids used to call "buck wild" with their show stand at Cobo Hall. A Corvette Z06, Trax, and Colorado are parked along a central aisle, called Mainstreet, at the end of which is a 20-foot-tall, 73-foot long transparent screen lording over the new Volt. Elsewhere are five more 20-foot-tall screens broadcasting nine stories today's Chevrolet wants to tell about its vehicles, from performance to belief in the power of play to its 4G LTE-equipped OnStar telematics service. Then there are the social media and virtual reality safety installations, the community presentations and more. Chevrolet flew a drone through the stand to show off what it's doing, which is has replaced eye-level video as the next best thing to being there. You can check it out in the video above.

Chevy bringing Spark RS Concept to SEMA

Well, the SEMA mess has well and truly begun. Every year, an increasing number of automakers flock to the Las Vegas auto show, bringing accessories and concept vehicles that are both awesome as well as occasionally questionable. Chevy will bring an RS concept of the new Spark to SEMA, signaling that its styling package will be applied to the brand's smallest vehicle in the near future. We can expect the usual stuff in a production Spark RS – larger wheels, a slightly sportier cabin, a more aggressive body kit, and a small drop in ride height – but for the concept, Chevy wasn't restrained by things like budget. The front splitter, and sill extensions, foglight surrounds, and rear bumper insert are all finished in carbon fiber. The 17-inch alloys are apparently inspired by the Corvette Z06's Z07 package, while the Dark Liquid Switchblade Silver paint is broken up only by a driver's-side stripe. The company is also using SEMA to show its new Red Line accessories, features both concept and production parts for the Trax, Camaro, Malibu, Colorado, and Sierra. Every vehicle gets Enhanced Silver Metallic paint, a charcoal finish on the roof, satin graphite/red graphics, black/red badge kits, and aside from the Colorado, tinted lamps. Individual mods for the Trax include relatively simple tweaks, including new 18-inch wheels, blacked-out bowtie badges, a lowered ride height, and custom badging. It's a similar story on the Malibu, except that its 19-inch wheels are a smidge larger, and its lowered ride height is the result of a concept kit. The first concept based on the new Camaro opts for 20-inch wheels, while adding a few more performance items. The ride height has been lowered, there's a new air intake system, and an upgraded brake package. Chevy has also replaced the front upper and lower grilles inserts with red accents. On the pickup side of the coin, the Colorado gets 18-inch wheels, new intake and exhaust systems, Goodyear Wrangler Fortitude tires, and flared wheelarches. The Silverado gets similar intake and exhaust upgrades, as well as the largest wheels of them all, with 22s at all four corners. The full-size truck also gets a Brembo brake package, while every vehicle, aside from the Camaro, gets Thule roof-mounted accessories. You can check out all six concepts in the gallery above, and then be sure to keep an eye open for live images from the floor of the 2015 SEMA show, slated to open next month.

Can DARPA hack into a Chevy Impala through OnStar?

An ex-video game wizard named Dan Kaufman tracked a circuitous route to becoming the head of the Software Innovation Division at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. DARPA normally makes these pages because of its work with autonomous vehicles and automobile technology that overlaps with military applications, but for the past five years Kaufman and his multiple research teams have been working on creating unhackable software code that could be used in military drones. Part of that work has involved hacking into just about everything else, and as a segment on 60 Minutes reveals, that includes cars. The masterminds discovered a way to hack into OnStar, the General Motors telematics system. After figuring out how to hook into OnStar's emergency communication system, they overwhelmed it with data. While the computer was busy trying to manage the overrun of data, the research team inserted code that took control of the sedan's other computers, giving it control. So while reporter Leslie Stahl tooled around in a parking lot, a DARPA researcher with a laptop would occasionally take control of the car, like by applying its brakes or, conversely, removing the ability for Stahl to use the brakes. Hacking into vehicles has been in the news for years: Car and Driver ran a feature on the various ways cars could be hacked in 2011, two hackers released a car-hacking code at the hacker-fest Defcon in 2013 and demonstrated how it worked on a Toyota Prius and Ford Escape, and German researchers demonstrated how they could hack into BMW's Connected Drive remote-services system last week via an attack on the cars' telematics units. This isn't about GM or Onstar or the future; hacking into cars of all kinds isn't coming, it's here, and it doesn't take the half-billion-dollar annual budget of a small DARPA division to do it. Check out the 60 Minutes video on the CBS site (you can watch the entire video from a mobile device without logging in). The OnStar hacking starts at 6:45, but it's worth watching what leads up to that. News Source: Jalopnik Chevrolet Safety Technology Infotainment Autonomous Vehicles Videos Sedan hacking 60 minutes