Watch Me: The West Philadelphia Kids That Took on the X Prize

Frontline tells a pretty amazing underdog tale in its new documentary, “Fast Times at West Philly High.” It’s about a group of inner-city high school kids who entered the Progressive Automotive X Prize, a $10 million competition to create a superefficient car. The Philly kids and their teachers didn’t have CAD software or much of a budget, and yet, working out of their school’s bare-bones garage, they managed to design and build two completely unique hybrid cars. Then, on a NASCAR track in Michigan, they drove the hybrids against cars from multimillion-dollar startups and prestigious universities.

It’s not spoiling too much to say that West Philly performed better in the Prize than many expected. Producer Debbie Morton was there at every step, from the garage to the track, and she has put together a remarkably intimate portrait of the team. She captures the vision of the teachers, the personalities and skills of the students, and the ingenuity of the auto hacks. “Fast Times” has a lot to say, not just about cars but about education, and we wanted to give you a chance to ask questions of the key players. You can chat with Morton – as well as with Simon Hauger, the team manager, and Azeem Hill, the student team captain – starting at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, July 17. But you don’t have to wait to submit a question; just type it into the Cover it Live box. And if you’d like to get a sense of the program, see the video trailer below.

Watch Fast Times at West Philly High Preview on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

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Audi Just Reinvented the Dealership Experience

If there were ever a retail model ripe for disruption, it’s the humble car dealer. And Audi thinks it has the answer with Audi City.

The goal is to bring some of the comfort, convenience and customization you’d get from an online car configurator, but with the added convenience of an informative, low-pressure, carbon-based sales rep and a range of new technologies to bring your ride to life – virtually – before you sign on the dotted line.

Think of it as the Apple Store for Audis; smaller, lighter, more scalable, and infinitely more interactive. And Audi is betting big on the concept, with plans to erect 20 more stores worldwide in the next three years.

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RelayRides Car Sharing Service Gets Boost From OnStar

Image: General Motors

Car sharing is starting to gain traction among urban dwellers who occasionally need a vehicle for a few hours, but don’t want to go the rental company day-rate route. In a recent Review Roundup, we found that the P2P car-sharing service RelayRides, which allows car owners to rent their vehicles for a cut of the fee, offered some of the lowest rates but had one of the thinnest fleets.

RelayRides initially launched in Boston and San Francisco two years ago and rolled out nationwide in March of this year. But the company’s community-sourced stable could grow exponentially starting today, as owners of GM vehicles with an active OnStar account can use the system to make access to their cars easier. And it potentially expands the RelayRides pool to over 6 million vehicles. Since the OnStar system has an embedded cellular modem, renters can unlock the car using a smartphone or by sending a text message, and then access the keys the owner has hidden inside – no in-person hand-off necessary.

According to RelayRides founder and chief community officer Shelby Clark, car owners with an active OnStar subscription will be able to add their vehicles to the list of available rentals on the company’s website and link it to their OnStar account in five minutes. If someone browsing the RelayRides site wants to rent the OnStar subscriber’s vehicle and the transaction is approved, the car can be unlocked by pressing a button on RelayRide’s mobile website or by sending a text message. “It’s pretty cool to text a car and watch it unlock the doors,” Clark told Wired.

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Magnificent Decay: Detroit by Drone

Urban ruin porn has gotten so ubiquitous it’s morphed into a dedicated genre, and no other city seems to garner the attention of amateur shooters cataloging a metropolis’ decline more than Detroit. But how do you take it to the next level? Cue the drones.

YouTube user Tretch5000 took to the skies to show the beauty and blight of one of the U.S.’ former industrial hubs, flying his modified quadrocopter with an HD camera over abandoned homes and factories, the majestic Michigan Central Station and the lush grounds of Belle Isle nestled within the Detroit river.

It’s an eclectic mix of modern and decayed Detroit, blending the new with the old, all while showing off Tretch5000′s FPV flying skills. We’re suitably smitten, and would like to hear more about his quadrocopter setup.

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Measuring Mobile-Data Burn on the Road

Streaming music and other data-intensive content are coming to more cars via tethered smartphones and their apps. That’s the good news. The bad news is that without an unlimited data plan these connected features could cost you some serious coin if you blow past your pre-set data limit. But how much you pay largely depends on how much time you spend commuting — and how much you use data-draining features such as internet radio, navigation and other apps on your smartphone.

To get an idea of the real-world data usage while on the road, we took a Motorola Droid Razr Maxx along on a recent drive from LA to San Diego and back, all the while playing Pandora internet radio (using the service’s standard audio quality, 32 kbps) and running the Google Maps Navigation (Beta) app. We covered roughly 250 miles roundtrip, and spent about three hours driving down and about four hours on the return. Gotta love gridlock on the 405 freeway.

All told, we found that if you commute about five hours a week — and depending on your data plan and smartphone habits — you can probably just let the streaming music play without having to worry what you’ll pay. But anything more, and you get into the danger zone.

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