Nearly two-thirds of men admit they've run out of gas while driving their automobiles, while 52 percent of women say they've never done this.

Half of men also said they've been criticized for being "reluctant to stop the car and ask for directions" compared to only 13 percent of women who said they've received this criticism.

"Everybody was filling up for under $5," said gas station attendant Tracy Moore, who wasn't immediately aware of the problem. She contacted her boss, who ordered all the pumps to be shut down.

Moore said she did not know how many vehicles filled up their vehicles at the reduced rate, but long lines were common as word of the cheap gas spread through town.

"It was just very scary being bombarded like that," Moore said. A line spilled out of the gas station island onto Charles Street. "Even the (neighboring) Sandwich Factory called me up and said, "Tracy, you’ve got a line."

About 64 percent of model year 2005 cars were equipped with EDRs, according to NHTSA. Some manufacturers already include information about the EDR in the owners manual, but not all, said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for NHTSA.

"If you have a new vehicle, chances are it's got one," he said.

Data from the recorders is used by law enforcement and attorneys to recreate events directly leading up to an accident. Data is also used by car companies to research how cars and drivers perform in actual crashes.

Some privacy advocates have expressed concern that the data, which can be used as evidence in court cases, is being collected without the knowledge of vehicle owners and drivers.

The devices are virtually impossible to disable because their functioning is so tightly integrated with vehicle safety systems such as airbags and anti-lock brakes.

But on many campuses today, college kids want the wicked whips they've seen in popular movies like "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" and hit shows like MTV's "Pimp My Ride." Nearly nine out of 10 college students today own a car, according to a survey by Harris Interactive. They've become a $15 billion auto market and now purchase nearly one in 10 new cars, according to automotive researcher J.D. Power and Associates. And many aren't satisfied with stock. They're spending $4.2 billion a year customizing their cars, according to the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association. They're outfitting their rides with ground-shaking sound systems, nitrous-injected engines and 20-inch rims (called dubs in street parlance). "Just like their ringtones, their clothes and their dorm rooms," says SEMA's Peter MacGillivray, "their vehicles reflect their personalities."

That's why there is no single "look" that dominates campuses now. Back in the '90s, Civics were so prevalent that student parking lots looked like Honda dealerships. Now the Civic isn't even in the top 10. Instead, college-age kids are going for a mix of mostly Asian models. The top five, according to J.D. Power, are the Scion tC, Acura RSX, Mazda3, Volkswagen GTI and Hyundai Tiburon. The common characteristic: all these models are easy to modify. California Polytechnic engineering student Erick Li spent $4,000 customizing his black Scion tC by lowering it, beefing up the suspension and adding red "underglow" interior lights and high-intensity headlights for carving turns in the California hills. "A lot of cars can outpower me," he says, "but I can outmaneuver them."

"The Jeep Compass music tour kick-off concert and subsequent grassroots concerts are a great opportunity to expose a wide audience to some new, really talented artists," said G. Love. "We are excited to be part of the New York event and look forward to making some great music."

Following the Central Park kick-off event, Uncharted: The Jeep Compass Music Tour hits the road, with the emerging artists touring eight regions of the country and performing at stops -- some planned and some spontaneous -- in their designated region. The performance stops will be at traditional concert venues and public locations that are popular with music-oriented audiences. During each performance, the artists will incorporate the all-new Jeep Compass with its flip-down rear lift gate speakers.

"The artists in Uncharted: The Jeep Compass Music Tour were selected for their 'true-to-themselves' sound. Similar to the Jeep brand, they are authentic and original," said Jay Kuhnie, Director - Jeep Communications. "Through this concert series, we want to reach a new audience who are not traditional Jeep buyers, but a much younger group that makes music a part of its lifestyle. G. Love is an excellent choice to kick off the concert series with his unique sound and popularity with the people we want to reach."

iLane is a small device that interacts directly with existing Bluetooth-enabled handheld devices, allowing drivers to fully access their email in transit. iLane notifies the driver of incoming emails and other important information by reading a brief summary in a "natural sounding voice". The driver can then listen to the entire email message; forward or compose a response using verbal instructions. Phone calls, SMS messages, and a number of email attachment types can also be managed. In addition, filters can also be set to prioritise mail, so you don't get hassled with that latest sales pitch from an online store.

Google Inc. said on Tuesday that the company has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with "live" traffic data.

The Mountain View, California-based company said that Google Maps for Mobile would allow mobile phone users to chose a destination within Google Maps and select "show traffic," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps calculates the route to the location.

Highway traffic information is sent to the phone, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: -- red for congested, yellow or orange for slowdowns, and green for smooth sailing.

What you're looking at could be the 2056 Alfa Brera with the optional hover package. Called the Alfa Romeo Spix flying concept car, it was designed by a 2-D/3-D artist from Belgium (we think) who posted pics of his creation along with an absolutely stunning video on CGfolks.com. Can you believe he does this for fun? (Actually, it appears he's begun a small design firm, but we can't confirm that due to the language barrier.) Known as Creatix on the CGFolks forum, the artist explains his attempt to fuse an impression of power and robustness in a design that reflects what Alfa Romeos might look like in 50 years.

And for Dick Glover, NASCAR's Los Angeles-based vice president for media and broadcasting, the whole scenario felt like Jimmie Johnson grabbing the checkered flag at Daytona International Speedway.

"NFL is the gold standard for sports in this country and baseball is the national pastime," Glover explained in an interview. "We know we need to do what we can to become more a part of the day-to-day consciousness."

No one is ready to declare "mission accomplished" just yet, but when one of Hollywood's most bankable stars attaches himself to the country's fastest-growing major sport, someone is doing something right -- in addition to doing something no other major sport is doing right now.

It is hardly a coincidence that for the third consecutive summer, stock-car racing is featured on big screens across the country, or that NASCAR drivers keeping popping up everywhere from "American Idol" to the soap opera "Days of Our Lives."

The Hoboken garage is one of a handful of fully automated parking structures that make more efficient use of space by eliminating ramps and driving lanes, lifting and sliding automobiles into slots and shuffling them as needed. If the robot shuts down, there is no practical way to manually remove parked vehicles.

In the days that followed, both sides dragged each other into court. Robotic accused Hoboken of violating its copyright. "This case is about them using software without a license," said Dennis Clarke, chief operating officer of Robotic Parking, in a telephone interview last week.

At the same time, Hoboken accused Robotic of setting booby traps in the code, causing the garage to malfunction. Then Robotic accused Hoboken of endangering its business by allowing a competitor into the garage.

In the meantime, many of the garage's customers simply couldn't get their cars out.

"The technology is doable right now," says Carsten Bergmann, a VW lab manager. (Of course, getting the right data to the right car at the right time calls for fiendishly complicated threat-detection algorithms that are far easier with four cars than with hundreds of them.)

General Motors has gone one better than VW with a demonstration DSRC-equipped Cadillac CTS that stops itself to avoid accidents. Its enhanced stability-control system predicts where it's headed—like, into the rear end of another DSRC car stopped in the middle of the road—and prompts the onboard computer to apply the brakes without any input from the driver. The effect is very cool. It's also a little spooky, and many doubt that live-free-or-die Americans will ever sign off on fully autonomous vehicles.

Luckily, engineer Tomiji Sugimoto and his team at Honda R&D are working on a human-machine interface that will keep drivers in the loop. Head-up displays are a no-brainer. But Honda is also developing what's called haptic feedback, such as shaking steering wheels and pedals that vibrate.

"We're talking about a system that acts like a backseat driver," Sugimoto says. Except it's a backseat driver that's always right.

Cherry Bomb is teaming up with Mopar Performance to build a fully modified 2006 Cherry Bomb Charger. The car's 5.7 Hemi engine will be tricked out with the latest performance enhancements available from Mopar Performance including high performance camshaft, lifters, torque converter, and engine and transmission controller. Other performance modifications include: headers, coil over suspension, upgraded Kicker speakers, a 3d Carbon ground effects kit, and of course a killer Cherry Bomb exhaust system.

The Cherry Bomb Charger will debut at the 2006 SEMA show followed by a full round of appearances at numerous automotive enthusiast events in 2007.