If you're in the market for a fuel efficient car, but you've been holding out for something a little more advanced than the Prius -- your dreams may have just been answered. Honda announced today that it would begin producing limited quantities of its FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles for sale in the US and Japan over the next few years. According to the automaker, it plans to offer around 200 of the zero-emission cars in the next three years, with a few dozen models expected on the road this year leased at around $600 a month. Said John Mendel, a senior vice president at Honda, "It's an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars." Now all they have to do is get more than 3 fueling stations out there and we'll be all set.

Read - Honda rolls out fuel cell car
Read - Honda starts producing next-generation fuel cell car

Stand down oh gentle readers and defenders of the flesh, we're getting reports from Detroit that the baton wielding ASIMO did not direct the human race to its doom. Instead, Yo-Yo Ma is safe and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert went off without a hitch while netting the DSO a cool million for the musical education of Grosse Pointe's children. Of course, the Honda-built robot wasn't so lucky as he got "keyed" on his walk back through the parking lot. We kid, we kid.

Update: Video added after the break.

[Thanks, Funke]

One of our favorite bots, Honda's versatile ASIMO, will finally spread its wings and embrace the artistic future it's always hoped for. On May 13, the automaton will conduct the Detroit Symphony Orchestra -- and Yo-Yo Ma -- in a performance of Impossible Dream. The DSO and Honda have combined forces to bring music education to children in Detroit, and ASIMO's concert will be the launching point for a number of projects the Japanese monolith will be sponsoring in the industrial city. Sure, this isn't the first time we've seen a robot conducting an orchestra, but we're fairly confident it will be the best... provided the little guy doesn't take any bad steps.

Honda has a new GPS navigation system for Japan that taps into the police database and points out seedy areas on the map. The device can point out specific locations that cars have been stolen or broken into in the past, as well as generally sketchy districts, which basically means that if you weren't paranoid before you got this installed, you certainly will be afterwards. Honda is launching the service today, and we're sure criminals the world over are already wondering what one of these nav systems will go for on the black market.

We've heard the marketing babble, and pondered the possibilities of a hands-free drive to work, but do those radar-based collision prevention technologies actually work? The British Motor Insurance Repair Research Centre Thatcham seems to think so. BMIRPCT took a long hard look at Volvo City Safety, Mercedes Distronic Plus and Honda CMBS, and decided the technologies will have a major impact on slow speed accidents -- which account for 75% of accidents as it is -- and should prevent more than 125,000 injuries a year in Britain alone, according to this research.

[Via gizmag]

With all of yesterday's excitement over the availability of TV converter box coupons, we totally spaced on the annual Rose Parade, featuring that crazy ASIMO-piloted, transforming Ridgeline float from Honda. Well luckily a member of the YouTube nation was able to (rather shakily) capture a full transformation sequence on home video, which you can catch in three parts after the break. Our take? Pretty impressive for a parade float, but pit this achingly-slow changer against any one of the Decepticons in a ROBO-One-style deathmatch, and Honda would have a lot of truck-plane pieces to sweep up after the carnage.

Generally we're a little too, um, preoccupied on New Year's Day to bother with such trifles as opening our eyes and watching the annual Rose Parade from Pasadena, but with Honda planning an ambitious float for 2008 that will feature a gigantic ASIMO replica riding a transforming Honda Ridgeline, well, at the very least we'll be setting our DVR. According to American Honda, which provides the Tournament of Roses with hundreds of vehicles and has won numerous awards for its entries in the past, its generators will cause "the hood of the truck to fold forward to become an aircraft cockpit, the doors and sides of the truck to unfold outward to become wings, the wheels to tuck under the body, and the bed of the truck to open and take on the form of an aircraft tail section, complete with rocket engines - and even real fire." Giant robots piloting huge fire-breathing truck-planes? If this truly is a "Passport to the Future" as Honda claims, you can sign us up! Lots more pics in the gallery below, and a full seven-part, behind-the-scenes mini-documentary after the break.


[Via The Raw Feed, photos and videos courtesy of Honda]

We're not getting too hopeful about all of this just yet, but reportedly, Honda has worked a new series of "cutting-edge intelligence technologies" into ASIMO. Apparently aimed to keep the poor humanoid from tumbling down stairs, the improvements will supposedly enable it to "operate autonomously with people and other ASIMOs," essentially making it more suitable for real world use. More specifically, the new technologies include a "new system that enables multiple ASIMO humanoid robots to share tasks and work together to provide uninterrupted service to people," an automatic charging function, intelligence to avoid obstacles by stepping back or yielding to oncoming objects and the ability to "perform tasks such as carrying a tray and pushing a trolley." That sound you hear? Yeah, that's the collective grumbling of butlers / maids the world over.

[Via Pocket-Lint]

If you've balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda's Accord during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and while it didn't sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin'. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs...

[Via Autoblog]

We've been tracking Honda's FCX fuel-cell hybrid on and off since we first heard about the concept way back in 2004, and it looks like a lucky few will finally be able to get their hands on one soon -- the company unveiled the production version of the car, the FCX Clarity, at the LA Auto Show earlier today. While it's not clear if the zero-emissions whip still sports that hydrogen-fuel-station-finding GPS system, you'll still be able to get the "gasoline-equivalent" mileage of 68mpg combined city / highway -- but you'll have to extra-special to do it, since Honda is only leasing around 100 of the vehicles to buyers who live near one of its three hydrogen fuel stations in southern California. The rest of us will just have to struggle along with our super eco-friendly Hummer limos, we suppose.

Earlier this year, Toyota was reportedly mulling the idea of crafting its own in-car OS, but now the firm -- along with nine other Japanese companies -- will be collaborating with the Economy, Trade, and Industry Ministry to develop "an operating system for automotive electronics." The initiative is supposedly in reaction to similar joint developments going on with a number of European car outfits, and will aim to "create a global standard in the field." Dubbed JasPar (Japan Automotive Software Platform Architecture), the venture will include big shots such as Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Denso, and Toshiba, and you can look for a prototype version to reach completion in 2009.

[Via The Raw Feed]