I’ve seen a few cars being driven by the iPhone, that’s cool and all, but the guys from Mythbusters have basically been doing that for years.  Starting your car with the iPhone makes sense, but driving hands free?  The people from Engineer Awesome, which is a part of Waterloo Labs at National Instruments, make it clear… why drive inside of a car when the outside looks so much more fun?

Weather it is called Redneck Surfing or Ghost Riding, it’s most certainly dangerous (i.e., don’t do this at home), but for the sake of science and engineering it’s pretty cool.  The system is pretty simple, though they destroyed the in the process (seeing how it’s an Olds ‘88 I doubt anyone will cry over that).  I’d like to see someone try this out on a Ferrari, although they should wear football pads.

People continue to find some pretty random uses for iPhone, not to mention the 100,000 apps that are already out there, but there are still quite a few more things we’d like to see come out for the iPhone.  At least we can cross ghost riding off that list now.

A little more like KITT: TV screens come to the connected car

Soon, Glen Beck can drive you crazy… all the way home. Chrysler has just announced it’s plans to integrate a live TV service that will surely turn us all into mindless, drooling media-hungry zombies make your daily commute a little less boring.

Starting in December, Chrysler will be offering its new Flo TV service for $625 — plus installation. Just imagine: paid advertisements filling the calm of your car with all the oatmeal and free credit report commercials you can take. Why, it’ll be almost as fun as, well… your morning commute, I suppose.

Boasting national coverage and including cable networks like CBS, NBC, CNN, Comedy Central, ESPN, FOX, MSNBC, MTV, and Nickelodeon, it seems we are one step closer to physically cruising along the information highway.

Seeing that many states have banned texting while driving, I’ll be curious to see how channel surfing is any less threatening (though the actual viewing screens will remain behind the driver). And with claims like “For endless entertainment, all you have to remember is where you put the keys,” it sure makes me lose a little bit of faith in humanity as a whole. But hey, it’s got a remote control!

Apparently the police plan to use the system in order to direct traffic at peak hours.  Details are sketchy, but it seems that rather than relying upon standard traffic light automation, they will be manually releasing slugs of cars across a particular bridge bottleneck. In some cases they will be able to convert both lanes to send traffic in one direction to handle peak volumes.  I just hope they have some pretty skilled remote control wizards out there, or things could get interesting.

I am interested to see whether or not the system really helps, and if any other cities try it out. At first I was concerned about the ugly precedent for centralized control, but then I started to think that if an automatic light would halt traffic for no reason, there could be a certain efficiency here. And this certainly has to be better then the two officers with walkie talkies direct traffic by hand — which is what they do now.

Of course it is possible to remotely control many traffic lights here in the US using a MIRT. But unless you carry a badge or drive an ambulance, it’s also a federal offense and could land you in hot water.

Starting to think about your Christmas shopping and don’t know what to get Dad? Well, if he’s already got the iPhone remote Viper car starter, how about a remote-controlled Lucky License Plate?

What’s that, you say? You’ve never heard of the lucky license plate? They are all the rage in Southern China. Operated by remote control, these license plates are designed to help you beat the traffic cameras to avoid tickets and fines. For 800 RMB (about US$115) a mechanical version flips down your license plate to obscure your identity. If you’ve got a little extra cash to burn, 2000 RMB gets you an LED-powered plate that can blank out or display fake numbers within a couple of seconds. This technology is quickly overtaking last year’s strategy of choice: fake military plates to scare off humble highway troopers.

“More than 50% of cars caught on camera for speeding and other offenses either cover up their plates or use a fake license plate. Our chances of capturing them is next to nil,” says a traffic policeman in the Yangjiang, Guangdong province. Weird Asia News

As I see it, if 50% percent of cars are getting away with it, somebody must be making a killing off of these magic plates. In fact, according to an anonymous salesman, they’re “…really convenient and economical too.” Anonymity doesn’t get in the way of business, though, because you can always visit the an official website. Not that I clicked through to look around a bit or anything.

If you’ve got a Corvette, you might consider a C5 or C6 remote control license plate frame. And hey, if you want to throw in a stocking stuffer, how about a digital scrolling flash frame?

It is probably a safe bet to assume anyone with a car and an iPhone has said, “man, I wish this thing could start my car.”  Maybe you’ve been walking to your car on a frigid night or a scorching day, but you’ve wondered about it, haven’t you? Maybe you remember this early post from your favorite remote control blog. Viper, a leader in car security and remote starters, must have been paying attention — because they just turned that spoof into reality with Viper SmartStart for the iPhone.

SmartStart is a free iPhone app that allows you to start your car from basically anywhere via your wireless service.  Now hold your horses (or Vipers) — it’s not just going to magically start your car.  There is the $300 Viper SmartStart Module that you are going to have to have professionally installed in your car, as well as an annual $30 subscription to get that gear on the cell network. The first year of the service is free, so I suppose that helps. Kind of reminds me of OnStar.

Pricing aside, the SmartStart system seems pretty cool. It’s certainly the most impressive remote start system I’ve seen. First, the app can be used to start any of your cars that have the module installed — which has to be pretty helpful for car collectors and large families. You can also unlock any of your cars — from anywhere — which would definitely come in handy if you were to, say, locking yourself out of the car when you are away from home.

Here’s the question, though — is it safe from hackers?

Viper SmartStart for iPhone — Dodge Viper not included.