Holy cats, Ford is going downmarket. Way down. Way, way down. Daniel Grossman, VP of Ford Motor Company, just announced to ONN the $650 car, which will be the least expensive, and cheapest, car available in any market. That’s right. A car I can afford to buy on my salary. My wife will be so excited. Watch the video announcement after the jump.

If I had one of these things, I’d never get any work done. Unless I was a rally driver, in which case I’ll I’d be doing was work, work, work. Unfortunately (in this case at least) I’m just a blogger, so I don’t won’t be getting paid for zooming around the mountains in a cross between a tricked-out Subaru and a snowtank. Yes, I know there’s no such thing as a snowtank, but you know what I’m talking about.

New Yorkers now have to live with the threat of a $150 fine for texting and driving. (Incidentally, I know a fool-proof way to avoid paying the fine: put your stupid phone away while behind the wheel.) But in the UK? They don’t mess around with their punishments. The New York Times has a story today about a young woman who’s now serving 21 months in prison for her role in car accident that left someone dead. What was her role? That’s right, texting while driving.

Residents of New York State, beware: texting and driving is now 100 percent banned. No, it’s not the first state to enact such a ban—far from it, actually—but sometimes things don’t register till they happen in your backyard. The law goes into effect today, and infractions carry a maximum fine of $150.

Meet AIDA, the Affective Intelligent Driving Assistant. This is a prototype robot that utilizes sensors inside and outside the car to create “a platform comprising of a personal robot and an intelligent navigation system that aims to bring an innovative driving experience.” I don’t own an automobile, so practically every driving experience is innovative to me right now! Rather than traditional destination-oriented GPS navigation, AIDA posits “a navigation system that mimics the friendly expertise of a driving companion who is familiar with both the driver and the city.” Hopefully AIDA won’t complain about my driving the way all my friends do. Video and more inside!

Taking wi-fi hotspots to the extreme, GM has announced that certain models of their vehicles will feature Autonet, a mobile wi-fi solution built into your car and designed to provide you internet access no matter where you are. It’s only going in certain models, but you can probably get one for that old Monte Carlo if you really want to.

It’s almost like someone got their Top Gear in my Mythbusters lately. First the duct tape holding up a car, and now the ‘golf ball’ effect on mileage. So what exactly does happen when you cover a car with clay, and then dimple it like a golf ball?

To call us a “car blog” would sorta be stretching the truth. Occasionally one of the guys—aka Matt Burns—will do a car story, yeah, but that’s primarily because he thinks he’s James May. I have no such illusions of grandeur; I’m just sitting at a desk typing things, and writing student loan checks… Before this gets any further off track, the news: Volkswagen has teamed up with the guys behind Real Racing, Firemint,

Raise your hand if you’ve been caught on camera running a red light (I am raising my hand). Depending upon how often you get caught by red light cameras and how much you have to pay per ticket, this $200 “Red Light Camera Detector” may end up saving you some money and insurance headaches in the long run.

Oh, boy. It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Automobile security system company Viper has just introduced its SmartStart line consisting of an in-car hardware module with a cellular connection that allows you to lock, unlock, and remotely start your car from just about anywhere in the world.

The days of automakers shoving the same OEM radio into all of their cars are long gone – at least for vehicles over $20k. Now if you drop enough coin, you can get a system that will rival your home theater gear. Sound & Vision recently spent sometime with the THX II sound system found in the Lincoln MKT crossover. Spoiler: your audiophile dad should like it.

I bet that on your daily commute to work you’ve often thought to yourself, “Man, this is EXCITING! I wish other people could see what I see! Cars! Billboards! More cars! A truck!”

And while standard dash cams work well for run-of-the-mill vehicular lifecasting, their relatively low resolutions and short recording times make for a less than desirable compendium of your transportational adventures.

We try not to cover too many concept cars and devices, but sometimes it’s just too compelling. I’ve always liked Subarus, personally, and although I’ve pledged not to buy a car until I can get a full electric, I might have to go back on that if this Tourer hybrid goes to production. I hope they find a better name, though, it’s a bit “Rural Juror” for me. But gullwings, baby, gullwings!

Hyundai? Pretty please bring OLED screens to the automotive world. It doesn’t have to be as futuristic as the dashboard in the Blue-Will concept car, but OLEDs are just so nice. Ford is already using LCD screens in its latest hybrids, but why not up the game a bit, and do something radical? Please?

We’ve already noted the dangers of driving while texting, but today there’s evidence that suggests many other people recognize the problem. A recent survey conducted by Nationwide Insurance says that some 80 percent of Americans support some sort of legislation “to restrict cell phone use while driving.” How you define “cell phone use” then becomes an issue.

Help me understand this. Toyota today announced some sort of anti-drunk driving “gadget” (more like a complete system, including a digital camera and a breathalyzer) that prevents a car from being turned on if it detects a certain amount of alcohol in your system. You know, to help reduce the number of drunk driving-related accidents, which in the U.S. caused nearly 12,000 deaths last year. That’s one death every 45 minutes.

We’re normally not too keen on Lego stuff, but we’ll make an exception in the interest of camaraderie. Plus, it involves James May from Top Gear, a show we can all get behind (even if I don’t know a darn thing about cars!). Right, so architect Barnaby Gunning designed a real house out of Lego. No, not a “Lego house,” that is, a Lego house for Lego people, but a real, human-livable house made out of Lego. Indeed.

Man alive, look what I spotted at the local Cold Stone. That’s right, an automobile with this Internet-friendly license plate.