future

  • Daan Roosegaard's designs for safer highways

    The problem with highway signs is that drivers rarely, if ever, pay attention to them. “Keep right, except to pass” may as well be written in hieroglyphics for all the good it does, and the same can be said for signs that read, “Caution, bridge freezes before road surface.” What if the road itself gave you a warning, in the form of a giant, full-lane-width snowflake, when the surface dropped below freezing? This may sound like science fiction, but in the eyes of Dutch visionary Daan Roosegaarde it’s merely good design and one of several ready-to implement ideas...

  • Anthony Franze's BMW Reward Me concept
    BMW and Local Motors Pick Urban Automotive Technology Winners

    In September, we told you that BMW was partnering with automotive crowdsourcing expert Local Motors for an urban automotive technology design contest. The idea was simple: use Local Motors’ Forge community to address challenges faced by urban drivers in the coming years. As The Forge has...

  • Nissan's steer-by-wire system
    Infiniti To Get Steer-By-Wire Technology In 2013: Video

    Conventional steering systems provide a mechanical link from the steering wheel to the front wheels, which is generally power-assisted via hydraulics on modern automobiles. For decades, this delivered a reasonable blend of handling and ride comfort, even if it came with certain trade-offs in...

  • BMW's UR:BAN project looks to improve city traffic safety
    BMW's Project UR:Ban Looks To Improve Driver Safety In Cities

    According to BMW’s research, cities continue to grow larger as more and more people embrace an urban way of life. As a result, cities are getting more crowded with both pedestrians and automobiles. One of the biggest challenges in future urban mobility, then, is finding harmony between...

  • Cadillac's CUE iPad app.
    Harman Reveals Gesture-Based Automotive Controls

    There’s a clear trend towards simplification in automotive control design, even as telematics and infotainment systems get more complex. Cadillac’s CUE system, debuting in the ATS and XTS sedans, operates much like a tablet computer and is even capable of recognizing hand gestures...

  • GM's Windows of Opportunity project.
    Are Interactive Windows For Rear Seat Passengers In Your Future?

    GM recently challenged Israel's Bezalel Academy of Art and Design to come up with new ways to enhance the rear-seat driving experience. The result was "Windows of Opportunity."

  • WipeOut HD on PlayStation 3

    Anyone under the age of about 30 who grew up in the "PlayStation Generation" will have heard of the videogame Wipeout. For anyone who hasn't, it's a game in which you pilot a futuristic anti-gravity racing ship around utopian race circuits. The original game was set in 2052, which back in 1997 seemed suitably far away for such a technology to develop. Imagine our surprise when we learned that Wipeout already exists! Okay, so it's not quite full scale, but as you can see in the Youtube video above, those are genuine hovering vehicles, defying gravity as they rush around a miniature circuit. So...

  • BMW i8 Concept live photos, 2011 Frankfurt Auto Show
    BMW Now Developing Production Laser Headlight Tech

    "Farewell, LED lights, it was nice knowing you. We've enjoyed a good few years together, but now something better has come along and swept us off our feet." So might go the "breakup speech" with LED lights, now that BMW has announced it's working on a production version of the laser headlights we...

  • The Graphene Carbon Lattice
    Graphene The Missing Link In Lithium-Air Battery Technology?

    With so many different technologies vying to be the "next big thing" with electric car batteries, the law of averages dictates that at least one of those genuinely will be the next big thing. The latest "next big thing" is graphene lithium-air batteries according to Talking Points Memo, and they're...

  • 2012 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive
    2012 Smart ForTwo Electric: Car Of The Future, Now? (Video)

    We're constantly thinking about what the car of the future will look like. It's hard not to when you write about them every day. Little did we know the car of the future will be here rather soon. Or at least, that's what Smart is saying. The 2012 Smart ForTwo Electric Drive will provide a little...

  • Bridgestone Airless Tire Technology
    Bridgestone Airless Tire: Puncture-Proof Tech On The Way

    Although it'd be unfair to say that tires are one of the more old-fashioned aspects of your modern car - since tire manufacturers spend millions constantly developing them - they do have their flaws. Your typical pneumatic tire is liable to suffer punctures, which can either be inconvenient or...

  • 2010 Ferrari 458 Italia
    Ferrari's Future Cars Staying Aluminum, Not Carbon Fiber

    The battle of lightweight materials is becoming one of many players. Companies like Mazda are striving to cut down weight with clever use of high-strength steels. Lotus has always gone the way of plastic composite bodies. Even magnesium has been suggested for reducing weight. Ferrari and McLaren...

  • Ammonia could be used as fuel. Image: Wikipedia user Ben Mills

    Ammonia: Useful in fertilizers, cleaning products and fairly unpleasant in direct human contact. Used as a fuel for vehicles? Certainly not impossible, according to an article in New Scientist. John Fleming and Tim Maxwell at Texas Tech University are developing a system to produce ammonia that can be installed in filling stations. What are the benefits? Rather than using hydrogen to power fuel cells and the associated high-pressure storage problems associated with this, Fleming and Maxwell would use water to produce hydrogen from electrolysis, and this is then combined with nitrogen from the...

  • BMW i Launch Event, Frankfurt, July 2011
    Move Aside LED Lighting Tech, BMW Is Firing Up The Lasers

    Sometimes the pace of development in the automotive segment has echos of Moore's Law, the trend for power in the computing world to double every two years. No sooner have manufacturers such as Audi started ditching halogen and HID lighting for intelligent and ultra-bright LED light clusters in some...

  • Traffic
    Future Urban Mobility Relies On Real-Time Data Access

    The requirements for travel within the urban environment comes under greater pressure with every passing year. We're already past the point at which more than 50 percent of the world's population live in cities rather than rurally, and it's only set to increase. The Future Urban Mobility (FM)...

  • 2011 Nissan Altima Hybrid
    Nissan Unveils Massive Product Plan: 52 New Models Coming

    The automaker is aiming to introduce one new vehicle every six weeks on average.

  • FutureTruck big rig concept. Image: Jeremy Singley
    We Have Aerodynamic Cars, Why Not Streamlined Big Rigs?

    Think automotive aerodynamics and you'll either think of aerodynamic components for reducing lift or increasing downforce, or you'll think of streamlined, low-resistance vehicles like the 2011 Toyota Prius. Car designers have a tough job to combine these features in your typical road car - ideally...

  • 2012 BMW 1-Series Hatchback spy shots
    2012 BMW 1-Series Hatchback Spy Shots

    BMW released an updated version of the 1-Series Hatchback in late 2008 but ever since then suspicious prototypes of a new car with similar proportions and signature BMW styling have been captured running around the south of Germany, and now once again and this time with much of the finer details...

  • OnStar-Verizon 4G LTE prototype system

    A few days ago we brought you the full details on the new prototype OnStar telematics/infotainment system launched at CES this week. Today, we have a screenshot tour showing you what it looks like, and an interesting tidbit of info from OnStar's senior systems engineer Mark Frye. According to Frye, the prototype installed in the Buick LaCrosse at the CES was developed in a total of 6 months, start to finish--very rapid prototyping. Though we lamented the lack of plans or time frames for bringing the system to market in our original article, Frye says that if OnStar were to decide to implement...

  • Visteon C-Beyond technology demo car
    CES 2011: Visteon's C-Beyond Demo Car Shows Tech Of 2015

    If Visteon's C-Beyond demo car, shown for the first time in North America at the CES today, is any indication, 2015 will be a year to remember for automotive tech heads. Visteon, a tier one OEM supplier behind much of what's cool in our cars today, has built the C-Beyond as an exciting peek at the...

  • 2010 Toyota Prius
    Study: Hybrids to make up one in five U.S. car sales by 2020

    Just a bit over ten years ago, only a few of the dedicated had any idea what a hybrid car was, but in another ten years or so, the eco-friendly vehicles will account for 19.4% of total sales in the U.S., according to JP Morgan's latest estimates. Today hybrids make up a little less than 1% of the...

  • 2011 Ford Focus preview
    Ford confirms Michigan plant for new global Focus

    As the second model developed under Ford’s new global design strategy (the first being the new Fiesta), the next-generation Ford Focus will be manufactured at Blue Oval plants at all corners of the globe. In addition to its regular haunts in Europe, the Focus will be manufactured in Australia...

  • audi intelligent emotion design project 022
    Student designers tapped for Audi 'Intelligent Emotion' project

    The future of automotive mobility is a question that has always captivated the mind of the carmaker and the driver alike. Today Audi takes its turn to give us a glimpse into what they think the future may hold, seen through the eyes of design students at the Munich University of Applied Sciences...

  • GM Detroit headquarters
    GM preparing for bankruptcy

    General Motors is reportedly preparing for the worst, with work under way to get the company ready for a possible bankruptcy. Earlier on this month, it was mentioned that a bankruptcy plan to split GM and retain only the most profitable aspects of its operations while ditching the dead weight was...

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