Car Tech

Got Forza Motorsport 4 for the XBox 360? Good. Got a 2012 BMW M5? No? Then this might interest you. Video games aren't just video games any more, they're the gateway to something much better. Gran Turismo has turned several gamers into real racing drivers with the GT Academy, and Forza 4 players...

Over the next five years, the amount of "connected" cars on the road is expected to grow from 5 percent to 100 percent, raising questions about both features and costs.

Don't say we didn't call it. The old-school radio control handset is dead. Back in March we showed a Mini Cooper radio control car being directed via smartphone. Since then we've seen smartphone apps used to control all manner of other objects, and the culmination of these advancements is in one of...

An Austrian company that provides toll transponders to most automated toll systems in the U.S. has just filed a patent for a multifunction camera system to be embedded on future toll transponders.

At this point in the game, satellite navigation is old hat. To really get attention, automakers have to up their game -- and that's exactly what BMW has done with its new microNavigation system prototype. The microNavigation unit works a lot like other satnavs, offering traffic data, suggesting...

Instead of waiting for the cellphone companies to rise to the occasion and install more towers and transmitters, a smart alternative that automakers are clearly considering is the use of cellphone signal boosters.

Earlier this week we spent some time looking at future product and technologies at GM's Design Center. While security was so tight they made us put a sticker over our iPhone camera, we did spot what we believe could be the C7 Corvette gauge cluster. The focal point of the gauge cluster is a large...

Whether you're texting, calling, updating your social media networks, or simply pressing buttons on your stereo or sat nav, in-car technology can be quite a distraction from the actual process of driving. Now it turns out that it isn't just Mr. and Mrs. Average Joe who fall foul of distractions -...

“To Protect and Swerve” is not its title, but a new study suggests tech devices in squad cars pose distractions and contribute to police-involved accidents. Through the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust, Public Safety Administration grad students from St. Mary’s...

For years, we've wanted more from our cars. More power. More performance. More luxury. More gadgets. More recently, we've wanted less, at the same time: Less weight. Less expense. All the time carmakers have been giving us more of some things and less of others, cars have continued to get safer...

BMW plans to start installing its laser headlights onto production cars within three years.

The headline feature of the truly nutty Nissan Juke-R Concept is obviously the twin-turbo V-6 powertrain lifted straight out of the Nissan GT-R. But that's not the only tech the Juke-R gets from Godzilla. It also gets the GT-R's advanced traction control and dynamics logic, to help control all of...

A new iPhone app allows you to easily calculate the cost difference between driving and flying to a given location.

A stress-free journey is a happy journey, and the invention of satellite navigation was the biggest boost for in-car happiness since the bench seat... if you catch our drift. GPS Navigator 7.1 for Android is the latest navigation system, described as next-gen navigation to make drivers' lives...

There are at least three obstacles standing between electric cars and mainstream drivers: range-anxiety, battery recharge times, and the fledgling charging infrastructure. The good news is, Nissan may be well on its way to eliminating one of the three. Working in partnership with Japan's Kansai...

By the time you're miles deep into a huge queue, traffic information on the radio or warnings on the sat nav can seem like a bit of an insult to your intelligence. That's why the most effective solution is one that BMW will be offering to all new European BMW buyers as part of its ConnectedDrive...

Over the weekend we gave you a glimpse of some of the future ConnectedDrive technologies BMW is working on for its future cars, some of which we’ll be seeing much sooner than later. The automaker has now announced one of these, an upgraded version of its Real Time Traffic Information (RTTI)...

BMW's ConnectedDrive will work to boost safety and commuting efficiency.

New ConnectedDrive in-vehicle technologies make the car more functional and intuitive than ever.

Over the past few years, we've seen a number of startups offer ways for city-dwellers to give up their personal rides and make do with borrowing cars from time to time. Zipcar is perhaps the best example of that trend, functioning less as a rental service and more like a car co-op. But recently...