Car Tech

  • 2010 Volkswagen Golf TDI

    Cylinder deactivation has been with us for several years in big V8 engines. Both GM and Chrysler have used it and Audi now offers it on its S range. Rather firing on all cylinders during steady freeway driving, the units use cylinder deactivation to save fuel when the power demand is low, shutting off the power to half the cylinders. Volkswagen thinks the technology could be of use in smaller engines too and is introducing the world's first 4-cylinder engine with cylinder deactivaion. The technology will be seen in Volkswagen's next generation 1.4-liter TSI engine. The current model fitted in...

  • NASCAR in Gran Turismo 5
    NASCAR Unleashed Game Looks To "Cultivate" New Fans

    The official NASCAR game franchise is one of the gaming world's longest running series. Though development may have moved from the brilliant Papyrus games through EA Sports to latest developers Activision, the games have provided authentic thrills for NASCAR fans since the 1990s. The latest NASCAR...

  • 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...

  • BMW laser headlight technology
    BMW Develops Laser Headlight Technology

    Having already announced the introduction of full LED headlights in its new 6-Series range, BMW is moving onto the next wave of advanced lighting technology for cars: lasers. BMW engineers are currently working on the introduction of laser light in car headlights, with the aim to improve safety as...

  • David Coulthard tests the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG E-Cell prototype
    Beat An F1 Star In "World's Biggest Race" On Gran Turismo 5

    For everyone who has ever uttered the words, "I bet I could beat that guy" when watching motor racing on television, getting a chance to actually go head to head with a Formula 1 driver could be your opportunity to prove it. European gamers will do just that on September 5, when Gran Turismo 5 fans...

  • BMW Highly Automated Driving prototype
    Stress-Free On The Freeway: BMW's Latest Self-Driving Tech

    We love self-driving cars here at All Car Tech. It's not that we don't like driving ourselves as there's nothing better than having the open road to yourself, but even in the comfiest of cars some traffic conditions make us wish we could simply teleport place to place. In the absence of Star Trek...

  • SiriusXM 'Bring Your Radio Back to Life' campaign

    The Great Recession forced many people to rein in household spending. Among the easiest cutbacks to make? Subscriptions to cable channels, magazines, and other infotainment services. Now that the economy is on the mend (this week, anyway), many of those services are working overtime to woo former customers. Among those toiling hardest to win back subscribers is SiriusXM, which has launched a new campaign called "Bring Your Radio Back to Life". If you're one of the folks who dumped Sirius -- for whatever reason -- the company is offering two weeks of free listening to reacquaint yourself with...

  • 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ
    2012 Chevrolet Silverado Gets WiFi Connectivity Tech

    If you've bought a truck you're probably a fan of the tough image, effortless torque and ample space afforded to you. However, just because your truck is designed for heavy duty work it doesn't mean you shouldn't expect the high tech gadgets you'd find in regular cars. Chevy agrees, and the 2012...

  • SignalGuru
    SignalGuru Uses Crowdsourcing To Time Stop Lights & Save Gas

    Stopping is inefficient. When a vehicle comes to a complete stop, it wastes energy, frittering away gas while idling, and consuming even more to get moving again. This is in part why we're seeing stop-start technology become commonplace in today's greener vehicles. But what if drivers didn't have...

  • The Google Street View Car
    Google Street View Rolls Into Israel (With Restrictions)

    Google Street View -- like its big sisters, Google Maps and Google Earth -- is a great service that has changed the way we view the world, but it's taken a lot of heat, too, especially from privacy advocates. Now, Street View cars are making their first forays into Israel, but they'll be rolling...

  • Super Mario Kart
    Friday Fun: Our Top Ten Retro Console Racing Games

    Occasionally, the All Car Tech team gets pangs of nostalgia for times gone by, and we often yearn for the days of 1980s excess, when braces were red and Porsches were white with whale-tail spoilers. Inevitably, the subject of video games will pop up. We love a good racing game here, and the...

  • Garmin's updated nüvi lineup
    Garmin's Big News Is...Updated GPS Units

    Late last week, Garmin rolled out a teaser campaign for something to be unveiled on August 24th. Assuming that Garmin is a forward-thinking manufacturer of high-tech gadgets, we imagined that the company might roll out an Android app (finally) or perhaps a telematics service to compete with OnStar...

  • ZMP RoboCar MEV-C automated vehicle

    Some cars are beautiful. Others are fast. Some others are incredibly practical. Some other cars are none of these things, but their importance isn't in their looks, speed or usability but the technological advancements they'll offer to the car industry as a whole. The RoboCar MEV-C is one of these cars. Built by Japanese robotics company ZMP it's the antithesis of everything gearheads love about cars. Under that sub-golf cart shiny plastic exterior, cyclops-like single headlight and highly suspect $35,000 price tag lurks some serious autonomous vehicle technology. We've looked at ZMP's...

  • Department of Transportation vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) program
    Connected Vehicle Tests To Begin In Official NHTSA Trials

    Over the last few months the race to develop connected vehicles that "talk" to each other as they're driven along has picked up the pace, with several technology companies and carmakers developing systems to make our roads safer. Now, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is...

  • Thrustmaster's Ferrari 458 Italia replica steering wheel.
    Control Your Xbox 360 With A Ferrari 458 Steering Wheel

    While we all want a Ferrari 458 Italia, not all of us are fortunate enough to have the means. Luckily, Thrustmaster has come to save the day with a new Ferrari 458 steering wheel set-up for the Xbox 360. Thrustmaster worked with both Microsoft and Ferrari during the development of its steering...

  • Ford, Toyota Team Up On Telematics: What's It Mean For You?

    Automotive heavyweights Ford and Toyota joined forces yesterday to make a very interesting announcement. Toyota's executive vice president for research and development, Takeshi Uchiyamada, appeared with Ford's group vice president for global product development, Derrick Kuzak, to say that the...

  • Google Maps adds weather layer from Weather.com
    Google Maps Predicts Rain And Shine With New Weather Layer

    If you're trying to squeeze in one more vacation before summer comes to a screeching halt, you might want to crack open Google Maps. You already know that the service can plan your travel route, but now, Google Maps can help you pack, too, by giving you weather forecasts for your target...

  • Chadwick Martin Bailey study on smartphone & tablet usage habits, May 2011
    Taps For TomTom: The Standalone GPS Unit Is Dead

    The lightbulb killed the gas lamp. The DVD killed the VHS tape. And now, the world is preparing for the death of another invention past its prime: the standalone GPS device. We've been expecting this funeral for some time. Google Maps' debut on smartphones was a bad omen, and each new travel app...

  • Zimride

    Regular readers will remember Zimride, the carpooling service that works like a social network, matching needy commuters with altruistic drivers. Until recently, Zimride had been a private service, sold to universities and large corporations to help students and employees get where they need to go. On Wednesday, however, Zimride launched its first "promoted" public route for carpooling fans -- and it now offers an easy way for drivers to get their gas money, too. The promoted route is longer than the one most commuters take, but it's definitely well-traveled: the 350-mile route from San...

  • BMW ActiveE electric car production line, Leipzig, Germany
    Blowin' In The Wind: Turbines To Power BMW Leipzig Factory

    However green cars are able to get, the process of building thousands of them every year still isn't particularly environmentally friendly. The manufacturers are doing all they can to improve this. GM's Detroit-Hamtramck factory that produces the Chevrolet Volt is equipped with several solar panel...

  • Solar Panels by Flickr user Chandra Marsono
    Solar Tech Could Be Improved Thanks To 13-Year Old Student

    Solar panel technology has, thus far, not been of much use for automobiles. You may be able to specify a small solar panel on the 2011 Nissan Leaf or 2012 Toyota Prius, but it's mainly used to top up the energy needed to power accessories such as your air conditioning or in-car entertainment. As a...

  • Garmin teaser campaign, August 2011
    Garmin Launches Cryptic Teaser Campaign, We Unravel It

    Garmin has launched a new teaser campaign via email and Facebook, and because it's a slow news day, our crack team of marketing specialists has decided to take some guesses at what all the fuss is about. So far, it appears that Garmin's campaign has two components: an email containing an image that...

  • Zeroshift seamless-shift manual gearbox
    Zeroshift Seamless-Shift Gearbox Faster, Cheaper Than Dual Clutch

    British company Zeroshift is developing a revolutionary new transmission that promises to offer faster gearshifts than a dual clutch transmission, which is already blistering quick at eight millisecond shifts, but is also more fuel efficient, lighter and cheaper too. The key is the...

  • Forza Motorsport 4
    Video: Creating Hockenheim For The Forza Motorsport 4 Game

    The 1980s was an exciting time to be a young person. The reason? Video games. From coin-operated arcade games to the advent of home games consoles a whole generation had a new form of entertainment and for the budding gearheads, the best fun was provided by racing games. Just as car technology has...

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