Car Tech

The only thing more annoying than putting your car in the shop is waiting to catch the bus the next day. It's such a common frustration, it made up Everywoman Sandra Bullock's entire backstory in Speed. The worst part is that while some transit systems offer updates to commuters, indicating when...

Drunk drivers who think they can evade the law by looking to certain smartphone apps might suddenly find a roadblock after all. Apple has followed up its big iCloud news earlier this week with some revised guidelines for its App Store—and one of the most noteworthy changes is a crackdown on...

Typical: You've bought a gorgeous Riva Aquarama speedboat, moored up in your local marina. You've bought an aristocratic Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with its wooden decking tonneau, wafting you from city to city. But when you get there, where is your next veneered vehicle? How inconvenient...

You might not think your jeans have the capacity for causing much damage unless you're one of the unlucky souls to have once caught part of their anatomy in the zipper, but they can actually be responsible for undue wear to your car seats. A light-colored leather interior can look absolutely...

We're all big automotive enthusiasts here, but for those of us who don't have a Zondar R or Bugatti Veyron Super Sport in the garage, there's always video games. All three platforms and most of the gaming publishers have wrapped up their press conferences at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)...

Anyone into racing video games should own a steering wheel controller. The extra dimension it adds to any racer over a traditional joypad hugely improves the gaming experience. As with any peripheral device though, gaming wheels usually require several wires to be trailed across your living room...

If you love a steering wheel festooned with handy buttons, and even if you don't, this might be the steering wheel for you. Engineers at the University of Stuttgart in Germany have been hard at work on a new prototype steering wheel that takes interaction with your car to a new level. You may think...

Volvo was one of several auto brands cast off from its parent company during the recent recession. The majority of those marques were shuttered (e.g. HUMMER, Pontiac, Saturn), and one -- Saab -- is struggling to keep the doors open. Volvo, however, has managed to stay the course, and a new app...

Over the past couple of years we’ve been reporting about a new engine concept where a small amount of ethanol is injected directly into a cylinder chamber before combustion along with a blast of gasoline. The burning of ethanol has the positive side effect of cooling the combustion chamber...

You can make your own mind up about the styling of the upcoming 2012 BMW 1-Series hatchback, but one thing is for certain: with larger dimensions and more efficiency, the appeal of BMW's smallest model will be broader than ever. Most exciting for tech fans will be the EfficientDynamics and...

If you've been following the race for the Land Speed Record you'll be familiar with Bloodhound SSC. The U.K-based team headed by Royal Air Force pilot Andy Green hopes to smash the previous record, set by Green himself, by achieving over 1,000 miles per hour. A car with the Bloodhound name has...

Ford’s 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6 proved one point to truck and sedan buyers; thanks to technology like gasoline direct injection and twin-turbocharging, it was indeed possible to squeeze V-8 power and drivability out of a V-6. Their 2.0-liter EcoBoost four looks to prove that V-6 power is...

Laser-beam-emitting-robots were once the stuff of 1950s science-fiction nightmares, but today they’re on our side and helping Ford Motor Company to build a better product. Ford has invested some $100 million to install robotic plant laser inspection technology in their Chicago, Michigan and...

If you're in the market for a new vehicle, you might be tempted to go for something with high-tech safety features, like a collision-avoidance system. At the moment, though, most of that technology is tied to luxury rides or comes as pricey add-ons. But if you've got an Android smartphone, a new...

You can call U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood many things, but "slouch" isn't on the list. At a time when computing and social media are expanding to fill every corner of our daily lives, LaHood is pushing back, urging automakers to limit the technology included in new cars. Not only...

If you own a computer, chances are good that you’ve got it tied into a battery backup just in case the power goes down while you’re hard at work, ignoring the adage to “save early, save often”. If you work in IT, you may even have massive uninterruptable power supply (UPS)...

Car seats have a hard life. They're the one contact point in your car that you use 100 percent of the time, and they have to suffer hundreds of thousands of miles of your own and other peoples' rear-ends whilst remaining comfortable, and, above all, safe. The humble headrest is an oft-overlooked...

What electronic feature would you most like from your next car? That's what J.D. Power and Associates asked 18,000 vehicle owners, and 55 percent were interested in a vehicle diagnostics service. A system that allows your vehicle to send and receive information on car troubles to an engineer was...

In an internal combustion engine, fuel is burned to power the engine, but as a result a lot of heat is also produced. Most of that heat in ordinary vehicles is wasted; but what if you could catch the energy from the heat, turn it into electricity, and use it to increase your fuel efficiency? Well...

Everybody loves John Cleese, right? Beyond his work on the popular Monty Python and Fawlty Towers TV shows -- not to mention many memorable film appearances -- he's written for stage and screen, and he's managed to inject some much-needed humor into the political climate of both the U.S. and...