Car Tech

There are thousands of tech developers out there, trying to make driving more fun, more efficient, and less frustrating. Apps like DriveSafe.ly, Parking In Motion, and Waze are the fruits of their labor. But there are just as many folks with great ideas for improving the roadways who don't have the...

We've all seen them, some of us may even have put them on our own cars, but these accessories belong on everyone's no-fly list. Avoid the parts-store impulse and save your car (and yourself) some embarrassment. Robocop-Levels Of Gear/Mounts You're not an on-duty cop (and if you are, your work...

Most of BMW's EfficientDynamics technologies are pretty sleepy numbers: nearly-invisible aerodynamic tweaks, thermal efficiency improvements, electric power-assist systems, and the like. Some of them, however, are downright fascinating, like the future predictive eight-speed transmission detailed...

Straight outta Redmond, Toyota and Microsoft will be pairing up for a new Windows Azure-based telematics platform that Toyota is pitching as a "contribution to society," designed to save energy in every aspect of your life. Microsoft's tendrils are about to reach even more deeply into your life. At...

A new strategic partnership between Toyota and Microsoft will see the next generation of telematics systems built on the Microsoft Azure platform, allowing the incorporation of GPS, energy management, multimedia, and more within a single platform. Microsoft's SYNC system, already several years old...

Sometimes, a cab just won't do. More likely, they're all booked up and you're late to an engagement. Want to arrive in style, and in time? You'll want the Uber experience. Uber isn't just a clever name. It's also a clever App, that makes the process of hiring a luxury cab service easy, quick and...

Jailbreaking your iPhone may be legal now, but that doesn't mean the UI perfectionistas at Apple will let other megacorporations have their way with the lovely walled garden that is the iPhone. Two tech sites report today that Apple has come down on Toyota for promoting an app that puts custom...

Brushing the red line, grabbing top gear and clipping the apex, AllCarTech brings you our full review of the latest racing title to hit your PlayStation 3, Need For Speed: Shift 2 Unleashed. Last week we brought you our first impressions of the EA Games and Slightly Mad Studios racer and with a few...

Here in America, we think Google Street View is great -- all unicorns and double-rainbows -- but elsewhere in the world, folks have been significantly less enthralled. Germany ordered Google to let citizens opt-out of having their homes included on the service. England and Canada found Google...

Car companies draw inspiration from the strangest of places. The styling of the 2010 Nissan Cube was apparently inspired by the look of a bulldog in sunglasses, and the fins of many 1950s cars were a homage to the space race. However, we've not yet seen car technology inspired by a chocolate bar -...

If we were app developers, the next-to-last frontier we'd want to conquer -- right after organ donation -- would be parking. By their very nature, cars are constantly in motion, taking and leaving spaces in parking lots, garages, and on city streets. Maintaining an accurate database of available...

Not long ago we took a look at a remote control car steered not via a traditional controller, but using a touch-screen smartphone. It's already been upstaged, this time using an Apple iPad and an HTML5 web app that uses the tablet's motion sensors in a similar manner to that of the smartphone R/C...

Some things in the motoring world are inexorably linked. Classic car enthusiasts often have an interest in other classic transport - boats, aircraft, motorcycles. The glitz and glamour of Formula 1 racing goes hand-in-hand with champagne. Many motorsports though have a timepiece connection. In...

Like the streets of his beloved Hollywood Hills, Charlie Sheen's life is full of twists and turns. The actor has a reputation for being a party boy, and his tumultuous life has been well-documented in tabloids and tweets. But Sheen's recent meltdown gave him the opportunity to reinvent himself --...

Thanks to the kind folk at EA Games we've got hold of a copy of the latest game in the long-running Need For Speed franchise, Shift 2 Unleashed (S2U), in PlayStation 3 format. As with the previous Shift title, Unleashed errs more on the simulation side of racing titles rather than the franchise's...

Plastic is one of mankind's great inventions. It's more or less impossible to get by in the modern world without owning or using something made from one type of plastic or another - from the computer you're reading this on to food packaging and beyond. Cars, too. Have a quick think about the car...

They say that cars are getting more complicated, and that home maintenance is becoming less easy to accomplish under all the plastic covers and with unfathomable electronics. Still, for four million motorists in Great Britain, dabbling in a little mechanical upkeep is the least of their problems -...

Last week, four U.S. Senators expressed outrage over smartphone apps designed to reveal the location of DUI checkpoints. As they said in letters to Apple, Google, and Blackberry, "Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of...

If you live somewhere with particularly changeable weather and low temperatures during the winter you'll be familiar with potholes. The broken road surfaces and large holes that result can play havoc with traffic and vehicles, damaging suspension, wheels, tires and bodywork and even causing...

Before the advent of video games and thousands of cars stunningly recreated in high polygon models on hundreds of detailed race tracks, we used to use a little thing known as imagination and a little suspension of disbelief to get virtual racing thrills. Diecast cars were at the bottom of the tree...