Car Tech

As technology evolves a whole array of new features for cars become available for almost every aspect of the vehicle - from tires, to engines to powerful in-car entertainment systems. Now, specialist company Icon has just unveiled its modern-day take on the humble speedometer, and the new design...

While the horsepower wars may or may not be over, the efficiency wars are just shifting into high gear, with every carmaker on the planet searching for ways to get more power for less fuel. Volkswagen is well-positioned to break new ground in the segment, and it has unveiled a pair of new engines...

Despite decades of modern advancements, it’s common knowledge that internal combustion engines are far from efficient when it comes to transmitting the energy stored in the fuel they burn into real motion. In the recent past we’ve seen regenerative braking, engine stop-start and direct...

Marrying high-tech with road safety has been one of the primary goals of the automotive industry for the past several decades, often with very good results. The latest step forward by BMW promises to take the idea to a new level, equipping pedestrians and others with transponders that alert passing...

Watches and cars have shared a long history together. Something about the kindred spirit of precision, style and function of both endeavors finds an overlapping fanbase. Few watches exhibit that cross-pollination better than the Meccaniche Veloci Quattro Valvole CCM - a carbon-ceramic watch built...

A team from a west London university is claiming to have found the holy grail of the automotive world - a cheap, simple method to turn ordinary combustion engines into hybrid vehicles that run on air. The team from the Institute of Engineering and Design at Brunel University have developed a way to...

Safety tech is progressing in every field imaginable, especially with the aid of computers and telematics. But what if you don't want to fork over for the latest vehicle to get the ability to track your teen's driving? Hammacher Schlemmer has the answer. Innocuously named the Driving Activity...

Ask any racing fan what's the best drivetrain layout for speed and you're sure to get one of two answers: rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. Front-engine, mid-engine or rear-engine, all will agree that front-wheel drive is wrong-wheel drive. But Ford set out to design the all-new Focus RS as a...

Imagine being able to pull up to a fuel station and take your choice of the cheapest or highest-performing fuel, without limitation by your engine. Lotus Engineering is working to deliver an engine that can efficiently use both alcohol and gasoline fuels to help promote sustainable transport...

Imagine a future where you don't have to drive yourself to work, the market or even home from a night on the town. Convenient, but to some a nightmare of lost control. Even worse: imagine a future where your car chooses your destination for you. That's what BMW is working toward with its new...

The past several weeks have been tough ones for Nissan, facing the closure of its Michigan design studio, a forecast loss of $2.6 billion and the cutting of 20,000 jobs worldwide. Nevertheless it is still making plans for the future, and electric vehicles (EVs) figure heavily in those plans. To...

Turbocharged, fun-to-drive hatchbacks and sedans - not the first things that come to mind when we hear the word 'hybrid' but one company is working to change that. Hybrid technology has become hugely important in the industry and to many eco-conscious drivers as well, and though it offers some...

Finding ways to make cars more efficient isn't always about improving the engine, changing the fuel or adding a hybrid system to the mix. Sometimes it's about recapturing some of the energy already expended. Volkswagen's thermoelectric generator applies that idea to waste exhaust heat, and turns it...

Jim Morrisson sang what may have been the best driving advice in rock and roll history in the quintessential "Roadhouse Blues": Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel. While that advice may have been aimed at keeping a half-potted rocker between the lines, it's equally apposite in...

Today’s Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) conference held in Long Beach, California, saw the unveiling of a new all-electric motorcycle that its makers claim is the fastest of its kind in the world. The motorcycle is the new Mission One from American sports bike design firm Mission...

When it comes to power-regeneration technology the first place most people look at is brake hardware. Many of the petrol-electric hybrid vehicles on the roads today, and even some non-hybrids, feature some sort of brake energy regeneration device. These usually consist of storing energy in a...

The incidence of drivers going the wrong way up expressway ramps in Japan is apparently high enough to merit a specific effort to combat its occurrence. Nissan is working on a system that combines GPS location, a map database and an advanced telematic computer system to warn drivers if they attempt...

Testing last month at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico confirmed that a prototype weapons system consisting of a laser mounted on the back of an Avenger ground combat vehicle is capable of shooting down UAVs. The first-ever successful demonstration of such a mobile laser weapon, which is...

As more and more electronic devices become integrated into our cars, we need new ways to control them effectively and safely while driving - or at least that's what Visteon and Immersion are thinking. The two have teamed up to share their expertise in developing touch-based, or haptic, controls for...

As advanced as cars are becoming in terms of safety aids, nothing can make up for a skillful, attentive driver behind the wheel - yet, at least. Volvo has launched a research program to study how normal drivers react to tough traffic situations in the hopes of improving their cars' safety. The data...