Car Tech

In its efforts to improve vehicle safety, especially amongst teenage drivers, Ford has announced plans to introduce its new ‘MyKey’ vehicle control system. Designed to help parents encourage their teenage children to drive safer and more fuel efficiently, MyKey will debut next year as...

The flotilla of cars and concepts unleashed at the Paris Motor Show this week has largely been about vehicles that we'd seen coming for some time or design concepts that won't be seen for years, if at all. Seeking the middle ground, Volvo has taken the opportunity to reveal its plans for a...

A century-old problem in the physics of aerodynamics, known to scientists as fluid dynamics, has been solved by MIT scientists, both on paper and in the lab. The breakthrough makes it possible to calculate when the otherwise smooth flow of air over a complex surface will cease and separate, hugely...

Bees are not the first animal most people would think of when looking to the biological world for automotive inspiration, but the engineers at Nissan are uncommon people. Those engineers are developing a collision avoidance system based around the same principles that bees use to navigate their...

Most carmakers are focusing their efforts solely on reducing the tailpipe emissions of their vehicle lineups through conventional methods such as more efficient engines, advanced catalysts and lighter cars. Attacking vehicle emissions from a different angle, Audi is adding a new traffic management...

BMW is renowned for having some of the greatest and most modern engines in the business but when it comes to one of the latest innovations in powertrain technologies BMW says it will take a "wait and see" stance. The technology we’re talking about is homogeneous charge compression ignition...

Renault has shown that low-cost minicars don’t have to be the boring econo-boxes most people presume they are thanks to its stylish Twingo hatch. It’s now made the tiny runabout a little sweeter with some help from Nokia. The two companies have formed a partnership to develop a new...

GM engineers are doing road-tests of a new internal combustion engine design, which the carmaker claims uses 15% less fuel than conventional petrol engines. A Saturn Aura and Opel Vectra have been fitted with new homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) powerplants, and also feature direct...

Researchers at MIT have been testing a prototype of a new internal combustion engine design that’s said to improve fuel-efficiency by up to 25% and runs on regular petrol. Labeled homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), the new technology works by achieving combustion with only...

There's nothing like a small tidbit in a German newspaper to get the rumors started. This time it concerns technology brand Apple, which is reported to be developing a new in-car GPS navigation system that will debut in 2009. According to an article published in German magazine Focus, Apple will be...

Gearbox manufacturer ZF unveiled its latest eight-speed automatic gearbox at the recent Vienna Motor Symposium, a design that promises to reduce fuel consumption and at the same time transmit more power to the wheels than its current six-speed boxes. With the extra cogs on board, the new gearbox...

General Motors Company [NYSE:GM] recently announced that it was planning to build hybrid-electric cars in China by 2008, with drivetrains co-developed with DaimlerChrysler and BMW. However, the company is still fully backing hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles and has announced today that it could...

Volkswagen has taken a step further in the fuel cell technology stakes with the development of a high temperature fuel cell. Almost all current fuel cell technology is the low temperature kind, whose performance suffers and can even be damaged if operating temperatures reach above a certain...

It seems that Nissan is testing a new car-to-car communications system in Japan – but before you get excited, not the sort where you can curse out the guy who just cut you off, or try to pick up the women in the car next to you. Instead, the system will be much more safety oriented, giving...

Both on the road and display at this years’ Woodward Dream Cruise in Birmingham is Ford’s Hydrogen Fuel Cell version of the popular Focus sedan. Due to the expense of Fuel Cell technology, which involves the extensive use of platinum, the humble Focus turned out to be the most expensive...

In its pursuit of the “ultimate driving machine” BMW has developed a system that, well, doesn’t require any driving. BMW has designed a self-parking car that uses a small camera and reflector placed at the end of your garage. It requires just a single push of a button attached to...