Car Tech

There's concern among many enthusiasts that the manual transmission is on its way out. This coincides with the notion that electric cars are the future and internal combustion engines will continue to fall out of favor as electric car charging infrastructure and technology exits infancy. If there's...

You've heard the term before, but do you really know what powder coating is all about? It's not simply an airgun spraying a powdery substance that magically turns into a bonded surface on your wheels. There's a whole lot of science going on, which means we need to turn to our favorite engineer...

Daimler’s Smart brand will use next month’s 2017 Frankfurt auto show to preview its vision for personal transport of tomorrow. The preview is in the form of the Smart Vision EQ ForTwo concept, a fully self-driving electric pod car ideal for shared urban mobility. Some readers will...

Nissan is the latest automaker to introduce a video-streaming rearview mirror, which the Japanese automaker is calling an Intelligent Rearview Mirror (I-RVM). We first saw the technology introduced by Cadillac on the 2016 CT6. What it is, essentially, is a traditional rearview mirror with an...

No surprises here. Elon Musk's proposed solution for Los Angeles, California's horrendous traffic will fit a Tesla Model S inside. The solution comes from Musk's latest venture, The Boring Company, and it's begun to dig underneath the headquarters of another Musk venture, SpaceX. Musk took to...

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer revealed this week he plans to offer a hybrid option on every model in the line-up by the middle of the next decade. And some models will offer a pure electric option, too. Palmer reckons a quarter of the range will have an electric option by the end of the next decade...

Mercedes-Benz’s Smart brand will use the upcoming 2017 Frankfurt auto show to preview its vision for personal transport of tomorrow. The preview will come in the form of a concept that Smart describes as a fully self-driving electric car ideal for shared urban mobility. That’s already a...

Aston Martin is the latest automaker to commit to an all-electrified lineup, following the lead of Volvo which said in July that every vehicle in its lineup will have some form of electrification by 2019. However, for a low-volume manufacturer of exotic sports cars, Aston Martin’s commitment...

For those who daily drive a vehicle equipped with a manual transmission, it's likely a common practice. Rather than rowing through all five or six gears, drivers will skip from third to fifth, fourth to sixth and so on. But is this practice safe to do? Engineering Explained tackled the common...

When you want to learn how to drive a rally car, you have two main options to choose from if you're living in the United States. On the West Coast, there's Dirtfish. While on the East Coast you have the Team O'Neil Rally School. The latter's been cranking out a lot of videos lately, and each one...

Audi has inked a deal with solar panel expert Alta Devices to fit the energy-generating panels to the roofs of its future cars. Alta Devices, based in California, is renowned for its highly efficient solar panels. It will work with Audi to develop thin, lightweight solar cells that can be...

Only a couple years ago, bombshell reports surfaced. Apple, the longtime computer, smartphone, and technology company, was ready to build its very own car. Not just a car, but a self-driving car. Flash-forward to 2017 and things have changed—drastically, at that. Apple has scaled back its car...

If you've been following along lately, you've noticed that Porsche is quite excited to tell you all about its new limited-edition car. The 911 Turbo S is being offered in a small batch called the Exclusive Series, and it's serving as a 607-horsepower welcome mat for the Exclusive Manufaktur...

It's a situation drivers are all too familiar with: cruising along the road when suddenly a tire goes flat. Curse words, struggles, and inconvenience ensue. Researchers at Harvard University have developed a potential solution that could put flat tires, and the baggage that comes with them, in the...

Long gone are the days of narrow roof pillars that not only looked good from the outside but provided optimal visibility from inside the cabin. Safety standards, while necessary, have enlarged car pillars to sizes that sometimes make it pretty difficult to check surroundings. Toyota may have...

Genesis is clearly interested in adding more tech-focused features for its current and future owners. There's already an app for smart watch users and owners can talk to their Alexa devices and send certain commands to their cars. Now, Genesis owners will be able to do even more thanks to an...

With the rise of connected and self-driving cars, a nearly unlimited amount of data is being created for companies to harness and mine. It's easier said than done, and that's precisely why Toyota and Intel have formed an alliance with a handful of other companies to create a definitive ecosystem...

Mazda took the industry by storm when earlier this month it announced plans to introduce gasoline-powered Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) engines in 2019. HCCI engines are typically referred to as the holy grail of internal-combustion engine technology since they're extremely...

The manual transmission faces an uncertain future. Increasing emissions standards, future safety technology, and dwindling take rates could spell its demise. But a new patent shows Toyota gives a shift, as we like to say, and it could give the manual gearbox an extended lease on life. Roadshow...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the electric-car maker has plans to introduce an electric-semi truck in the near future, but new information reveals the truck will use self-driving capabilities. The electric-semi truck from Tesla will reportedly be capable of "platooning," and the Silicon Valley...