Jack Martin
At a time when America’s auto manufacturers are going cap in hand to the Government for donations to secure their survival, how can there still be such large gaps in the marketplace? Toyota showed a CNG-Powered Camry Hybrid Concept at the LA Auto Show, portending the filling of a gaping hole in the market for a compressed natural gas hybrid. Put simply, in the near future, the demand for liquid petroleum will exceed supply and thanks to one of those immutable laws of commerce, when that happens, petrol will cost a lot more than it does right now. Apart from the potentially reduced running costs and environmental benefits afforded by using CNG over petrol, worldwide natural gas reserves should last until at least 2100 and widespread adoption of CNG could reduce U.S. dependency on foreign oil and reduce vehicle operating costs. Read More
Lamborghini appropriately held the worldwide debut of the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 560—4 Spyder at the Los Angeles Auto Show – Southern California accounts for approximately 30 percent of all Lamborghini sales in the United States, the brand’s largest global market. As the successor to the best-selling Lamborghini of all time, the new LP 560-4 Spyder combines the Coupé’s design, performance and handling characteristics with the open-air pleasures of a soft top super sports car. The 560-4 Spyder offers a new 5.2 liter engine with 40 additional horsepower than its predecessor; allowing it to sprint from 0-62 mph in only four seconds with a top speed of 201 mph. Read More
Only one person has ever reached the pinnacle in both MotoGP and Formula 1 (John Surtees), the respective motorcycle and motor racing premier championships, and for the last three years, the greatest ever motorcycle racer (Valentino Rossi), has been teasing us with the prospect that he might switch to four wheels and attempt to emulate Surtees. Though he insists he’ll be staying in MotoGP for another five years, he spent two days punting the Kimi Raikkonen’s F2008 Ferrari this week and got within a second and a half of Raikkonen’s best time (see extensive image library). Fingers crossed! Read More
Honda pulled the wraps off a Fuel Cell Sport design study model at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week, The hydrogen-powered, three-seat FC sports car concept emphasizes the design flexibility and potential of Honda's V Flow fuel cell technology - already deployed in the Honda FCX Clarity sedan - and reconfigures it into a lightweight sports car design with an ultra-low center of gravity, powerful electric motor performance and zero-emissions. The design study concept is claimed to offer supercar levels of performance through low weight and a high-performance, electrically driven fuel cell powertrain. Read More
With populations rapidly migrating to cities over the last century, most of the world’s military conflicts are now being fought in urban environments. Fighting in an urban environment presents innumerable problems for a force acting ethically as the three-dimensional environment restricts visibility, and offers much easier concealment for defenders and IEDS. Accordingly, the U.S. and U.K. are quickly attempting to use technology to overcome the tactics they are encountering in Iraq and Afghanistan. These latter day wars have seen the greatest advances in situational awareness technologies in history with UAVs becoming a critically important tool. Now a new class of military technology is being created for the foot soldier which might become ubiquitous in times to come – the short range throwing camera. Read More
UPDATED November 20, 2008 One of the more fascinating developments in the history of the automotive tire is the modern concept of the airless tire. Dunlop produced the first pneumatic tire for bicycles in 1888 and Michelin did likewise for cars in 1895, and for the last century, pneumatic tires have ruled. Michelin announced its airless Tweel technology three years ago (Gizmag’s biggest story ever with more than a million page views) and won the Intermat Gold Medal for Innovation in 2006, though we have yet to see a commercially available automotive product from the French giant. Now a new airless tire using a flexible, honeycomb-like internal structure could again prove to be a disruptive technology in one of the world’s largest industries. With development funded by the U.S. DoD, the initial aim of the project was to replace the Achilles heel of the military vehicle, but now the technology looks like going commercial for the rest of us. Read More
The worker assist device - coming to a workplace near you?
One of the most interesting and perhaps landmark technology projects we’ve ever seen is Honda’s experimental walking assist device - the second partial exoskeletal device exhibited by the company this year. The original machine shown by Honda was designed to assist weak leg muscles in the elderly. The second iteration is being trialled in Honda factories as a worker assistance device to support bodyweight when performing tasks on the workshop floor. This second experimental machine could have vast ramifications for skilled factory workers around the globe – if human efficiency in complex tasks can be improved, such robotic assistance devices could make a lot of sense on the balance sheet. Read More
Apple today unveiled an all new MacBook family with a new construction method (from a single block of aluminum), high-performance NVIDIA graphics, instant-on LED-backlit displays with the most significant being the introduction of large glass trackpads that support an array of multi-touch gestures that will further enhance Apple’s advanced notebook interface, making the traditional button part of the trackpad. There was also a 24-inch widescreen LED Cinema Display designed to easily connect a MacBook and desktop peripherals. Read More
The suspense surrounding Apple’s rumored Netbook announcement is quite extraordinary. The collective mood swing towards more convenient and usable wireless devices now seems overwhelming. People want more productivity on the move without the weight ,and the recent eeepc has only served to warm up the crowd for whatever Apple might be ready to announce later today. Just to add intrigue, a start-up named OLO Computer is getting set to launch what appears to be an iPhone-powered notebook/netbook which uses the iPhone as the CPU and the iPhone docks flat with the keyboard surface to offer its touch-screen as a trackpad. Read More
With rumours suggesting Apple has an ultralight computer ready for announcement tomorrow, the category is certain to capture a lot of attention over the coming months. One recent entrant in the cateogrythat looks really promising is the ASUS Eee PC™ S101, an exquisitely designed Brown, Champagne or Graphite netbook that weighs just a kilogram and is slimmer than most fashion magazines at just 1.8 cm. It is expensive but with 802.11n, Bluetooth V2.0, an encrypted 20 GB Internet storage facility known as Eee Storage, and a 64GB Solid State Drive (SSD) it is stylish and above all, easily portable. Read More
