Automotive

With human error the predominant cause of car accidents, automatic braking systems like the Pedestrian Detection system found in the Volvo S60 use cameras and sensors to assist drivers in detecting oncoming hazards and automatically applying the brakes. Now a team of researchers from the Berlin Institute for Technology has found a way to improve the response times of drivers by reading their minds. Using electroencephalography (EEG) by attaching electrodes to the scalp the researchers demonstrated that reading driver’s brain signals can provide quicker reaction times to potentially prevent many of the car accidents caused by human error. Read More

Estonian automotive producer DARTZ is best known for producing the world's most expensive US$1 million bulletproof Kombat T98 and Prombron SUVs and more recently for producing a concept car lined in whale penis leather. Now it has announced a 2000 bhp armored Sportback, designed for pulling yachts. With a 2000 bhp powerplant, it will be the world's most powerful production car. It will also be frightfully expensive, but the owner won't be worried every time a motorcycle pulls alongside at the traffic lights. Read More

As some Gizmag readers will already know, the new technical regulations for Formula One racing state that cars must move under electrical power only when in the pit lanes. Eyebrow-raising though that may be, two companies are currently collaborating on technology that would see cars being powered by electric motors for the entire race. Instead of looking at ultra-powerful batteries or three-hour recharging pit stops, however, they're taking another approach - they propose that the cars could wirelessly receive power from transmitters embedded in the track. Read More

It's not often that a car has its first public showing nearly fifty years after it was built, but that's what happened at the recent Cholmondely Pageant of power when the newly-restored, one and only factory-built Low Drag Lightweight Jaguar E-Type was seen. The original crashed at very high speed testing at Montlhéry and was so badly damaged that it sat for 47 years before a complete restoration involving 7,000 hours of work and 90 per cent original parts yielded its magnificent original state. Great gallery showing the many moods of this priceless specimen of Jaguar DNA. Read More

The compact S.U.V. class looks set for some serious competition over the coming 12 months when a completely redesigned Honda CR-V will continue to sell against Toyota's RAV4 and Volkswagen's Tiguan. Plus Mazda's CX-5, which is expected to be very similar to Minagi and packed with the first comprehensive SkyActiv efficiency technologies, will join the ranks. Honda is the runaway leader in the segment and this update is a clear signal of its intention to stay there. The "Walter Mitty" lives we all lead is exemplified by the compact S.U.V. segment, where more than 95 percent of the vehicles sold never venture offroad. Read More

As a child sitting in the back of the family car, did you ever use your finger to doodle in the condensation on the inside of the windows? Well, a group of engineers and designers from Toyota Motor Europe’s Kansei1 Design Division and the consultancy arm of the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design (CIID) have taken car-window-doodling into the 21st Century. They’ve created a prototype system that could turn the side windows of Toyotas into touchscreen augmented reality devices, allowing passengers to interface with the passing scenery. Read More

The FIA (Fédération International de l'Automobile) published its revised technical regulations for 2014 Formula One season last week. Having caused uproar amongst the engine manufacturers and F1 fans with a proposal for replacing the naturally aspirated V8s of today with turbo-charged 4-cylinder engines, an agreement was finally reached amongst the various interested parties to introduce turbo-charged V6s of 1.6 liter displacement. The continuing effort by the the FIA to "green" the sport and push development still provided a number of surprises in the published regulations, however. Read More

The Quail Lodge sale held during Pebble Beach Car Week in August each year, always attracts extraordinary automobiles, and this year, the most talked about lot at the auction is one of the most delightfully eccentric for many a year. It is a handmade 1925 Rolls-Royce New Phantom, commissioned by the Maharaja of Kotah to be specifically built for tiger hunting. The eight liter Roller has spotlights for night hunting, a mounted Howdah gun (double-barrel shotgun in pistol form), a rifle stand in the rear passenger compartment, a mountable Lantaka cannon, and a machine gun mounted on an attached, matching trailer. Just the thing for peak hour! Read More

This year's Ferrari World Design Contest award has gone to three students from Hongik University in Seoul, South Korea. Students from 50 universities worldwide put pencil to paper to compete for the award, with the Korean students being chosen over close contenders from IED of Turin, Italy and London's Royal College of Arts. Read More