Automotive

For the past six years, the Los Angeles Auto Show has invited automobile designers to participate in its Design Challenges. The challenge for this year’s show was to come up with a design for “a 1,000lb [453.6kg], four-passenger vehicle that is both comfortable and safe, while delivering satisfactory driving performance without sacrificing the styling consumers’ demand.” Entries are being judged not only for meeting the weight constraint (no more than 1,500 pounds/680 kg with passengers), but also for artistic beauty, comfort, uniqueness of design, roadworthiness, sustainability, performance and user-friendliness. The winner will be announced at the show, on Nov. 18. Here’s a look at some of the higher-profile entries... Read More

Call them tuk tuks, auto rickshaws, mototaxis or any one of several other names, but they’re one of the world’s most ubiquitous vehicles – three-wheeled motorized rickshaws. They’ve been a fixture on roads in Asia, South America, Africa and Italy for decades, and have more recently made their way into the Netherlands, the U.K. and other countries. Given that they typically have quite small engines and are used mostly as runabouts, Dutch company Tuk Tuk Factory (TTF) decided to start making electric tuk tuks a few years ago and has now introduced them to the European market. Read More

The Ford Fiesta is the latest vehicle to offer a rear facing camera screen integrated into its rearview mirror with Ford U.K. offering it as an option on all models from Edge to Titanium. It's one of those clever ideas that seems obvious once you see it, and it's slowly gaining traction. Mazda brought the system to the U.S. in 2007 and Toyota introduced it into Europe last year on the Corolla Verso. Ford also has the tech available on other models. Read More

Not so long ago, the idea that a car could drive itself seemed mildly insane, but thanks to the impetus provided by the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge and ongoing research around the globe, driving might become a hobby rather than a necessity much sooner than you think. One of the pioneers in the field, the Berlin-based AutoNOMOS group unveiled its latest project earlier this year. Known as FU-X "Made in Germany" the tech-laden VW Passat uses GPS, video cameras, on-board laser scanners and radars to navigate autonomously, giving it the potential to be used as a driverless taxi cab. Its latest trick – you can now hail it with an iPad. Read More

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology in Ilmenau, Germany have created a system for warning drivers when they’re getting too drowsy to drive. The Eyetracker system utilizes two or more dashboard-mounted cameras to monitor drivers’ eyes, and sounds an alarm if their eyes are off the road for too long. It can apparently be mounted in any car, and doesn’t require complicated calibration of the cameras, or an external computer. Read More

It’s not unusual for automotive designers to test virtual models of cars on virtual models of bumpy roads. The model of the car, of course, represents an actual proposed vehicle. As for the road, however... where does that model come from? In the case of new technology used by Buick, it’s a millimeter-precise recreation of an existing, physical road. Read More

Bucky Fuller's Dymaxion car was never meant to be a car. Looking like something between a Zeppelin and a VW camper van it was intended to fly, but sadly only three of these concept vehicles were ever built after tragedy struck. Now, as part of a Madrid retrospective on Bucky Fuller's work, Norman Foster, Fuller's collaborator for twelve years, has rebuilt his hero's Dymaxion car. Read More

At the Lexus research campus in Higashifuji, Japan, the automotive company has created what it claims is the most advanced driving simulator ever built. It consists of a 15 feet high by 20 feet wide domed pod which moves on a series of interlocking motion tracks within a hangar the size of a football stadium. Inside the pod, a full-size Lexus car is mounted on a turntable, and surrounded by an interactive 360-degree high-definition audio-visual simulation of real world driving environments. By allowing test drivers to safely experience various sketchy driving scenarios, the company hopes to learn more about driver behaviors and reaction times before accidents, then incorporate those findings into new active safety features in their cars. Read More

smart USA announced today that it will be collaborating with Nissan on a new five-door car. According to a Memorandum of Understanding between the two companies, smart USA would obtain the rights to procure and distribute a five-door, gasoline powered, B-segment vehicle from Nissan for sale through the smart USA retail dealership network. Read More