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From microcars to high-end speedsters, future cars will share one common theme — controls through touch screens rather than buttons, if the concepts of last week's Geneva Motor Show are any indication. More »
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The Dream Cruise was astounding-not merely the cars, but because cars were celebrated during a time of economic instability, environmental worries, and changing definitions of personal mobility. So what's the future of the Dream Cruise-and auto enthusiasts in general? More »
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Luigi Colani-esque buses? Check. Dinosaurs? Check. AT-AT walkers? Check. Syd Mead-like construction vehicles? Check. Star Destroyers? Check. The artwork of Alessandro Porta is straight out of our 11-year-old dreams (before we started to hit puberty and they went all Heavy Metal). Porta is a car designer with his own consultancy in Italy. But when he’s not penning new Fiats, he turns his hand to fantastical tempera paintings like these. More »
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Kambiz Salari, a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has used a very simple method to solve a consequence of driving a truck. Salari has applied for a patent that will reduce the aerodynamic drag that accompanies driving a truck by essentially placing a box fan immediately behind the cab. The report shows that 65 percent of fuel burned while driving a truck at 70 mph on a highway is to compensate for the drag and using a fan-type device will reduce the aerodynamic drag and boost the mileage rating. Forget about the fan and improved mileage, we'd rather see a truck manufactured like the one documented in the patent. that's pretty damn stylish, to be honest. [New Scientist] More »
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Rather than dumping millions upon millions of dollars into alternative energy engine design to compensate for the ridiculous high fuel prices and desire to be green, Ford is taking a different route: nanotechnology. Nanotechnology allows for the average vehicle to shed anywhere from 250 to 750 pounds of weight without compromising the structural integrity of the vehicle. Lightening the vehicles can significantly boost the mileage ratings, but that isn't the only area receiving some nanotech love. And as a side explanatory note, nanotechnology involves the manipulation of materials at a molecular or atomic level to change properties of the material. More »
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A European company by the strange name of PReVENT is looking to do what we figure has to be an impossible task: create the uncrashable car. The company with a funny name is using their budget of nearly $80 million develop a wide variety of oddly-named technologies to assist drivers in potentially dangerous situations. A few of those strange tech names below the jump. More »
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A "luxury car manufacturer" from southern Stuttgart has invested a lot of money into something that isn't even real. We're thinking it was the brainchild of Dr. Z., but the unnamed company has picked up six of the ridiculously expensive Christie HD8K 1080p DLP high definition projectors that creates virtual factory floors and production plants to maximize production efficiency. It's quite the elaborate setup as individuals have to don special 3D goggles to get the full, stomach churning experience. More »
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It's always fun to look back at publications which predict what the future will be like - especially if that future is already the past. Most of the enjoyment comes from seeing just how far we haven't progressed. In the case of this 1979 book, The Usborne Book of the Future - A trip in time to the year 2000 and beyond the predictions are remarkably prescient. Take for instance the car of the future; The book offers two distinctly different and yet remarkably familiar predictions - the hybrid, and the ever elusive electric car. More »
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Many claim there's little doubt the current 3-series is the ugliest car in BMW's history. Furthermore, those same folks claim it's awkward and not aging well. Realizing that, and according to the lads at Motor Authority, BMW is changing course big time. Most notable in this design preview are the cues borrowed from everyone's favorite Shanghai surprise, the CS Concept. Note the front end is lifted almost exactly from the CS, though the renderings for the 3-series have much sharper, 5-series influenced headlights. The hood is also inflated to protect the pedestrians of Europe, only it doesn't look awful. The rear is a best-case evolution of the 7-series's bustled butt. The proposed 3 looks good in profile, too. Is this preview accurate? Who knows, but boy oh boy would it be a big step in the right direction. – Jonny Lieberman More »
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Futurists have been hot on the robotic urban pod model of transportation since the last flight of Laika, the dog cosmonaut. But with technology catching up with ideas, researchers are starting to come up with tangible prototypes. Take, for example, this folding-car concept from MIT Media Lab. Less a car than a CPU with a windshield, the City Car is propelled by in-wheel electric motors and can achieve omnidirectional mobility via swiveling wheels. It can also fold to take up a fraction of its footprint, and can be stacked like grocery carts at designated parking lots that would double as charging stations, according to The Boston Globe. No word on whether these would encompass some kind of quasi-public car-sharing system, or if they'd be privately owned. All we know is that having one's car stuck under a mountain of stacked pods at the supermarket would make being trapped by a double-parked Tahoe seem like the better choice. – Mike Spinelli More »
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