Modern cars are equipped with all sorts of fancy new safety equipment. A side-effect of all those automated braking systems and other goodies is that your car might freak the hell out in an automated car wash, kind of like trying to get a dog into a bathtub.
China's grandees may soon find themselves chauffeured in limos navigated by the people's microchips. A Chinese car company recently tested a luxury model that can recognize its enviroment, and handle such driver-intensive tasks as making a turnoff, stopping at street crossings, staying within roadway lines and…
Volkswagen's unveiled a fully self-driving hatchback that can take its meatware friends for a ride. Sporting a Byzantine system of sensors (radar and laser), sat-nav and software, the GTI can negotiate a race course, swerve through cones and hit speeds of up to 150 mph — whether it can clear a mountain pass or…
Automotive portal AutoMotoPortal brings us this clip from BMW that shows its thermal-imaging "night vision" at work. Watch as the driver of a 7-Series avoids a man and a woman engaged in some midnight fitness activities on a desolate street. No, not that kind. That's a whole 'nuther kind of German video.
Technogeeks, boot your engines. The US-model Toyota Prius hybrid will soon be offered with the same optional self-parking system that's been thwarting evil plots of license test monitors all over the UK. Across the pond it's a $700 option, though 70 percent of Prius buyers opt for it. When set, the system controls the…
GM announced it will offer a self-driving system on the 2008 Opel Vectra. The system will use a camera, laser beams, heavy-duty computer algorithms and a small, green Martian named Kazoo (holla Flinstones!) to pilot the car at up to 60 mph in rush-hour traffic, while the driver reads a copy of Der Spiegel and munches…
Beginning later this year, BMW will offer a thermal imaging system on its 7 Series that will allow drivers to see living beings (and hot-dog trucks open for business) on an LCD screen, long before they come into view unassisted. Known as BMW Night Vision, the system works in the same way some military-issue…
