Car Tech

Electronics giant Pioneer has revealed the latest in the world of automotive satellite navigation technology, with its new AVIC-VH09CS double din unit showcasing the first production example of an in-car ‘augmented reality’ system. Using a wireless windshield-mounted camera, the system...

GPS navigation systems and internet-based route planners allow you to pick the quickest or shortest route to your destination. However, until now there hasn't been the option to pick the greenest route, allowing you to use the least fuel and reducing your journey's emissions. Researchers at the...

The unthinkable can happen all too easily. In the large vehicles that many of us drive, a significant blind spot to the rear below the window line can hide children playing behind your vehicle, and the consequences can be tragic. As a result of as many as two children a week killed in back-over...

Audi is at the forefront of LED lighting on road cars, and the German maker is now ready to reap the benefits in racing too. The company has announced that it intends to use LED lighting technology on its 2011 Le Mans contender, the R18 TDI. The new closed-cockpit racer, designed with the intention...

Back in 2009 Mercedes-Benz launched a new telematics feature called mbrace that at the time was said to offer everything from a vehicle locator for crowded car parks, somebody to direct you if you get lost or even the ability to order online--all whilst sitting in the driver’s seat. Designed...

The first generation of Audi and MIT's collaboration on a futuristic in-car interface system produced a somewhat creepy, ostensibly friendly, in-car robot. The second generation, previewed in the video below, looks more like the product of a sci-fi movie, aiming to redefine the way we look at...

Mercedes-Benz was late to the telematics game, but now that its mbrace system has been available for a while, it's looking like a trailblazer, compared to systems just hitting the market--Hyundai's Blue Link, Kia's UVO and Toyota's Entune, among them. At the recent New York Auto Show, we talked...

Integrating smartphones with in-car vehicle technology is nothing new. Bluetooth connection for making calls, and playing music and plugging in via USB has been around for years. Full integration of smartphones into a car's systems hasn't really been seen yet beyond the concept stage. One of the...

Kids these days don't know how good they have it. The most entertainment many of us could muster on a long journey was playing I-spy, or maybe kicking our siblings and getting away with it when they complained. In-car DVD has made long trips a much quieter experience for parents, and now a deal...

Given the vast number of free navigation apps available for Apple, Android, Blackberry, and Windows handsets, we've been more than a little skeptical about the future of satnav makers like Garmin and TomTom. After all, why should consumers shell out for a fairly limited piece of hardware when they...

If you spend a lot of time driving you won't have failed to notice the distinctive shape of high intensity LED daytime running lights on some modern vehicles. As for LED tail-lights, those are even more common. Only a small selection of vehicles features entirely LED-based headlights though...

Online car sales sites have transformed the way we buy and sell cars. Whether you're selling to the highest bidder on an online auction site or setting your price and waiting for the calls on sites like Autotrader, you can not only add far more photos and details than ever before but reach a...

Remember Progressive's Snapshot program? Sign up, and the agency sends you a device that plugs into your car's onboard diagnostic port and lets Progressive know how safely you're driving. Score well, and your auto insurance rate could plummet. Score poorly, and your rate might go up. Now State Farm...

"You can't start a fire without a spark" sang Bruce Springsteen in his 1984 hit Dancing In The Dark. Great line, but unfortunately for old Bruce he wasn't quite technically accurate, as a research team in Japan and Romania is looking into using lasers to ignite the fuel-air mixture in combustion...

In the good old days all you needed for a road trip was a car, some buddies, and a sense of adventure. Even a map was optional. These days you can have it so much easier with the latest downloadable apps at your fingertips telling you everything from where to sleep to providing your tunes. Here is...

Like their MINI cousins before them, the 2011 BMW lineup will have access to Pandora, the music-streaming app that's colonizing car audio systems from Ford to Toyota. Bringing Pandora service into the cars is as simple as downloading it to its host iPhone. Once it's installed and configured--and...

Cars were one of the original homes of the mobile phone, and as technology has advanced, their integration has become ever closer. Today, BMW announced integration of Pandora streaming Internet radio service in all 2011 model-year cars equipped with the BMW Apps option, bringing the integration to...

Electric cars are creeping more and more into not just our collective awareness, but our driveways and garages. But even so, there's a whole generation of technology and integration yet to occur before we see mainstream EVs and the passenger experiences we've imagined. The Luxgen Neora gives us a...

Cheeky styling and endless personalization options already mark out the MINI as a fun and sociable vehicle, but now a new App from MINI called MINI Connected will give drivers, in MINI's words, "an even more intense experience of limitless driving fun". Normally for this sort of experience you'd be...

When the 2012 Toyota Prius V arrives sometime, we hope, this year--it's been delayed by the aftermath of the Sendai tsunami--it will be one of the first Toyota vehicles to showcase Entune, the automaker's new telematics service. With Entune, which was unveiled earlier this year at the 2011 CES...