Car Tech

While racing generally helps to make production cars safer by advancing technology and components, sometimes the opposite is true. At this year’s 12 Hours of Sebring, race car fabricator Pratt & Miller rolled out a radar-based collision avoidance system that essentially comes from the...

Automakers are doing all they can to make cars lighter and more fuel efficient, as regulations for average fuel economy and permissible emissions grow ever tighter in Europe and the United States. While automakers have downsized engines in the name of fuel economy and have trimmed weight wherever...

About a year ago we first told you about a new technology Honda was developing aimed at reducing congestion, by first detecting the potential for a traffic jam and then determining the best course of action for drivers in order to prevent one from occurring. It is based on the principle that...

Airless tires, or non-pneumatic tires as they’re known in the industry, have been around for several years now. In fact, Michelin first showed off its ‘Tweel’ airless tire back in 2005 and Bridgestone rolled out (excuse the pun) its own version of the technology just over a year...

For decades, accident scene first responders had set protocols for removing victims trapped in the wreckage of an automobile. Whether the car was built by Kia or by Hummer, cutting off the roof was generally a matter of slicing through the A-pillars, followed by the B and C-pillars. We’re...

No automaker in the world has done as good a job of both innovating and marketing safety features as Volvo. The brand originally known for building safe and reliable cars has branched out to target roadside animals and pedestrians in its safety net, and now that list includes bicyclists, too. An...

When Apple senior vice president Eddy Cue joined Ferrari’s board of directors last year, it seemed that a collaboration between the two companies on infotainment systems was inevitable. Ferrari’s expertise is in making cars go faster, so partnering with a brand already proficient with...

A few weeks back, Pagani began to tease something new for its Huayra supercar. While the initial video tricked us into believing that the Italian manufacturer was about to launch an open-air version of the Huayra, it was really teasing a new partnership with high-end audio firm Sonus faber. If...

If you live in the city, chances are good you don’t use your high beams much for night driving, since you’re rarely in an environment where they can be employed without distracting other drivers. If you live in the country, on the other hand, high beams provide a welcome margin of...

If you drive to and from your place of employment, you’ve probably noticed that the roads are getting more and more crowded with each passing year, while drivers are getting less and less attentive to the task at hand. Blame it on a growing number of cars and drivers, ever-present...

Less than six years after promising the world a car capable of returning a fuel economy of 1.0 liter of fuel burned per 100 kilometers driven, roughly equivalent to an insane 235 mpg, Volkswagen has done even better, revealing today, in production trim, a car capable of returning a fuel economy of...

A couple of weeks ago Pagani released a mysterious teaser video filled with clues about the supercar manufacturer’s latest project. This quickly got the rumor mill churning, with some suggesting Pagani was about to debut a convertible version of its latest Huayra supercar. Even we suggested...

First it was Nevada that allowed a commercial entity, in this case Google, to start testing an autonomous car on its roads, including alongside other motorists. Soon after Florida and California passed legislation to allow the self-driving cars to be allowed on their respective roads, with...

As advanced as internal combustion piston engines have become over the past few decades, they’re still hampered by a few basic design limitations. Chief among these is the camshaft, which opens and closes the intake and exhaust valves via a mechanical linkage. In the days before variable...

If you’re a new driver, you know that the cost of car insurance can, in some cases, be more than the cost of your first car. Get a ticket, or have an at-fault accident, and you may find yourself with the kind of insurance rates that would make Bill Gates wince, if your company doesn’t...

Remember the Hybrid Air drivetrain concept from French automaker PSA Peugeot Citroen? Well, the revolutionary technology, which is essentially a hybrid drive system that instead of using electric motors to support an internal combustion engine, uses compressed air, will be appearing at the 2013...

The latest 2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray is one the most anticipated sports cars of the year, but it’s not purely because of the car’s striking looks, supercar-like performance and much improved interior. No, it’s because the latest Corvette, a C7 to all the fans, is also one...

Every day in the United States, some 10 people are killed and 1,100 injured in crashes relating to distracted driving. While those are the official tallies released by the Department of Transportation, the actual number is likely much higher; after all, few drivers will admit that they didn’t...

If you wear glasses to correct your vision, chances are good you already know the benefits of polycarbonate lenses over glass ones. Not only are polycarbonate lenses significantly lighter, they’re also much more impact-resistant than glass. Polycarbonate windows have been used in racing cars...

Speaking solely from a technology point of view, Google believes that autonomous cars will be a reality in three to five years. For the most part, the hardware exists today, so the stumbling block is really perfecting the software and firmware. As Bloomberg points out, the obstacles that autonomous...