vehicles

In the next 12-24 months, luxury vehicles will hit the roads with the driver physically at the wheel, but his mind potentially elsewhere. Audi, BMW, and Mercedes have all demonstrated semi-autonomous "traffic jam assistants" that will do the driving in bumper-to-bumper traffic, lessening the stress of the daily commute. But what about for the equally tense driver of your non-luxury vehicle? Luckily, Ford is working to bring that same frill to the mainstream buyer.

Ford announced in a news statement that it, too, is developing a semi-autonomous system for its vehicles. The "Traffic Jam Assistant" is … Read more

The show's not over for Saab. An investment group agreed to buy the Swedish automotive manufacturer and plans to build electric cars for the Asian market, according to an article in the Detroit Free Press.

Saab's savior is a Chinese-Japanese investment group, whose key player is energy tycoon Kai Johan Jiang. Jiang founded the alternative energy supplier National Bio-Energy Group in China, and his other company, the National Modern Energy Holdings, owns 51 percent of National Electric Vehicle Sweden AB, the company set up to buy Saab, according to BusinessWeek. The remaining 49 percent of National Electric Vehicle … Read more

How does a car manufacturer whose motto is "the ultimate driving machine" sell a front-wheel-drive car that takes 8 seconds to hit 60 mph and tops out at 93 mph? By shifting attention from under the hood to inside the cabin, focusing on the urban-electric lifestyle.

BMW opened its first dedicated BMW i Store in London this week. The BMW i3 isn't scheduled to enter production until 2013, but the company is taking advantage of the Summer Olympics to boost the new vehicle line's presence. The store serves as a showroom for its upcoming line of … Read more

Convincing a nation so steeped in its car culture to think differently about the way we drive is a test of both patience and persistence. But the 2012 Vehicle Concept Showcase at Stanford University's Center for Automotive Research yesterday offered some interesting arguments about how our future personal transportation will better suit our needs.

One feature that may take some adjustment for many drivers is wheel configuration. Only two of the eight vehicle concepts rolled out at the showcase had the tried and true four-wheel configuration -- most were three-wheelers. As the makers of Switch Vehicles pointed out, dropping … Read more

Electric vehicle startup Lit Motors unveiled a working concept of what could be the answer to a conventional motorcycle's biggest drawbacks: one, tipping over, and two, the road rash and laundry list of other ills you could incur if it does.

A YouTube video the company released shows an electric two-wheeled vehicle cruising along San Francisco streets. Rather than straddling a chassis, the driver rides recumbent and is enclosed in a protective metal shell. But what sets the Lit Motors C1 apart from other electric vehicles is its capability to stay upright at a standstill without help from the … Read more

Bravo! You've bested Goldfinger, and your plot to secretly empty Fort Knox was a roaring success. (Good idea about the gold-painted Legos -- a far less messy solution than nerve agents and Atom bombs.) So now you're looking to officially join the pantheon of Bondian supervillains by acquiring all the appropriate status items.… Read more

RYNO Motors' single-wheeled electric scooter is self-balancing, has a turning radius of zero when stopped, and only takes up about as much space as a folding bicycle -- so it's conceivable that commuters could bring one onto a train. Plus, it looks like it fell out of a Japanese anime.

However, it only has a maximum range of 20 miles between charges, a top speed that is limited to 12.5 mph (the actual top speed of 25 mph is limited to keep the RYNO scooter within the more relaxed legal boundaries of "personal mobility scooters"), and it looks like it fell out of a Japanese anime -- yes, for some people, that last point is as much a con as it is a pro.… Read more

A fully autonomous vehicle is looming on the horizon, but do car buyers actually want this cutting-edge technology? And more importantly, will they be willing to pay for it? For approximately a third of car buyers, the first answer is yes, according to J.D. Power and Associates.

The research company conducted a study of 17,400 vehicle owners to measure interest and purchase intent for emerging automotive technologies. Participants were surveyed on the likeliness they would buy current and future autonomous safety technology, such as crash avoidance systems and fully self-driving vehicles. Not surprisingly, the interest participants showed in … Read more

Will automotive insurance companies charge you one rate if you're manually driving the vehicle, and another when your car drives itself? That's what Google wants to find out, and is meeting with automotive insurances companies to speed the process for legalizing self-driving cars.

Anthony Levandowski, Google automotive product manager, gave the keynote address at the Society of Automotive Engineers World Congress in Detroit last week, and disclosed that the company has been meeting with an unnamed insurance company, according to a Detroit Free Press article. Complex regulatory and liability issues could stall the technology that is fast approaching … Read more