Yamaha Recalls 2008 Rhino 450 and 700 due to possible brake failure. .........

A car that navigates city streets without a driver - steered only by a computer? That might seem impossible to a number of. But scientists from Fraunhofer and the FU Berlin are presenting such an automated vehicle at this year's Hannover Messe on April 21 through 25, 2008 (Hall 25, Stand H25). Its core element is a three-dimensional laser scanner........

he demo drive is an essential step along the Road to the Sale for automobile salespeople, but as test-drives go, this one was a marathon. .........

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a strategy to capture, store and eventually recycle carbon from vehicles to prevent the pollutant from finding its way from a car tailpipe into the atmosphere. Georgia Tech scientists envision a zero emission car, and a transportation system completely free of fossil fuels........

The number of airline mishaps attributed to pilot error significantly declined between 1983 and 2002, as per an analysis conducted by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. While the overall rate of airline mishaps remained stable during that time, the proportion of mishaps involving pilot error decreased 40 percent. The rate of mishaps correlation to a pilots poor decision-making declined 71 percent. The scientists attribute the decline to better training and improvements in technology that aid pilot decision-making. The findings appear in the January 2007 edition of Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine........

It is difficult for me to write anything positive about the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who allied with Hitler in the lead-up to WW2. Nevertheless when a car Il Duce once owned is offered for auction I'm obliged to pay attention. Actually, Autoblog was the source for this article, based on an item in Italiaspeed. The car is an Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 Pescara Spyder, ordered in 1935 with custom coachwork by Carrozzeria Touring. Included was an auxiliary jump-seat and an engine tuned to 95 horsepower, up from the standard 68 hp. Ah, though Benito may have been a car fancier he didn't .........

It's Friday. Time for a little fun. Again, a tidbit from Leslie Ungar, take this quiz to learn what kind of car you .........

Every year at this time I start dreaming of winter getaways and find myself tempted by visions of spending the entire month of March in Florida. What a month for car enthusiasts! My dream trip would start at Amelia Island, March 7-9, for the annual Concours d'Elegance and RM auction. In 2008 Amelia Island will feature the cars of the 1966-1972 Trans-Am Series, appropriately honoring the great Parnelli Jones, an Indy driver who was equally skilled on road courses. I'd see, among others, the Bud Moore-prepared 1970 Boss Mustang 302 driven by Jones and the 1968 Penske-Sunoco Camaro .........

Research on hydrogen-fueled cars may be one step closer to application thanks to a new form of hydride discovered by researchers at the ESRF. The material, lithium borohydride, is a promising energy storage system: it contains 18 weight percents of hydrogen, which makes it attractive for use in hydrogen-fueled cars. Its drawback is that it only releases hydrogen at quite high temperatures (above 300 degrees C). The team at the ESRF has found a new form of the compound that could possibly release hydrogen in mild conditions. This discovery, completely unexpected from the point of view of theoretical predictions, is published recently as a Very Important Paper in Angewandte Chemie........

Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed and tested a laser-based ranging system to assess the performance of automobile collision warning systems. Scientists in industry and at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) will be able to use the NIST technology to accelerate the development and commercialization of safety systems that alert drivers to multiple, and sometimes virtually simultaneous potential crash hazardsboth from forward or side collisions as well as from running off the road. DOT believes that such warning systems could reduce substantially the number and severity of injuries to motorists and save lives........

It's energy efficient, it's clean, compact and simple, and, above all, it's very cool. All of these factors could be significant in getting people to adopt a lightweight, electrically powered scooter designed by William J. Mitchell, the Alexander W. Dreyfoos Professor of Architecture and Media Arts and Sciences, and several of his students in MIT's Smart Cities Group, in collaboration with SYM, a major scooter manufacturer in Taiwan, and ITRI, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute. A prototype of the new design was a hit at the Milan Auto Show, where it was unveiled earlier this month........

Thanksgiving marks the heaviest travel weekend of the year and that means large increases in the number of fatal car crashes, especially in rural areas. And nowhere is that more true than in states that dont adequately enforce seat belt laws. The University of Minnesota Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS) today released an analysis showing a strong correlation between states lacking strong seat belt laws and states with a high proportion of fatalities on rural roads........

TU Delft will demonstrate how improved control techniques can reduce the risk of aircraft crashes. The demonstration involves reconstructing troubled flights such as the El Al flight which crashed in the Bijlmer area of Amsterdam in 1992 in a flight simulator and adding the newly developed technology........

A forthcoming study from the Journal of Consumer Research looks at how consumers anthropomorphize products, endowing a car or a pair of shoes with human characteristics and personalities. The researchers, from the University of Toronto and the University of Chicago, find that people are more likely to attribute human qualities or traits to inanimate objects if the product fits with their expectations of relevant human qualities and are also more likely to positively evaluate an anthropomorphized item........

Team MIT has made it to the finals of the DARPA Urban Challenge, a competition for cars and trucks that run without human help. The qualification was announced Thursday, Nov. 1, by DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, who is sponsoring the competition with the goal of developing vehicles that can operate on their own in battle and keep humans out of harm's way........

The car of the future, the Suzuki Pixy.

Driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or at excessive speeds are widely considered to be the main causes of serious accidents involving a single vehicle. However, a new in-depth on-scene study in Sweden reveals that driver fatigue, slippery roads, and inexperience could be just as important and should be factored into the design of new vehicle safety features, as per scientists writing in the International Journal of Vehicle Safety........

The daily commute may be taking more of a toll than people realize. A new study by researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) and the California Air Resources Board found that up to half of Los Angeles residents total exposure to harmful air pollutants occurs while people are traveling in their vehicles........

working with the U.S. Air Force, have developed tiny wireless sensors resilient enough to survive the harsh conditions inside jet engines to detect when critical bearings are close to failing and prevent breakdowns. The devices are an example of an emerging technology known as "micro electromechanical systems," or MEMS, which are machines that combine electronic and mechanical components on a microscopic scale........

VWvortex Forums - Quoted - Bourget's Bike Works is making sure that the 2007 show is no exception. Next week, the small custom bike shop will be taking the wraps off its now Shredder F-80, a mish-mash of Porsche, Chevrolet, and custom parts that is bound to result in a Darwin Award nominee or two. Powering what can be called a four-wheel motorcycle is a 425-hp Chevy small block, while the body is all custom-crafted aluminum. Bourget's plans to build 25 of these a year at a price of $90,000. Good .........