UPDATE 4-Toyota may build cut-price car for Asia in Indonesia | Reuters

Auto Industry... Future Trends

UPDATE 4-Toyota may build cut-price car for Asia in Indonesia | Reuters

Auto Stop

Many high end cars now offer this new feature.

When the car comes to a halt at a red signal or otherwise, it automatically goes into 'auto stop'. When we need to move, no need to use the key to start. But as soon as we take leg off the brake, engine comes alive...

Cool & Green !

Courtesy - C &B Show, NDTV

GM's Vehicle Locator Website in ME

• In a move to make life easier for buyers of used cars, General Motors (GM) has launched its Certified Pre-Owned Vehicle Locator Website
• website will offer customers a wide range of the highest quality used GM cars, from the company’s Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Hummer and Saab brands, at extremely competitive prices, said an official spokesman.
• Managed by Manheim, the world's largest vehicle remarketing company, the scheme will initially be launched through seven dealers in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar, before being rolled-out across the Middle East over the coming months.
• Users simply log on to www.gmcertifiedarabia.com and enter their search criteria by make, model, location or price in order to pinpoint their ideal car and the dealer location. Each model featured includes images of the vehicle itself, allowing customers to view the actual car they are interested in. The buyer can then follow up directly with the dealer to complete the purchase.

Driverless car

DETROIT: Cars that drive themselves could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp executives say. GM, parts suppliers, university engineers and other automakers all are working on vehicles that could revolutionize short and long-distance travel.

And on Tuesday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas GM CEORick Wagoner will devote part of his speech to driverless vehicles. "This is not science fiction," Larry Burns, GM's V-P for R&D said. The most significant obstacles facing the vehicles could be human rather than technical: Government regulation, liability laws, privacy concerns and people's passion for the automobile and the control it gives them. Much of the technology already exists for vehicles to take the wheel: Radar-based cruise control, motion sensors, lane-change warning devices, electronic stability control and satellite-based digital mapping. And automated vehicles could dramatically improve life on the road, reducing crashes and congestion. If people are interested. "Now the question is what does society want to do with it?" Burns said. "You're looking at these issues of congestion, safety, energy and emissions. Technically there should be no reason why we can't transfer to a different world." GM plans to use an inexpensive computer chip and an antenna to link vehicles equipped with driverless technologies. The first use likely would be on highways; people would have the option to choose a driverless mode while they still would control the vehicle on local streets, Burns said. He said the company plans to test driverless car technology by 2015 and have cars on the road around 2018. Sebastian Thrun, co-leader of the Stanford University team that finished second among six teams completing a 60-mile Pentagon-sponsored race of driverless cars in November, said GM's goal is technically attainable. But he said he wasn't confident cars would appear in showrooms within a decade. "There's some very fundamental, basic regulations in the way of that vision in many countries," said Thrun, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering. The Defense Department contest, which involved 35 teams, showed the technology isn't ready for prime time. One team was eliminated after its vehicle nearly charged into a building, while another vehicle pulled into a house's carport and parked itself. Thrun said a key benefit of the technology eventually will be safer roads and reducing the roughly 42,000 US traffic deaths that occur annually 95% of which he said are caused by human mistakes.

Islamic Car

A car to be made by Iran, Malaysia ( Proton) will be launched in 2011, the head of the Middle East's biggest carmaker and partner in the project, Iran Khodro, said yesterday. Chief executive and president of the partly state-owned Iranian company Manouchehr Manteghi said Islamic countries would be behind all the investment and production.

The car could boast special features like a compass pointing to Mecca and a dedicated space to keep a copy of the Koran and a headscarf. The idea came during a visit to the Middle East by a delegation of Malaysian politicians and businessmen.

Malaysian press reports say officials in Iran originally suggested the idea. Safety features or fuel economy is one way of selling a car, but Proton thinks vehicles designed specifically for Muslims across the world represent a huge gap in the market.

Car that can shrink

Mercedes has unveiled cars that can shrnk, that is change its form, at the press of a button.

This Mercedes can take on the form of a fast highway cruiser, quickly metamorphose into a compact city car, or become a roomy one-seater or economical two-seater, depending on the transport capacity needed ! Courtesy, the magnetic control elements of the SilverFlow, a futuristic study by Mercedes-Benz, which take just seconds to configure the car required from tiny metallic particles.

Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Center of North America in Irvine, California, which is headed by Gorden, is the driving force behind this innocation, which is reminiscent of the 1930's for motor racing.

Flying Cars

Moller International has started production of Skycar. Estimated sticker price is $ 95000 to $145,000 !

For details check:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_Skycar
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElS9BKSsezw

Nasa also staged its first-ever Personal Air Vehicle Challene, to find topflight fixes for our commuter headaches.

A solution to the worldwise issue of traffic challenges and personal commuting ??!!