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Next-gen 'smart' headlamps to automatically adjust beams around oncoming traffic?

A French company may have come with the next big thing in vehicle lighting. Valeo SA has developed a system called Beamatic Premium that allows drivers to keep their high-beams on at all times while still protecting other drivers from being blinded while driving. The tech uses onboard cameras to track the location of vehicles on the road and automated dousers to shield other drivers from glare. Think of it as the ultimate evolution of adaptive headlamps. The tech was good enough to win top honors at Equip Auto – an international ... Read more →

Report: Next-gen boxer engine coming from Subaru this year Zach Bowman

According to Automotive News, Subaru is set to release a new, more fuel-efficient version of its boxer four-cylinder engine. The powerplant should be available in both 2.0-liter and 2.5-liter ...

Prototype Mazda3 with 2.0L Sky-G engine gets 30/40 mpg Steven J. Ewing

Mazda gave us a glimpse of its next-generation Sky-G (gas) and Sky-D (diesel) powertrains at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, as well as its new Sky-Drive six-speed automatic transmission. These engines ...

Ford begins using WiFi to install Sync on assembly lines Jonathon Ramsey

In case you thought installing SYNC into Ford vehicles was a ho-hum-whatever affair, that's not the case – Ford puts a lot of thought into it. The Blue Oval's latest assembly line advance is ...

AutoTrader Classics unveils Fireball Tim's 1951 Chevy 3100 "Redster" ahead of SEMA Frank Filipponio

Any time Hollywood's current go-to car guy, Fireball Tim Lawrence, is involved in a project, you know it's going to be a rolling masterpiece. So when AutoTrader Classic invited us to see ...

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How Ford made vehicles safer with a cadaver's help 5 days ago on Autoblog

While we're all accustomed to seeing crash test vehicles packed with loveable dummies, the truth is that manufacturers can't always rely on high-tech mannequins to get the information they need. Sometimes, they have to resort to other testing procedures to research how new safety tech will ...

**Report: NY Hydrogen station used by GM explodes, closes airport *UPDATE** 6 days ago on Autoblog

Hydrogen faces a number of challenges when it comes to supplanting gasoline as the world's transportation fuel of choice, one of the largest of which was underscored by two small explosions at a Rochester, New York refueling station yesterday. According to reports, two people were injured when a ...

Augmented reality driving app for iPhone shows promise 6 days ago on Autoblog

There are perhaps as many automotive-themed iPhone apps out there as there are cars on the road. From handy programs that help you find your car to apps designed to help you avoid pesky speed traps, now couldn't be a better time to own a vehicle and an iPhone. Heck, if you're really creative, ...

Remy and MotoCzysz announce D1g1tal Dr1ve EV powertrain 6 days ago on Autoblog

Remy International, a company known mainly for its work with electric motors, has teamed up with MotoCzysz to develop an integrated electric drive system that will feature Remy's High Voltage Hairpin (HVH) electric motor technology paired with MotoCzysz's patent-pending cooling and integration ...

Rumormill: Volkswagen Touareg R Hybrid under consideration 6 days ago on Autoblog

The words "performance" and "hybrid" are typically only bandied about in the same sentence by marketing types. Here in the real world, lugging around an extra few hundred pounds of batteries is no way to sharpen a vehicle's dynamics, but if the rumors kicking around the interwebs are to be ...

Brabus hearts Apple, launches iBusiness luxury sedan 6 days ago on Autoblog

The folks at Brabus have always been known for fitting ridiculously high-powered engines into the full line of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but this new creation has more than just staggering performance to offer. The latest products from Apple, including the iPad, have all been integrated into a ...

Garmin Nuvi GPS recalled over fire risk - Suzuki threatened? 6 days ago on Autoblog

Garmin has recalled a total of 1.25 million portable GPS units for a possible fire risk, with 796,000 of those sold here in the United States. According to Consumer Reports, the problem stems from a faulty battery that may cause the device to overheat while in use. So far, there have been no ...

Video: Nissan unveils four new Innovation For All spots 7 days ago on Autoblog

We do love our car commercials. Oftentimes, marketing departments and ad agencies simply have a way of distilling everything we love about cars, trucks, SUVs and yes, even CUVs into easily-digestible snippets of video. Nissan has just rolled out a new collection of four ads under the Innovation ...

Video: 2011 Ford Fiesta nabs IIHS Top Safety Pick, Autoblog watches 8 days ago on Autoblog

We have mountains of respect for the men and women who work at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. After being invited to the institute's Charlottesville, Virginia facility for a front-row seat to the 2011 Ford Fiesta's frontal-offset test, we can honestly say that if we had their job, ...

DUDE wins VW App My Ride contest 8 days ago on Autoblog

Volkswagen has chosen a winner for its App My Ride contest. Out of all of the clever coding submitted, one shining piece of software rose above the rest – DUDE. Think of it as a handy in-car butler that assists the driver with a number of tasks. For instance, the app measures vehicle ...

Report: Two new models coming from Morgan 9 days ago on Autoblog

We suppose it was only a matter of time before mighty Morgan threw its cap into the electric car realm. With everyone from Mercedes-Benz to Audi toying around with motor-powered supercars, the eclectic purveyor of long-hood wonders was bound to follow suit. According to Autocar, we can expect to ...

First Drive: 2011 Ford Edge 10 days ago on Autoblog

Sharpened Tech Claws More Than Scratch The Surface If you checked Ford's bloodstream right now, you'd probably find trace amounts of Ritalin floating along with the 5w-30. The company is an absolute blur of product development – churning out new models (Fiesta), entirely reworking ...

Are we witnessing the end of the far-reaching concept car? 12 days ago on Autoblog

It certainly feels that way. Whereas our show halls were once a glittering homage to what could be if pesky things like cost, physics and safety were no object, automakers are beginning to shy away from overtly wild concepts. Byron Pope from Wards Auto has taken the time to interview a slew of ...

Irony Police: State Farm releases texting app to curb distracted driving [w/video] 12 days ago on Autoblog

Android geeks have been using a combination of GPS and the Tasker app to let contacts know when they can't (or won't) accept text messages or calls (driving, in a movie, etc.). It's some slick software, but the barrier of entry is a little high for the average smartphone user. So to make things ...

Going to Pot: Motive to unveil cannabis-composite Kestrel [w/video] 12 days ago on Autoblog

Motive Industries has announced that they will unveil Canada's first bio-composite bodied electric car this September at the EV 2010 VÉ Conference and Trade Show in Vancouver. Dubbed the Kestrel, the four-passenger compact forgoes some of the traditional fibers used in composites for a ...

Report: Toyota's event data recorders have a history of problems 13 days ago on Autoblog

According to a report in The Washington Post, the event data recorders the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration used to investigate claims of unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles have a history of problems. In one incident, a Toyota pickup that struck a tree in a single ...

Study: Ambient interior lighting makes drivers feel safer 13 days ago on Autoblog

Ambient interior lighting – a feature once reserved for the top-dollar models in many automakers' ranges – is now becoming standard kit on a host of new vehicles. Ford, for example, offers ambient lighting on nearly its entire range of products, as do higher-end manufacturers like ...

Video: Karting comes to Gran Turismo 5 14 days ago on Autoblog

Despite our best efforts, we're getting pretty excited about the arrival of Polyphony Digital's Gran Turismo 5. After suffering through years of the company (and the interwebs at large) crying wolf with launch dates, it appears as if we may finally have the game in our hands by the end of this ...

Lotus willing to build Evora-based sportscars for other automakers? 14 days ago on Autoblog

Lotus is considering offering up its latest sports car platforms to other automakers, and this isn't the first time. When the Elise debuted in the mid-90s, Lotus sold the chassis to form the basis of new lightweight coupes with different powertrains, the most notable of which included the Opel ...

General Motors and SAIC to jointly develop small engine and dual clutch transmission 15 days ago on Autoblog

General Motors has reached an agreement with one of its primary Chinese partners, Shanghai Automotive Industries Corp. (SAIC), on the joint development of powertrains for small vehicles. GM and SAIC will develop and produce a family of four-cylinder engines ranging from 1.0- to 1.5-liters with ...

Honda's fix for prematurely dying Civic hybrid batteries hurting fuel economy, performance? 17 days ago on Autoblog

Until the past year or so, the Civic Hybrid had been by far the best selling gas-electric model introduced by Honda. However, the second-generation model introduced in 2006 has not been entirely problem-free. There have been several lawsuits against Honda claiming that the Civic doesn't meet its ...

Video: Jay Leno's Garage talks with CamberTires inventor 19 days ago on Autoblog

Well aren't you all a lucky bunch today... getting a double-shot of Jay Leno action. When we touched on CamberTires earlier this week, there was some debate as to whether the new rollers was the next big thing or the next automotive gimmick. We haven't entirely made up our own minds one way or ...

CamberTire could increase MPGs, improve handling 20 days ago on Autoblog

If you have even a passing interest in sportscars, you may have noticed something suspicious about your favorite speed machine's tires. Typically, manufactures build a certain amount of negative camber (tipping the top of a wheel inward) into the suspensions of their sportscars. This allows the ...

Cars hacked by researchers through wireless tire pressure monitors 21 days ago on Autoblog

We heard the first reports of researchers proving that you could hack into automotive electronic systems earlier this year. That work was based on tapping into the OBD-II port normally used by mechanics for reading diagnostic codes. That method of car hacking, however, is of limited value to ...

Ford working to better integrate internet in its cars [w/video] 21 days ago on Autoblog

We've seen Internet-equipped vehicles on more than one occasion over the past few years, but most connected cars and trucks aren't much more than a rolling hot-spot for passengers and (very) distracted drivers. That promises to change over the next decade as automakers and suppliers work to ...

Exploded view of Chevy Cruze "shutter" grille [w/video] 21 days ago on Autoblog

While we'd all love to see 1,000-horsepower supercars that effortlessly reach 100 miles per gallon, the pace of fuel economy improvement is far less aggressive. Automakers are scratching and clawing for every mpg they can find by doing things like downsizing and turbocharging engines, adding ...

Ford F-150 engines for 2011 announced, includes EcoBoost V6 21 days ago on Autoblog

The Ford F-150 is getting a lineup of four all-new engines for the 2011 model year that includes two V6s and two V8s. According to Ford, the entire new engine family will be more fuel efficient than the outgoing 4.6-liter and 5.4-liter V8 by at least 20 percent. The same 3.7-liter V6 and ...

Video: Corvette Racing Series Episode 8: Cascade engineering 22 days ago on Autoblog

Episode eight of the Corvette Racing series is up and this installment delves into what the team calls "cascade engineering." It covers some of the same ground we discussed back in March when we toured the Pratt & Miller race shop where the C6.Rs are built and prepared. The race team ...

Lo Res Project builds Lamborghini Countach with fewer triangles 24 days ago on Autoblog

Whereas the videogame and CGI worlds are obsessed with ever higher polygon counts to help replicate the smoothness and texture of real life objects, a group of designers at United Nude (great name) has started a project by the name of Lo Res to explore design in the opposite direction. The group ...

Mid-engined Corvette development confirmed... by Saab engineers?! 27 days ago on Autoblog

Before things went all tipsy in the auto market, the engineers at General Motors were apparently hard at work on some pretty interesting projects. How interesting? How about an actual mid-engine Corvette? Autocar says that an unnamed Saab engineer confirmed that the Swedish automaker had ...

NHTSA angling to make stability control systems mandatory on big rigs? 27 days ago on Autoblog

Automakers are legally required to install stability control to all new cars and trucks for sale to the public, but as of yet, there is no such law for commercial tractor trailer trucks. That may soon change, however, as the Associated Press is reporting that The National Highway Traffic Safety ...

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Autoblog Podcast #193 - Hot Mustangs, Volt Mileage, 1 Series M, Mazda design and Lotus Evoras

Chris, Sam, Alex and Dan convene for Episode #193 of the Autoblog Podcast. We cover the Ford Boss Mustang and Roush supercharger package, the latest Chevrolet Volt fuel economy dust-up, the BMW 1 Series M Coupe, Mazda's apparent new design language and the Lotus Evora S and Evora IPS. Thanks for listening!