Radar

These can make your drive a little less stressful.

Garmin created a rear radar system for cyclists, allowing you to see approaching cars behind you. Varia has a 5 hour batter and costs about $200. It has a 153 yard range. Learn more at garmin.com

Look for the car at CES and NAIAS in January.

Submarines use towed sonar, so why can't a ship use a parasailing radar?

All you need is a car with lane-keeping assist and a spare $999.

If someone could look for a Gary Burghoff easter egg, we'd appreciate it.

Tesla might have a way to improve its Autopilot tech without grafting on new equipment.

Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School and the University of California, Santa Cruz may have found a new use for most drivers' worst nightmare. William Fox and John Vesecky have discovered that with a little tweaking, a run-of-the-mill radar gun can become an instrument for detecting suicide bombers. The duo found that at a specific frequency, the gun can pick up on patterns of looped wire typically used in bomber Zach Bowman

The fact is that small cars get into more accidents than large and mid-sized cars, and the fatality rates for small cars are about twice as high as their larger siblings. Yet it's the large – and usually expensive and luxurious – cars that get features like collision avoidance technology. That could change soon if TRW Automotive can get car makers to adopts its less expensive collision avoidance radar system.

Up to now, radar detectors have epitomized the ultimate in minimalist design: a couple of buttons or knobs, a couple of LEDs and a few hieroglyphs were all you got. No more. Now you get something that will probably prove just as distracting: a 1.5-inch touchscreen on two of Cobra's newest radar detectors.

It seems as though there may just be a positive side to those unwelcome GPS-based vehicle tracking devices... especially if you are a teenager. Shaun Malone, a 17-year-old California resident, was cited by radar-yielding authorities for driving 62 mph in a 45 mph zone in 2007. Faced with a $194 fine (and some inflating insurance premiums), Shaun's parents fought back arguing their son's vehicle was equipped with a satellite-based tracking device that monitored Shaun's speed – and it showed

Winnipeg authorities are all "Lookie! Crashes are down at the intersections equipped with our spiffy new red-light cameras," but Manitoba Public Insurance and the Winnipeg Sun newspaper are all: "Stop lying!" Winnipeg says its 12 intersections equipped with the electronic sentinels have seen a 37% reduction in crashes since 2002. MPI and the WInnipeg Sun beg to differ, however, saying that insurance claims tell a markedly different, more complete story.

A short while ago we reported about an unknown group called FNAR (Fraccion Nationaliste Armé Révolutionaire) that was bombing speed-control radars in France. The government claims with radars are in use to reduce accidents and to lower pollution levels by forcing speed reduction. Last week, a man aged 31 was seriously wounded when he was manipulating one of these bombs in an apartment in Hau

Apparently, when some motorists see their speed displayed on a radar-assisted light sign, they don't pay much attention (hell, we've seen people speed up to see how high it goes).

Researchers in Germany are developing a vehicle safety system that sounds like something straight out of science-fiction.