Robotic cars for the future?

Are Robotic Cars a reallity? Well over the past 10 years companies have been developing Cars to enter the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) challenge and have made significant progress.

The DARPA Urban Challenge is a vehicle research and development program with the goal of developing technology that will keep war fighters off the battlefield and out of harm’s way.

The Urban Challenge features cars maneuvering in a mock city environment, executing simulated military supply missions while merging into moving traffic, navigating traffic circles, negotiating busy intersections, and avoiding obstacles.

The program is conducted as a series of qualification steps leading to a competitive final event, scheduled to take place on November 3, 2007. The exact location will be announced before the National Qualification Event scheduled for October 2007. DARPA is offering $2M for the fastest qualifying vehicle, and $1M and $500,000 for second and third place.This program is an outgrowth of two previous DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle competitions.

We are starting to see some of this technology transfer into everyday cars, for example the Mercedes C Class with the new Pre-safe system and the selective dampening systems.

DARPA Challege website

Mercedese C Class official site

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UK has highest fuel tax in European Union

New statistics released this week show that the UK pays more in fuel taxes per litre than any other EU country. Howver on the positive side the UK does spend more per mile for road maintenance.

Figures compiled by the European Union Road Federation show that fuel duty accounts for 46 pence in every litre of petrol and diesel bought in Britain last year. That’s more than twice as much as Greek drivers were taxed, and nearly two-and-a-half times what those in Lithuania pay.

However, British roads are expected to last 75 years – far longer than nearly all its European partners’ networks. The UK pays £2,391 per mile to keep its routes in working order, compared with Germany’s £1,510 and Lithuania’s tiny £125.

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Canadian super-coupe echoes McLaren F1

Locus, a new Canadian Company have developed a new supercar - The Plethore. This new car has the same seat configuration as the McLaren F1 supercar, with the driver seated in the middle position and the passengers seated further back and at each side.

It will be offered with a choice of two power outputs: an entry-level 750bhp, and a scary-sounding 1,300bhp. No further details have yet been released on the car's powertrain but the brave can sign up now: prices start at wopping £155,300 . Canada may not be known for its home-grown products but it's actually one of the world's most prolific car-building nations. More cars are now built in the province of Ontario than in the US state of Michigan, traditionally the heartland of American car manufacture.

Fiat launch a virtual showroom

Fiat has launched a sophisticated 'virtual showroom' website which makes browsing and buying its cars easier than ever.

The site - available at Fiat UK . Top features include a car configurator which allows users to choose their car model, spec, colour and accessories - that's nothing new, but Fiat's site simplifies the process by packing it all into one colourful screen and sends details to a local dealer once you're finished. There's also a finance payment planner and a real-time chatroom link with Fiat HQ so you can discuss your potential purchase. It's worth a look - expect other manufacturers to follow suit in coming months.

New Ferrari Dino in the works?

Ferrari Deputy Managing Director Amedo Felisa and CEO Luca Cordero di Montezemolo have both denied plans for a new low-end model, but rumors continue to circulate from within the Italian automaker the a new car is most definitely in the works.

The car will reportedly arrive in 2009, and share a platform with the upcoming replacement to the Maserati GT coupe. Like the forthcoming Alfa Romeo 8C, the new Dino will make use of carbon fiber and aluminum to keep weight low. Power will come from a 400 horsepower V8, and annual volume is expected around 4,000 units.

McLaren summoned to FIA hearing

The FIA has decided to call McLaren to appear before the World Motor Sports Council on July 26th, 2007, to answer questions about the alleged possetion of confidential Ferrari documents. Last week McLaren suspended there Chief designer Mike Coughlin after a 700 page document belonging to Ferrari was discovered during a serch of his home.

For this to happen the FIA must believe that McLaren are in breach of Atricle 151c which deals with "any fraudulent conduct or any act prejudicial to the interests of any competition or to the interests of motor sport generally.

A McLaren statement read: "McLaren is extremely disappointed to note that it has been asked by the FIA to answer a charge of being in possession of certain documents and confidential information belonging to Ferrari."

"Whilst McLaren wishes to continue its full co-operation with any investigation into this matter, it does wish to make it very clear that the documents and confidential information were only in the possession of one currently suspended employee on an unauthorised basis and no element of it has been used in relation to McLaren's Formula One cars."

If McLaren are found in breach of Article 151c the FIA could fine or even disqulify the team. To impose a ban, the FIA would need to prove that Coughlan made use of the information he had - either in accommodating Ferrari design features on the McLaren or in adapting McLaren strategy in light of what he knew about Ferrari. Should that happen, Hamilton and Alonso could be thrown out of the world championship.

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Car Feature - New Ford Mondeo

The car made its public debut at the Paris Motor Show last September

The new car clearly uses Fords new Iosis styling concept - revealed at the Frankfurt show in 2005. The front, of the car has a dramatic new look, with triangular chrome air intakes, which frame a gaping lower grille. On either side are twin spotlamps, while large headlights and a three-bar grille finish off the new Mondeo's nose. The end result is a front end that's much bolder than before.

Other neat details include the raised bonnet creases, which run to the base of the A-pillars, while the rising shoulder line and small glass area give the Mondeo a sporty profile. The steeply raked tailgate and roof spoiler continue that theme, while extended wheel­arches, sporty bulging sills, chrome-backed LED tail-lights and a protective silver bumper guard are further neat touches.

The basic entry-level engine options will include 1.6-litre petrol and 1.8-litre turbodiesel units, but the big seller is expected to be the 2.0-litre turbodiesel. A 2.0-litre petrol model is also set to appear, as well as a top-of-the-range 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbocharged petrol version.


This new ford has a lot of competition in this sector of the market. Can it keep up the previous sales success of the earlier version where 1 in 5 of all saloons in the is class where Ford Mondeo's

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Manchester Congestion Charge

Greater Manchester's 10 councils will soon decide whether to bid for a £3bn government package of public transport investment and a congestion charge.

It has now become Manchester top issue and has been generating lots of opposition. It has become a major issue for Manchester due to the expansion of businesses and living accommodation in the city centre with the consequential increase in traffic. Increasing traffic also increases pollution and congestion.

Identified as one of the fastest-growing cities outside London and it's set to add over 200,000 jobs by 2015. Unfortunately this increase in number will add to the problem and the councils say: doing nothing is not an option.

Motorists may have to pay up to £5 to enter Manchester city centre as part of congestion fee plans set to be unveiled this week. Pay-as-you-go tariffs will be introduced within the M60 which would target 15 roads into Manchester.

Drivers would pay £2 to enter an outer zone and another £1 to get into the city centre at peak times. They would then be charged a further £1 to leave each of the zones.

Greater Manchester is among 10 areas in England which have received Government money to develop possible congestion-beating plans in the hope of getting finance under the Transport Innovation Fund (TIF).

This is exactly how London started off with a small congestion charge that next year will be as much as £25 per car. Is Manchester next?

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BMW and Merc to join forces?

After years of battling for customers it looks like BMW and Mercedes might actually join forces to build there small cars.

BMW and Mercedes are already working together on a number of technologies - including hybrid engines and gearboxes - and it was thought that there were no set plans to expand this, but in an interview with Michael Ganal, BMW's sales and marketing head, he suggested that his company was looking at expanding cooperation with Mercedes, leading to speculation of a full-scale tie-in between the two German firms.

There is also a suggestion that Mercedes may work with BMW to produce the next-generation A-Class on the Mini car. Such a deal would make financial sense for BMW, which has to run the Oxford factory at full capacity to turn over a profit.

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Stepney approches Honda Team

Honda have become the third team embroiled in Formula One's 'spy' controversy when they confirmed that the two men accused in the affair had approached them looking for jobs earlier in the year.

Honda say Nigel Stepney, formerly of Scuderia Ferrari, met with them in June of this year and brought with him Mike Coughlan of McLaren, with a view to investigating job opportunities within the Honda Racing F1 team. The team says Honda would like to stress that at no point during this meeting was any confidential information offered or received.

Honda's Nick Fry informed Ferrari boss Jean Todt and McLaren's Ron Dennis of the meeting and has offered to provide any information required by Ferrari and McLaren.Ferrari dismissed former technical manager Stepney earlier in the week. They have taken legal action against him and a senior McLaren technical employee, widely identified in newspapers as chief designer Coughlan, over “the theft of technical information.”Briton Stepney said on Thursday, on his return to Italy from a vacation in the Philippines, that he was “surprised” by Ferrari's actions and denied any wrongdoing. Championship leaders McLaren have assured Ferrari none of the leaked information had been incorporated into their race-winning car. The governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) is checking that is the case.

Dennis added that the team had supplied a full set of drawings and development documents to the FIA, detailing all updates made to the McLaren chassis since the incident occurred at the end of April

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Michael Schumacher drives Zinedine Zidane

Michael Schumacher returned at the wheel of his personal Ferrari FXX, to drive his friend Zinedine Zidane around the Magny Cours circuit. The money raised from the event will be used for charity purposes.

Schumi drives his Ferrari around Magny Cours:



The FXX is the most advanced GT ever created at Maranello and its mission is to involve Ferrari’s most valued Clients as genuine Prancing Horse Test Drivers in their own right.

The FXX has not been homologated for road use and thus will not be a competition model. It will be used exclusively on the track as part of a specific ongoing research and development programme featuring this first ever group of Client Test Drivers.The FXX is powered by an imposing 6,262 cc V12 engine that can punch out over 800 bhp at 8,500 rpm. Its gearbox is the result of the transfer of F1 strategies, delivering gear change times of under 100 ms. This is almost as fast as the F1 single-seaters, themselves the absolute pinnacle of current technological achievement.

Not sure its for everybody, especially at the £1.1M price tag.

Police chief calls for return of hidden speed cameras

Here we go again facing the the return of hidden speed cameras after Britain’s top traffic policeman said that more lives would be saved if drivers were unable to predict where they could be caught.

Med Hughes, Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, and head of roads policing at the Association of Chief Police Officers, has opened the way for forces to stop painting cameras yellow or informing drivers where they will be using mobile camera vans.

Until April, policy allowed Police to keep part of the fine. In return, they had to abide by a set of rules, including a requirement for cameras to be conspicuous and clearly signposted.

The Government changed the system after protests that police had a financial incentive to catch drivers. The Police now receive a fixed grant but they are no longer bound by the rules that stated that “camera housings must be coloured yellow” and be visible from 60 metres (197ft) on a road with a 40mph limit or less and 100 metres on other roads.

The rules also required Police to publicise the location of mobile cameras. North Wales Police Force have already stopped publishing details of where it is carrying out speed enforcement.

Another rule that has ceased to apply had required Police to focus almost all their enforcement on roads where there had been several deaths or serious injuries. North Wales and Cumbria now focus on roads which they believe to be dangerous but where there have been no serious crashes.

More information at: Speed Cameras Dot Org

Car feature - Nissan GT-R

The GT-R coupe will replacement the high-performance Skyline GT-R and is scheduled to go on sale in 2007.

However, the details of the beefy GT-R’s mechanical specification and the design of its interior remain continues to be the subject of speculation. Current thinking is that more than one version of the car will be offered: An entry-level rear-driver with around 350bhp, and this, the V-spec. Benchmark-testing against a Porsche 911 Turbo, lends weight to the speculation that the GT-R V-spec’s twin-turbo V6, which has been developed with the help of Cosworth and probably 3.8 litres in capacity – will produce around 470bhp and that the car's chassis will employ an evolution of the ATTESA four-wheel-drive system from the R34 Skyline.

Although it will offer 911 Turbo-matching power, the GT-R V-spec is expected to be priced closer to a regular Carrera, at around £60K, when it comes to the UK in 2008.

Renault F1 paint job

Renault has unveiled this new livery before the Silverstone Grand Prix, with a paintjob matching that of the first-ever Renault F1 car - the turbocharged RS01.

Renault won't want to take anything but artistic inspiration from the RS01. Nicknamed the 'Yellow Teapot', the RS01 was an unreliable mess on the track, failing to finish any races in its first season.

Unfortunately we're not going to see the yellow car on the track though - it's a one-off created to celebrate 30 years of Renault in F1.

But maybe, with a bit of persuasion, Renault might adopt the livery permanently. The way their F1 season is going so far, we can't imagine that Heikki or Fisi will complain.

Driving Dilemma: Traffic Lights and the Police..

So you're are stopped at a red light and you hear the sound of a siren from behind suddenly a Police car appears in you rear view mirror with lights flashing and siren blazing. Do you go through the red light or make them wait?

This is a difficult one because if the set of lights has a camera you will be prosecuted for running the red light never mind the possibility that you will have an accident. If you hold them up you will cost the emergency services valuable seconds.

What would you do?