The other vehicle in a drag race is the 1989 swoopy black cartoon car from the 1989 Tim Burton version of Batman. I would’ve preferred to see Christian Bale’s Batmobile or Tumbler in this race personally. After talking specs for a few minutes, the builder comes on and gives some hard facts about the cars. I will say with the horsepower the guy claims, I seriously doubt the quarter-mile times he quotes. It certainly should take more than 300 hp put down a 10-second quarter-mile run in such large cars.

Doubts about performance aside, racing two legendary superhero cars against one another buys the guy more the little leeway. At about 7:45 mark in the video they decide to just line the cars up and run them. I won’t tell you who wins, but I think the race was rigged given the outcome.

[via GeekTyrant]

Angry Birds developer Rovio has teamed up with the Formula One team to advertise the game and some of the merchandise will be coming. The helmet the racer will wear at the season opener is painted up to look like the red Angry Bird complete with Heikki’s name written on the side in proper Angry Birds script. I’m not familiar with Heikki at all, but I will say that red helmet doesn’t go particularly well with his green driving suit.

I would like to see Rovio sign up whoever Heikki’s archrival is to wear a green pig helmet. I’d love to see some bird vs. pig action at 200 miles an hour on a racetrack. The marketing tie-in will also include some other items that will be released this spring and Angry Birds levels with a racing team will be coming later as well.

The 2013 Volvo V40 has been outfitted with the first ever production use of Pedestrian Safety Airbags. These special airbags deploy in the event that the vehicle ends up in an unavoidable collision with a pedestrian, potentially protecting both the walker and the driver of the car. The system uses special sensors which automatically recognize pedestrian contact, then fire off a large, wide airbag that covers the lower third of the windshield. It’s also taller along the edges, to reduce the impact against the metal beams along the sides of the windshield.

While it doesn’t really do anything to reduce the initial impact of the front grille, fender and hood, it certainly could reduce the severity of injury – plus make it less likely that they’d end up flying through the windshield. I wonder if it would work with animals crossing the road too. As friends of mine have learned, a 200 pound deer smashing through your windshield isn’t exactly a good thing either.

Personally, I’ve always thought the second your car detects an impending collision, it should deploy a giant protective orb around the vehicle, turning you into an oversize one of those balls you sit on at the gym. Maybe someday that’ll be a standard feature too.

[via egmCarTech]

The idea is that the windows would be transparent screens which could display all sorts of content from game apps for kids to navigation details for the driver or passenger. I really like the idea of navigation content being projected onto the windshield. That way you don’t need to take your eyes off the road for directions.

The apps for kids though are the ones that will likely get the most attention. The prototype apps let kids finger paint, and interact with characters who react to the speed of the vehicle. For the big kids, there are apps for navigation as well as streaming music and social networking.

GM notes that it has no current plans to use the window tech in a production vehicle, and there is no indication when this tech will leave concept and come to the real world. Hopefully it’s not that far off.

The innovation is a small gasoline fuel cell that would need to be only 10cm per side to generate the same power as the gasoline generator found under the hood of the Volt today. The small fuel cell would be able to use gasoline, diesel, or natural gas to create power to drive an electric system using batteries.

The key to small fuel cell breakthrough is that the researchers have been able to reduce the operating temperature of the fuel cell from 900°C to about 650°C. Their ultimate goal is to get them down to 350°C. That temperature reduction makes the fuel cell much cheaper to construct and easier to package and insulate safely in a car. In the future, extended range EVs like the Volt may be able to use this cell for much more efficient driving.

[via Technology Review]

This LEGO mashup was constructed by a dude named Raphael Heusser and it’s very, very awesome. I wonder if he took the plans from a normal Falcon kit and then just changed the color of the bricks – it looks like had to modify it at least a little bit. The finished product looks like something you might see in the movie to me.

It’s done up in red with eyes, a smiling mouth, and the all-important 95 number on the top and bottom. What do you think? Is this the coolest LEGO mashup ever?

[via The Brothers Brick]

The  iSAVE-SC1 vehicle has been dubbed as the “safest electric vehicle in the world” by Humanix, the company responsible for developing it alongside Hiroshima University. It diverges from how cars are usually made, since the airbags are usually hidden in the wheel or dashboard of vehicles, and not “worn” all over on the car’s exterior.

Another thing that makes the iSAVE-SC1 different from most cars is that it only has three wheels instead of the usual four.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It’s obviously a pretty small vehicle, only seating up to three persons comfortably. Humanix plans to sell the first units of the car this November for appx. $10,400 (USD), while mass production has been slated for sometime in 2012.

I don’t know how effective it will be in cushioning the blow upon a real-world impact, but what’s pretty obvious is that this car won’t need any paint jobs at all after a collision.

[via TechCrunch via Oh Gizmo!]

The remote also has three buttons – left, right and turbo – but it seems like using the light alone is fine, especially since the car is dual-sided and is totally fine with being flipped over. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t designed with accuracy and fine control in mind. Part of the fun of playing with a Lazer Stunt Chaser would be wondering just how far it can follow the light. Watch it zip around in the demo video below:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Quite the suicidal toy eh? Here’s another video, this time with bigger ramps and other Lazer Stunt Chaserz in the mix:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

A flying version of this would be awesome, although I guess it would be a lot more dangerous too. You can order the Lazer Stunt Chaser from Amazon for about $54 (USD). It comes with a charger and a stunt ramp. Next time your cat is being a dick, just point the Lazer’s remote at it. Just kidding. Don’t do that. Don’t point it at animals or humans. Especially at human crotches. But feel free point your browser to the official website for more info.

[via Gizmag via Oh Gizmo!]

Right now you can get Tow Mater, Lightning McQueen, Finn McMissile, and Holley Shiftwell in October when they launch. Not enough for you? Well, Francesco Bernoulli and Shu Todoroki are coming in November.

[via Guardian]

The Murcielago LP-640 was used by Team Golden Empire in the goldRush Rally 3, which from what I can understand is a luxury rally tour event for high rollers to show off their cars and party in various high-class locations across America. Sounds awesome. Here’s a video of the geeked-out Lambo, courtesy of Brian Zuk:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The Internet seems to be divided with this customization. Some say that the Murcielago was ruined, others say it looks nice. What do you guys think? Should SS Customs start a Geek My Ride show?

[via Jalopnik]

Since you aren’t going to bust out your iPhone just before the collision to record it, you’ll need something in place to record your entire drive. Chinavasion’s Car DVR with Motion Detection is simple, but might be just what you need. It uses an SD card to record video at 640 x 480 resolution. The clips are broken up in to 20 minute segments and are cycled out as space is needed.

Since it is motion-activated, you know it won’t just be recording the inside of your garage while it’s parked at night, so you only get the good stuff. At $40, I’d say there are few reasons not to get one. They even throw in a 2GB card, how about that?

[via 7gadgets]

I must admit when I first saw this video I immediately thought it was fake. First of all, the prototype car was an undoubtedly expensive Mercedes Benz CL 550; you’d think they’d use a more disposable car for their tests. You barely get a clear shot of the car, much less what’s inside, and the people who shot the video also didn’t care to elaborate about how or why they’re doing it. Here’s the video:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

However, a simple Google search proved me wrong. Mercedes Benz will be hosting a promotional “Tweet Race” Contest on Feb 2-4 2011. The Twitter account of the prototype car in the video is protected, and I’m not sure if Twitter users who join the contest will be able to control the cars directly.

But if you look at at the recent tweets of Mercedes Benz engineer Werner Scherenberg– the bald man in the video – you’ll see that he sent what appear to be commands to the Twitter account of the prototype car, such as ignition_on, volume_up, or more complicated ones like back7_left85_back7 and autobots_roll_out. Okay I made that last one up. But you never know. Here’s hoping we’ll get a more in-depth look at how the system works.

[via Shave Magazine and Mercedes Benz Facebook Page]

The car’s retro video game design is apparent from it’s looks. As I mentioned, it’s boxy and toy-like, just as Nintendo’s console was. Its rims and door handles are made to look like buttons. Scratch that, the door’s handles are buttons – when they’re pushed to open the doors, they also trigger sound bytes from Super Mario Bros.

That’s just the beginning. The car has both front and rear projectors for playing video games – the front projector is used to play Return of the Quack using two controllers that also double as the seat belt clamps on the two front seats.

But by far the best feature of this car for me is that you turn it on by inserting a video game cartridge into a dock on the dash. Curiously though, turning the car on is different from actually starting the engine. The latter is done by – what else? –pressing a button.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The car was shown at last year at Pixel Pushers, an exhibit of 8-bit-inspired art that was curated by Giant Robot. I’m not at all fond of cars, but I hope when this car is auctioned off someday I’ll be able to get it, or at least have a replica made. More than anything else in this car, it’s the act of inserting the cartridge (and then the game won’t load, and you’ll have to struggle with the eject switch, then you’ll blow into the cartridge and put it back again) that really takes me back to my younger days.

[via Jalopnik, Kotaku & Game Set Watch]

To my knowledge, this is the first car stereo to be powered by Google’s Android platform. Obviously, with this kind of underlying software, the possibilities are endless. The company includes a GPS dongle, which, when paired with a 3G USB key, gives you enhanced map features. Parrot Maps can identify streets and businesses that are nearby, and get traffic alerts.

Music is important (being a stereo and all), so its’ good to see that they’ve included a number of useful features here for playing your favorite tunes. Naturally, iPhones and iPods are compatible, as well as music files found on USB drives, MP3 players (via USB) and SD cards. What’s most interesting is its ability to connect to streaming stations using a 3G card. Other goodies include voice dialing, voice-activated artist search.

On the unit you will find the following connections:

• 3 high speed USB ports to connect a 3G key, a USB key and/or the provided GPS antenna ;
• 1 full speed USB port dedicated to iPhone or iPod
• 1 jack cable to connect an MP3 player
• 1 SD card reader
• 2 pairs of RCA pre-amp outputs
• 1 pair of RCA for subwoofer

We’re not sure of price just yet, but we should see the Parrot Asteroid hitting the US sometime in Q2 of this year.

This comes on top of the AppLink that Ford showed off last week, which allows drivers to control some apps via the car’s touchscreen. The Sync Destinations app will let you set up a route on your smartphone then sync it with the GPS in your car. This is done wirelessly via the app. You don’t need to plug in your phone into your car.

This app is free and will work with any car equipped with Ford’s Sync TDI system. It’s out now for iOS and Android. A Blackberry app will follow.

[via CrunchGear]

Since I did just about everything you are not supposed to do behind the wheel as a teen, I know what to watch out for in the future when my kids are able to drive. Ford has a new feature for its MyKey system that already takes some of the ability for a teen to break the law out of the equation; I really needed this as a kid.

The system can now block explicit content on the satellite radio service when the programmed key is installed. MyKey already has the ability to mute the radio until seat belts are fastened, limit the radio volume, and speed limit the vehicle as well.

If you don’t know about the Leaf, it’s supposed to be really energy efficient since it’s an electric car. It features something called CARWINGS, which will rank you regionally according to your energy efficiency level, so you can compare your driving with others.

Now that’s genius! Instead of driving fast, you are trying to drive as efficiently as possible. I remember doing something like this when I was low on gas and trying to make it to the next gas station. Now Leaf drivers can do the same, except it’s a lot further between power charging stations.

[via AutoblogGreen via Ubergizmo]

Kyosho’s R/C J-Kart (Jumping Kart) just needs a little bit of runway when it first starts up, then quickly lifts off. The idea behind the car is that you can drive it along the ground, then flip the “Power Boost” button to lift off to avoid on-ground obstacles. Here’s a video clip of the car in action to ahow you how it works.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Nifty, eh? The guys over at Japan Trend Shop call the R/C Jumping Kart a “3-in-1 copter car”, referring to car, UFO and helicopter – but I have to say that UFO and helicopter are basically the same thing in this case. Still, a car that can fly is pretty cool.

The only thing not to like about this thing is the price if you want to import one from Japan. Selling for $124 (USD), it’s quite steep for what really amounts to a toy. If you happen to live in Japan, you can probably score one for about half that price, or if you do some searches, you might get lucky.

Mitsubishi have hired a team to outfit one Outlander Sport with cameras and machines, allowing it to be remotely-controlled. It’s like RACER, except it’s an actual car! I guess that makes it legit. I wonder what will happen if the first one in line wrecks the car.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I’m pretty sure this is more of a publicity stunt than a serious endeavor, but I still can’t get over how absurd it is. I hope it has support for steering wheel peripherals. You can sign-up for the Live Drive at the official Outlander Sport website.

[via PopSci]

From the looks of the video clip below, they rigged up some servos and hydraulics and tied them together to respond to the movements of the steering wheel.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The whole thing looks like an awful lot of fun, but I don’t understand why the thing pitches and rolls so much on such a flat course. It’s almost like the movements are tied to how fast or slow he’s driving. I think it might make me throw up.

I think it would play much better with a game like Crazy Taxi or maybe The Deadliest Catch.

[via Adafruit Industries]