As you can see from the pictures, AIDA has its own set of facial expressions, to help it “establish an affective bond” with the driver. I guess it is more pleasing to interact with something that has a face, as opposed to talking to the air like the Hoff used to do with KITT, but won’t it become a distraction?

What I like about AIDA though is its ability to familiarize itself with the needs and habits of a driver, like one’s usual destinations, or how one drives. It will then combine that information with real-time data like traffic or weather, stuff that may not be immediately available to the driver, to give hints and tips:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What do you think? Will AIDA be a helpful companion, or a nagger that you won’t be able to kick out of the car?

[via MIT via Popular Science]

Actually, according to Destructoid’s Anthony Burch’s review of the PC version, Enviro-Bear is the “best, and only bear-driving-a-car-simulator”, which I have to say puts a slightly finer point on it than I did.

Yep, Justin Smith’s Enviro-Bear 2010 is a driving game, but you play a bear who’s managed to get behind the wheel, and all he can do is use a single oversize paw to steer, accelerate, brake, shift gears, and throw crap out of the passenger compartment that gets in the way of his main goals – to eat fish and berries.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

As your bear runs amok through a jungle of clunky pixelated trees, he has to contend with leaves, pine cones, and an out of control badger – all with a single paw. Multi-touch is for wussies. Still don’t get it? Here’s the entire game manual:

1. Grab stuff with your finger.
2. Eat fish and berries.
3. When you are FAT enough, drive in a cave to hibernate.
4. You can throw stuff out of your windows and sunroof!

Ready to get your bear on? Head on over to the App Store now and plunk down that 99 cents you were going to spend on something from the Wendy’s value menu. No iPhone or iPod Touch? Then use your available paw to grab the free PC version here.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

[Enviro-Bear via iamhandheld and indiegames]

He’s not in a galaxy far, far away. He’s in a black Ariel Atom. The person who took this picture is most certainly dead. Force Lightning’ed to ashes. His ashes Force Lightning’ed to fermions. Because that’s how Vader rolls.

[via Neatorama]

Drive it like you stole it dude. The Sith Lord can’t be far behind.

[via Neatorama]

They say, “Controlling is very easy with the iPhone 3G. It has five buttons, four of them you can use for traditional driving and when you press the last one, it unlocks the accelerometer control in the same way as in many driving games available on AppStore.” Check out the video here.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

It took them just one afternoon to conjure this up. You can get the full how-to and read more at their website. Nice work, boys, very nice indeed!

[via GeekAlerts]

That’s exactly what Toyoda Gosei (an offshoot of Toyota) has done with these prototypes: they’ve equipped cars with camera and radar sensors to detect pedestrians and (presumably) activate the outer airbags to protect anyone within range of the car. The hood airbag is supposed to cushion your head while the grill airbag cushions your waist, making the fact that you are getting run over a teensy bit more comfy.

I’m not sure if these cars look awesomely futuristic, ridiculously stupid, or just plain huggable. And I’m not sure that having a pillow pop out of a car that’s slamming into you is going to help all that much. Still, it’s an interesting concept, and who knows? This may become the norm in the future and won’t seem funny-looking at all. Then again, probably not.

[via Fareastgizmos]

Flickr contributor Lividfiction came across the display at his local Target store, and managed to snap a couple of pictures before anyone in the department got smart enough to realize the gross inaccuracy of the signage.

Heck, even Target’s PS3 & Xbox 360 game reservation cards list the release date as “03/2008″. Now either somebody really screwed up here, or GTA IV is coming out much earlier than expected. I’m going with the first one.

After looking at the gorgeous in-game screenshots that Microsoft released the other day, I was starting to get excited about this upcoming racer. Now that I’ve seen the video, I think Gran Turismo 5 should be watching its back.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

While I’m sure that racing sim fanatics will espouse the wonders of GT5’s realistic driving models, I’ve always been a fan of the slightly more arcade-y feel of the PGR series. Besides, I’m a sucker for great graphics, and this title sure looks like it’s got plenty of those. Sure, it’s possible that this intro wasn’t done in-game, but if I know Bizarre Creations, you can expect the game to look nearly this good anyway.

You can download or stream the high-resolution video here.

A recent filing by Microsoft reveals a new model number “WRW02″ for the racing controller (the original version was model number “WRW01.”) The latest controller has it’s been listed with the FCC as “New Equipment,” which is a designation usually reserved for entirely new products, not just minor revisions to current ones. For comparison, here’s the original FCC submission from 2006.

The strange thing is that the photos taken for the FCC testing of the new version (right image) looks virtually identical to the current wheel (left image.) Can you see any difference? I sure can’t.

It’s possible that the revision is just “under the hood,” and could be anything from improvements in the force feedback motors, to the wireless connectivity, to some other circuit changes.

If you do find yourself in the market for one of these wheels, you might want to wait a few weeks, and see if the new version starts showing up on store shelves.

Now we already know the game is going to feature some amazing weather effects that actually affect your driving, but the addition of some two-wheeled vehicles could really shake things up. I’d imagine that if motorcycles do make their way into the game, die-hard fans of this acclaimed auto racing franchise might freak out about how it’ll change the game.

Given developer Bizarre Creations track record, I don’t think we need to be concerned. It’s been a really long time they made a bad game (anyone remember Fur Fighters?)

[via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

He’s got the living room all decked out with a real racing chair, a force feedback wheel, and an amazing 3-screen panoramic display. I can’t really figure out how he managed to get the image from the console across all three screens, but it almost looks like he has multiple consoles hooked together to make it all happen.

…and I thought hooking up my Xbox 360 to my big screen was overkill.

[via Gizmodo]