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Video: BMW takes its autonomous 5 Series onto the autobahn

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:37:55 +0000

Filed under: Safety , Technology , BMW Last May we went for a high-speed run around Laguna Seca in BMW’s Track Trainer , a modified 3 Series that can click of two-minute laps without the driver touching the controls. Now, BMW has packed a 5 Series with the next iteration of the technology and taken it on to the open road. This latest ConnectedDrive experiment uses much of the same tech, but beyond the radar and camera systems on the 3er, it includes new ultrasonic scanners and lasers to re-read the road surface, lines and surrounding vehicles. We say “re-read” because like the system we sampled at Laguna, this version needs to have the road data downloaded into the car before it can drive sans human intervention

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Video: BMW takes its autonomous 5 Series onto the autobahn

Video: Diabetic condition leads to wild snowy ride for Kia owner

admin — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:43:26 +0000

Filed under: Videos The blurry screencap shown above is of a driver in morning traffic on Pennsylvania’s I-81, in mid-jump, hurtling down the snowy median. The man who captured the video, Shawn Lucas, thought the driver was trying to evade police, but it turns out the 61-year-old woman behind the wheel of the Kia was likely having a diabetic emergency. Before this video was taken, she had driven onto and stopped on the median, and other drivers pulled over to play Good Samaritan and push her off. While they were pushing, she sped off again, which is when Lucas began to record her (he apparently was unaware of the driver’s medical condition).

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Video: Diabetic condition leads to wild snowy ride for Kia owner

Video: First it was Vette on Vette violence, now it’s Z on Z carnage

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 23:12:40 +0000

Filed under: Coupe , Safety , Videos , Nissan Back on Thanksgiving Day of 2011, we saw what happens when a C5 Chevrolet Corvette goes head-to-head on public roads against a C6 Vette – the older Vette spears into the passenger-side door of the newer Vette. The video was our most popular post of 2011 , so we know that well over a million viewers saw the ill-advised drag race. We think that video illustrated that racing on public roads was a bad idea, but sometimes, accidents happen even without a race. Hit the jump to see what happens when a pair of tuned-out Nissan 350Z models do their best impression of the Thanksgiving Day Melee

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Video: First it was Vette on Vette violence, now it’s Z on Z carnage

Report: Volvo looking for small car partner

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:56:08 +0000

Filed under: Volvo There are drawbacks to being the property of a larger conglomerate, to be sure, but there are also benefits. Taking advantage of group buying power, shared developments costs and synergies with products from other divisions, for instance. And these are things that, since splitting off from Ford a couple of years ago, Volvo does not have at its disposal any longer. That’s why the Swedish automaker is looking for a partner with which to share development costs – specifically those attached to developing a new small car range

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Report: Volvo looking for small car partner

Official: Kimi Raikkonen marks official return to F1 with Lotus test run [w/video]

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 23:35:30 +0000

Filed under: Motorsports , Lotus Few drivers have caused the kind of speculation that Kimi Raikkonen has in the past few years alone. Will he take a Ferrari payoff and make way for Fernando Alonso ? Will he find another ride in Formula One ? Will he make it in the World Rally Championship ?