Give Your parrot the freedom of the Open Road

If you had an African Grey Parrot that shrieked and screamed so often it was driving you to the brink of madness, what would you do?

Read the full story here

PAL-V Flying Car - Maiden Flight - YouTube

This week the Dutch company PAL-V announced the first flights of its prototype "flying car".
This unique vehicle is called the PAL-V One, or the 'Personal Air and Land Vehicle', and It marks the start of a new era.

On the ground the vehicle drives like a sports car. Within minutes its rotor is unfolded and its tail is extended: then it is ready to take off thanks to the advanced gyrocopter technology.

With these successful test results it is proven that it is not only possible to build a flying car but also that it can be done within existing international rules for both flying and driving.

Having passed this important milestone the company is now inviting investors to join them in creating the future.

The next step will be the design of the first commercial production model of the PAL-V, and first deliveries are expected in 2014.

For 100 years people have dreamed of a flying car, and many attempts have been made to realize this dream, but now it has truly become a reality.

www.PAL-V.com

ADHD Challenges Those Seeking a Driver’s License

The first time Jillian Serpa tried to learn to drive, the family car wound up straddling a creek next to her home in Ringwood, N.J.

Ms. Serpa, then 16, had gotten flustered trying to sort out a rapid string of directions from her father while preparing to back out of their driveway. “There was a lack of communication,” she said. “I stepped on the gas instead of the brake.”

On her second attempt to learn, Ms. Serpa recalled, she “totally freaked out” at a busy intersection.

It was four years before she tried driving again. She has made great progress, but so far has still fallen short of her goal: Two weeks ago she knocked over a cone while parallel parking and failed the road test for the fourth time.

Learning to drive is hard and scary for many teenagers, and driving is far and away the most dangerous thing teenagers do. But the challenges are significantly greater for young people who, like Ms. Serpa, have attention problems.

A number of cognitive conditions can affect driving, and instructors report a recent increase in the number of teenagers with Asperger syndrome seeking licenses.

But the largest group of challenged teenage drivers and the mostly closely studied, appears to be those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, ADD).

A 2007 study, by Russell A. Barkley of the Medical University of South Carolina and Daniel J. Cox of the University of Virginia Health System, concluded that young drivers with ADHD are two to four times as likely as those without the condition to have an accident, meaning that they are at a higher risk of wrecking the car than an adult who is legally drunk.

Researchers say that many teenagers with attention or other learning problems can become good drivers, but not easily or quickly, and that some will be better off not driving till they are older or not at all.

The most obvious difficulty they face is inattention, the single leading cause of crashes among all drivers, said Bruce Simons-Morton, senior investigator at the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development in Bethesda, Md.

“When a driver takes his eyes off the road for two seconds or more, he’s doubled the risk of a crash,” he said.

Inexperienced drivers usually are distractible drivers. Dr. Simons-Morton cited a study on a closed course in which teenagers proved much more adept than adults at using cellphones while driving and missed more stop signs.

The situation isn’t helped by how “noisy” cars have become, with cellphones, iPods and Bluetooth devices, said Lissa Robins Kapust, a social worker and coordinator of a driving program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “Driving is so busy on the inside and the outside of the car it’s the most complex thing we do.”

But ADHD involves more than distractibility (?). Its other major trait is impulsiveness, which is often linked to high levels of risk-taking, said Dr. Barkley.

“It’s a bad combination” for young drivers, he said. “They’re more prone to crashes because of inattention, but the reason their crashes are so much worse is because they’re so often speeding.” Many drivers with ADHD overestimate their skills behind the wheel, Dr. Barkley noted.

Read more in the NY Times

Renault Zoe: First ‘affordable’ electric car debut

Last week at the Geneva Motor Show, Renault presented the newest addition to its zero-emissions fleet: the Zoe all-electric car.

The supermini joins the Fluence, the Kangoo Van, and the Twizy, the automaker’s other all-electric models.

But what sets Zoe apart is its price tag.

Marketed by Renault as the “first affordable car for everyday use,” the new model starts at just £13,650 ($21,313), after a French government incentive of up to 25 percent of the cost of the car.

In Switzerland, which does not offer such incentives, the car starts at around $24,800, decidedly below the typical range for an EV.

Renault claims the five-seater is the first mass-market electric vehicle with a range of more than 130 miles (based on the New European Driving Cycle).

Also, thanks to the use of a Chameleon charger, Renault says the car is the first EV that can be charged at any level of power, taking anywhere between 30 minutes and nine hours to charge.

Zoe is now available for pre-order in 11 countries. As arguably the first electric car to be priced comparably to traditional diesel-engined city cars (where tax incentives are available), the success of this EV may provide a gauge of consumers’ willingness to cross over to electric vehicles, as in this case cost is not a main concern.

House made of recycled and salvaged car scraps and local wood

Click on the image to see more

While the McGee house may look like any other new designer home in the neighborhood, its walls tell a different story.

Designed by husband and wife team Karl Wanaselja and Cate Leger of Leger Wanaselja (ecological) Architecture, the upper outside walls of the house are made from over 100 salvaged car roofs.

In a pursuit to build a house that utilized green technologies and reused materials, the couple sourced car roofs from a selection of gray-colored cars that had been left for parts in local junk yards in Berkeley, California.

Their biggest challenge was sourcing car scraps that were in relatively good condition, without dents and with a good paint finish. The scraps were then cut into long tile-like shapes and used to complete the upper outside walls of the house, rendering a similar appearance to slate.

Donkervoort GTO - Dutch supercar

The new Donkervoort GTO uses the 2.5-litre five-cylinder turbo from the Audi TT RS and, despite being the firm's largest-ever car, still weighs just 700kg - half the weight of a VW Golf.

The Caterham-style car a hefty 150mm wider and 350mm longer, says the firm, to accommodate Audi's longitudinally-mounted five-cylinder engine.

This motor has also been lightened by 30kg, again to aid weight distribution and handling.

Amateur Rocket Transport: Space Tourist in a Chevvy!

Paul Stender has come up with a novel way of making his car go faster - by strapping a cruise missile engine to its roof. 

His 1967 Chevrolet Impala can now reach speeds of up to 300mph, fires out 30ft flames and leaves massive clouds of smoke in its wake.

The monstrous motor has a 10,000bhp engine - the equivalent of 10 Bugatti Veyrons. 

The 44-year-old created the jet-powered car with his wife Therese, 29 and their team at Indy Boys Inc.

It follows hot on the heels of their jet-powered toilet and their jet-powered school bus which could reach speeds of over 367mph.

Picture: INDY BOYS / CATERS NEWS

Honda Microcommuter Concept: Can it outsmart the Smart

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept EV has heads-up display, social networking, advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2 like the T25 and T27 city cars), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and a fold-up electric bike for last mile transport.

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept looks like it will take the basic design Micro Car design and update it to the world of today, with advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and last mile transport in the form of an ingenious fold-up electric two-wheeler known as the Motor Compo.

Very little has been revealed by Honda in its pre Tokyo Motor Show press release, but the electric city commuter vehicle looks like a winner from the get-go.

Studying the photos released with the press blurb suggests that the Micro Commuter Concept has seen plenty of time inside a wind tunnel to optimise its aerodynamics for the low to medium speed range of urban roads.

The relationship between the compact, fold-up Motor Compo electric two-wheeler is not clear as yet, but one of the very few indications of the functionality of the two-wheeler in the press releases states it to be a "compact EV commuter which offers the casual and convenient mobility of a two-wheeler, but also strives to be useful even when it's not being ridden.

This model can be loaded into the Micro Commuter Concept, with the battery that drives this commuter detachable and designed to be used as a power source in everyday life."

The Micro Commuter Concept and Motor Compo are just two of seven concepts to be shown in Tokyo, but Honda clearly has the concept of last mile transport still firmly in its mind.

It may be difficult for Americans living in cities with a lot of space to comprehend the problems faced by other city dwellers around the world, but as urban roads become more crowded, the distance between where you park and your final destination is set to become a significant part of the daily commute.

Read the full article here

Jaguar C-X16: New Jaguar E Type concept

The Jaguar C-X16 concept has a surprise treat under the long bonnet - a new engine that's part of a petrol-electric hybrid drivetrain concept.

The supercharged 3.0-litre V6 engine produces an impressive 380hp (more than the entry-level new Porsche 911), driven through an eight-speed paddle shift automatic. 0-60mph takes 4.4 seconds and it can reach 186mph.

More pics here

BMW i8 Concept Car - YouTube video

The BMW i8 - a sporty, hybrid all-rounder

While the i3 is best suited to round-town usage, the i8 has broader ambitions. It uses the same electric motor as the i3, this time mounted over the front axle, in conjunction with a three-cylinder, 220 horsepower petrol engine over the rear axle. Combined, you're looking at a 354 horsepower all-wheel-drive with 550 Nm of torque.

All wheel drive isn't entirely accurate though - the i8 constantly proportions the power between the front and rear drive systems according to how the car is being driven. With a much smaller battery system than the i3, the i8 can only manage around 35 km (20 miles) in fully electric drive mode - but then, that would cover an emission-free commute for the majority of people.

The real value of the hybrid system comes with longer range driving, where on the EU cycle, the i8 manages a whopping 104 miles per gallon (2.7 liters per 100 km). Driven hard, the fuel consumption will double, but don't forget that the Toyota Prius is advertised as a 50 mpg hybrid and is nowhere near as much fun.

Like the i3, the i8's top speed is electronically governed, but this time at a very sporty 250 kph (155 mph), so it'll hold its head high on any autobahn. The i8 will hit 100 kph (62 mph) in a brisk 5 seconds or less, decent sportscar territory there, and the car's entire underbelly is totally enclosed to boost aerodynamic efficiency and reduce fuel consumption.

‪BMW i3 Concept‬‏ - YouTube

The BMW i3 - all-electric city slicker

First up is the town car getabout - the i3. As a fully electric car, it's mainly aimed at urban commuting, but its battery range is specified to a level a little beyond that. On the FTP72 cycle, it's rated for 225 km (140 miles), but BMW says the car's everyday range, being driven by regular lead-foot clowns like you and I, is more like 160 km (100 miles.) That's heaps for your general commuting duties.

Acceleration is in the range of 8 seconds to 100 kph (62 mph), but it should be fairly zippy off the line, as it develops 100 percent of its torque from a standstill. Top speed should be around 150 kph (93 mph) - but that's electronically limited, because autobahn speeds can be brutally draining on most electric vehicles.

The i3's large battery pack sits under the floor of the vehicle in a slab that's protected from crash damage by a number of buffer zones in the structure. As batteries are typically the most expensive part of an electric vehicle, you'd certainly want to protect them.

The 170 hp electric motor, single-gear drive system and differential are located over the driven rear axle, and there's room there for an optional range extender - a high efficiency petrol engine that putts away and generates electricity to charge the batteries. With the range extender on board, you can roughly double the i3's range, and fill up at any petrol station.

Alternative Transport from Audi - Wooden Cycle

While a number of car makers, including BMW, Mercedes-Benz and McLaren, have sought to leverage their brand and technical knowledge to produce vehicles of the two-wheeled, pedal-powered variety, they tend to opt for the same high-tech, lightweight materials used in their cars, such as carbon fiber and aluminum.

Audi has done the same thing in the past, but for its latest bicycle offering Audi of America has taken a different tack by teaming up with Renovo Bicycles to create the "duo" – a line of bikes that feature monocoque frames made of hardwood.

Audi teams with Renovo for 'duo' line of wooden bicycles - Image 1 of 6

New De Lorean model released

Looking for a Christmas present for the geek who has everything?

How about this - a detailed 1:18 scale model of the Delorean from the Back to the Future movies, which is also a 500GB hard drive?

The $250 cars-shaped hard drive features gull wing doors an opening bonnet and even a replica of the reactor needed for time travel. It simply plugs into your PC's USB socket and you can utilise the Seagate storage hidden within.

Dave Hersch of US company Flash Rods says: "After four years of engineering, it's finally out and worth the wait. This is one of the coolest hard drive cars we have ever made.

It would be hard to have more fun than this rolling around your desk top."

Picture: Flash Rods / Rex Features

Spectacular crashes in Formula 1, surviveable

Jeff Diehl struggles to climb out of his burning race car after smashing into the retaining wall during the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals Qualifying Round in Nevada.

National Hot Rod Association car driver Jeff Diehl smashed his car into the wall after his throttle got stuck during qualifying. Diehl was shaken up but not injured

The Edison 2 (X Prize Winner) very light car - Video

The Edison 2 very light and very fuel efficient car. Visit the website here

Sony Corp to enter the Lucrative Car Battery Market

Sony Corp. will tap the rechargeable car battery market amid a growing focus on electric cars and green auto technology, chief executive Howard Stringer said Thursday.

"The energy business is obviously -- given the nature of the world we live in -- going to be a growth area," Stringer told reporters.

"We are going to put some of our own money into it and move quickly ... to see if we can find a place that makes sense for us," he said.

Japanese carmakers have invested heavily in developing hybrid, electric and fuel efficient cars that produce lower or no greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Toyota Motor has set up a business with Panasonic to produce lithium-ion batteries, while Nissan Motor and electronics giant NEC have also jointly set up a battery company.

"Somebody said to me, well, battery makers have car deals," said Stringer.

"If you produce the right battery, if you produce it, they will come," he said.

Sony has booked a net loss of 26.3 billion yen (290 million dollars) for the fiscal second quarter through September, hit by weak demand for televisions, cameras and other electronic devices.

It forecasts a net loss of 95 billion yen for the year to March.

However, Stringer said sales in the US holiday season had been brisk so far, especially of the PlayStation 3 game console and Blu-ray disks.

The VW E-Up! - The Frankfurt Motor Show 2009

...and, especially for the Yorkshire market place - the VW E-Up!, an electric car which should go into volume production in 2013