Mods

In the automotive world, performance lines abound. BMW builds M cars, Mercedes-Benz offers AMG versions of its cars, and Audi puts the RS badge on a few models. Even Lexus got into the game recently with the F version of the IS model.

Among the luxury brands, only Infiniti remained immune from building tuner versions of its cars. Until now.

Enter the Infiniti G37 IPL, being shown for the first time at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. The newly introduced performance brand, IPL, stands for Infiniti Performance Line, and uses, in our opinion, a very un-Infiniti-like graphic design.

As … Read more

Let's say I've got this huge industrial robotic arm in my garage collecting dust, and I'm wondering what to do with it. Well, it looks like I can use it to make a bad-ass Ferrari F-1 simulator. I mean, if scientists at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics can do it, why can't I?

The project, headed up by Paolo Rubuffo Giordano, is using just such a setup to research how the brain perceives motion. By running simulations and monitoring the players test subjects, the team can amass data on how we deal with … Read more

Sometimes when people do crazy things, you just look at them and think: "You're crazy. You should be locked up, the key thrown away, and the meals to consist of only tofu."

However, there are times when people do crazy things and have such beautiful, persuasive explanations that you can't help but be disarmed to the point of wanting to be that crazy yourself.

Such is the case with Paul Stender, an Indianapolis man who, together with his friends at Indy Boys, Inc., decided to equip a nice yellow school bus with an engine from a … Read more

Expressing confidence in its new Countryman model, Mini announced today it would compete in selected 2011 World Rally Championship (WRC) races in preparation for running the entire 2012 season. Mini's new effort is aided by the fact that FIA, WRC's governing body, adopted new regulations limiting engine displacement to 1.6 liters.

Various Mini Cooper S models seem tailor-made for the new regulations, as they rely on a turbocharged direct injection 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine. The missing link for WRC would have been four-wheel-drive, but Mini's new Countryman model, on which its rally car is based, comes … Read more

Routine use of robotic lift trucks may not be far off.

Researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, along with a team of engineers, have transformed a Toyota 8-Series lift truck into an autonomous bot capable of working alongside human supervisors using voice commands or hand gestures.

The 3,000-pound-capacity lift truck from Toyota Material Handling (TMHU) is capable of locating, lifting, moving, and placing supplies while traversing just about any type of terrain. It was demonstrated last month at an event hosted by the U.S. Army Logistics Innovation Agency at Fort Lee, in Virginia.

"Robotic forklifts have the potential to protect both military and civilian personnel working in high-risk environments, such as hazardous material storage facilities, said Brett Wood, president of TMHU.

The demo included a review of the robot's safety features, sensor capabilities, and human-robot interface.

The researchers and engineers developed a complex network of systems to enable the lift truck to navigate real-time conditions faced by lift truck operators (navigating obstacles and interacting with other moving vehicles, for example). To do this, they added a camera, sensors, laptops, servomotors, Wi-Fi, and a PDA.

"We chose the internal combustion Toyota lift truck because it can be operated outdoors on packed earth or gravel and because, with mini-lever control some of its functionality can be controlled electronically rather than solely mechanically," said MIT Professor Seth Teller, who headed the project.

The modified vehicle wirelessly exports video from its own point of view, so the human supervisor, even if hundreds of miles away, can see whatever is nearby (provided there is network connectivity between the lift truck and supervisor's tablet).

In September 2009, for example, the team demonstrated the lift truck operating autonomously at MIT, in Cambridge, Mass., while under the supervision of an operator in Washington D.C.… Read more

Ford is making its 2011 Fiesta even more festive with new interior and exterior accessories and graphics. Ford's new accessories include a rear roof spoiler, which is exclusive to the hatchback, and a four-piece, race-inspired body kit with a sculpted front air dam, side skirts, and a sleek rear valance.

Ford is also giving you the option to add custom graphics by Original Wraps, which lets you choose the size and design of body-side graphics from a portfolio of images. Original Wraps has more than 18 designs to choose from and they are available in several colors, and include … Read more

Jeff Koons this week revealed his latest creation in Paris, BMW Art Car number 17. Koons and his staff have been working on the brightly colored design since February.

The BMW M3 GT2 is covered in a vinyl wrap with a design that really pops. The car will race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, June 12-13, 2010.

The tradition of creating BMW art cars has been around since the 1970s. Previous art cars were designed by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ernst Fuchs.

This past weekend I finally got around to using a very cool, and possibly unintended, feature of the Nexus One's $55 car dock. There's a large open space in the back where the phone's 5-megapixel camera can poke its head out. I'm assuming hardware maker HTC did this to keep from obscuring the nearby secondary microphone (which is used for noise cancellation), but the result is that you can still use the camera app freely--even when it's in car mode.

Sure this can be a little dangerous, but only if you're fiddling around with … Read more

BMW announced on Monday that the 17th Art Car created by Jeff Koons will race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, June 12-13, 2010.

Koons, who is most known for his public sculptures and whimsical themes, will transform a BMW M3 GT2 into a burst of color.

The Koons art car will carry on a long-standing tradition of famous artists, including Lichtenstein and Warhol, who have used BMWs as canvasses since the 1970s.

Koons has been traveling back and forth to Germany since February to work on the 17th BMW Art Car. The artist has worked with … Read more