It may not be the first time Porsche’s 918 plug-in hybrid has had a chance to flex its 770 horse power for the camera, but when we last saw the pricey insanely expensive speed demon strut its stuff on record, it certainly didn’t look like this. The freakish prototype has emerged as a beautiful, high-performance vision of efficiency, blasting its way past 100 kilometers of terrain for every three liters of petrol (78 miles/gallon). The $845,000 machine pairs a combustion engine with electric motors to achieve that consumption rating, and sports a carbon-fiber reinforced-plastic monocoque (self-supporting) shell, rear-axle steering and that unique upward-venting exhausted system that you may have noticed in the shot above. The 918 Spyder is slated for its initial production run beginning in September of 2013, with the first models making their way to US customers late next year. It’s time to start saving — just a few thousand blog posts to go.

SOURCE via Porsche

Collision detection for cars? Yeah, scientists are on that. But whenever we read about concepts like this, the accompanying literature is often curiously light on details pertaining to real-life driving conditions; it’s often unclear how well the tech will fare if you dredge it up on a foggy day, or in the middle of torrential storm. But in that press release you seen down there, low visibility and poorly lit roads are all Panasonic wants to talk about. The company just unveiled its new crash-avoidance system, which, like other concepts we’ve seen, uses millimeter-wave radar technology to detect pedestrians and bicyclists. Since humans tend to reflect weaker radar signals than cars, Panasonic has designed a new pulse radar code sequence that allows pedestrians to leave a bigger footprint. It’s so effective, the company claims, that it can detect bystanders up to 40 meters (131 feet) away, and will work at night and through rain, fog, snow and blinding sunlight. That all sounds promising, of course, but as with other concepts, it’s not clear, when, exactly we’ll see this system put to good use in the real world.

Terrafugia’s Transition could finally be making its way to the production line. The “flying car” has journeyed far beyond the concept phase, achieving its compulsory nod from the DOT last summer, and now reaching production prototype status. On March 23rd, the latest Transition flew past one more hurdle, completing its first airborne trial. The hybrid vehicle rolled down the runway at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York before ascending to 1400 feet — the entire flight lasted a mere eight minutes, and marks the first of six planned phases of flight testing during the aircraft’s voyage past experimental stage. There’s still no word on when the Light Sport Aircraft will be making its way to soon-to-be Transition owners, but those hankering for a preview can catch a glimpse of the craft at the New York Auto Show from April 6th through the 15th. You can also taxi past the break for a tail-level view of the test plane’s trek to takeoff.

SOURCE via CNET

It’s been less than a year since our first opportunity to get up close and personal with BMW’s i8 plug-in electric car, and now the German automaker is back to tease a whole new beast. The Concept Spyder made a static appearance over the weekend, but today the sportier i8 has returned to the spotlight, with video footage in tow. BimmerPost managed to share some clips via YouTube, including a straight-cut-gear-fueled drive around a parking lot and across a lamp-lit bridge, somewhere in the Eastern U.S., believe it or not (take note of the I-95 sign in the first few seconds). You can also gawk at some side-to-side pans of the Spyder’s exterior, with a few HD interior close-ups to boot. And where can you find said stimulating simulations? Buckle up and click past the break.

Disney is looking to give younger children an excuse other than Angry Birds to play with their parents’ Apple iPad. The company’s new AppMates toys feature small Cars 2 characters with unique sensors inside them. Download a free application, place the toys on the screen, and kids can drive around a virtual interpretation of Radiator Springs. There are even games and missions to complete for older tikes. Each set comes with two characters for $19.99, and with the potential for endless updates to the Radiator Springs universe, chances are good that kids won’t get bored of the game too quickly.

Of course, the only question is, who wants to hand over their tablet to their child aged four to nine? Fortunately, Disney has thought of that, too, and will release a well-padded Cars 2-themed iPad case later down the line. That little piece of kit will set you back a heady $49, but that’s considerably less than the cost of a brand-new iPad. Hit the jump to take a look at a video of the AppMates in action.

One downside of owning an electric car is that you can’t simply stop and recharge like how conventional cars go to petrol stations and refuel once you run out of juice. If electric cars are ever going to replace their gas-guzzling ancestors, we’ll inevitably need a few more places to plug in and charge up. Google started using Prius as their driverless car for their Google Street View, and now they’ve added a new database of EV, and that is Google Maps with locations of all the charging stations in US. This will easily enable drivers of EV to locate places to get their juice replenished while on longer trips or when out of town. Now it seemed more ‘fun’ to own an EV, though it won’t be fun if you run out of juice or the battery crack the hell out of you.

SOURCE via Google

Now this is what I call unplug! Driving a super environment friendly electric car, and don’t have to worry about insufficient electric for your new EV. Drive home, flip the switch, and you’re ready for dinner. That’s a very cool invention from WiTriCity, a pioneer in wireless energy transfer technology, and Delphi Automotive. That’s the result of the collaboration between the two companies that are working on developing a range of automatic wireless charging products for electric vehicles.

No additional plugs or charging cords are needed in the wireless charging system. All the driver need to do is to simply park their electric vehicles over a wireless energy source that sits on the garage floor or embedded in a paved parking spot, and the system will automatically charge up your car once you activate it.

This patented wireless energy transfer technology is invented by Nikola Tesla, and improved by a team of MIT physicists since four years ago to make it feasible. The technology makes use of highly resonant magnetic coupling, offering a transfer of over 3,300 watts – enough to fully charge an electric car at the same rate as most residential plug-in chargers. The system can efficiently transfer power over significantly larger distances and allow more parking-related vehicle misalignment than inductive systems. Ask any E&E Engineering student, and they should be able to explain better to you than me, what resonant cavity is. Despite the gap, no power would be lost as power is transferred through induction within the resonant cavity, not electrical conduction.

However, wireless charging technology will of course need to co-exist with plug-in charging solutions, the company states, so that electric vehicle drivers have the ability to charge their vehicle with something like Delphi’s portable electric charger – which fits into any standard AC outlet – when they’re away from their wireless charging source. This is actually a much refined package, by offering the wireless energy transfer package as an add-on instead of a standalone device. Sometimes we just can’t park properly. Well, now you have a better reason to buy an EV!

The most advanced technology at the most exotic location on earth, performing the most dangerous missions, your vroom vroom spies are back! Mater and Lightning McQueen will once again hold hands (or wheels) as the world’s latest secret agent! Damn, I always love Pixar’s creations. But where’s my Incredible 2?

Tata, the famous Indian company that manufactures the budget mini hatchback Nano in India, is invading Europe next year with two new EVs. Not to follow their low-budget hatchback, Tata will be going somewhat upmarket in the designs and packages, by launching the better looking Indica Vista for green-conscious Englishmen and Scandinavians by early next year, alongside the Ace, which is a commercial electric mini-truck. It’s good to see that more car manufacturers will be stepping into the EV cycle. Mother Nature might be pleased by this, as the Toyota Prius is getting rather dull. Over here at 2dayblog, we all love EVs as it’ll save Mother Nature (*besides saving my sky high petrol bills) so we hope there’s more affordable EVs out there.

SOURCE via Oh!Gizmo]

This is one of the funky ideas going around, and I actually like it. The prototype vibrating warning system for cars will actually vibrate and ‘hopefully’ wake you up from dozing off and flying out of your car while you’re asleep. Hopefully this new system can keep you awake from those wild rides.

From the Yales School of Engineering, this vibrating project joins flashing side mirrors (Audi) and “stay awake, have a coffee break” (Mercedes) as the latest in driver safety systems, protects drivers by vibrating cellphone-sized motors in the seat.

There are twenty motors arranged in a rectangle, to be precise, and they vibrate in different ways and configurations depending on what’s happening outside the vehicle. Say a car is approaching from the left-hand side, for example, and then the left array of motors, on your left cheek, would vibrate angrily, warning you of danger.

[via Gizmag]