Porsche’s 2010 purpose-built racetrack roadcar – the 911 GT3 R
By Gizmag Team
January 14, 2010
Porsche unveiled its 2010 911 GT3 R race car today at the Autosport International show at the Birmingham NEC
in the UK. Porsche can claim more than 28,000 race victories in almost
every motor sports series worldwide, and while many of these successes
have been achieved with immensely powerful specialist race cars like the
evocative 917 and 956, the iconic 911 sports coupe is the bedrock on
which the racing reputation of the Stuttgart marque has been built. The
new GT3 R is the purpose-built racetrack version of the 911 road car,
weighs just 1,200 kg, develops 480 bhp, is technologically orgiastic,
and costs EUR 279,000 (US$400,000). Read More
Fiat used the 2010 Detroit International Motor
Show to reveal an all-electric version of its award-winning Fiat 500.
Already one of the most economical and low emission vehicles on the
road, the Fiat 500 BEV goes one step further, but one that with its four
seats and clever controls is as practical as it is easy to use. Fiat
says that the 500 BEV is a technology test bed for future models and is
keeping as quiet as an electric car about what exactly that advanced
technology is. Read More
As the electric/hybrid auto revolution gathers
speed, it’s becoming more and more apparent that green vehicles don’t
need to be slow. First, of course, came the Tesla Roadster. Then, just this month, Revenge Design Inc unveiled their Verde. Now, or at least not long from now, you can add another green dream to your list: The Future Vehicle Technologies eVaro.
The Canadian-made hybrid gets up to 275mpg, has a top speed of 135mph,
and can go from 0 to 60 in a butt-clenching five seconds. Read More
Robo Cafe: robot waiters make a restaurant a one-man operation
By Loz Blain
January 14, 2010
Back in the 70s, the robots were coming for our
crappy manufacturing jobs. Now, it seems, they're coming for our crappy
table service jobs. Korean company ITM Technology has developed a
restaurant concept around a cute little robot that fulfills the role of a
waiter - it takes orders from customers, either verbally or through a
touch screen, then relays them to the kitchen, and brings the food out
when it's ready. Robo Cafe eliminates ordering errors, reduces staffing
costs dramatically for restaurant owners, and even brings the boss all
the tips. It's probably not going to be nearly as interesting to Tiger
Woods, though. Read More
The unrelenting digitization of the commercial
world has left few industries and professions untouched, with the latest
robot from Japanese developer Eager
looking set to make an impression on the world of modeling for the
first time. Apart from being made almost entirely made of recycled
corrugated cardboard and hence cheap to produce and eco-friendly, the
D+ropop is incredibly elegant and will perform a host of new and
existing modeling tasks very cost-effectively. At an all-up price of
around USD$5500, the D+ropop will work 24/7, won’t throw tantrums, get
involved in scandals and damage your brand, or be perpetually late. Read More
Motor vehicle accidents are the single highest
cause of death for young people - and the dangerous practice of texting
while driving is on the rise among teens and young adults. Textecution
is an Android app that parents can install on their kids' phones. It's
designed to shut down all texting functions - sending and receiving - if
the phone handset is moving at more than 10mph. It's a flawed solution,
but a first step towards combatting a very serious issue that's only
going to become worse as smartphones proliferate. Read More
In addition to its recent 7-year / 150,000km warranty announcement,
Kia has created further interest with the showing of its UVO in-car
voice and touch activated communication and entertainment system.
Developed in collaboration with Microsoft,
the system offers users an easy to use interactive hands-free
alternative that uses speech recognition for making and taking calls,
sending text messages and managing in-car music. Featuring a 4.3” full
color touchscreen display and built-in 1GB storage with the ability to
rip CD’s and MP3’s onto the system’s “Jukebox”, the open platform UVO
system also doubles as a rear view camera when the vehicle is in
reverse. Read More
If you live in the Northern hemisphere (75% of
Gizmag readers do), and you’re prone to depression (20% of all people
are clinically depressed at least once in their life), your outlook is
quite probably headed towards its bleakest early next week - Blue Monday
occurs next Monday, January 18, and is the day when a series of
combined depressive effects, identified in the aforementioned equation
as weather (W), debt (d), time since Christmas (T), time since failing
our new year’s resolutions (Q), low motivational levels (M) and the
feeling of a need to take action (Na). It all sounds so plausible, but
sadly it’s a total crock of BS, and the story is still being
perpetuated. Read More
Hyundai's tasty Blue Will concept car turned up
at the Detroit NAIAS this week for its first showing on American soil.
We got to take a close-up look at the Korean company's blue-sky plug-in
hybrid and were impressed by some of the details - headlamp surrounds
made from recycled PET bottles, a full undertray for sleek aeros, a
glass roof impregnated with solar cells, drive-by-wire steering column
and a thermal generator to turn waste heat from the combustion engine
into electricity. Read More
At last year’s North American International Auto Show, Chinese carmaker BYD
introduced itself to the US with plans of selling cars there by 2011.
Now they’re back at this year’s show, and have unveiled their new
pure-electric car, the e6. Unlike some other electric vehicle
manufacturers, BYD has actually been selling cars to real, live
consumers for the past two years. In 2009, BYD sold 450,000 units in
China, and expects to sell around 800,000 this year. The big news,
however, is that they plan to start selling the e6 in North America in
2010 - a full year ahead of schedule. Read More
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