Technology

Our business has just bought two new manual Toyota Hilux Workmate utes and had Toyota put cruise control on them. But the cruise appears to disengage over bumps or under loads on both vehicles. The dealer told us that this was acceptable because the cruise is not standard in Workmates. The salesman who sold us the utes said that they were Toyota parts, but fitted aftermarket. After having other cars with cruise this just doesn't seem correct. Can we go any further with this problem, or do we just have to put up with it, as it is very annoying?

The Mazda6 - due in Australia in March 2013 - stores the braking energy in capacitors. The benefit of capacitors include being a fraction of the weight of batteries and the ability to quickly charge and discharge.The capacitors are marketed under the "i-Eloop'' name and work in conjunction with Mazda's "iStop'' stop-start system. Stop-start turns the engine off when the car is stationary. The stored energy is generally used to restart the engine and help run the airconditioning and audio functions.But Mazda's system uses a different technique to restart the engine. All the capacitor's power goes into maintaining ventilation, audio and other electrical features while the car is stationary. iStop, which is standard on the Mazda3 SP20 and CX-5, aims to reduce emissions and fuel consumption.Mazda Australia spokesman Steve Maciver says iStop and i-Eloop are the second "building blocks'' of Mazda's goal to maximise fuel efficiency. "The first was SkyActiv engines and transmissions,'' he says. "Now we're introducing the next step which is to use regenerative braking to further cut emissions and fuel consumption."We expect these to be rolled out on future models.''Both models of the next Mazda6 will have the "i-Eloop'' regenerative braking system. Mr Maciver says the new model will be available from launch as a sedan or wagon. "There is no hatch,'' he says. "Our research found that the majority of buyers of the hatch bought it for its coupe styling. Only a small fraction bought it for its larger boot access."The next sedan and wagon have a more coupe-like style than the current model.'' Mazda has dropped the liftback from its global production. The Mazda6 will also introduce the SkyActiv 2.5-litre petrol engine, a bigger version of the 2-litre now fitted to the Mazda3 SP20 and CX-5.It runs on standard unleaded petrol and delivers 138kW/250Nm - up 13kW/24Nm on the current 2.5-litre engine. The 2.2-litre diesel is shared with the CX-5 and has 129kW/420Nm. For the first time, it will go into a Mazda passenger car with an automatic transmission.* Regenerative braking systems, now common on many vehicles, use a generator to create electricity as a car brakes or coasts. This electricity either tops up the car's existing battery or stores it in additional batteries. 

The toilet seat on this motorised trike is just for decoration, but the makers intend to leave you in no doubt about what's fuelling the Toilet Bike Neo.Developed by Toto, a Japanese company that manufactures toilets, the trike's engine run on excrement by-product.While the show 'throne' suggests the rider may be contributing to the fuel production along the way, the tank is actually filled with bio-gas produced with treated livestock manure.The bike is a one-off production, built as a promotion for Toto's environmental policy, which aims for a large reduction of C02 emissions by 2017. So don't hold your breath -- or perhaps your nose -- waiting for it to turn up on a showroom floor.The Toilet Bike Neo is currently on tour around Japan -- and its handlers might at least be thankful they won't be 'caught short' on the road. 

You might recall I contacted you about the poor radio reception in my Hyundai ix35 and you asked Hyundai to investigate it. Well it is hard to believe, but after 12 months the AM radio finally works. To Hyundai's credit they have replaced everything in it, including the radio, but in the end it was fixed by fitting a bigger aerial, which is what I wanted them to do in the first place. So I now have an ix35 with a Commodore aerial and it works on AM. Thanks for your help as well.

I like my 2010 Holden Cruze diesel, but I am frustrated with the DPF filter. The warning light first came on after two months. The dealer then explained what it was, but I was also shocked to read about the implications of not continually driving the car at reasonable revs for the filter to complete its function or risk severe engine damage. My concern is that on occasions the light appears after a long trip. Surely this is when the diesel particles should burn off. I have been back to the dealer who has been helpful, checked the filter and informed me all is well. This was after it came on three times in the one week! Luckily, I live in the country and can run it out. How do city drivers cope?

One week after buying a new top-of-the-range Holden Cruze in June the steering system locked while the car was parked. The salesman came and got us going and we took it back to the dealership to have it re-programmed. All was well for a month until last week when the steering was locked while the car was in our garage. The dealer has been unable to rectify the problem so far. Have I bought a lemon or is it just a minor fault?

It's 7.35am and the smartphone buzzes. It's not the wake-up alarm but an alert that traffic is peaking on my route to work.Based on the car-to-car communication - and the number of vehicles in my area the system predicts will join the throng in the next 15 minutes - it's time to hit the road if I hope to make work on time.The car starts its warm-up routine as I finish the coffee: pre-heating the fluids for the internal combustion engine and, depending on the temperature, activating the air-conditioning system to my preferred temperature.Next door the daughter's electro-mobile is inert. She stays overnight every three or four days; ostensibly to visit the olds, in reality to tap into my power and keep her car fully “fuelled''. Gotta love kids.She's also still in the shower, knowing she can access the express lane reserved for automated cars. There are only a few trial routes at the moment but I - along with most non-Gen Y motorists who refuse to cede control of the steering wheel - already resent paying for her to motor on bitumen I bought but can't use. And I taught her to drive, tooIn the car I pocket the phone and slide the tablet into the dash. The newspaper display is replaced by my favourite apps and the article I was reading on the way out is now read out to me through the premium speaker package.“Music,'' I tell the car and it responds by resuming the soundtrack I was listening to when I pulled up yesterday. I've ignored the overnight email deluge until now and brush away - literally - the first few, where the sender and subject matter are shown on the heads-up display.The fourth, from the boss, can't be waved off; the system pauses to ensure I want it, then drops the music to background ambience and narrates the latest missive. On the highway the traffic is a steady 40km/h.The car-to-car network and infrastructure embedded in the road advises the left lane is closed 5km ahead as a result of an accident - an older car lacking the emergency braking software fitted to modern vehicles has rear-ended another. One kay out from the crash the system beeps ever more stridently until I move out of the affected lane.It's then I - briefly - see Ms Duff breezing past in the far right lane at 130km/h, oblivious of the drivers as she chats with her friend. It's a requirement of the express lane that all the seats be occupied (that's why I'm paying for a two-seat coupe) to minimise congestion. Welcome to the future. It's just five years from now. 

I've driven lots of cars that park themselves, some that drive themselves and a bunch that do everything they can to stop you killing them — and yourself — including automatic braking.BMW is working on a smart key that allows you to start the car and also unlocks a hotel room, provided of course that your car has made a booking and paid in advance. The next Mercedes-Benz S-Class limousine, due in November, will have not one but a pair of 30cm display screens in the dashboard to handle data transfer — the only way to describe it these days — to the driver and front-seat passenger.Do I like all this technology? Sometimes. Satnav is marvellous when you're out of town or overseas. It's nice to have a range of entertainment choices linked to my iPhone, and Bluetooth has made in-car conversations much safer. Land Rover has a tricky dual-display screen (using alternate-pixel technology) that allows the driver to see the satnav while the passenger plays on Google or watches a movie.It will migrate rapidly to almost everything priced above $35,000. But if the level of distraction in cars today is bad, it's only going to get more toxic. A lot of the future-tech stuff isn't about making driving easier or safer, it's just toys.When I worked (briefly) at Hyundai I discovered buyers were far more likely to pay extra for a better sound system than anti-lock brakes that could save their life. When ABS was packaged with alloy wheels, sales jumped.Fifteen years later, nothing much has changed beyond the cost and complexity. BMW knows the best settings for its hotrod M3 but provides driver-adjustable controls for the steering, transmission and engine so drivers can fiddle and fool themselves that they know better.It's a similar story at Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Even Honda and Hyundai have special "Eco'' settings so we can blame the car if we're not getting optimum fuel economy.The day is coming when GPS and satnav could easily be used to ensure you never break the speed limit. And that's a day I don't want to see. 

While Chinese cars are known more for imitation than innovation, that might change with the launch yesterday of the world's first remote-control car.Revealed in concept form at April’s Beijing motor show, the Su Rui -- a small Corolla-like sedan -- goes on sale with a handheld controller that lets you manoeuvre the car while outside it. Buttons on the controller allow you to directing the car forward, in reverse and turn it.Before you start picturing unmanned high-speed havoc, you should know the operating distance is limited to 10 metres, and the speed to 2km/h -- although we suspect some clever young boffins are already trying to work out how to crack the limiter system.BYD said in the statement the Remote Driving Control technology would be welcomed by people with tight parking spots – or who lack umbrellas. “It is a perfect solution when the parking space is not wide enough for the driver to exit the car once parked. In windy and rainy weather, drivers can even remotely move the car to his or her side without getting wet,” BYD said.The Remote Driving Control technology won Best Leading Science and Technology in the 2012 Beijing Auto Show.