Technology

Mercedes-Benz has announced the rest of the line-up of the engine family, which comprises of four new engines.

The most dominant endurance racing team of all time will call it quits at the end of 2017 and head to Formula E.

Tesla has announced that the cars it's now building are able to drive themselves and all you need to do is get in and tell it where you want to go.Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed the news overnight on Twitter and through the company's blog saying that its latest vehicles are being built with technology that will enable them to be fully autonomous."We're excited to announce that as of today, all Tesla vehicles produced in our factory – including the Model 3 – will have the hardware needed  for full self-driving capability at a safety level substantially greater than that of a human driver," Tesla posted in its official blog.The number of cameras has been doubled from four to eight to give the car 360 degrees of visibility for up to 250m which Tesla says enables the car to pilot itself "in all circumstances at what we believe will be a probablity of safety at least twice as good as the average human driver."These cameras are supported by 12 updated ultrasonic sensors that can detect hard and soft objects almost twice as far away as the previous system. A forward facing radar with improved processing uses a redundant wavelength that lets it see through heavy rain, fog, dust and the car in front.All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go.An on-board computer with 40 times the computing power of the previous generation processes the data coming in from the camera, radar and sensors.Tesla's last generation optional Autopilot system was capable of self-driving, but needed careful supervision by the driver who could be there take over if needed – you can read our review of the self-driving Model S here. The new Enhanced Autopliot appears to be a major leap forward."The basic news is that all vehicles exiting the factory have the hardware for Level 5 autonomy – the cameras, the compute power. On the order of 2000 cars a week we have hardware capable of full self-driving autonomy," Musk said.SAE International defines Level 5 autonomy as the highest level of driving automation in which the vehicle can perform all aspects of dynamic driving under all conditions – both road and weather – than can be managed by a human.According to Tesla the Enhanced Autopilot will be available to download from December 2016."All you will need to do is get in and tell your car where to go. If you don't say anything, the car will look at your calendar and take you there as your assumed destination or just home if nothing is on the calendar," according to the Tesla website.A video released by Tesla of Enhanced Autopilot in action on public roads displayed the car's impressively ability to move through traffic and skilfully handle everyday situations such as busy intersections and highways before dropping off its passenger and then finding a place to park on its own.And in his true show man style Musk added in a tweet:"When you want your car to return, tap Summon on your phone. It will eventually find you even if you are on the other side of the country."

I'm thinking about getting a new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport soon and would like to find out if one can use Windows Phones in those vehicles. All information on the Mitsubishi website pertains to Android and Apple, but I need to be able to use the Widows Phone to do basics via Bluetooth (Placing and receiving calls hands free and reading SMS messages).

Why do manufacturers set speedos to 260 km/h for non-performance cars used in city or even country driving? It squashes the range for 0-80 km/h on the gauge and detracts from readability. In this respect at least, VW has got it right.

A car capable of being driven hands-free will arrive in Australia in 2018 but the maker is yet to convince local authorities to rubber stamp the technology for our roads.

Global car giant Volkswagen has become the latest manufacturer to partner with a ride-sharing company.

Renault has finally confirmed there will be a track-ready, RS version of the new Megane, and that EVs and SUVs that will soon wear the Renault Sport badge.

Renault has doubled the usable range of its hugely popular Zoe Electric Vehicle, from 200km to 400km, wiping out “range anxiety” concerns for buyers, and making even more attractive for Australia.

Both cars made their global debuts earlier in the year, but the Paris show has given us another chance to get up close and gawk at the hybrid before it arrives in Australia in 2017.In a victory over the fun police, the LC 500h - like its V8 brother - stays true to the dramatic LF-LC concept’s design which made us do a double take in 2012. With that big mesh grille flanked by small headlights, the long low The total length of the LC 500h is 4760mm, width is 1920mm, the wheelbase 2870mm and its stands just 1345mm tall which is 125mm shorter than Danny DeVito.Tyres at the front are 245mm wide and that’s 275mm of rubbery goodness on the rears.The LC 500h has what Lexus has terms a “Multi-Stage Hybrid” system which involves a regular automatic transmission for the first four gears and a CVT simulating the next six.0-100km/h in under five seconds is the claim, so if that means 4.9 seconds then it’s “one hippopotamus, two hippopotamus” slower than your typical supercar.A 3.5-litre V6 sits just behind the front axle and works with two electric motors to send drive to the rear wheels, with Lexus touting that it’s the only hybrid vehicle which will let you do a burnout - pity the constabulary won’t.It looks fast, but is it? Well, 0-100km/h in under five seconds is the claim, so if that means 4.9 seconds then it’s “one hippopotamus, two hippopotamus” slower than your typical supercar.According to specifications released by Lexus Australia the maximum output for the V6 is 220kW and 348Nm, while the battery makes 44.6kW. Lexus lists the total combined output as 264kW.If you were doing a spec-for-spec comparison it looks like there’ll be a degree of rivalry between the LC 500h and the 266kW BMW i8 hybrid. Sure, the outputs are a close match but the Bimmer’s $299,000 price tag is expected to exceed the LC 500h’s by about a hundred grand.