Technology

The humble LED is the new star of car lighting.

South Australian police say the smartwatch, which goes on sale in Australia today, will be treated as a mobile phone and should not be used by drivers in a vehicle that is moving or stationary.But a prominent solicitor has argued the watch is a bluetooth accessory and storage device - and therefore legal - that could not independently be used for phone calls, and to send and receive text messages and emails.The Apple Watch was still considered a mobile phone under rule 300 of the Australian Road RulesThe Apple Watch, above, will be available in 20 models ranging in price from $799 to $1629 and will be "just as intuitive as using your iPhone or working on a Mac", according to its website.However, some of its features - including making and receiving calls, and sending and receiving text messages and emails - will work only when an iPhone is switched on and is paired via bluetooth or a shared Wi-Fi network.Traffic Support Branch acting officer-in-charge Inspector Steve Kameniar said the Apple Watch was still considered a mobile phone under rule 300 of the Australian Road Rules.The rule states that a motorist can use a mobile phone while driving via bluetooth, a headset or earphones without touching, holding or resting the phone on their body.It further states that it is an offence to create, send or look at a text, video message or email on a mobile phone.Police remind motorists that driving is a complex task requiring drivers to use and co-ordinate a number of skillsInsp Kameniar said the watch, therefore, should not be used in a vehicle that is moving or stationary."Police remind motorists that driving is a complex task requiring drivers to use and co-ordinate a number of skills," he said.Lawyer Michael Woods said he believed, at present, the Apple Watch was a bluetooth accessory that also functioned as a storage device.Mr Woods said defining the watch as a mobile phone was conditional on whether the watch was able to independently make and receive calls and send and receive text messages. 'It makes a huge difference as to whether it is reading those from the phone," he said."If it is picking up information from your phone via bluetooth or wireless connection, my thought is that I doubt it would be a phone, but like a bluetooth device."

“It feels very normal” I told Dr Friedrich G Wilhelm, one of the senior engineers on the Audi h-tron project, who was in the passenger seat. Then I realised, I had probably said the wrong thing when describing a futuristic Audi prototype crammed full of leading edge technolgy.It’s hard to get Germans, let alone German engineers, openly excited, but a big smile spread over his face and he replied in an excited voice, “Normal. That’s exactly how we want our A7 h-tron to feel.”Though Audi is at the forefront in high-tech automotive power it feels potential buyers could be put off if the car felt different to the norm. Hence, part of the design brief was to make it feel like any other quality, high-performance car.The ‘h’ in the Audi’s h-tron name refers to the element hydrogen, the most common element in the universe.Hydrogen is stored in four high-pressure cylinders under the rear of the A7.A device known as a fuel cell is fitted under the front bonnet and separates the protons and electrons in the hydrogen.The electrons provide electricity which is used to drive a motor to power the front wheels of the Audi.The A7 h-tron also has a conventional lithium-ion battery of the type seen in many electric cars and hybrids in the rear.This can be charged externally in normal plug-in fashion, and by regenerated energy during braking and downhill throttle-off running.It drives another electric motor connected to the back wheels.Audi A7 can run for as far as 50 kilometres in electric car mode.By far the biggest difference between the h-tron and other electric and hybrid cars is that hydrogen can fill the high pressure cylinders in about three minutes; then provides a range of up to 500 km.Add the 50 kilometres from the lithium-ion battery and this climbs to 550km.In other words, similar fill time and range as a petrol engine vehicle – a huge advantage over pure electric cars.The biggest problem is that refuelling stations are few and far between, even in Europe and the USA, where there are only a few dozen.Australia has just one.If hydrogen takes off as a vehicle fuel the number of refuelling outlets will increase.The trouble is that until vehicle sales increase there won’t be a sufficient number of refuelling points.The only answer to this catch-22 situation is government assistance. Given Australian governments’ embarrassing lack of assistance on clean vehicles to date we aren’t feeling positive.As the A7 h-tron is powered by all four wheels, it can be called a ‘quattro’ in Audi speak.However there’s no mechanical connection between the front and rear wheels.As emphasised in the opening to this story, Audi A7 h-tron is surprisingly normal in the way it feels.The only real difference is the instant throttle response that’s such a great feature of all vehicles with some form of electric power – we love them for that.There’s more noise from the powertrain than you get in a pure electric car or hybrid vehicle.Most of this comes from air being pumped under pressure into the fuel cell, as well as from the exhaust system – the exhaust in this case being water, there are absolutely no harmful exhaust emissions.These sounds will become muted as further work is done on the prototype.Performance is very good, with the h-tron going from rest to 100km/h in about 7.9 seconds, that’s due to the 170kW of power and 540Nm of torque produced. Handling feels fine despite the fact the h-tron weights about 300kg more than the standard car.We didn’t push the car hard in bends – a smart move when driving a prototype vehicle that cost millions of euros to build.Some 100 millimetres of depth is lost in the boot to provide space for the hydrogen tanks, battery and electric motor, but the boot of the standard Audi A7 is so large the loss of volume is barely noticed.When will the Audi A7 h-tron go into production? No date has been set, in fact it may never be made.The prototype vehicle we have just driven has been built by Audi to investigate ways of reducing costs, improving performance and minimising the size and weight of the components. The future certainly won’t take Audi by surprise. Though several major manufacturers are working on hydrogen power the biggest competitor is the pure electric car.The trouble with electric cars is extremely long charging times and limited range.Audi h-tron answers these questions, but the need for thousands of refuelling points to be provided globally is a huge stumbling block.It’s great to see that Audi is putting a major effort and a lot of money into improving the air which we all breathe. As well as hydrogen fuel cell cars the high-tech German maker is extremely experienced in diesel-electric racing cars, dominating the world’s toughest road race, the Le Mans 24-hour for over a decade. Will we see hydrogen winning Le Mans one day? Who knows.

Current owner, military vehicle dealer Nick Mead, wants £25,000 for the bus and plans to list it on eBay."It's a unique piece of social and political history," Mr Mead said."It's still in working order and, although it's not exactly looking its best these days, someone who wanted to would be able to restore it to a good standard pretty easily."I bought it in 2012 because it was a fascinating vehicle but it's big, ugly and it's in the way now so I'm keen to send it to a good home. Given the American fascination with Maggie Thatcher, it may sell well over there but I'd prefer for it to stay in the UK.The windows are made of 50mm thick, bullet-proof glass"The bus is just as it was in period; we even found a ladies' umbrella on board – whether it's Margaret Thatcher's or not I don't know but we like to think it might be."The bus was built by military vehicle specialist Glover Webb and is based on Foden running gear.The 60cm thick, honeycomb macrolite floor is capable of withstanding a landmine blastIt is powered by a 12-litre, supercharged V12 Rolls Royce diesel engine that can propel the coach to a top speed of 130km/h.The windows are made of 50mm thick, bullet-proof glass, while the 60cm thick, honeycomb macrolite floor is capable of withstanding a landmine blast.With seating for 36 people and space at the rear for an office desk, the coach even had its own auxiliary, roof-mounted motor that could pump clean, carbonised air to the sealed cabin in the event of a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon being deployed.With just 22,000km on the clock, the bus was used to ferry passengers on the dangerous Derry Airport – Belfast route during the 1980s.It was also previously owned by the Met Police, used as transport for the Royal Marines band and as a viewing platform at a Ministry of Defence research facility.

Improvements to vehicle safety technology have been the focus of the 2015 Canstar Blue Innovation Awards - Automotive Industry.The inaugural awards for innovation have been judged by a panel of experts. Previously, Canstar Blue has bestowed awards on manufacturers in areas such as value and customer satisfaction, based off surveys of car buyers.Eight joint winners were announced today, with five directly improve the safety of both vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians.Ford's MyKey technology uses multiple keys to allow parents to set speed restrictions and limit radio volume when their children borrow the car.EyeSight - available in a number of Subaru vehicles - integrates a number of safety features including autonomous emergency braking and adaptive cruise control by using multiple cameras to map out the road ahead of the vehicle and warn the driver of approaching obstructions.IntellisSafe Pedestrian Detection works in a similar manner, and has been devleoped by Swedish carmaker Volvo.Nuviz, based out of San Diego in the US, has developed what they claim to be first heads-up display for motorcycle riders. The Ride:HUD can be retrofitted to most existing motorcycle helmets and allows riders to use GPS and monitor bike telemetry without having to take their eyes off the road. Riders control the Ride:HUD using controls mounted on the bike's handlebars.Looking to help curtail the number of deaths and injuries that occur in driveways, electronics company Bosch developed Back Over Avoidance (BoA). BoA works in must the same way as AEB does, using sensors and radars to monitor the area directly behind the car, and automatically apply the brakes if it detects if it detects an obstruction.Hyundai's iCare capped price servicing program also picked up an award for providing transparency about servicing costs to consumers.Other award winners included Mercedes-Benz's Touchpad - which allows drivers to control the Comand multimedia system in the same way they would a typical smart phone - and the Tesla Model S electric car.Canstar Blue General Manager, Megan Doyle, said their research has found that 55 per cent of insurance claims involve an accident with two or more cars and that "anything that car manufacturers can do to improve the safety of our roads and driveways should be applauded"."The aim of these awards is to bring the latest and greatest innovations to the attention of consumers, and we have been hugely surprised and impressed by what we have found," she said.

Brands are tripping over themselves to integrate the internet radio app Pandora into their cars, with Hyundai this week making the service available on the updated i30, joining a host of other brands, including Ford, Mazda, Holden and Subaru.But music streaming uses data, and if you’re using it on the fly then you’re chewing up your mobile phone plan.Pandora director of automotive partnerships Rick Gleave says the app streams at 32 to 64 kilobytes a second, depending on your handset’s setting.If you’re using Pandora on a two-hour round-trip commute, you’ll use about 560MB a monthAt 32 kbps, this adds up to about 14 megabytes an hour.Gleave says Pandora users typically stream in their cars for only six hours a month, which at the lower speed is just 84MB a month.Once you go over your limit, you pay through the noseBut that estimate seems conservative. If you’re using Pandora on a two-hour round-trip commute, you’ll use about 560MB a month at the lower rate. Monthly mobile phone data allowances start at about 500MB for the cheaper $40 plans, while an iPhone 6 on a Telstra $85 plan gives you 1GB . And anyone with a teenager knows once you go over your limit, you pay through the nose.It is a potential minefield. And it’s also a problem for car makers, who could find themselves fielding calls from angry customers who won’t take kindly to being told that excessive data use is a telco problem.Talk about opening Pandora’s box.

Benz luxury concept takes us 15 years into the future.

An automotive journalist's road test report these days includes a description of the driver and vehicle aids which have proliferated in recent times. But some require significant driver inputs followed by the monitoring of the resulting outputs when these options are utilised. Maybe today's drivers need a timely reminder of the cardinal rule for airline pilots: don't be consumed with instrument readings to the point of causing detriment to the flying of the aircraft.

Joshua Dowling road tests and reviews the hydrogen fuel cell Hyundai ix35 in Germany.

I sometimes get a bit upset with manufacturers' explanations, or spin, in addressing issues raised by consumers. Regarding Subaru speedo issues, the statement by Subaru's spokesman that there is a disconnect between speedo indicated km/h and odometer recorded distance is not correct. They receive input data from the same source and, if the instrument is internally calibrated correctly with regard to speed/time/distance, the odometer will reflect the distance covered as that shown by the speedo as a speed/time factor. Simply expressed, if we put the vehicle on jacks and ran it with the speedo showing exactly 100km/h for exactly one hour the odometer would show distance covered as 100km. If the Subaru speedo reads 10 per cent high, the vehicle speedo would show 100km travelled, yet the vehicle covered more like 90km.