Technology

This is our first real look at the coming Project CARS racing game, which is due to hit the shelves in November for Playstation 4, XBox One, Wii U, plus PC and Steam computer operating systems.What's immediately apparent in the trailer is the superb rendering of even fine details like the movement of suspension components. With the early footage "approved for all racers by Slightly Mad Studios" the title -- produced under the umbrella of WMD (World of Mass Development) claims to be the ultimate driver journey.While it has the normal sole racing and challenge modes, the game also includes a career mode that lets the player set racing goals over time, and online group events.

Car brands love April Fools Day, using it as a channel to let off some marketing steam even more ludicrous than some of their regular advertisements and merchandising. And we love it too, because no car idea is too ridiculous to consider.Peugeot is one of the early contenders this year, with a program that allows you to personalise the sound of your car horn. You can make it scream in agony, set it up to play hipster tunes -- the pedestrians might not get out of your way, but they'll at least be dancing -- or have a simpering Marilyn 'boop-de-doop'."This is a hugely exciting development, made possible through the dedication of our team of product designers and sound engineers. And it’s destined to change the way we alert our fellow road users forever," Peugeot says.Acknowledging the hordes of parents who strap their infants into cars for a drive to put them to sleep, BMW has announced the ZZZ Series Ultimate Sleeping Machine - smartphone-controlled cot guaranteed to make Junior nod off with four modes: city drive, open road, race track and offroad."Skilfully blending comfort and style, this innovative premium baby cot embodies the spirit of The Ultimate Driving Machine. A fusion of German engineering and advanced technology means your baby will sleep better, for longer, in safety and comfort," the blurb says.BMW has also promised to 'change the face of motoring' with the launch of artificial G-force technology. The system is designed to morph your face into G-force distortions while you're tootling about at slow commuter speeds.  "The Force Injection Booster (FIB) works by extracting kinetic energy from the car’s engine and converting it into positive g-forces," BMW reckons, while reassuring that the face alteration is not permanent.It comes with the BMW AirNet®, which will apparently blow your 'do' into a high-speed style. Professor Mika Notbetrü, Head of BMW Innovation, describes FIB technology as “Mind-blowingly unbelievable”.The German brand's Mini arm has also got in on the fun, highlighting their British heritage with the Mini Cooper T -- an environmentally friendly vehicle that runs on a tea-leaf biofuel composite.They've obviously been brewing this stunt up for some time, and promise the new model will be offered in a variety of colours including ‘Chamomile Yellow’, ‘Red Bush’ and ‘Earl Grey’."Capable of covering up to 40 miles on a single cup, Cooper T certainly isn’t what you’d call thirsty. It boasts all the standard features you would expect, such as VVT, ABS and DSC, but also benefits from DAT or Dunk Avoidance Technology. This ingenious filtration system stops peckish owners and opportunistic passersby from inserting biscuits into the MINI T’s fuel tank in order to moisten their snacks," Mini says.Watch the desktop version of the make your car horn scream in pain, or play music video here.  This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

Lexus owners should be aware that the Mark Levison sound system has a faulty amplifier that fails with very low usage. The problem has been known since this model was released and is very common and continues to this day. In my case the vehicle is out of warranty, but I find it unreasonable that having brought a Lexus whose list price was $179,000 that the radio failed under 24,000 km or equivalent to radio usage of less than half an hour a day, and to refuse any policy consideration on the $1250 replacement. This is very disappointing. I am also concerned that the brake pad wear sensors on the Lexus LS430 are only on the driver's side wheel i.e. RHS of the car. My brake pads caused some scraping noise at about 24,000 km on the pas senger side or kerb side. On inspection the pads were down to the metal, but there was no brake pad wear sensor on that side where they are most needed, hence no warning of imminent failure. It is common knowledge that the kerb side pads wear faster than the non-kerb side. The RHS still had 3 mm of lining, hence no warning. Pad wear sensors on the right-hand side of the car may be OK for a LHD vehicle, but are not much use on RHD vehicles. The ideal is brake pad sensors on all wheels. I was surp rised to find the brake pad wear being convinced that the warning lights would come on as indeed they have on one of my other vehicles with sensors on all four wheels. Again the front LHS was the first failing brake pad. I reported this to Lexus, who basically did not want to follow it up and without messing me about by having me present my car at dealership level. Having just been though this I declined. I'm not sure how to proceed next, but suspect this problem may be related to other makes of vehicles. Look forward to your advice.

Want to know what it's like to drive the Lamborghini Huracan? We'll have a road test review for you in a few weeks, but until then you can get a taste of the action with Lamborghini's Huracan driving simulator. and that's without having to shell out the $428,000 that will be price tag when the Huracan hits Australia mid-year.Replacing the 10-year-old Gallardo, and carrying an uprated version of its 5.2-litre V10, the Huracan delivers 448kW of power and 560Nm of torque, getting it to all four wheels via a new twin-clutch transmission derived from the system used in VW Group stablemate Audi R8.The four-wheel drive system has also been upgraded, and offers electronically switchable modes -- Strada (road), Sport, and Corsa (race) -- that alter the gearbox and engine settings, exhaust note, drive system and stability control.Official time for the 0-100km/h sprint is 3.2 seconds, with 0-200km/h claimed in 9.9, and a top speed of more than 325km/h -- all while keeping fuel economy to a fairly reasonable (for supercars) 12.5L/100km with the help of a stop-start system and weight-trimming use aluminium and carbon-fibre spaceframe chassis -- also to be shared with the R8 -- that keeps the Lambo to a trim 1422kg. Standard features include carbon-ceramic brakes, with the options list offering magnetic active suspension and electronically controlled variable steering ration system.To try out the simulator, head to the Lamborghini website. It doesn’t work on mobile or tablet, unfortunately, and it may demand you download the latest version of a web player to get the site running, which is a downside. But it's worth those extra minutes to get behind a Huracan wheel -- even just virtually.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott

LIKE most people, Ivan Sentch realises that unless he wins the lottery, buying an Aston Martin DB4, his dream car, will always be out of reach. Just last month a 1960 series II model sold at auction for $US550,000 ($607,000). But the computer programmer has a backup plan. He is printing the car, piece by piece, in his garage, until he has a working replica.For the past year the car's raked back, windscreen pillars, swooping roofline and distinctive side "gills'' have been slowly emerging from a 300 3-D printer at Sentch's home in Auckland, New Zealand. Working from a digital model downloaded from the internet, Sentch, 32, has split the car's panels into hundreds of 10cm x 10cm pieces so they can be replicated by his small Solidoodle 2 printer, which slowly builds up the shape, layer by layer, with molten plastic that is directed through a nozzle, taking about eight hours for each part.The printed shapes are glued together to make moulds for fibreglass panels. These are mounted on a metal frame, containing the engine, gearbox and suspension from a Nissan Skyline coupe, to make a working car looking identical to a DB4. It has taken a year to print the bodywork in full. Now Sentch plans to start on the interior."If it was not for 3-D printing, I would not have been able to do this project,'' he says. "The normal way of doing it is to mill the shape out of foam, which is too expensive, or to shape it by hand, which was too big an undertaking."By doing it this way, the final cost, including the printer, plastics and the donor car, will be around $NZ40,000 ($37,700). I hadn't thought about using a 3-D printer before this: it was just a solution to a problem.''He is not the only car enthusiast to find that the rapidly developing technology will allow him to build a dream car.In 2008 Citroen unveiled its GT concept car, which was designed for a computer screen. It was featured in the Gran Turismo 5 PlayStation game, but in real life its sharp lines, gaping air intakes and wraparound windscreen were a step too far for the French company. Apart from a prototype driven by a few journalists, the GT remained firmly on the drawing board.Now, slowly emerging in a Toronto garage is a replica of the car, formed on a MakerBot 3-D printer. "I fell in love with the car when I saw it for the first time and I thought that I'd have a go at making it,'' says the owner, who gives his name only as Arthur K, fearing that Citroen will take a dim view of his project. Like Sentch, Arthur will make the panels out of fibreglass and needs plastic moulds."I have got no modelling skills at all, so I can't translate what I see into a clay or foam model,'' he says. "I've downloaded a 3-D model and I'm printing the doors, the interior, the skirts on the front, rear and side, as well as the mirrors.''There are limits on what the MakerBot can do, though: the engine will come from a Chevrolet Corvette and the gearbox from a Porsche Cayman. The oldest 3-D printers were built in the mid-1980s, but consumer versions have emerged only in the past five years, and at first there were few obvious things to make with them. Now it's the car industry that is planning to make greatest use of the technology.Dealerships may no longer have to keep your car for days until a part is delivered: they could print it on the spot. Classic car owners won't have to track down a rare panel: as long as they can get a copy of the blueprints, they will be able to create a replica at home. American chat show host Jay Leno is using the technology to maintain his garage of almost 200 cars."My 1907 White Steamer has a feedwater heater and over the 100-plus years it's been in use, the metal has become so porous you can see steam and oil seeping through,'' he wrote in Popular Mechanics magazine."Rather than have a machinist try to copy the heater and then build it, we decided to redesign the original using our NextEngine 3-D scanner and Dimension 3-D printer, which makes an exact copy of a part in plastic, which we then send out to create a mould."It's like The Jetsons. George Jetson would say, I want a steak dinner. He'd press a button and the meal would come out of the machine, with the roasted potatoes and everything, all on one plate. We may not have the instant steak dinner yet but my NextEngine system is like the car-guy equivalent.''Ford embraced 3-D printing after it printed an engine intake system in four days at a cost of $US3000. The company said a prototype component would have cost $US500,000 and taken four months to make. "We can go from art to part overnight,'' says Matt Zaluzec, Ford's global materials manager. "Three-D printing is all the rage now.''TJ Giuli, leader of Ford's research lab in Silicon Valley, California, is looking at how owners may be able to adapt their cars. "What we really want to do is give people the same kind of acces-sibility they used to have for tinkering with their car, maybe when it was the 1950s, 1960s," he says. "We are interested in seeing how you can use techniques to personalise your car in interesting ways reminiscent of when cars were much more accessible.''Audi has five 3-D printers producing prototype parts for models that run for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Jaguar Land Rover used a 3-D printer from Stratasys to make the air vents in development versions of the Range Rover Sport.Each winter BMW takes its cars to the Arctic for cold weather testing. In recent years the vehicles have been accompanied by a 3-D printer so replacement or redesigned parts can quickly be produced and fitted. Many Formula One teams also have machines in pit lane.Some Lamborghini Gallardo customers had 3-D printed parts fitted after a production problem meant the flap covering the headlight washers was not fitting properly. Instead of holding up production, a new part was produced on a 3-D printer made by an Italian firm called CRP.One hundred cars had left the production line before the tools for the redesigned part were finished, after which the part could be produced normally using injection moulding. Even Rolls-Royce is using the technology, producing life-size models of bespoke fittings."Buyers might want a drinks-carrying solution to hold a certain type of water bottle or champagne bottle,'' says James Warren, a Rolls-Royce spokesman. "We can present them with several options to ensure that the final version is right first time.''For now, though, 3-D printers are unlikely to replace the stamping, pressing and moulding that take place on a production line because they simply take too long. Some of the most precise shapes are built up in layers only 127 microns thick. It takes 100 of these layers to make a part 13mm thick. But for enthusiasts who cannot afford today's stratospheric classic car prices, 3-D printing is a way to make their dreams come true.SEVEN STEPS TO 3D HEAVEN1. Buy a printerThe Solidoodle 4 ($1100, solidoodle.com) and MakerBot Replicator 2 ($2895, thinglab.com.au) are both popular consumer printers.2. Download the 3D digital designWebsites include humster3d.com and turbosquid.com. Patterns cost from about $55.3. Find a donor carIt should have similar dimensions to the car you're recreating and will provide the underbody components. Panels and trim will be replaced.4. Adapt the designUse 3D modelling software to adjust the digital design so it can be attached to the donor car. Divide it into small printable parts.5. FabricateForm the fibreglass panels using the plastic as a template - a time-consuming process.6. FitThe moment of truth: find out if your calculations and processes were correct.7. PaintA good paint job can cost more than $10,000. 

If the eyes are said to be the windows to the soul, perhaps they -- along with eyebrows and mouth -- can also be a window of opportunity to quell road-rage. Swiss researchers are testing new technology that monitors a driver's facial expressions for signs of anger that point to potential road rage.The system, developed by scientists at Switzerland's École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in partnership with PSA Peugeot Citroen, uses a camera to 'read' the driver's face, using cues from the eyes, brow line and mouth. When the subject shows signs of stress and anger, an alert is given that the driver should calm down.But the Swiss research team says it hopes to develop the technology into production, and also to expand the sensor duties to detect fatigue, distraction and emotional or mental instability.Mood-monitoring software is set to spread through a lot of the technology we use. Samsung is at work on a system for mobile phones, and Intel is developing one that can be integrated into laptops -- yes, computer rage is a thing.Of course, there's often a big leap between telling somebody to calm down and having them do it. And the Swiss in-car system is yet to calculate for some of the other signs of driver anger ... like the common hand gestures flipped at surround traffic.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincottWatch the facial recognition technology video on our desktop site. 

Wedged between the Red Bull and Mercedes pits is a white box about the size of a small caravan. Wedged into the same space are stacks of Pirelli tyres in tyre warmers and temporary walls shrouding fuel storage tanks known as carlottas.Inside the box white box is Shell's fuel laboratory, believed to the only such facility in the pitlane and working exclusively for Scuderia Ferrari.Normally there's three staff in there - the Technical Manager and two scientists. For the first race of the 2014, Shell has sent both of their Technical Managers, Ian Albiston and Guy Lovett to see in the new rules.Albiston is starting his fourteenth year with Shell and Ferrari, his seventh as a technical manager. He and Guy Lovett each do half of the races on the Formula 1 calendar and divide their time between their London homes and Maranello when not on the road with the Scuderia.As the door closes on the fuel lab, the sounds of the pitlane outside - in this case some loud, raucous music from the Red Bull pit, abruptly cease. The inside of the box looks like it's out of an Omo advertisement - bright, white surfaces, immaculately clean, with touch screens on the benches that run down either side of the lab.A pair of centrifuges sit on the left-hand bench and nothing is out of place. A clean desk policy ensures our prying eyes don't see anything we shouldn't.Tiny vials of fuel are stored in racks and several specimen bottles containing fuel are neatly lined up. The bottles have the car number inked on the side."What you see here goes to every Grand Prix," says Albiston. "We always have two scientists, one on fuels analysis on this side of the lab and engine oils and other oils on the other. You're probably asking well, what do we do in here? Three guys going round the world eating ice cream in the sun and parties every night. It's not quite true," he laughs.Out in pitlane we'd seen a nest of fifty litre drums with V Power logos on the side. Guy Lovett  told us that the fuel had been flown in because development was still going on the new fuel. Since the new rules were announced in 2011, Lovett and his team have blended around fifty iterations.Once delivered, the fuel is taken from the drums and put into what Ferrari call "carlottas", where the fuel is stored before being put into the car and when it is removed from the car."Every time Ferrari shift the fuel from the drums to the carlottas, we'll take a sample of fuel. When they shift the fuel from the car to the carlottas, we'll take a sample. We check and double check.""Over the race weekend will do anywhere from thirty to thirty-five samples. A lot of the fuel work is done prior to the race weekend. It's a lot of work to make sure the carlottas are clean, a lot of work before the fuel gets anywhere near the car."The reason so many samples are taken is simple - even a small irregularity in the fuel sample could mean the fuel is deemed illegal."The FIA can turn up at any time over the three days and take a sample of fuel from anywhere here. So they can take it from a drum, from a carlotta, could be the rig on a Sunday morning before the race, it could be from the car. It could be after qualifying or after the race."If there was an irregularity, what's the penalty? On a Friday, anywhere between a quarter or a half a million dollars fine. Saturday, we'd certainly be put to the back of the grid and Sunday you'd certainly be disqualified.""So we could be front page headlines but for totally the wrong reasons. That's not why Shell gets involved in motorsport."Albiston has been doing this for fourteen years and says he still loves it. "I always say, if hair doesn't come up on the back of your neck, it's time to give up. It still happens," he smiles. 

While many drivers might envy emergency services in some regions that have technology allowing them to change traffic lights, we can look forward to a system that will at least allow us to flow better with the lights.Audi is trialling technology in three major pilot cities -- Berlin, Las Vegas and Verona -- that will let drivers anticipate changes in the lights, helping smooth traffic. And possibly letting impatient drivers further back in line pre-load that horn finger for the absolute nanosecond the light turns green.The system monitors the signal from the central traffic computer, and integrating with vehicle positioning, sends information about the next set of lights to a display in the car's instrument panel.The technology can give a countdown of the change from red to green, and also tell the engine's stop-start system to kick back into life five seconds before the change. It can also monitor the countdown back to red of a green light ahead, and let a driver know they're not going to make it across the intersection and should start slowing and braking.The system is aimed at not only improving the flow of city traffic, but also saving fuel by eliminating the jerky brake-accelerate action of most drivers. Audi says the online traffic light recognition system is ready to go into production, but just needs official approval from government agencies.Motor Authority says Audi is closely studying the prospect of a launch in the US, but has not announced timing for a roll-out there or in other markets.This reporter is on Twitter: @KarlaPincott 

Mercedes-Benz says the average age of its buyers is getting younger -- but it has just unveiled technology that will help owners locate their car if they forget where they parked.Using a similar system to Apple's 'Find My iPhone', which uses the device's built-in GPS sensor, the new technology will enable Mercedes-Benz customers to pinpoint their vehicle at the tap of their smartphone."Customers are demanding more convenience items in their cars," said Mercedes-Benz Australia spokesman David McCarthy at the unveiling of the technology on the eve of the Geneva motor show overnight. "They want access, they want mobility and they want to be able to find their car. People lead hectic lives these days."The technology is expected to be available on Mercedes-Benz passenger cars from next year, although the car maker declined to nominate which model and how much the option would cost.The announcement of Mercedes-Benz's 'Find My Car' feature coincided with the introduction of Apple's CarPlay, which imports commonly used phone apps onto the car's central display screen.CarPlay will appear in Fiat, Volvo, Ferrari and Mercedes cars at first, but others will follow, the technology company says.Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz says it is also developing improved Android and Google integration into its car communication systems.While debate continues about driver distraction in cars, automobile manufacturers are increasingly joining forces with technology companies to reduce the number of distractions.Last year Toyota unveiled an upgraded radio unit for the Corolla sold in Europe that could send and receive social media updates on Facebook and Twitter. It is yet to be introduced in Australia.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

The Swedish brand has demonstrated a system that uses a "digital key" to provide delivery companies with access to your car on a one-time basis, with the key expiring once the car has been opened and locked again. The service will allow consumers to have their shopping delivered straight to their car, no matter where they are.Car owners will be alerted via smartphone or tablet when a delivery company wants to drop off or pick up something from the car. Having accepted the delivery request, the car owner then authorises a digital key and can track when the car is opened and then locked again. Once the pick-up or drop-off is completed, the digital key is voided.The system is based on the Volvo On Call app, which among other things, makes it possible to remotely heat or cool the car and see its position or fuel level via a mobile phone. The technology was trialled during a pilot program of 100 people, 86 percent of whom agreed that "roam delivery" saved them time. The innovative use of digital keys will now make it possible to save time, money and reduce environmental impact, following completion of the first tests of the concept.Last year, 60 percent of people shopping online had problems with the delivery of their item.  Despite the rise of online shopping, research has also revealed that over a half of people are not at home to receive online deliveries, leading to further hassles and time wasted through failed deliveries.The pilot program revealed 92 percent of people found it more convenient to receive deliveries to their car  and it also showed the service clearly saved time. "We are now further investigating the technology of digital keys and new consumer benefits linked to it," Klas Bendrik, Group CIO at Volvo Car Group, said."It's all about finding solutions that are intuitive and easy to use and that create benefits in the everyday lives of our customers. The important thing is to make these complex and advanced systems easy to understand for everyone, even behind the wheel. Deliveries directly to the car are just one first example of that," he said.