Technology

The company that invented the three-point seatbelt has now invented the car that can park itself — but unlike other systems it doesn’t need a driver behind the wheel. Volvo’s new family-sized SUV due on sale late next year will be able to “valet” park itself using a smartphone app.It means drivers will be able to drive themselves to the main entrance of a shopping centre, for example, and then have the car park itself at the touch of a smartphone screen.Volvo is due to demonstrate the system next week at a technology conference in Sweden. However, it is unclear whether public liability laws would make it legal in Australia and other countries. News Limited is making inquiries with local authorities.“The driverless car interacts safely and smoothly with other cars and pedestrians in the car park,” says Thomas Broberg, Volvo’s top safety expert. “The driver just drops the vehicle off at the entrance to the car park and picks it up in the same place later.”There is a catch to the system, however. For now it relies on car parks to have special transmitters hidden in the road to help the car navigate spaces.Volvo Australia also says development of the technology is still in its infancy, but next year’s XC90 SUV will have radar systems and other sensors that will lead to valet parking. “Eventually, cars will be capable of parking themselves but we are long way off talking to, for example, car park operators about installing the necessary infrastructure,” says Volvo Australia spokesman Oliver Peagam.Self-parking technology was introduced in Australia on a luxury Lexus sedan in 2008 and is now available on more affordable models such as the Volkswagen Golf, Ford Focus, Toyota Prius and the just-released Holden Commodore.Sensors in the front and rear bumpers enable the car to pinpoint car spaces at the press of a button. The driver must still select reverse and apply the brakes but the car will steer itself perfectly into position. The arrival of such technology — including driverless Google Maps cars — has prompted safety experts to question whether it is a good idea to gradually take control away from the driver. Detractors say technology cannot be relied upon. But, reportedly, the only time a Google Maps car was involved in a crash it was driver error.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

New Car-2-Object and Car-2-Car communication will enable your car to warn you of an impending crash, or perhaps even take action itself to avoid one, by knowing well ahead if there’s a potential hazard in the road ahead or approaching at the next intersection.  It will do this by electronically communicating with its surroundings via technology  being developed by automakers around the globe.Mercedes-Benz is shaping up to be the current leader in this field, announcing today that it plans to introduce a Car-2-Car communication system in its cars as early as this year.The system will enable the exchange of information between individual vehicles as well as between vehicles and the traffic infrastructure.The technology is still in its infancy, so Mercedes’ system will rely on an installed app rather than a dedicated system. Developed by the German automaker, a new Digital DriveStyle app will work with the driver’s smartphone and serve as a simultaneous transmitter and receiver of information. This means that some existing Mercedes customers will also be able to use the system.Each vehicle using the system can transmit information on dangers to other road users in the system, with a warning sign usually appearing on the navigation screen.New Mercedes cars themselves are able to detect many of these dangers automatically and without the driver being required to take any action, thanks to the seamless integration of the Car-2-Car communication system with the vehicle's own radars and sensors.For dangers that are not detected automatically, or which cannot yet be detected automatically, a manual notification option has been created.At the press of a button, a driver can warn of immobile vehicles or animals on the road, wrong-way drivers or multiple other situations. Importantly, the warning message will only be sent  to other uses in the vicinity of the hazardous location.So far the system has only been announced for Mercedes’ home market of Germany but it shouldn’t be long until compatibility in more markets is announced.www.motorauthority.com

I once had a Hyundai Elantra with sub-standard radio reception like your readers are saying. My last vehicle was a Mitsubishi 380 with the radio aerial in the glass in the back screen and the radio reception in that was also terrible. The dealer replaced the wiring and the radio, but to no avail. The car had been tinted at a local tint shop, and when I went to them to see if the metal in the tint composition could be at fault they cut a very thin line across the screen that separated the tint and all problems solved.

We're big fans of hauling the mail on track, but we have learned to rein in our wilder tendencies on the street. That's why games like Need for Speed Rivals are such a good outlet for our excess hooliganism.From the scenes in this official trailer for the upcoming E3 electronics and video game conference, the game appears to offer a level of realism and detail--in looks, if not in consequences--that will help suspend your disbelief as you work out your road-going frustrations. As a bonus, there's the added fun of sticking it to the cops or the crooks, if that's your thing.To be available on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Playstation 4, the new game lets the driver play as either the street racer or the cop, living out both sides of the furiously fast scene.As the trailer demonstrates, however, the next generation of car games are going to be truly gorgeous, even video-realistic at times. Let's just hope the gameplay lives up to the look.One of the most striking cars in the game will be the Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, as part of a new partnership with the Italian supercar maker. Expect more enticing Ferrari models to come.Underlying the whole game is a network allowing players to transition from single-player to multi-player games at any time, appearing and disappearing at will. Need for Speed Rivals goes on sale November 19, 2013.www.motorauthority.com

"Computer says no" is my favourite line from the wickedly clever Little Britain television series, because it's such a telling reflection of modern life.Computers rule the world and if you cannot get along with the little black boxes, or at least arrange some sort of non-aggression pact, life is not fun.My time on the road over the past 25 years has been riddled and riled by computer problems of all sorts, from recalcitrant cars through to laptops that needed major intervention by a manchild named Nick at the other end of an international telephone line.The power of the PC is rammed home to me, once again, as Volkswagen flails and fights against the surging tide of bad news in Australia about its Golfs and DSG gearboxes.I should point out that those dramas are nothing new to anyone on the Carsguide crew. We've been fielding complaints and trying to help people for years, usually battling the arrogance and denial which has led Volkswagen Australia to where it is today.But, as I face a fresh tide of incoming emails this week, I get to thinking about the power of the computer and how it could - quite easily - have contributed to the Volkswagen dramas.There was a time, not so long ago, when a quality mechanic was worth their weight in Sidchrome.These days, new-age technicians have flooded workshops across the country and old-fashioned experience and intuition has been replaced by plug-and-play computer analysis.No-one really wants to waste time on a test drive or hands-on diagnosis when it's so easy to plug the 'diagnostic tool' into a socket, interrogate the car and see if there are any of the telltale 'error codes' popping up.The first time I saw one of these devices, a combined effort by BMW and Bosch, it was a revelation. It was obviously a key to the future.But that future has arrived and 'error codes' have become both the objective and the excuse for far too many of the people on the service side of a workshop counter.Every week I get dozens of disgruntled emails and the power of the computer diagnosis is reflected in the number of people who are dissatisfied with their workshop outcome. Often they report being dismissed because their complaint or concern does not match the printout from their car's Electronic Control Unit.I'm hearing "Computer says no" almost every day. Even when a real person takes a car for a real-world test drive, it often ends in tears and tangles when the complaint is dismissed as 'within tolerance'.Is that just another version of "Computer says no"?Doctors are taught that bedside manner is as important as any diagnosis of illness, because it honours the concerns of their patient and makes them feel they are part of the solution and not just creating a problem.Perhaps that's a lesson that now also needs to be taught in the world of motoring, before the rise of the computer becomes totally irreversible.I, for one, don't enjoy the prospect of a world where - to twist another line from Little Britain - you arrive at a workshop to hear "I'm the only mechanic in the village".This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover 

Audi already has a strong line-up of petrol and diesel engines, and several forays into the possibility of electric and hybrid drivetrains.Now however, comes word that another type of engine juice will be joining the lineup--albeit in prototype form. Mix two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen and what you're left with is water, which is the emissions left behind by the type of fuel cell that Audi is taking a look at for the A7.Fuel cell vehicles utilise hydrogen fuel and pair that abundant element with the oxygen already found in the air. As the hydrogen and oxygen interact through a process known as electrolysis, heat and electricity are generated and the vehicle is provided with power.Audi is wise to examine this technology as the world will never run out of hydrogen, though obtaining it using current means (via steam-methane reforming) produces a lot of CO2. The A7 however, is a bit of an interesting platform on which to test and Audi has shown that it can generate hydrogen in a clean way. Using electricity generated from wind farms, Audi can use a reverse-electrolysis process to generate hydrogen.We're a bit surprised that Audi wouldn't consider the A3 sedan or hatchback for this endeavour. Still, it's only a test at this point to determine the feasibility of putting a fuel cell-equipped vehicle into the product lineup. Per Autocar, the project kicks off sometime towards the end of August.Should everything go well it will be interesting to see where Audi decides to apply the technology in a consumer application. The current network of hydrogen fuelling stations is not exactly bustling.www.motorauthority.com 

Since new my 2012 Hyundai ix35 Elite has had static on several FM stations. I took it to my local Hyundai service centre last May to have them fix a few things, among them the radio static. They replaced the antenna, but it was no better. I was told the radio stations I listen to are small stations and their transmitters aren't very strong, and that there was nothing more they can do. It was suggested I should ring Hyundai Australia, which I did and I was told they would look into it. When I didn't hear back I contacted Hyundai again and was told there was nothing more they could do. I told him about the Nissan Pulsar I traded in on the ix35 had better reception and a friend's Kia Magentis picked up these stations better. I even offered to purchase a better radio if they had one, but was told there wasn't one.

When I was 19, I was in Rhode Island attending college while trying to figure out ways to make the radio in my '87 Honda Prelude louder. I wound up being forced to sell that car when I got bad grades my first semester and nearly lost an academic scholarship.Romanian student Ionut Budisteanu is doing quite a bit more than I, and probably a bit more than most of you as well. Budisteanu recently competed in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, where he won the top prize of a $75,000 scholarship. His focus? Making autonomous car technology more affordable.As it stands, autonomous car tech is still rather expensive. The fancy high-resolution 3D radar used by Google, for example, runs in the range of $75,000. Budisteanu says his system can be created for around $4,000.How does he do it? By replacing the high-resolution system with one that utilises a much lower resolution. He has created an artificial intelligence program that can pick out curbs, lane markers, and all the other obstacles that drivers face on the road. That data is processed through a webcam while a low-resolution radar system handles the bigger objects such as cars and houses. All of the data collected is sent to a computer that is in charge of the system, and then decides on how the car should behave as it rolls driverless through town.In 50 simulations run through the system, the autonomous vehicle performed perfectly 47 times. Those three other times might scare you, but Budisteanu is already working to sort that out with a slightly higher-resolution radar system. He says the price will climb no higher than $4,000. The intelligent young man has attracted great attention through this competition. Budisteanu has received funding from a Romanian company that will allow him to begin working on a prototype.Meanwhile, I'm still trying to figure out how to make the radio in my current car louder.www.motorauthority.com 

Hyundai’s second generation of its rear-wheel-drive Genesis sedan will debut at the 2014 Detroit Auto Show next January, the same event that this year saw the reveal of the forward-looking HCD-14 Genesis concept car.The information was revealed to Edmunds by Brandon Ramirez, a senior product planner for Hyundai’s American operations. This is slightly later than anticipated, which means we may see the new Genesis sedan’s showroom appearance delayed until the start of the 2015 model year and not during the upcoming 2014 model year. Prototypes of the car have been spotted all across Europe, with the latest versions seen conducting some high-speed tests at Germany’s Nürburgring circuit. They show several design elements borrowed from the HCD-14 Genesis concept and confirm the new car will have a sleek and somewhat elegant look.With Hyundai having updated the Genesis’ powertrain lineup only last year, expect similar numbers for the new model. This means the base Genesis will come with a 3.8-litre V6 rated at 245 kilowatts, and the range-topper, possibly keeping its R-Spec label, will continue with a 5.0-litre V8 rated at 315 kilowatts.An eight-speed automatic should continue as standard and it's possible a new diesel option will be offered overseas. It should be noted that Hyundai has previewed a new turbocharged and direct-injected 3.3-litre V6 engine that delivers 266 kilowatts, though it’s not clear if this engine will appear in the new Genesis.The engine was previewed in the stunning HND-9 coupe concept, which previews the second-generation Genesis Coupe due around 2015. The new Genesis sedan and its eventual coupe variant will once again share a platform, but this time around all-wheel drive will be available as an option.www.motorauthority.com