It's only taken about a million years, but someone has finally decided that improvements are possible in automobile braking lights. Students from Virginia Tech have developed a new system that can show not just whether you're stopping, but if you're slowing down, when you're about to stop, and how quickly you're pressing the pedal. The concept uses an array of horizontally arranged LED lights -- when you begin to slow, lights in the center glow orange, after a certain threshold side lights turn to red, and if you're slamming on the brake, they'll all flash red. The team, led by mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian, has plans for the system beyond the lab, though they speculate that it will be easier to add them as additional indicators on commercial vehicles at first. If this pans out, someday soon we may all be tailgating a totally psychedelic light show.

Apparently, Microsoft has plans for Sync that extend beyond the standard voice-activation scheme they've got going right now. The company wants to deliver a wider range of network connectivity for in-car use, and they're debating the possibility of moving away from subscription-based services to an ad-funded scenario. What exactly does that mean? We'll let Martin Thall, general manager of Microsoft's Automotive Business Unit explain: "We know where you are and we know where you're headed," he says, seemingly unaware of the Orwellian implications. "We could target that advertising directly to your car." You getting that? Targeted ads. In your car. While you're driving. Apparently, execs don't think you'll mind being bombarded inside your vehicle because you're, "used to advertising in the car. We hear ads on the radio and see billboards on the road." Of course, this is speculation on future technologies, so nothing is set in stone -- hopefully someone comes to their senses before our hovercar interiors glitter with holographic spam.

According to a report from the Boston Globe, a man claims that he was typing a text message into his cellphone when he lost control of his SUV and fatally struck a 13-year-old boy on a bicycle. In a stark and sad reminder of the cause for recent laws put into effect governing texting / phoning while driving, it appears the man was so distracted that he didn't even realize what had happened until later that night. Ironically, the friend of the boy who had been walking with him attempted to call 911 on his phone, but was unable to get through. The driver is being charged with motor vehicle homicide, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, and driving without a license. A tragic story -- and unfortunately not the first we've seen -- but hopefully a cautionary tale for anyone who regularly juggles driving and texting. Don't.

Researchers from the University of Iowa Public Policy Center have developed a system for charging drivers federal taxes by the distance traveled rather than on gallons of gas purchased. The study is being conducted with 2,700 drivers from states like Maryland, Texas, Iowa and California to gauge public reactions and experiences with the system. The basis for the study is the declining tax dollars being paid for car use in the States; as fuel prices rise, cars get more efficient, and alternatives like ethanol and hybrids gain ground, our 18.4-cents-a-gallon tax on gas (which was set in 1993) remains static, thereby making it harder for The Man to get paid. Eventually, the government will have to find another way to generate tax dollars from drivers -- and researchers think this might be it. Instead of paying a constant fee on the fuel we purchase, drivers cars are equipped with a taxi-like meter, and users will be given a monthly bill for the miles that they've driven. We can only hope this is avoidable, perhaps due to the spontaneous existence of a free, plentiful, environment-friendly fuel source... or another revolution.

[Via Autoblog]

MIT -- long known for winning all sorts of competitions involving modern technology -- has entered into another heated contest which will test its mettle against a wide-variety of opponents... and that contest is the DARPA Urban Challenge. DARPA, who we know and love for its fantastic flights of scientific fancy (see the shoot-through shield and laser-guided bullets) has posed a challenge to contestants to create an autonomous auto (AKA a self-controlled vehicle) which can traverse an urban landscape (such as city streets) all by its lonesome. To create such a vehicle, a team at MIT has taken a typical Land Rover, outfitted it with 40 CPU "cores", high-end GPS receivers, inertial sensors, laser scanners called LIDAR (light detection and ranging), highly sensitive odometers, and a slew of video cameras. The team hopes to pool all of these disparate sensing technologies into a cohesive whole which will imbue their vehicle the preternatural ability to operate on its own in an urban setting. These are truly exciting times to be a car.

Maybe there's something to those Apple / Volkswagen rumors we've been hearing after all. According to an interview with one of Jaguar's designers in CAR Magazine, the high-end car-maker has been collaborating with Apple on designs for its control interfaces in at least one upcoming vehicle, called the XF. Says designer Ian Callum, "We have been working with Apple on control interfaces," which really doesn't leave much to the imagination... unless Ian Callum is a pathological liar -- which we very much doubt. Apparently, the boys in Cupertino helped design a feature called the JaguarDrive Selector, which replaces the gearstick with a circular, metallic wheel which rises when you turn the car on. The device is twisted to switch between P, R, N and D, and apparently its action is "pleasant and seamless" -- though we understand that the battery dies after a year of use, and has to be sent back to Jaguar for replacement.

[Via Autoblog]

Garmin has unloaded some big GPS guns in your direction -- taking the form of the nüvi 750, 760, and 770 -- and life as we know it will never be the same. According to those "in the know," the new units feature settings which allow you to store up to ten commonly (or uncommonly) used routes, plus the little 4.3-inch-widescreen-havin' guys will also sort routes for multiple destinations -- a feature which has been lacking in past models. The 700-series also gets upgraded here-and-there by way of added information like speed limits for highways and interstates, and a unique feature which helps you find your car in mall parking lots by marking the spot in which the nüvi was removed from the car. All three of the new units provide an FM transmitter for broadcasting voices and music to your stereo, and the 760 and 770 models include Bluetooth support, so you can rock extra-safe, hands-free driving when you're making your next big excursion. The nüvi 750, 760 and 770 will be available in the 4th quarter of 2007 for $642.85, $857.13, and $1071.42, respectively.

[Via GPS Tracklog]

In yet another example of an automobile manufacturer leveraging the brand to release a distinctly non-car product (see: BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini), Fiat has announced that it will begin selling a line of cellphones conspicuously emblazoned with the company's logo. Suggesting that this lineup values fashion over function, no specs are immediately available for any of the individual models, although we do know that all will feature cameras, MP3 playback, Bluetooth, and the usual suite of Internet functions. Crafted out of "cold" aluminum, the handsets were designed to be displayed in engine piston-like cases that are meant to invoke the good times you can only find by tooling around the European countryside in your Fiat Panda Monster. The new models -- which were built to easily pair with the Microsoft-powered Blue&Me in-car Bluetooth system -- will be available in chichi Italian boutiques later this month, with a general European rollout to follow this summer.

[Via textually and Autoblog]