Hasta La Gadget!

One of the most frustrating parts of owning a car is finding parking in giant garages. Driving aimlessly around until you find a spot, and then forgetting where you parked when you finally return to find your car, are experiences all drivers unfortunately have to deal with. But, drivers trying to find a spot in the parking garage in “The Cube” in Birmingham, England, can breathe a sigh of relief: a machine will park your car for you.

Finding parking in the Cube, a 23-story building that houses flats, offices, shops, restaurants, and a hotel, could be tricky; a special kind of parking garage was in order. The garage — only one of two of its kind in the world — is 65 feet underground and cost nearly $3.2 million to build.

The driver simply pulls into the garage, and swipes a special key chain, which identifies each car. The driver them pulls into an elevator, and gets out of the car. The vehicle is taken down by the elevator, and then special robots take over and gently move the car to an open spot. The automated system is so fancy, it even spins your car around so that it’s facing the right direction when it’s returned to you. 

It’s unclear how much it would cost to park in this garage, but, by the looks of it, I’m guessing it’s not cheap.

Check out a video of the garage in action at the BBC’s Web site.

Well, I guess if you’re going to get hit by a car, you might as well do it with a little bit of style, right? In the various instances that I’ve been hit, bumped, and lightly dinged by motor vehicles, I’ve never been particularly impressed with what the person was driving. Now a Bentley, with that little winged “B,” that’s something to brag about.

Of course, no one wants to get hit by anything, and sometimes you take a lot more with you than bragging rights.

British car manufacturer Bentley this week announced that it is recalling the hood ornament from 820 cars. A Bentley dealer reportedly discovered that the spring mechanism underneath the Winged B has a tendency to malfunction and may not retract during an accident.

A spokesman for the company called the recall “rather theoretical,” since the ornament has yet to injure anyone.

Welcome to the future, dear readers, where boring black tires are replaced with bright orange and yellow ones and where your car can dynamically expand or contract. This is the X-Frame Folding Vehicle, a concept from the Nagoya Institute of Technology that was first shown at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, but rolled out of hiding again for the city’s recent Good Design Expo. The car changes shape to offer seating for either one or two and can raise or lower itself dynamically based on terrain, speed, and proximity of Clown Gang members when you’re cruising in Neo-Tokyo. No word on when or if it will see production, but don’t let a complete lack of crash-worthiness get you down on this vision of tomorrow.

Nagoya Institute’s folding X-Frame car lacks S-foils, hyperdrive, rolls on a big orange ball originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nissan has responded to rumors that high demand for its Leaf EV in Japan could cause the company to limit delivery in the United States to just around 3,000 units by the end of March, 2011. That rumor sprang from comments made by a Mossy Nissan general manager, and luckily for electric vehicle lovers in the States, seem to be wholly untrue. Mark Perry, Nissan’s director of product planning says that the statement from Mossy Nissan was “purely speculative,” and that product allocation is decided based on customer orders. Furthermore, he says the company is still targeting around 25,000 units for the US by the end of 2011. So now we can all sleep better: the nightmare has seemingly ended.

Nissan rep confirms delivery of 25,000 Leaf EVs to US by the end of 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Aug 2010 15:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First of all, don’t worry, the spontaneously combusting Nano isn’t among the pair of newly Euro-bound EVs from Tata. Going slightly more upmarket, the Indian company will be launching the Indica Vista EV hatchback for eco-conscious Brits and Scandinavians early next year, alongside the somewhat less exciting Ace, a commercial mini-truck. The Indica Vista has clearly had a few trials and tribulations in coming to market in an all-electric form, having originally been promised to Norwegian tree huggers for 2009, so let’s just hope that this schedule is the one that sticks. It’s about time this whole EV movement got some more affordable options.

Tata bringing two all-electric cars to a Europe near you by March originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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