Report: 10th annual RTT Conference

Held at the Old Congress Hall in Munich, the 10th annual RTT Conference was a showcase for Realtime Technologies AG's (RTT) visualization products. Entitled 'Sharing Visions', the event was a platform for the established supplier of virtual prototyping and virtual marketing tools to demonstrate the services it supplies to various industries, principal among which is the automotive design industry. While many of the presentations revolved around the integration of RTT's software to streamline the processes related to marketing and product development, some reflected on the software's ability to facilitate creation and gauge public perception.

Crunch watch August 09: the auto industry

By Tim Pollard, Alex Michaelides, Ben Pulman and Freddie Fulton Motor Industry 31 August 2009 10:00 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Monday 31 August 2009• Bank holiday today in UK; staff on a well earned break from Crunchwatch!Friday 28 August 2009• Toyota will stop producing vehicles at the New United Moor Manufacturing plant in California next March. Company officials and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced the decision, which comes in the wake of factory partner GM’s announced that it would abandon the venture back in June (Detroit News)• Tengzhong may finalise its deal to buy Hummer from GM next week, well placed sources told AN (Automotive News, subscription required)• German economics minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg says it is 'hardly realistic' for GM to keep hold of its European outfit Opel and Vauxhall (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)• Ford's US cop car favourite, the Crown Victoria, is going to cease production in 2011 (Detroit News)Thursday 27 August 2009• Nissan and Chrysler have abandoned plans to build cars for each other in the wake of Chrysler’s alliance with Fiat.

Ferrari 458 Italia launches at Frankfurt

The Ferrari 458 Italia officially launched today at Frankfurt The styling is a little subjective; it’s very much of the time. To us it looks fantastic, and if the 458 wallpaper downloads from Cars UK are anything to go by, you feel the same. We know how quick it is – 0-60mph in around 3.4 seconds and over 200mph – and we know all about the toys and the new dash.