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Q&A: David Townsend, GM global design director, user experience

GM's new design director of user experience, David Townsend, has only been in the job just over a month. But with a remit extending to the interface design of every vehicle in GM's global portfolio, his influence will soon be widespread. After graduating from Art Center with a degree in transportation design, Townsend interned for Toyota but soon moved to Motorola, where he developed wearable Bluetooth technology and designed the familiar headsets worn by coaches in the NFL.

Old is new again: Will a floor-hinged throttle pedal be in your future?

If you think that every little nut, bolt, switch, gear or widget in your new car wasn't scrutinized by a team of highly educated, overworked car geeks (read: engineers), think again. A couple of recent conversations with automotive engineers confirmed that virtually nothing that goes into a car today is taken for granted. During the recent Pebble Beach weekend, I had the pleasure of spending time with an engineer for Jaguar, and the subject turned to materials used for various switches in the cabin.

Dodge Journey to become Fiat Freemont

Dodge Journey is getting rebadged as the Fiat Freemont for Europe You might as well get used to this. Cross-pollination and re-badging between Chrysler and Fiat is going to move on apace in 2011 and this is just the start, with the recently re-fettled Dodge Journey being tweaked and re-badged for Europe as the Fiat Freemont. Sergio Marchionne sees the Journey doing much better in Europe badged as a Fiat, and he’s probably right.