Exclusive: Phil Zak appointed Chief Designer at Hyundai America (updated)

Phillip A Zak will become the new Chief Designer at Hyundai's North American Design Center in Irvine, California, filling the role previously held by former GM designer Joel Piaskowski who left Hyundai to become Head of Advanced Design at Mercedes-Benz's North American Design Center in January of this year. Zak joins Hyundai from his previous role as head of exterior design at GM Europe - a post he has held since August 2007 - and will work in parallel to European Chief Designer Thomas Buerkle (who worked at BMW before joining the Korean automaker), developing vehicles for the North American market. As is the case with Buerkle, Zak will report to Hyundai Design Director Mr.

Brabus 800 E V12 Cabriolet – it’s a bonkers Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet

Brabus 800 E V12 Cabriolet So you fancy a Mercedes E-Class Cabriolet, but you feel Mercedes has failed miserably to endow any E-Class Cab with enough power to whip the skin off a rice pudding. What do you do? You go out and grab yourself an E-Class Cab tweaked and fettled by Brabus – something like the new Brabus 800 E V12 Cabriolet with 800 continental horses at its disposal – more than enough speed on tap to whip the syrups off your back-seat passengers.

Semi-autonomous driving system reduces accidents by 75% [w/video]

Scientists from MIT have developed a semi-autonomous driving system that is proven to reduce acccidents by 75 per cent. A front-mounted camera and laser range-finder identify the car's surroundings while making realtime updates to distances, mapping out the car's movement into 'safe zones'. The system also asseses the vehicle's limits, such as grip, and corrects the car.