Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Google driverless car will let you speed

Driverless cars are so clever, aren’t they? The potential to whisk us along in total comfort and relaxation while a silicon chip takes care of the driving may sound like bliss to some. However, despite recent news that self-driving cars will be legally allowed on our roads as early as next year, they might not be as clean cut and infallible as you might think.

MIT develops self-transforming materials that behave 'like robots without robots'

A cross-disciplinary research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a suite of programmable materials, including carbon fiber, printed wood grain, textile composites, rubbers and plastics, that self-transform when exposed to an external stimulus. Director of the Self-Assembly Lab, Skylar Tibbits, presented a TED talk on 4D printing in 2013, where he demonstrated how a flat sheet of material could effectively build itself when exposed to water, like a robot without a robot. Following positive feedback from industries including aviation, automotive and manufacturing, his lab has been working on developing materials that change according to different activation sources, including heat, light, and air pressure, in addition to water – all of which have automotive relevance.

Southern California's Holiday Motor Excursion wraps up the year: Video

It wouldn't be Christmas, New Year's or any of the other things we celebrate around this time without the annual Holiday Motor Excursion put on by the Horseless Carriage Club of America's Southern California Branch. Each year, between Dec. 25 and New Year's Day, a couple hundred cars older than your favorite grandfather drive, putter, wheeze or roar onto the roads in and around Pasadena, Calif., for a daylong road trip into motoring's past in a wheeled testament to mechanical devotion.