Future Fiat 500 and Fiat Panda imagined by design students

Students at the Royal College of Art in London were challenged to redesign the Fiat 500 and the Fiat Panda for the year 2020. Part of Fiat's "Two of a Kind" design training experience stretching out over three months, the competition attracted more than 50 entries. The design challenge was more than a competition to design the most effective exterior, as students were divided into several interdisciplinary teams and tasked with developing new solutions for the interiors and exteriors of both cars, integrating such concepts as interactivity, sustainability and global appeal into their designs.

Aston Martin to axe a third of jobs

Aston Martin today announced 600 potential redundancies. It is consulting with the unions to lose 300 permanent jobs and 300 temporary staff By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 01 December 2008 14:00 Aston Martin announced at 2.00pm today that it is to cut a third of its UK workforce in a response to a slump in sales. The company, based in Gaydon, Warwickshire, said it today launched a consultation with the unions to cut 300 permanent jobs and 300 temporary posts – out of a total of 1850 employees.

Volvo creates Inflatable Child Seat

Volvo is a brand famously associated with safety, so let’s hope its latest effort doesn’t turn out to be a load of hot air: the Swedish brand has come up with a concept for an inflatable children’s car seat. Called the Volvo Inflatable Child Seat Concept, this does exactly what it says on the tin – it’s a child seat that instead of being made of rigid material can be deflated and folded away for easy carriage when not required. On Bing: see pictures of the Volvo Inflatable Child Seat Concept Find out how much a used Volvo costs on Auto Trader Noting that “children’s car seats are historically bulky, hard to move and tedious to mount,” Volvo says its new rear-facing inflatable alternative weighs just 5kg – half the weight of an equivalent conventional model.