Flightcom 403 101-0243-10 Panel-mount Stereo Intercom on 2040-parts.com

Government abandons plan to make driving test tougher

Proposals to make learning to drive much tougher in a bid to improve road safety amongst young people have been abandoned by the government, Radio 1’s Newsbeat reports. The changes would have involved the introduction of a probationary licence for the first 12 months, a curfew on driving late at night and compulsory lessons on motorway driving. But plans have been scraped because they would restrict young drivers’ lives too much.

Join CDN live from the RCA on 24 June 2010

Car Design News will be reporting live – via Twitter – from the Vehicle Design MA Degree Show 2010 at the Royal College of Art (RCA) in London on the afternoon of Thursday, 24 June (after 13:00 GMT).  The CDN team will be attending the show and interviewing the RCA's student designers, researchers, tutors, alumni, automotive experts and other professionals in attendance from the design community. We'll be posting all our news, photos, video clips and interviews to CDN's Twitter site so CDN's audience can get a real insight into innovative, future transport solutions from some of the world's most talented vehicle design students. At 16:00 GMT, the day culminates with a CDN exclusive online opportunity to "remotely attend" this year's Pilkington Vehicle Design Awards direct from the RCA via webinar.

GM scraps plan for unibody pickup

General Motors Co. has dropped plans to develop a unibody pickup similar to the Honda Ridgeline, the automaker's top product development executive said. As gasoline prices rose and pickup sales fell, GM sought an alternative to the standard body-on-frame pickup.