Volvo wants to deliver stuff right to your car

If you've missed deliveries of items you've ordered online because you weren't home when the delivery person showed up (who knew they have the same working hours as you?), then you may be interested to hear that Volvo has a new system in development that could enable logistics companies to deliver things right to your car, whether you're there or not. The cost of missed parcel deliveries amounts to 1 billion Euros per year according to Volvo. This week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the automaker showed off a system that would notify car owners, via a smartphone or tablet, when a delivery company wants to drop off or pick up something from their car.

Mitsubishi revamps U.S. strategy

Mitsubishi plans a different U.S. model lineup and a new production strategy for its assembly plant in Normal, Ill., as it shifts emphasis away from regionally focused vehicles to global small cars, hybrids and electrics. Shinichi Kurihara, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America, says the company will launch four new models in the United States within three years, as four slow-selling U.S.-built vehicles are phased out of production by 2014.

PACE's global Portable Assisted Mobility Device project gets underway

The Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) has challenged selected global college teams to design a Portable Assisted Mobility Device (PAMD) that will help solve mobility and sustainability problems within megacities in 2030. Each team of selected global colleges will consist of one Industrial Design Institution and several Engineering and Manufacturing Institutions, with students working alongside their professors and industry mentors to help develop their designs for a small power-assisted vehicle that can be taken on public transport, stowed or carried indoors.  The PAMD concepts are designed to carry one passenger and their personal items such as a briefcase or backpack. The PAMD must address the transportation issues as the population grows within a target market that the teams specify.