LA Design Challenge 2012: Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025

The LA Design Challenge has called for design studios from around the world to compete and create the ultimate law enforcement vehicle for the year 2025. Design studios from Bentley and BMW have taken up the challenge while General Motors, Honda, Hyundai and Subaru – entrants in last year's competition  – have returned in a bid to showcase their creativity and talent and be honored in this annual contest. Our world is constantly evolving as new technologies and countries rapidly develop, and as such it creates a real challenge for law enforcement as they strive to keep pace and allow them to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

State Farm releases Driver Feedback app

Accelerometers aren't just for the autocross geeks who want to see whether they threw more than 1.0 lateral g's on their last apex. These gadgets have made their way to the iPhone. State Farm is releasing its Driver Feedback app, which uses the iPhone's high-tech guts (accelerometer, gyroscope and digital compass) to measure driving habits such as smoothness or aggressiveness during acceleration, frequency and abruptness of braking and how hard you take corners (ahem, BMW owners).

Former Ford exec Theodore shows off lighter chassis at SAE

Automakers are facing tougher government regulations for fuel economy, and one former Ford and Chrysler executive says he has a solution Chris Theodore, best known for his work on the Ford GT and Dodge Viper, has designed a vehicle chassis that he says will provide automakers with weight savings, cut manufacturing costs and make electric vehicles more economically viable. Theodore is showcasing his proof-of-concept Uni-Chassis at the SAE World Congress this week. It uses the powertrain and suspension of the GT, under an agreement with Ford.