Contest: LA Design Challenge 2007

Audi Virtuea Quattro Designed at the Volkswagen/Audi Design Center California by Heather Shaw, Jae Min, Mattijs Van Tuijl, Karl Strahlendorf and Christian Schoen; the Virtuea Quattro is a single-seat autonomous driving machine. It functions as a solid unit at its core, while providing a myriad of possible holographic exteriors stored in a library and accessible through the vehicle's 'interactive holographic interface'.  Powered by hydrogen, the vehicle combines artificial intelligence with avenues of self-expression. The Virtuea's holographic exterior provides a variety of possibilities, allowing the driver to select from the most innovative designs from one minute to the next.

One Lap of the Web: Gourmet cheese, ‘Gorilla Glass’ and the cost of car repair by state

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we’re not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there’s more out there than we’d ever be able to cover, here’s our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Ford Motor Co.

GM preps for new engines, 8-speed transmission

General Motors is spending $332 million to upgrade powertrain plants in three states to build a new eight-speed automatic transmission, a new V6 and a new family of small-displacement gasoline engines. The plants are in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. GM is also adding $46 million to an earlier $600 million program to upgrade powertrain plants in Saginaw and Romulus, Mich.