Standard Motor Products Us198 Ignition Switch on 2040-parts.com

Nissan Leaf with advanced-driver assist to begin public road tests in Japan

Nissan is about to begin testing advanced driver-assist systems in the real world, and a new Nissan Leaf is serving as the test bed for these technologies. This is all a part of Nissan's development of Autonomous Drive, a goal to achieve virtually zero fatalities in accidents involving its vehicles by the year 2020. Autonomous Drive can be said to be a further development of Nissan's Safety Shield, a system that has a 360-degree view around the vehicle that scans for risks and provides warnings to the driver, intervening automatically if necessary.

Autoweek Design Forum returns for 2012

Last year, Pixar gurus gave attendees an early preview of their hit summer blockbuster, Cars 2, five months before it premiered in theaters. Two years ago, Chrysler's Ralph Gilles brought down the house with an insightful, hilarious keynote on the state of styling. This year, well buckle up: The 2012 Autoweek Design Forum returns on Jan.

VW Beetle Dune at the Detroit auto show

Of all the production-leaning concept vehicles at the Detroit auto show, the Volkswagen Beetle Dune's the sort of flight of fancy nobody was looking for. Nissan's Sport Sedan heralds the look of the next Maxima, which will likely trickle down in some way to future Altimas, Sentras and Versas. It looks as if Nissan will put one of its techno-retro RWD IDx concepts into production.