Continental developing experimental semiautonomous vehicle

A vehicle that drives itself has been a fantasy for many drivers since they encountered their first traffic jam. While a fully autonomous car is not quite here, Continental—yes, the same company that makes tires—has an experimental semiautonomous vehicle that will eclipse the magical 10,000-miles-on-road mark this month. Its unassuming Volkswagen Passat is fitted with a plethora of safety and technology systems that the company has been developing and tweaking over the course of the project.

Automotive Press Association Design Panel says autonomous cars will tear up design rulebook [w/Video]

Fully autonomous cars will challenge everything we know about car design to date, according to industry experts at the Michelin Challenge Design-hosted Automotive Press Association (APA) Design Panel. The APA members-only event, held at the Detroit Athletic Club, carried the theme of 'Driven/Undriven: The Duality of Tomorrow's Automobile' – the subject of this year's Michelin Challenge Design – and explored the design challenges and opportunities that will arise with the advent of autonomous vehicles. The APA Design Panel consisted of Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics, Chris Borroni-Bird, vice president of Strategic Development at Qualcomm and author of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility of the 21st Century as well as Stewart Reed, chair of the Transportation Design course at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Ferrari California Hybrid on the way? And ‘KERS Confusion’ too.

Ferrari California Hybrid on the way? A patent application by Ferrari for a new hybrid system has lead to speculation that a Ferrari California Hybrid is on the way. Ferrari has been flirting with hybrid set-ups for years and actually previewed a 599 with a ‘HY-KERS’ hybrid system at Geneva 2012.