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Apple Carplay vs Android: the smartphone hits the road

By Damion Smy Motor Industry 11 June 2014 07:18 The days of frustrating in-car interfaces and clunky touchscreens are ending, as computing giants Apple and Google start unleashing the full power of smartphone technology in your car.  Apple has fired the opening salvo in the war on wheels with its ‘CarPlay’ system launched at the 2014 Geneva Motor Show and offered by Ferrari, Mercedes and Volvo, and at least 15 other car brands. If you own an iPhone, you’ll find CarPlay natural and intuitive – it’s this type of familiarity that car companies and Apple are banking on to win you over. Cars have been able to play your iTunes library and read texts for a while, but CarPlay takes this functionality to a whole new level.

Project Car Hell, Rock-and-Stick-Simple Off-Road Trucks Edition: Land Rover or Scout?

Last week, the Hell Garage Demons went back 100 years for a couple of challenging centenarian projects, and the temperature of the Automotive Lake of Fire—conveniently located between the junkyard that always closes five minutes before you show up and the parts store whose counter guys have never heard of your make of car—accordingly rose another few hundred degrees. This week, we've decided to go with the kind of vehicles you'll want when society collapses and "rugged individualists" will need to drive many miles down a road of skulls and broken whiskey bottles to barter rat pelts for handy Clovis points. That's right, simple off-road trucks with few moving parts and a heritage of simplicity—none of this complicated computerized crap, modern alloys and independent suspension (at either end) here, just a steel box with enough running gear to make it move.

Video: Exploring the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class

To coincide with the announcement that its new C-Class has entered production, Mercedes-Benz has released a video exploring its design. Featuring design chief Gordon Wagener and other key members of the team, the video explains where their inspiration came from and how they experimented with proportions during its development. While the dropping bodyside feature line is a key element of the exterior, it's also found inside the C-Class, where the typical Mercedes sports car interior is combined with the floating, vertical center console.