The president of the European commission, José Manuel Barroso, will tomorrow launch a prototype electric car that folds up to take up less parking space.

The little two-seat vehicle is called Hiriko and is the product of a partnership between Basque businesses, Spanish government and the US's MIT Media Lab.

The folding mechanism pulls the rear of the car underneath the cabin, tipping the body of the car into a more upright position, compressing the length of the car into two-thirds that of the already tiny Smart ForTwo.

Watch out for the wipers

There's only one door in the front of the car, meaning that passengers climb out through the windscreen. Though this is made easier by the car's upright, parked position.

"I call this mobility on demand," says Ryan Chin, the MIT researcher behind the concept. "Hiriko's technology and green footprint is five times better than you find in today's Smart cars."

Each wheel is driven independently by its own dedicated motor and also steered electrically which should allow it to be especially manoeuvrable.

The driving experience could take some getting used to – though retro gamers and flight sim fans could have the edge – as the Hiriko's wheel has been replaced by a joystick.

A test production run of 20 vehicles is happening at Vitoria-Gasteiz in the Basque country, with finished versions ready for the road expected in 2013.

The project is getting €15m in grants from Madrid, each of which will cost €12,500 to build.

To see the folding car in action, MIT's video is on hand to help you visualise the future.

From MIT Media Lab via The Telegraph

Legal authorities cannot use GPS tracking devices on a person's vehicle without first obtaining a search warrant, the United States Supreme Court has ruled.

The ruling clarifies the Fourth Amendment right of Americans which protects them from unreasonable searches or seizures without a warrant and probable cause.

The Amendment references "persons, houses, papers and effects."

According to the new verdict, instances where "the government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area," includes an individual's car.

Massive ramifications

GPS tracking is often used by the police and other federal authorities to gain intelligence on the movement of suspects, so today's legal ruling has massive ramifications.

Monday's verdict stems from a case where a man was able to overturn his conviction and sentence of life imprisonment for drug dealing.

His legal team were able to prove to the court that police had installed a GPS tracking device on his jeep without a warrant.

The Supreme Court justices agreed that the police had violated his "reasonable expectations of privacy."

If you've got a car with a video player you'll almost definitely want the impressively small Kivic One.

This little black box, about the size of a deck of cards, can push audio and video to just about any car monitor - or any monitor, really - provided it has an HDMI connection.

Car video - or everywhere video?

While Kivic is serious about marketing the Kivic One as the quintessential car audiovideo peripheral, it could theoretically work with any HDMI display, allowing you to push AirPlay video to your home television, just like the Apple TV.

But while AirPlay compatibility is obviously the big news, the Kivic One is also certified with most other smartphones, from a wide range of Android devices to BlackBerry phones and beyond.

A pricey proposition

The Kivic representative we spoke with said it would release in March, and that we could expect "a ballpark price of around $200."

Our gut instinct is that that's too much. And most fans of in-car video have doubtlessly already found ways to hook their mobiles to their screens.

A worthy addition to your car?

But if you've dished out for a display in your car the prospect of pushing some of your favorite AirPlay-enabled apps to it might just be worth the money.

So what do you think? Do you want the Kivic One, or is it too little for a little too much?

Google has been granted a patent for driverless car technology, which can fully take over the control of a vehicle from a human driver.

This full-fat version of cruise control uses web functionality to trigger the automated driving tech, with one of the images which goes alongside the patent showcasing what seems to be a massive QR code embedded into a road.

It seems that once a driver of one of Google's automatic cars drives over the QR code – or reference indicator, as it is called in the patent – the car then takes over the controls.

The actual patent is written in rather oblique language but does reveal a little about what Google's vision of driverless cars is.

Auto-nomous

"Disclosed are methods and devices for transitioning a mixed-mode autonomous vehicle from a human driven mode to an autonomously driven mode," said the patent.

"Transitioning may include stopping a vehicle on a predefined landing strip and detecting a reference indicator. Based on the reference indicator, the vehicle may be able to know its exact position.

"Additionally, the vehicle may use the reference indictor to obtain an autonomous vehicle instruction via a URL. After the vehicle knows its precise location and has an autonomous vehicle instruction, it can operate in autonomous mode."

Google has been looking into the idea of driverless cars for a while now and even outlined its proposal for an automatic car in its last Zeitgeist, where Larry Page explained: "It's an area that I've had some interest in since I was a grad student. It seemed pretty practical actually, I mean you think that driving a car is hard but it is not actually that hard for a computer if [it] has good data about what's about it."

There's no actual timeline for when we will see these cars in action but an automated car has been spotted driving around Google's Mountain View campus.

Google's Larry Page has explained why he feels his company should be pushing forward tech like automated cars and acting as a catalyst to get interesting but tricky projects off the ground.

Of all the projects that Google has worked on, few have attracted as much mainstream media attention as its driverless cars.

Speaking at Google Zeitgeist, company founder and CEO Page suggested that not only are automated cars practical but that they will start out as better than the average driver and improve from there, positing that a software update will make your car safer.

Possibilities

"The automated car stuff is a good example of the possibilities [of technology]," said Page.

"It's an area that I've had some interest in since I was a grad student. It seemed pretty practical actually, I mean you think that driving a car is hard but it is not actually that hard for a computer if [it] has good date about what's about it.

"They will work substantially better than an average person and get better from there, and continue improving.

"You'll get a software update and your car will be safer which is great."

Catalyst

Page believes that a key problem with these potential technologies is that it is expensive to get started, and he believes that Google and major tech prizes can speed the process along.

"The issues we have are that people aren't working on them and you know in fact before the DARPA Grand Challenge there was very few people working in the area," added Page.

"The grand challenge gave it a big contest and got people working on it."

"It should be a great thing to be able to do. There's something like 3 million people killed a year in auto accidents and a lot more that are injured.

"And there's a lot of other benefits you get from the automation too, that people spend two hours a day in the US commuting which is a huge amount of time they don't need to be spending.

"They could be doing useful things in that time or watching TV or looking at ads or whatever."

So why no automated car?

Page explained that there are clear reasons why engineers and scientists had not been plunging their resources into developing the drivereless car - a bastion of science fiction.

"We asked people who were working in that area why don't we have an automated car? "Why can't I buy one?" he explained.

"They said 'We can't actually figure out how to do it. There are regulatory issues and all these other kinds of things'.

"So I think part of our role as a catalyst is to make sure that some of these things actually start up and happen and make sure we push through the difficult issues to make it real."

Yesterday Ford announced plans to bring its SYNC in-car infotainment platform to millions here at IFA 2011. But is it any good? To find out, TechRadar got its sticky fingers on a SYNC-equipped Focus.

Initial impressions are good. SYNC boasts a big 8-inch touchscreen. It's much larger than those found in most competing C-segment cars, such as the VW Golf or Vauxhall Astra.

Just as important, the interface looks slicker and responds more swiftly, too. Admittedly, the SYNC screen is clearly lower resolution and the graphics aren't as polished as BMW's market-leading iDrive system. But given the Focus's positioning, SYNC's visuals look best-in-class.

In terms of both interface layout and core functionality, SYNC is based on a "four corners" structure, including connectivity, media playback, climate control and navigation. Let's start with the latter first.

Being a car manufacturer, Ford is well aware that reinventing the wheel is a costly and futile endeavour. So, instead of building a navigation application from the ground up, it partners with specialists NAVTEQ and TeleNav. The result is a pretty solid looking navigation interface that will support full 7-digit postcodes when it arrives in the UK next year.

Given the wide ability of cheap portable navigation units with full postcode support, that might not sound like much of a feature. But lack of proper postcode support still plagues factory-fit nav systems. Ford has also partnered with ViaMichelin to provide SYNC's poin-of-interest database.

What SYNC's navigation system doesn't offer, however, is internet connectivity. Consequently, traffic data is limited to the rather clunky radio-based RDS-TMC system and you don't get Google searches or send-to-car functionality.

In fact, that lack of connectivity is a consistent theme for the Euro version of SYNC. At launch, media playback will include USB storage, Bluetooth streaming, smartphone syncing and CD spinning. The relevant partner here is Gracenote, supplier of a full music tagging database, complete with album art. What you don't get, however, is any internet radio streaming.

In the US, SYNC has the Pandora internet radio app. With Pandora not available in the UK, it's obviously not part of the mix. Instead, Ford is working on a similar app based on Spotify. However, given the long gestation of SYNC for Europe, we're rather surprised Ford hasn't got Spotify lined up for launch.

That said, it's clear that the SYNC platform is ready to offer apps like Spotify as soon as Ford rolls them out. In terms of internet connectivity, SYNC itself doesn't offer any. Instead, you can either plug in a USB 3G adapter or hook up your smartphone. The advantages of this approach are twofold. Firstly, it means you don't need a separate cellular data account for your car. Secondly, it makes it easier to keep mobile internet access speeds up to date.

The key point here is that punters swap their smartphones for newer, snazzier models much more often than they change cars. Anyhow, at launch in Europe and indeed the UK SYNC's internet functionality will be limited to providing a Wi-Fi hotspot.

On that subject, we were interested to learn that Ford uses SYNC's Wi-Fi connectivity to install software in cars during manufacture. Intriguing but irrelevant, you say? Not so. Ford plans to extend the use of Wi-Fi to enable owners to execute updates including app installs over Wi-Fi. Imagine parking your car in the garage and wirelessly loading the latest apps and you'll get the idea.

The final important part of SYNC is one that that largely doesn't appear on screen, voice command. Our relatively brief demo only scratched the surface in terms of getting a feel for SYNC's voice control functions.

Only with intimate acquaintance does one learn whether a given voice input system is reliable and consistent enough to be truly useful. However, what we can say is that on paper it gives you full control of the SYNC interface and was 100% accurate during our demo time.

All of which means the success of SYNC will come down to two factors: cost and the speed with which Ford adds connected features. Sadly, Ford's reps at IFA absolutely refused to be drawn on the question of pricing. So all we really have to go on is a commitment to make SYNC accessible to millions.

If it's dirt cheap – say, £300 to £400 – then SYNC will be attractive even at launch without any connected features. However, the market is moving fast and Ford would do well to add apps like Spotify, along with features like Google searching, send-to-car and social networking support (SYNC in the US already offers Twitter support), as soon as possible.

Lastly, for those of you who geek out to hardware specs, here's the dirt on SYNC. It sports a Freescale i.MX51 SOC with a single-core ARM Cortex A8 processor running at 600MHz. 512MB of RAM and 2GB of flash memory round out the hardware. As for background software, SYNC is built on Microsoft's Windows Automotive which in turn is based on Windows CE. So now you know.

It's obviously been a struggle for Ford to prep SYNC for European markets. On this early showing, it still has some work to do.

A major new electric car charging initiative launches in the UK this week, with the arrival of a new network of charging machines in motorway service stations across the land set to boost drivers' interest in electric cars.

At least, that's what the electric car lobby hope to see happen, with the expectation that a UK-wide network of low-cost and quick, easy-to-use charging machine will help to overcome many potential electric car drivers' "range anxiety" – ie their fear that they might run out of power miles away from home (or from their nearest charging machine).

Overcoming range anxiety

"Today we launched the world's first national charging network for electric cars," writes Dale Vince, the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, in The Guardian.

"That may sound a bit grand, for something quite wonderfully simple - a series of charging posts installed at motorway services up and down the country…. For electric cars, that are easy to access and free to use.

"Enabling Britain's electric car drivers to drive the length and breadth of the country, with all the convenience of simply pulling into a motorway service station to top up."

Even though the UK has a mere 2,000 cars on the roads right now, the Ecotricity founder hopes that the new charging network should boost demand for electric vehicles amongst Brits.

"It's often said that one of the reasons more people don't buy electric cars is because of a lack of charging facilities – while the reason more charging facilities aren't built is said to be because not enough people are buying electric cars. We're hoping to break that impasse."

Vince hopes that his new charging network will help to "kickstart Britain's electric car revolution" as the focus to date has been on installing charging centres in the UK's major cities, and not across the motorway network.

"The average car in Britain travels around 20 miles a day, a distance that most modern electric cars can sustain for almost a week without needing to charge. And most car owners have access to off-street parking (70% apparently) – and therefore are able to charge at home, at night. Most cars won't need to charge, most days. It's the longer journeys where charging is needed most."

Ecotricity's charging points are also based on fully renewable wind-powered energy, offering drivers the chance of a "full zero-emission driving potential".

Electric sports cars: but will true petrolheads ever really adopt electric vehicles?

With 28 million cars on the roads of Britain, burning up around 20 million tonnes of oil each year, it's clear why electric car evangelists such as Vince are keen to drive home their message.

"We could power all of that with just 10,000 of today's wind turbines and 5,000 of tomorrow's (they double in size every few years)," claims the Ecotricity founder, adding, "the grid can easily cope, in fact if Britain switched to electric vehicles the grid would operate more efficiently."

Revenge of the Electric Car

Elsewhere, the new electric car industry documentary from director Chris Paine's Revenge of the Electric Car is set to get a widespread cinema release later this year - the follow-up to his hit, Who Killed the Electric Car?

"I'm very pleased with the reaction so far," Paine told Mother Nature Network. "You always get worried that your movie might be coming out too late, but 'Who Killed' didn't find its true audience for a year. I hope the timing is right."

Some of the characters in Paine's film include the infamous Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, Bob Lutz (previously the vice chairman of General Motors and responsible for The Chevy Volt) and Carlos Ghosn (the Nissan CEO responsible for the Nissan Leaf).

A new magazine for car and tech enthusiasts goes on sale today in the shape of iCAR Magazine.

As the humble automotive gets more and more technological goodies as standard, iCAR is intended to get your revved up about 'Car 2.0' and efficient motoring.

Focusing on great car design, cutting edge technology and environmentally sustainable transport solutions, iCAR will tell you everything you need to know about the very latest in car tech.

Vroom, vroom

Issue one is on sale in all good newsagents now, and takes a look at the most desirable, efficient and advanced cars around, rates the latest in-car kit and reveals the truth about electric and hybrid tech.

As if that wasn't enough, there's also a column from Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf fame, who gives the low-down on living with Nissan's revolutionary electric car.

All this and it's yours for £4.99 – get thee to a newsagents, or hop on over to the Future website to pick iCAR up now.

The Bloodhound SSC's attempt to shatter the world land speed record will apparently have the same carbon footprint as three and a half lactating cows, according to the projects engineering lead.

Interest has been high in the Bloodhound land speed record, with the team behind the famous Thrust SSC – which twice broke the record in 1997 – hoping that their efforts can inspire a new generation of engineers.

TechRadar took a look at the 1,000mph car's progress as part of Speed Week, in association with LG Optimus 2X, and found that one 10-mile Bloodhound run uses the same amount of energy required to light the Singapore Grand Prix night-event for 20 minutes.

• Read the feature: The 1,000mph car that can outrun a bullet

"That sounds like we're burning an awful lot of fuel," said Bloodhound SSC's engineering lead, James Painter.

"But we're not doing that many runs in total, and as a complete project the calculations are that we are the equivalent of three and a half lactating cows, in terms of the amount of greenhouse gasses that we'll be releasing."

The project hopes to inspire, as well as hit the magic 1,000mph mark and break the land speed record.

"We're aiming to hit 1,000mph," concluded Painter. "But to be honest, if we hit 950 we'd be happy, as long as we hit all of our educational objectives as well.

"That side of things is just as important to us as breaking the record, because we want the next generation of kids to be inspired by Bloodhound SSC, rather than be intimidated by it."

Read

Bloodhound SSC: Overview

This article is brought to you in association with LG Optimus 2X

It's difficult to imagine exactly how fast 1,000mph is.

But try this; if you were up in the stand at Wembley Stadium, and an object flew into the arena at 1,000mph before exiting at the other end, if you blinked at the wrong moment, in the 300 milliseconds it would take you to close and reopen your eyes, you would completely miss it.

The air is actually so dense at ground level that no supersonic jet fighter in the world is capable of flying as fast as 1,000mph in low altitude. If you were to fire a Magnum 357 handgun after an object travelling at this speed - 232mph faster than the speed of sound - the object would actually accelerate away from the speeding bullet.

The object we're talking about is Bloodhound SSC, the new super sonic car from the British team who back in 1997 twice broke the land speed record with the jet-powered Thrust SSC.

In the shadow of Brunel's SS Great Britain in Bristol, we visited the Bloodhound Technical Centre to find out more about the car, the tech inside it and the incredible record attempt to come.

The car

In October 1997, Thrust SSC became the first car to break the sound barrier, and achieved a record ground speed of 763mph. It increased the world land speed record by 130mph - a 20 per cent bump - the biggest step forward in land speed history.

In 2013, the same team intends to extend the record they set by a further 31 per cent all the way up to a barely-conceivable 1,000mph. So how is this going to be achieved?

The Bloodhound SSC car itself has to be seen up close to be fully appreciated.

It's 12.8 metres long, 2.8 metres tall, weighs nearly 6.5 tonnes when fully fuelled and has a turning circle of 120 metres.

Image credit: Curventa and Siemens

The 900mm-diameter wheels weigh 100Kg each, and at maximum speed will be turning 167 times per second, while undergoing forces in excess of 50,000g - or 50,000 times the force of gravity.

Image credit: Curventa and Siemens

So how exactly is this car going to reach speeds of over 1,000mph? One of Bloodhound SSC's engineering leads, James Painter, explains:

"We've essentially got two main propulsion devices on board and three engines in total. There's a rocket which is a bespoke piece of kit which was developed for this specific purpose, and we've got an EJ200 jet engine which basically comes out the back of a Eurofighter Typhoon and those two together produce something in the order of 180 F1 engines worth of power - about 133,000 horse power.

"There's also a Cosworth F1 engine in the back of the car which we use to supply the rocket with fuel at a rate of 50Kg per second. So essentially we've got a Formula One engine as a fuel pump!"

COSWORTH: The F1 engine is used only to pump rocket fuel

Together, the jet engine and the rocket provide 45,000lbs of thrust, enough to propel the car from a standing start, up to 1,000mph - possibly beyond - and back to zero again in just 100 seconds. It will take the car just 40 seconds to reach 1,000Mph, burning 1.5 tonnes of fuel in the process.

One 10-mile run of Bloodhound uses the same amount of energy as required to light the Singapore Grand Prix night-event for 20 minutes.

EJ200: The jet engine comes from a Eurofighter Typhoon

"That sounds like we're burning an awful lot of fuel," quips Painter, "but we're not doing that many runs in total, and as a complete project the calculations are that we are the equivalent of three and a half lactating cows, in terms of the amount of greenhouse gasses that we'll be releasing."

Yes, that's three and a half lactating cows. At this point, it's unclear whether Bloodhound's project managers are considering euthanising three and a half lactating cows in order to offset the project's carbon footprint, but we reckon it might be worth a punt.

Bloodhound SSC: The technical side

In terms of raw computing power, the most processor-intensive process during the design stage is in coming up with a stable aerodynamic shape for the car's bodywork. The team is using computational fluid dynamics - or CFD - to try to model the best aerodynamic shape to be stable both at low and supersonic speeds.

While most F1 teams use scaled-down wind tunnels to correlate their CFD computation models, the Bloodhound team has no such luxury and won't know exactly how effective their car is until they start testing at some point next year.

"We're into the detailed design at the moment," says Painter. "Now that we've got this stable shape, we can start doing more work on the internal packaging and the detailed design of all the systems in the car. So you take an F1 car that maybe does 210Mph at Monza on the straight, that's pretty much as fast as a Formula One car goes during a season. We've got a speed range that's almost five times that so trying to get a shape that wasn't just stable at lower speeds but also once you go past mach 1, is quite tricky.

"We don't want to generate too much downforce or you end up pushing the car down into the desert. Too little and the car would take off, so it's all about using CFD to get that stable aerodynamic shape."

It sounds easier than it is. The main problems facing the team in this area are calculating the physics involved with travelling at such high speeds.

The dynamic air pressure at 1,000mph is in the region of 12 tonnes per square metre, so the car has to be strong enough to withstand that load, while being light enough to reach those speeds in the first place.

One of the main reasons why it's taking such a long time to design Bloodhound is that the team is flying fairly close to the wind when it comes to what is and what isn't possible to achieve with current technology and the space available. Everything on the car is state of the art, including the propulsion systems, wheel designs, carbon fibre bodywork and the available locations.

In fact, the team's research suggests that while punching through the sound barrier is now relatively straight forward, the technology barrier is now their main nemesis.

"There are several limiting factors," says Painter. "The rocket we're using is up there with the best in the world, so in terms of the amount of thrust available, we're pretty much maxed out. What's more, as speed and acceleration increases, aerodynamic loads also increase, meaning the car has to be stronger and heavier, making speeds yet harder to achieve."

The team is then severely limited in terms of the amount of space they have to play with. The attempt will take place on a track already 10 miles long - there simply isn't any more space to be had, making higher speeds very tricky to reach.

The driver

Driving Bloodhound SSC will be Wing Commander Andy Green, Royal Air Force pilot and the man who drove Thrust SSC up to 763Mph back in 1997.

LEADERS: Project lead Richard Noble and Bloodhound SSC driver Wing Commander Andy Green pose at the car's launch

During acceleration he will experience forces in the region of 2.5G, and because his cockpit is reclined, this will result in a lot of blood rushing up into his head. When he deploys the air breaks after the measured mile is completed, the reverse will be true - blood will drain to his legs.

Only fighter pilots are trained to deal with these forces; any normal person would simply black out, which would be catastrophic were it to happen at high speed.

The air brakes are expected to be sufficient to slow the car down after the runs, but Bloodhound is equipped with dual parachutes - a main and a backup - which can be deployed if the air brakes fail.

The location

Almost as important as the design of the car is the choice of location for the record attempt itself. It needs to have a very hard, flat surface while still providing plenty of grip. It needs to be big enough for a 10 mile track to be plotted, and it needs to have as little cross wind as possible so as not to upset the aerodynamics of the car.

Bloodhound SSC will make its bid to reach 1,000mph at Hakskeen Pan in the Northern Cape region of South Africa. Its surface is so flat, the only deviation in elevation is down to the curvature of the Earth itself.

The team has secured exclusive access to the site, with the local government providing a lot of assistance in order to get the track ready, including clearing dangerous debris from the area.

The competition

The Bloodhound SSC team is not the only team aiming to break the world land speed record in the next few years. There are two teams from the USA and one from Australia currently building cars to do just that.

And you might think that a team aiming to build a car of this speed and size would have an enormous budget, but in actual fact the budget for the entire Bloodhound project is about the same as an F1 team would spend on one single race weekend.

Because of this, the team relies heavily on its principle sponsors, namely Intel and Siemens.

Rather than providing financial assistance, Intel is Bloodhound's Official IT Partner, and provides the Bloodhound engineers with computing equipment including servers and laptops.

Intel also provided the team with access to its supercomputing clusters at a time when they were struggling to make all of their CFD calculations. As a result of Intel's involvement in this side of things, it took those computations down from taking a working week to just a single day.

The Bloodhound SSC itself uses a total of eight Intel Atom CPUs to control the engine and in-car control systems, and an SSD for onboard data capture.

The record attempt

In order to prove that wind has nothing to do with the speed of the car, Bloodhound SSC must refuel and repeat it's 1000mph run in the opposite direction within a very short space of time. The speed will be measured by timing the car through two speed gates one mile apart. If all goes to plan, Bloodhound will cover that measured mile in just 3.4 seconds.

The team doesn't yet know exactly when this attempt will be made, but if testing goes to plan it will take place within the next 18 months. The testing phase begins later this year.

It's not all just about the prestige of hitting 1,000mph though. The team is putting a lot of work into educating school children in the UK, in order to get them interested in engineering.

"We're aiming to hit 1,000mph," concluded Painter. "But to be honest, if we hit 950 we'd be happy, as long as we hit all of our educational objectives as well. That side of things is just as important to us as breaking the record, because we want the next generation of kids to be inspired by Bloodhound SSC, rather than be intimidated by it."

For those who've decided to abandon the petrol-powered engine, choosing from among a growing list of electric cars is difficult. Is the total range more important than any whizzy features on the dash?

If you have ever dreamed of owning a flying car, then you may well be able to buy and fly one in the UK next year.

The Transition Roadable Aircraft, designed and manufactured by US company Terrafugia, is a road-worthy vehicle that has fold-out wings and is able to automatically convert into a fully-capable airplane in around 20 seconds.

Sci-fi dreams

It's the stuff of our childhood sci-fi dreams, for sure. Although, to be fair,

Terrafugia CEO Carl Dietrich says: "A lot of people said they never thought it would fly. But we have a vehicle right here, right now that drives and flies, and converts between the two in 20 seconds."

Terrafugia's flying car runs on bog-standard unleaded and the cockpit features touch-screen controls and a small cargo area to throw in the family's suitcases as you head off into the sunset.

Want one?

Terrafugia's VP of business development Richard Gersh informed TechRadar this week that: "Although we are accepting international orders via a refundable deposit forthe Transition, our primary focus is the US certification standards. As we get closer to production in late 2011, we will be reviewing foreign standards, including those in the UK."

Plus, before you put your deposit down, it might be worth checking that you have all the relevant pilot's licenses and certification from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

"The flying car should be considered an aircraft first and a car second, the aircraft would have to be registered either on the UK register or on another ICAO contracting state's register and have a Certificate of Airworthiness issued by the state of registry," a CAA rep informed TechRadar when we asked them about the law on flying cars earlier.

"The pilot would also have to a pilot's license and an annual medical as normal. I would imagine that the pilot would also have to have the appropriate driving license for this as well."

As Terrafugia's flying car is 650kg it would also be the responsibility of EASA to certify the aircraft. The current EASA code that covers an aircraft of this weight is CS VLA (up to 890 kg). The aircraft would need to be registered and have an EASA approval before it could fly legally.

So there you go? Got a spare £160,000 or so? Want a flying car? 2012 just became far more exciting…

A British Judge has fined a Yorkshire man for riding his Segway on a pavement, in a landmark trial that could well set a precedent for use of personal transportation vehicles in the UK.

Unemployed 51-year-old factory worker Phillip Coates' prosecution has attracted interest from celebrity Segway users, including ex-Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik, who turned up at the court to offer his support.

Segway or the highway?

Coates was seen using his Segway on a pavement in Pontefract Road, Barnsley, earlier last year by a civilian police inquiry officer and subsequently hauled up in front of the local magistrates' court.

The Segway user has been prosecuted under Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 and fined £75, plus £250 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Judge Rosenberg said that Coates "wilfully rode a motor vehicle, namely a Segway, upon a footpath or causeway by the side of the road, made or set apart for the use or accommodation of foot passengers."

The district judge added: "If I am satisfied, from all the evidence presented, that a reasonable person was to say 'Yes, the Segway might well be used on a road', then, applying the test, the vehicle is intended or adapted for such use.

"In my judgement, the conclusion must be that general use on the roads is to be contemplated. Although this is by no means an easy matter to determine, I am inexorably driven to the conclusion that I am satisfied to the required standard that the Segway is a motor vehicle and the allegation is therefore proved."

Coates is currently considering an appeal. TechRadar has contacted Segway's UK distributors for further comment on this story.

Volvo has been trialling the latest 'road train' tech in Sweden, which effectively allows cars to drive themselves.

The Swedish car manufacturer's latest technology enables cars to follow a lead vehicle in a a 'semi-autonomous' convoy.

Improved safety and efficiency

Volvo's latest trials allow a car to be automatically driven behind a lorry as a 'slave' vehicle, with the company hoping that the tech can be developed in future to massively improve fuel efficiency and safety on the roads.

With increased traffic clogging up our cities and motorways, the promise of new systems which could cut congestion is currently something that car manufacturers are keen to research and develop.

Volvo's R&D team hopes to see the technology being used on Europe's road network within the next ten years.

The latest semi-autonomous driving tech is part of a European Commission research project known as Sartre - Safe Road Trains for the Environment (and nothing to do with the French existentialist philosopher!).

You can see Volvo's promotional video of the latest trial online, which shows how drivers might join a convoy and then take their hands off the wheel and let their car drive itself, while they kick back and read a book or do something less boring instead!

Google has been testing self-driving cars, with the internet giant testing technology that will ‘fundamentally’ change car usage.

Google used its detailed maps collected with the same technology as its Google Maps Street View project along with video cameras, radar sensors and a laser finder.

“Larry and Sergey founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology, blogged Sebastian Thrun.

Safety and efficiency

“And one of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.

“So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard.”

The cars leverage the processing power of Google’s data centres, processing the huge amount of information to guide the car safely and efficiently.

DARPA challenges

Google brought in engineers from the renowned DARPA challenges, and each car still has operators – with the technology giant not quite ready to unleash unmanned vehicles on the world (quite yet).

“We always have a trained safety driver behind the wheel who can take over as easily as one disengages cruise control,” adds the blog post.

“And we also have a trained software operator in the passenger seat to monitor the software.”

So, Google has replaced one driver with two operatives. But, in all seriousness, the company’s project is aimed at increasing road safety and reducing the environmental damage of our road transport.

“We’ve always been optimistic about technology’s ability to advance society, which is why we have pushed so hard to improve the capabilities of self-driving cars beyond where they are today,” added Thrun.

“While this project is very much in the experimental stage, it provides a glimpse of what transportation might look like in the future thanks to advanced computer science. And that future is very exciting.”

Quite. We reckon they're also working on jet packs, meal-in-a-pill and robot friends as well.

In car tech: Moving towards apps

A leading automotive analyst says that by the end of the decade all navigation will be cloud-based. Phil Magney, vice president of Automotive Research at analyst iSuppli, spoke about how mobile apps and the cloud are revolutionising the design of in-car HMI (Human Machine Interface) design.

"What do I use? I use my Android phone. The content is just more relevant. In five years half the navigation users will be cloud-based... by the end of the decade everything will be cloud-based. The general telematics trend is moving [towards having] open platforms and app stores."

"On-board resources are going out in favour of cloud-based resources. No matter what you say, it's all moving to the cloud."

Magney was speaking about the changing times in HMI design at the SVOX Forum in Zurich. SVOX is a provider for text-to-speech systems and has been working on more natural speech recognition for in-car use – its partners include Clarion, Microsoft Auto and the Open Handset Alliance (Android).

"TTS (Text To Speech) is very, very important with the emphasis on bringing messaging and email into the car", said Magney. "This heightens the need for TTS."

Mobile apps running on smartphones can provide information or even a skin which runs on the head unit. Mini Connected is an iPhone app which enables you to listen to internet radio through your iPhone but using the controls of your Mini's HMI.

The stage on from that is to have apps running on the head unit itself, with a smartphone OS like Android inside the car – however, iSuppli warns that would require work on how the apps can be distributed and who gets a share in the revenue.

Connectivity and bandwidth will, however, surely be a major stumbling block with any of these systems. Magney was vague as to how this would be paid for. "I presume they'll go to a tiered pricing plan," he tamely suggested.

Likewise, Magney was also questioned about the quality of service on mobile networks while driving. "I guess it's my belief that LTE comes along and takes care of the issues with regard to bandwidth."

In another talk, BMW's Alexandre Saad said that mobile apps have to be well designed to succeed in-car, not least because of the cycle of car design. "A head unit could be four years old... the apps are not known at the design stage. Applications should be developed independently from car production cycles and other car technology."

Phil Magney also talked about the example of the BMW Station – pictured above – which enables an iPhone to effectively be embedded into the dashboard and - via a BMW app due in early 2011 – control in-car systems. We've also previously seen Audi's Google-based system at CES while Mercedes Benz has also shown a cloud-based head unit.

In car tech: Potential for distraction

Potential for distraction

However, one of the big questions of in-car apps remains over driver safety. "You still have safety and security to worry about. Driver distraction is going to be the biggest issue. Governments will come down hard on automakers because of the distractive nature of mobile apps."

Magney suggested that one idea was that some intelligence could be supplied to how HMIs are used, perhaps depending on the time of day or the conditions but – perhaps unsurprisingly – many of the other speakers at the SVOX Forum were focused on better, more natural speech solutions as the key method to reduce driver distraction.

Thomas Scheerbarth, senior expert in Voice & Multimodal Solutions at Deutsche Telekom said that studies carried out using a PTT (Push to Talk) button had reduced eye dwell time on the in-car system to around two per cent. However, a demo video of a in-car scenario with a touch-interface where emails were being read out revealed eye dwell time as significantly more.

There's also the question of how smartphone apps will sit alongside the embedded model – systems like BMW iDrive and the Microsoft Auto-based Ford Sync. "These things will coexist. We do believe long term that you'll have embedded for the driver's sake and mobile apps for the passenger's sake."

"Unfortunately people aren't going to pay for traditional telematics. But mobile apps... that's what will drive them into the showrooms to buy those cars."

Doing open source properly

With many in-car systems moving to open source operating systems like Android, Andrew Till, head of solutions marketing at mobile software provider Teleca, warned that using open source isn't a ticket to cheaper design.

"Open source is not free. Yes, you can get the code, but everybody else you're competing with can get the same code. [Those who have] reduced their R&D budget, are less competitive.

Till warned that those designing using open source software should design for platforms and portability not lead devices. He said that the initial outlay is not inconsiderable, with the first device being 150 per cent of the cost of using a closed platform, but the second 75 per cent and so on.

Till also warned that the licensing in open source was very important to think about. "MeeGo is distributed under the GNU license – it's important to understand where you need to contribute code back. Android however is under the Apache2 licence and doesn't require you to contribute anything back."

"We'll end up in a strong multi-OS world. That said, some will disappear, it's too fragmented."

Intel has announced that its Atom processors will be integral to the 1000mph car Bloodhound project, with the chips featuring in the engine control and display systems.

The Bloodhound car project has attracted huge interest, with talk of the first 1000mph car inevitably stirring up huge amounts of excitement.

Intel has announced that its processors will be a key component for the Bloodhound, helping to manage the Typhoon fighter aircraft engine which will propel the car.

Netbook-like

"The processors, similar to those used in netbooks, have been specifically designed for use in industrial and automotive applications, and were chosen for their power-saving and performance prowess," explains Intel's release.

"Three Atom chips will manage the calculations behind the car's "hybrid" propulsion systems – the largest hybrid rocket ever designed in Europe - included in which is a jet engine from Typhoon fighter aircraft.

"Given the speeds the car will be going, each processor will be checking the others' calculations to guarantee there are no errors.

"Another processor will also be used to relay this and other status information, stored on an internal SSD chip, back to the driver on the cockpit displays."

Wingless Commander

The other processors - up to four of them - will help the 'driver', Wing Commander Andy Green, to keep the car on a smooth trajectory.

"This is an important engineering milestone, and yet another great example of the close collaboration between Intel and Bloodhound," said Mark Chapman, Chief Engineer for the Bloodhound programme.

"The Atom processor has impressed us with its power-saving, performance and resilience and thanks to this we have managed to use fewer processors in the car – saving on vital weight and space"

Simulation

The announcement was made at the 2010 Farnborough International Air School, where Intel also showed off a simulator of the Bloodhound, developed alongside Southampton University.

Intel is hoping that the Bloodhound project will inspire a new generation of engineers and scientists. "Intel recognises that globally there is an increasing shortage of science and maths engineers to help drive the next generation of innovators for the 21st century," said Tim Hatch, education spokesperson for Intel UK.

"Core to the heart of Intel's Education program are STEM subjects and the similarity to the aims of the Bloodhound education programme is one of the main reasons we formed this partnership."

The Google Earth navigation Audi is putting into the A8 doesn't run on Android; it uses the real-time QNX system that RIM has just bought so it can put BlackBerry into cars.

But many car manufacturers are more interested in Android integration than in BlackBerry or iPhone.

While it will be a few years before we see full in-car systems running Android, Autumn will see the first cars available with built-in integration for Android smartphones that let you launch and control apps from the car's interface.

iPhone vs Android

Although they started by planning iPhone integration, car makers have been turning their focus to Android instead.

Robert Acker, the CEO of Aha Mobile, told TechRadar that Aha has an iPhone app that reads out tweets, Facebook updates and traffic alerts or streams podcasts from a driver-friendly interface.

Manufacturers plan to offer it as an in-car option, but many car companies have been asking them for an Android app instead.

"They have to do iPhone," says Acker,"but Android is a lot more open. There aren't as many steps as for iPhone integration and they don't have to buy a proprietary chip [from Apple]. A lot of them have said 'let's start by doing an Android integration and we'll add in the iPhone piece later."

Android has another advantage; although the iPhone 4 software adds multi-tasking it still doesn't let you launch an app remotely. "With Android, Acker explains, "I can plug my phone in and push this button in the car and launch apps on the phone.

"You're using the vehicle controls and you never have to look at the phone again. You can't have that kind of control on the iPhone." The phone will give the car an Internet connection – "so you can play a Pandora radio station or listen to a Twitter feed in your vehicle, suggests Acker.

Car apps will be able to control some systems within the car, but how much is going to vary from vehicle to vehicle; Ford's SYNC system (based on Windows CE) will tell developers exactly what they can and can't control.

But other manufacturers aren't specifying the details so clearly because either they will approve apps individually or they'll pick a handful of app developers to work with. At least one major vendor is contemplating having its own Android app store, says Acker.

Nissan's commitment to building the UK's 'first mass-market electric car' has been welcomed by the government, who will hand the company a £20.7 million grant as it produces the LEAF.

Nissan will invest 420 million to safeguard and create more than 500 jobs in Sunderland for both the production of the LEAF and a new battery plant, with plans to make 50,000 vehicles and 60,000 batteries a year starting in 2013.

The LEAF, already being produced in two other countries, is a five-seater hatchback which Nissan claims will offer the same space performance and practicality of similar cars in its class, but without the emissions.

Vote of confidence

"This investment is a fantastic vote of confidence in the Sunderland plant and its excellent workforce," said Lord Mandelson.

"The automotive sector is of key importance to the UK. It supports R&D, technological innovation, skills and a supply chain that's a mainstay of the wider manufacturing sector.

"Today's news from Nissan, with support from government, shows that by working together we can achieve our aim of making the UK a world-leader in ultra-low carbon vehicles."

Dawn of a new era?

Andy Palmer, senior Vice President responsible for Nissan's global electric vehicle strategy, added: "The world is at the dawn of a new era in automotive transport. Nissan LEAF, which will go on sale later this year, is a five-seater hatchback that offers the same space, practicality and performance of a similar car in its class - minus the tailpipe emissions.

"Thanks to the UK's firm commitment to a low carbon future in terms of infrastructure, customer incentives and educational programmes, Nissan LEAF will be built at Sunderland, making the UK the third country in the world to produce this revolutionary car."

Ford is planning an in-car app store to allow developers to build software that will run in customisable displays in its new web-enabled cars.

Ford revealed its plans for in-car apps in a recent SXSW talk embarrassingly called, 'Dude, This Is My Car' hosted by Ford R & D man TJ Giuli, and Paddy Srinivasan, founder of cloud computing company Cumulux.

The panellists discussed a host of intriguing ideas for in-car entertainment and other apps, such as games that scored you points for driving in a more eco-friendly way, in which you might compete against friends to see who is the 'greenest' driver.

More interesting journeys

There was also mention of the possibilities of a tour-guiding app that links GPS navigation to Wikipedia to keep you posted on your surroundings and nearby points of interest.

"Instead of having points of interest drawn from a stock database, what if you could have POIs your friends have recommended to you?" said Giuli.

More practically, there could also be apps that contacted your nearest and dearest to help you out in case of emergency.