Technology/Autonomous Vehicles

I've never been a fan of Ford's SYNC system—I found it unintuitive, needlessly complex and, most importantly, it forced me to take my eyes off the road far too often. The first generation showed promise, but it irritated me to the 'nth degree. The second generation's voice commands were much …

Each year, WardsAuto combs through the automotive launches and concentrates on a particular point: the year's new engines. Each mill is analysed, and a list of Ward's 10 Best Engines is announced. For 2015, the selection is varied: the number of cylinders go from 0 to 8, the power ranges …

Chrysler’s Pentastar engine arrived with perfect timing: it replaced a many sub-par V6 engines in the FCA lineup, from the 2.7 to the 3.3 and the 4-litre. All these have now been replaced by the new and improved 3.6-litre Pentastar V6. A recent report states that Chrysler’s engineers are currently …

The M-powered X5 and X6 may have been released only a few weeks ago at the Los Angeles Auto Show, but BMW Individual is already modifying them, and they just released their list of available products for the models. To showcase what they can do, they also sent pictures of …

Those who know their home entertainment systems have heard the Revel name: it is a division of Harman International (ever heard the name Harman-Kardon?) that is known for their speakers and their high-quality amplifiers. After a partnership with Ford, buyers who are looking for the ultimate sound system in their …

In the automotive world, most of today’s technologies were invented (or perfected) on racetracks. Direct injection, turbocharging and hybrid drivetrains were all installed in race cars by manufacturers to see if they could survive 6, 12 or even 24 hours of full-throttle abuse. This allowed them to collect data in …

The V8 as we know it is coming to an end: in a world where fuel efficiency is everything and where modern technology can make a turbocharged 4-cylinder engine develop as much power as a V8 did 5 years ago, we can expect this configuration to be phased out, just …

Each year at the Los Angeles Auto Show, a design competition is held. Contestants have to work with a theme, while simultaneously showcasing their respective brand’s design language. This year, there were two prizes awarded: the regular one judged by a panel of designers, and another one voted on by …

Nearly at the same time as Toyota unveiled their production-ready Mirai, Honda presented its FCV Concept, another fuel-cell vehicle. Under its new skin, the vehicle is basically a new-and-improved version of the FCEV concept that was seen in Los Angeles last year. According to Honda, the new version is up …

Volkswagen recently presented some future technologies that will go into their cars. One of them is a new version of their diesel engine. Using the engine that was unveiled in the European Passat as a base, the engineers then installed an electric supercharger like the one found on Volvo’s recently-unveiled …