Do you want to be forewarned about a broken-down car with a holographic “Watch Out – Warning Triangle” beaming at you from a distance, when driving? Or do you think it will be a distraction and a hazard? The idea is simple….holographic red triangle projected from a distance, warning you of a stalled car ahead in the lane. Some may argue it being an eerie Potter-esque sign on the freeway; others may call it helpful. Take your pick!

Watch Out – Warning Triangle won an iF Concept Design this year.

The Ariel Atom has been embarrassing supercars for a few years, but now they’ve replaced the original Honda engine with a big stonking V-8 to make the limited production Atom 500, taking the crown for the world’s fastest accelerating car in the process.

The key to speed off the line is the power-to-weight ratio, and the ultra-light minimalist Atoms make other cars look positively obese. With the new V-8 churning out 500 horsepower the Atom 500 has over 900 horsepower per ton, and this translates into a 0-60-mph time of around 2.3 seconds. Top speed is about 200-mph, which should be plenty when you consider that you’re essentially sitting outside.

All of this speed will set you back around $200,000, which is kind of a bargain when you consider that the slower Bugatti Veyron Super Sport runs a cool $2.5 million. Of course that price doesn’t include luxury doodads like bodywork, a radio, or a heater.

built on a lola racing chassis, this ultra efficient car features a unique clear plastic body that was designed and built
by high school students at the automotive design studio at the delasalle education center. the car gets around 300
mpg thanks to its lightweight plastic shell. the students originally wanted to use fiberglass, but this proved too
heavy. the plastic they used is a 3m products that is typically used to shrink wrap windows. a metal wireframe
serves as the structure for the plastic, which is then stretched by hand and heated up to conform perfectly around
the frame. the cost is inexpensive and weighs only 39 pounds. the car uses an old racing chassis that was repaired
by the students. the electric engine uses a sprocket-and-chain powertrain driven by 21 lithium-ion batteries.

imaGinyze is a new app that brings augmented reality to your car via the iPhone. When mounted properly in the center of your dash, an iPhone with imaGinyze installed will detect the lane that you’re in, marking it with border lines that match up with the painted lines on the road, and filling the inside with a blue overlay. Once the app has established your lane, it can detect any vehicles that are in front of you within a given range. imaGinyze will also flash a "Vehicle Ahead" alert when you’re approaching a car from behind. Cars to the front are color-coded according to proximity – first green, next yellow as you approach, and then to red when you get close.

In the interests of safety, this range is appropriately far, giving the driver ample warning to decrease speed or switch lanes and pass. While changing lanes, the lane detection imposes a purple overlay on the road display (this is "lane departure mode") and alerts the driver to cars that might be in adjacent lanes.

imaGinyze provides other information as well, such as the pitch of the road and the speed of the car, in case you don’t trust your own speedometer.

The homepage for the application is clear to point out that your iPhone must be mounted at a height of about 1 to 1.5 meters in landscape mode. Some calibration might be required in order to ensure that the application functions properly.

It should be noted that this app, being one of the first of its kind, is probably not yet reliable enough to depend heavily on while driving. It’s still just version 1.0 and user reviews over on the iTunes application page indicate that imaGinyze still needs a lot of work. While we have yet to test it out ourselves, we’re excited to see such a promising development in the field of in-car AR technology and the potential it holds for the future of driving.

Personally, I’d love to see what the Japanese AR gurus at Sekai Camera could do in this field.

Be sure to check out imaGinyze‘s video demo below to get a better sense of how the application works while driving.

Futurists have been promising us flying cars for decades, but most of the proposals we’ve seen have looked pretty lame. Most are tiny aircraft with folding wings and small road wheels, making them pretty lousy both on the road and in the sky.

The Maverick from Florida based I-TEC takes a completely different approach. In place of small fixed wings with limited lift, it uses a type of powered parachute called a ram-air wing, making it much easier to fly. Based on a dune buggy like vehicle, the Maverick can be converted to flying mode in a few minutes by a single person, and can take off in as little as 300 feet at 40 mph. In road-going mode the Maverick’s light weight and 140-hp Subaru engine translates to an eye-opening 3.9 second 0-60-mph sprint, and a 90-mph top speed.

I-TEC says the Maverick will be available starting some time next year, and that it can be driven with a regular driver’s license, or flown with a sport pilot’s license. The price was not announced.

T.25 Minicar The T.25 Minicar, unveiled Monday, is a new generation of city car designed by a Formula One engineer.

A new tiny car designed by Gordon Murray, the man behind the 240-mph McClaren F1 supercar may top out at one third the speed (80 mph), but it can ride two to a lane, suggesting a new way to reduce congestion on city streets.

The T.25, revealed today, runs on regular gasoline and will cost about $9,000, CNN-UK reports. Its fuel efficiency is about 74 miles per gallon, partly because it’s a lightweight 1,200 pounds.

It has an electric cousin called the T.27, which will reach about 80-100 miles per gallon and cost $18,000.

Like the iconic F1 racer, the T.25 has a central driving position, allowing motorists to feel like they’re in a miniaturized Gran Prix.

McLaren F1: This one goes just a bit faster than 80 mph

Murray’s design team had been secretive about the T.25′s details until Monday, when the car made its first public appearance. It showed up at the Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford.

It’s smaller than the Smart car, at less than 8 feet long and about 4 feet wide. That narrow size would make it possible for two cars to ride in a UK highway lane, and for three cars to fit in a typical parallel parking space, Murray’s Web site says.

The car’s manufacturing process is also unique — Murray claims his "iStream" process will revolutionize the assembly line. It allows all major components to be fitted directly on to the chassis prior to the body panels, which are pre-painted and recyclable.

The car has a modular interior that allows for six different configurations, which can be easily changed to fit passengers or cargo. Murray’s team is planning T.25 versions of a van, pickup truck, taxi, police car, convertible and even a minivan, according to Green Car Reports.

We were already stoked about the Chevy Volt, but now GM tells us about even more cellphone linkage on the way. If you’re running the OnStar app, you’ll be able to enter or speak a location into your cellphone, and then the car’s GPS will be ready to show you how to get there as soon as you start the car. Since GM’s OnStar system knows where your car is located, if you forget where you parked, you’ll be able to easily find your car in even the most gigantic of parking lots.

GM says this particular whiz-bang stuff won’t be available when the Volt launches, but it’s planned for version 2.0 of the Volt mobile app that will feature lots of interaction with Google Maps. GM’s talking about demoing these new features first on Google Android, but adds, "What we’re talking about today is only the beginning." We’re hoping these features will be available on all smartphone platforms when version 2.0 is launched. We asked GM reps about that, and their reply: "The Google specific parts of the app will run only on Android as of right now. GM is currently evaluating the feasibility to translate to other systems including the iPhone."

In addition to these features announced today, there were lots of groundbreaking capabilities announced at CES 2010 for the Chevy Volt OnStar app on Android, BlackBerry and iPhone apps. Our faves included the ability to designate when to charge the battery, display miles per gallon, and even remotely start the vehicle if you want to, say, pre-cool the AC on a hot day.

Here’s a video showing the new version 2.0 stuff: