General Motors and the students from Israel’s Bezalel Academy of Art and Design have created the Windows Of Opportunity (WOO), a device which will basically turn the car’s side windows into multifunctional touch screens. With the WOO, passengers will be allowed to play, draw, write messages, interact with the surroundings and so on, making bored kids complaining on the back seat a distant memory. The device is still well into its testing stage and uses both motion and optical sensor technology, but at the moment it does not feature the “smart glass” function (that would modify the transparency or black out the windows), which will be implemented if the WOO will actually enter into production.

The current Windows of Opportunity prototype makes use of four different characters/apps called Otto, Foofu, Spindow and Pond - each one of which is in charge of a single specific function - that should be able to effectively entertain the kids while introducing them to the use of the WOO. We will be waiting for further development of this interesting idea, but for now you can enjoy the exhaustive video above.

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In order to celebrate the 2 million fans of its Facebook page, Porsche presents a special version of its Cayman S with a white coat and 2 millions of red-tinted profile pictures on its livery. The color scheme adopted by the model is not casual, but was voted by the fans themselves who were asked to choose their favorite historic racing livery. The eventual winner of this poll was the red and white Porsche 917 K with that clinched the first victory at Le Mans for the German manufacturer with Richard Atwood and Hans Herrmann behind the wheel.

The car is obviously meant to be a tribute to each one of these dedicated fans, and will be on display at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgard until January, 27th. If you happen to be one of those 2 million fans, you can look for your face on the car’s body by accessing this dedicated webpage.

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Apparently, an Audi R8 GT has been sold to an inhabitant of the quiet town of Lake Forest, Illinois - US, and the local Audi dealer thought it was a good idea to let everybody know that there is a new dangerous beast haunting their nice and peaceful town. The best way to do that? A massive placard on the highroad with a clear warning, of course. Can’t read that? Click on the picture for the high-res version.

via | Reddit

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This year German manufacturer Opel (aka GM’s arm in Europe) will celebrate the 150th anniversary of its foundation, and to open the celebrations they have released this video which kind of compresses their whole century and a half of history in just three minutes. As you will figure out pretty soon watching the clip, Opel hasn’t been a carmaker the whole time: Mr. Adam Opel founded the firm in 1862 in Rüsselsheim, Germany, to produce sewing machines, and then the business gradually expanded in other sectors such as bycicles in 1886 (becoming the world’s largest bicycle manufacturer in the mid 20s) and, in 1902, cars. In 1914 Opel became Germany’s biggest automaker, opening the very first automated production line in 1924 and keeping on growing till the economic crisis of 1929, right after which GM stepped in as majority-stake holder, eventually becoming the only owner in 1931.

Since then, Opel has always remained one of the most well-known manufacturer in Europe - also producing electronic appliances for a short while -giving the automotive world some unforgettable vehicles such as the Kadett (all of them), the Corsa (all of them), the Olympia in the mid 30s, the Blitz truck, the Manta in the 70s, the Ascona rally car of the 80s and so forth until the more recent Astra and Ampera. There are just too many to mention. Nowadays Opel boasts 11 manufacturing facilities in 6 countries and 40,500 empolyees, and its headquarters are still based in Rüsselsheim. The brand continues to operate worldwide but is no longer present in the U.S. market, whereas in Britain all of its model are marketed under the Vauxhall brand. Well, happy birthday Opel.

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Not all TV commercials turn out as good as the one we presented in our previous post. Here’s another compilation of videos made of some of the worst ads we have seen in the past years. We can have a laugh watching them right now, but we are sure that the marketing people responsible of such abominations might find them less funny. It is still nice though as quite a few dates back as far as the 70s. Check the whole lot out after the jump.

Continue reading: Car ads comp: some of the worst

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Here is a compilation of some of the best TV commercials starring cars we have seen in past years. We picked up a few of the most interesting and funny ones, and it is interesting to notice how the art of marketing cars has changed and developed throughout the years. Plus, it is a nice trip down the realm of memory route. Check the whole lot out after the jump.

Continue reading: Car ads comp: some of the best

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January 1st is one of those extreme ’slow news days’, so here we are talking about some celebrity cars. Poison’s frontman and TV personality Bret Michaels will be auctioning off three cars of his fleet at an upcoming Barrett-Jackson event in Scottsdale, Arizona. As it often happens in situations like that, the cars once owned by some sort of celebrity get a ridiculous extra value on the top of what they would normally be on sale for in the real world, and a case in point comes from Mr.Michaels himself. Last year he showed up at another Barrett-Jackson auction offering a non-original 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, which got eventually sold for no less than 200,000 $ (about 155,000 € / 130,000 £ at current rates), meaning five times the cash it was likely to fetch up without its ‘celebrity status’. Ok, the singer also threw in a signed guitar in the deal, but still..

Quite understandably impressed with the result, Mr.Michaels will be back at this year’s Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale (January 15-22) with three cars: a 2004 Bentley Continental GT, a 2004 Lincoln Navigator and a 2011 Ford Explorer. Here’s a photo gallery of his offering and, right after the jump, the Press Release presenting the lot. Our advice is: if you would be interested in some of the models but you are not a Poison’s fan, forget it.

via | Autoblog.com

Continue reading: Bret Michaels tries his luck again at a car-auction

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A group of researchers from the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology of Tokyo has created a car seat that can identify the driver sitting on it, an idea that could be further developed and applied to the anti-theft devices of the future. Basically the system measures the pressure people apply on the seat through a set of 360 independent sensors, creating a sort of digital scan of the backside in question and sends the data to a processor. This unit electronically elaborates the input, taking into account factors like pressure, weight, area of contact and then some and, according to its makers, it is able to identify drivers with a success rate of about 98%.

This technology has been developed over a one year long period and now the research team responsible for its creation is approaching several carmakers to further develop and commercialize the device as an effective anti-theft systems within two to three years.

via | TechCrunch

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Australian stuntman Glenn Suter is going to have his name written in the Guinness Book of World Records thanks to its latest number: he drove what can be considered the fastest sofa of the planet at the incredible speed of 163 km/h (101 mph). The stunt was carried out at the Camden Airport, New South Wales, Australia, on 26 September 2011, but the official video has just surfaces on the internet.

In the clip we get to see a single run but, for speed records, you need to calculate the average time between two runs performed in opposite directions, in order to balance out any factors such as wind, inclines etc. Unfortunately, we have no information about the powertrain that pushed the weird sofa+desk combo driven by Mr.Suter to the record, but we believe it comes from a motorcycle. The vehicle doesn’t seem to be that good in terms of safety, but it surely sounds great.

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Monster World Rally just released a 2-minutes long video featuring the highlights of what Ken Block has done in 2011 all around the world through the lenses of GoPro cameras. For those who don’t know, GoPro is the primary brand for small camcorders which is often use for on-board shooting, snowboard stunts and things like that.

The footage shows us Mr.Block the wheel of his driving on tracks, open roads, tarmac, gravel, snow, and doing all the things he does best: jumps, donuts, drifts and all that. Well, we all know the guy by now, so you probably know the kind of stuff you are about to see.

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