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Private Toyota Friend social network lets owners talk to their cars and each other

Toyota is launching a social-networking service that will enable owners to engage in verbal dialogue with their Toyota cars. They can share the exchanges in the network and broadcast them via Facebook and Twitter. According to the Associated Press, Toyota is teaming up with U.S.

Caterham creator Graham Nearn dies

Britain has lost another of the champions of its specialist sports-car industry, Graham Nearn, who died on Oct. 24 at age 76. Originally a Lotus dealer, Nearn built a highly successful sports-car business around the lightweight two-seat Lotus Seven, which he bought from Lotus founder Colin Chapman in 1973.

Multi-touch UI reduces touchscreen interaction to simple swipes [w/video]

Touchscreens have become widespread standard features in many cars over the last few years, consolidating the modern car's many functions into one interface. But despite their advantages there's the big downside of driver distraction, something user interface designer Matthaeus Krenn believes he has solved with his UI. Unlike most other touchscreens, Krenn's interface isn't organized into menus and small, hard-to-hit buttons, but instead makes use of multi-touch gestures, reducing the accuracy and attention needed to operate key functions.