Best of France and Italy car show shines

You could say the most impressive thing about the annual Best of France and Italy car show was that so many of these things made it all the way to Woodley Park under their own power. But they all did. Indeed, one of the coolest things about this show is the drive there -- you'll pass Alfettas, X-19s, Renault Dauphines, Citro

Volvo’s ‘Drive Me’ is the world’s first large-scale autonomous driving pilot project

Yes, you’ll be able to chat on the phone when the Volvo does the driving for you Like it or not, we’re rapidly moving to the point where autonomous cars will be the norm, with the driver only being involved in the act of driving by choice. Volvo – unsurprisingly with their stated goal of making sure no one dies in a Volvo in future – is at the forefront of the move to autonomous driving, and have teamed up with the Swedish Transportation Administration, the Swedish Transport Agency, Lindholmen Science Park and the City of Gothenburg in a project called ‘Drive Me - Self-driving cars for sustainable mobility’. The project kicks off next year with customer research and the development of the necessary technology and Volvo aims to have 100 autonomous cars on the roads of Gothenburg by 2017, where they’ll be driving round approximately 50 kms of selected roads, including commuter roads, motorways and regular queues.

Lotus Exige S Roadster at 2012 Geneva motor show

Here’s the new Lotus Exige S Roadster, unveiled on the eve of the 2012 Geneva motor show. With a sub-four second sprint to the 60mph mark, it’s Hethel’s quickest soft top ever; we've already seen the Lotus Exige S in coupe guise, but this is the open-top Roadster variant. A hefty 3.5-litre V6 engine lies behind the cockpit which, says Lotus, has received the benefits of its racing technology.