Microsoft demos Apple CarPlay rival

The battle between Microsoft and Apple is being fought on the desktop, on the smartphone and now in the car. At its Build 2014 developer conference, held earlier this month in San Francisco, Microsoft demoed an early version of Windows In The Car, its response to Apple's CarPlay system we saw at the Geneva Show back in March. As you'd expect, In The Car's design follows the look of Microsoft's latest Windows and Window Phone operating system pretty closely.

Mercedes Ener-G-Force concept

The Mercedes Ener-G-Force concept is Benz’s answer to the 2012 LA Design Challenge brief to create the "Highway Patrol Vehicle 2025". As the name suggests, the large SUV is also a hint towards a future redesign of the classic Geländewagen G-Wagen/G-Class. Graphically this is most evident around the Ener-G-Force’s DRG with its dark mask incorporating deep-set lamps (here with ‘G’ lamp graphics), a surprisingly traditional Mercedes grille and characteristic fender-top turn signals.

Essex boost for car loving home buyers

An Essex council is to make garages and drives bigger on new homes For most of the last decade the UK Government has waged a war on the motorist. Endless speed cameras, which are in reality just tax-raising  machines and have little to do with road safety; never-ending fuel tax rises; congestion charging; spiralling parking charges; road-charging schemes and the only coppers you see have a speed gun so non-speeding untaxed and uninsured drivers never get caught -  pushing up costs for the rest of us. But one of the most stupid, head-in-the-sand policies was the idea that new houses should encourage people to forsake their cars by making garages too small and off-street parking almost non-existent.