Denso 234-4087 Oxygen Sensor-oe Style Oxygen Sensor on 2040-parts.com

Center stack is new high-stakes battleground; showdown with safety regulators looms

For auto suppliers and gadget companies eager to get a piece of the auto industry, the hottest chunk of vehicle real estate now is the center stack. That corridor of interior space, running from the driver's right hip up through the center of the cockpit to the bottom of the windshield, has become a California gold rush of opportunity. But it is less so for traditional suppliers of molded plastics, cables, levers, buttons and radios.

Volvo Group plans wirelessly charged bus line

There's one bit of futuristic transportation technology that seems to get trotted out almost as often as autonomous cars, electric cars and flying cars: Inductive, or wireless, charging for city buses. It's not as sexy or as memorable as the perpetually out-of-reach commuter-grade Harrier jet, but it uses proven technology (GM's EV-1 uses inductive charging, as do electric toothbrushes) to save or eliminate fuel and to reduce emissions. And unlike the flying car, induction-charged buses are hardly fantasy: They've been used in European cities for over a decade, South Korea started testing a fleet last year and Utah got in on the act recently.

Alfa Romeo 4C in action at the Goodwood Festival of Speed (video)

The Alfa Romeo 4C made its dynamic debut (pictured) at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed The long awaited Alfa Romeo 4C finally made its debut in production spec at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and at the weekend the 4C made its dynamic debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. To make sure the 4C made as big an impact as possible at Goodwood, we’d expected Alfa to run up the hillclimb in the launch edition 4C, which gets plenty of extra goodies including a carbon fibre body kit and spoiler, but this 4C looked to be a standard model. But even though we’d like to have seen the launch edition with its extra carbon fibre goodies, the standard car gets exactly the same 1750cc 4-cylinder petrol engine with enough get up and go, 236bhp, to move the lightweight 4C (under 900kg) to 62mph in just 4.5 seconds.