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Hyundai makes Kia’s Peter Schreyer Hyundai design guru too

The newly appointed Kia President, Peter Schreyer, has now been made Hyundai President in charge of design too. Peter Schreyer’s success in making Kia a real design force led to him being appointed a Kia President at the end of 2012, handsome reward for the changes he’s wrought at Kia since leaving VW, turning Kia’s range of cars from stodgy to convincing in a few short years. But Kia is the junior partner in the Hyundai-Kia business, so Hyundai are obviously not totally thrilled that Kia managed to snaffle a designer who’s eye manages to so convincingly hit the Zeitgeist firmly on the head.

Lexus IS Design contest winner to be built for SEMA 2013

Somewhere in the shortlist of 25 semi-finalists from the Lexus IS Design contest lurks the design that will be built by tuner VIP Auto Salon and take pride of place on Lexus' stand at SEMA later this year. Hosted by online art community deviantART, the competition asked entrants to customize a Lexus IS saloon using any method they liked. The winner will also be given a one-year lease of the IS and other prizes.

Students experiment with interactive window glass for GM

General Motors is thinking long term for its back-seat entertainment. It worked with students from the Future Lab at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Israel to develop apps that run on a car's rear side windows. The project, called Windows of Opportunity, was inspired by studies that say passengers often feel disconnected from their environments.