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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.

Ford aims to improve comfort for workers on its assembly lines

Ford Motor Co. is using a digital mannequin, customized to account for physical differences across regions, to determine how to make jobs less physically strenuous for its assembly-line workers. The digital worker avatar is based on Ford's virtual North American Jack and Jill workers.

Nissan to launch plug-in hybrid & develop fuel cells with Mercedes

Nissan Renault & Mercedes working on 'Green' technology We have been a bit scathing about electric cars, and Nissan’s over-priced LEAF being proclaimed as a viable alternative to the ICE car. But we certainly understand the imperative for car makers to build cars which produce less CO2 (a highly dubious requirement) and use far less fuel (a very solid requirement). Sensibly, Nissan Renault, under Carlos Ghosn, aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket in the quest to make their cars cleaner, greener and more economical.