BMW's Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) is an F1 innovation: a regenerative braking system which generates electricity to boost power. And while it helps F1 look green and well-behaved, the technology's run into a few… issues. Like when the Red Bull team had to vacate its headquarters due to a fire scare. Or when a BMW-Sauber team technician got zapped by the system in the video above. But crazy innovators that they are, BMW hasn't been scared off from KERS by mere video footage of its mechanic being lifted off the ground by a few thousand volts. Auto Motor und Sport reports that BMW is looking into developing hybrid options for its M-line. Since standard parallel hybrid systems don't offer much performance boost, Bee-Em are looking at using KERS on road-going models. After all, KERS gives F1 cars a .2 to .3 second per lap advantage. Wow! Of course the fact that KERS is five times lighter and smaller than any comparable road car's hybrid elements means expense will be high (as it always is for those precious extra tenths of a second). Accordingly, BMW isn't announcing when KERS will arrive for M-line vehicles. Shocking! (Video Hat Tip to Jalopnik)

With Hail Mary PHEVs and two-mode V8s leading the American automakers' charge towards fuel-efficiency, its easy to call Detroit's executives out of touch. But it turns out that the idea of applying simple fuel-saving technologies across product lines is finally taking hold in the corporate offices of our domestic auto firms. The Detroit Free Press reports that executives at Ford, Chrysler and GM predict that stop-start technology will find its way into every domestically-produced vehicle within the next five to ten years. Speaking at NextCruise, the eco-friendly sister event to the Woodward Dream Cruise, Detroit's finest fell over themselves trying to prove their companies' commitment to adding this (relatively) low-tech, fuel-saving technology. GM's Micky Bly went one further, saying future GM vehicles will incorporate weight-saving materials currently found in hybrids. Careful on that limb, boys.

The EV goldrush is on. Every frustrated inventor in the country is hyping his or her homemade EV kit. One of the most unconventional offerings recently featured at Green Car Congress. The Poulsen 'Through The Road" PHEV Conversion Kit features external, rear wheel-mounted electric motors which engage at cruising speeds to keep your conventional car rolling along without using the gas engine. Without going into too many boring technical details, once you accelerate normally to your cruising speed, you engage the system with a toggle switch and "potentiometers," sending 14hp to the rear wheels. Besides making your car look like it was recently booted, the Poulson Hybrid adds no fewer than six 12V lead-acid batteries– although a Li-Ion cell is supposed to be available later this year. Poulson is currently planning on building only 250 kits in the initial run, the majority of which are likely to be bought by the nerdier members of Ralph Nader's campaign supporters. Although we like the idea of bolt-on EV AWD in principle, this Hail Mary makes the Volt look like a done deal.

At the recent Toyota Environmental Forum, ToMoCo’s Executive Vice President outlined the company’s five-point plan for a “sustainable mobility society.” Green Car Congress charts the ch-ch-changes. 1. Further development of gasoline- and diesel-fueled combustion engines; 2. Hybrids and plug-in hybrids; 3. Alternative fuels, including synthetics and biofuels; 4. Electric vehicles; and 5. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Masatami Takimoto revealed that gasoline and diesel will remain the corporate mainstay. To that end, Toyota will reduce vehicle size and weight and introduce a new family of engines with start-stop, direct injection, forced induction, HCCI and variable compression. The automaker will hybridize all its vehicles lines by 2020, increasing NiMH batteries density. Li-ions are heading for city electrics and plug-in hybrids; the plug-in Li-on Prius hits the streets in 2010. And here’s the kicker: Toyota’s working to leap-frog Li-ion technology. Takimoto says a practical and cost-efficient EV demands a technological breakthrough. Maybe GM’s Volt isn’t so much a “Hail Mary” pass as an intentional out-of-bounds throw before it gets sacked by the “Sakichi” battery (named after Toyota’s founder).

We've argued for some time that OEMs should respond to high fuel prices by improving and lightening existing models and drivelines, rather than developing moon-shot, "game-changing" technologies. Et voila! Green Car Congress reports on the Pintle Regulated Venturi (PRV) induction system, developed by PRV Performance. The PRV-9 induction system is a bolt-on replacement for stock intake manifolds. By inducting air through a venturi throat, the doo-hickey burns a high-velocity homogeneous fuel-air blend more efficiently than standard induction; eliminating throttling losses and improving fuel vaporizing, precluding cylinder wall stratification. [You can read all the gory technical details at Green Car Congress] PRV Performance tested its intake on a JDM D15B SOHC-equipped Honda Civic, driving it at a steady 65 mph on a hilly 203-mile test run. The Civic achieved a reported 52 mpg, up from 41.7 on an unmodified Civic, with similar reductions in pollutant emissions. The EPA has tested an earlier prototype at 48 mpg, and will test this newer system later this year. PRV Performance claims that the technology is hybrid-compatible. 

Eric Peters' blog at the National Motorists Association explores efforts to make breathalyzers mandatory on all U.S vehicles. Peters zeros-in on the Driver Alcohol Detection System For Safety (DADSS), a $10m taxpayer-funded partnership between the  industry-funded Automotive Coalition for Traffic Safety (ACTS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. DADSS is hot for new, "less intrusive" breathalyzers; specifically gizmos that measure blood alcohol content (BAC) through the driver's skin (via steering wheel-mounted sensors). While acknowledging America's 9k annual drunk driving deaths, Peters is not pleased at the prospect of treating every motorist like a convicted drunk driver, He's also displeased that consumers would be expected to shoulder the additional costs of this new "standard equipment." More proof that freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.

From the birthplace of George Orwell, now the most-watched nation in the world, comes news of a car that has nanny-cams of its own. Car Magazine UK tells us that the new Vauxhall/Opel Insignia will offer a camera system that can read traffic signs, and  alert the driver when they have violated them. GM's Traffic Sign Recognition system uses a Hella-sourced (not in the Nor-Cal slang sense) wide-angle camera, that can take 30 photos per second at a range of up to 100 meters. It can recognize traffic signs, and by comparing them to an on-board database, it can tell if the driver is violating their edicts. When you drive your Insignia at 25 mph in a 20 mph zone, expect a "reminder" to flash on your dashboard, removing any doubt that you are, in fact, breaking the law. Though the proliferation of remote speed-control cameras in Britain give this option some merit there, less repressive societies will doubtless provide much weaker markets for GM's new technology. Still, when we heard that GM would "democratize technology" with its newly-upmarket Opel/Vauxhall brands, the last thing we expected was an option that facilitates continuous government intrusion into the driving experience. Sounds more like they've "totalitarianized technology."

Here's another feature to put in the category of cool stuff Ford offers that won't sell cars– alongside movable pedals, SYNC and a Tron-inspired keyless entry system. The Blue Oval Boyz are now offering subscription-free 911 service. If the SYNC system detects a crash, airbag deployment, emergency fuel cut off and so on, its automatically calls 911. Ford has contracted with the "National Emergency Number Association" to deal with the details. Although the system's unlikely to get anyone to darken the dealership door, props. The biggest bonus to this kind of service: the resell to existing owners. As any salesman will tell you, once someone survives totaling their newish car, they frequently go straight out and buy another one of the same. This is nice 'n all. But what we all want really is the EcoBoost twin turbo engine.

WardsAutomotive reports from the floor of [their very own] Automotive Interiors Show that electronics supplier Continental AG is in love with Vegas, baby. "What happens outside the car should also happen inside the car,” company rep Brian Droessler told the throngs. Huh? "The Internet in cars is coming," Droessler explains. "People want it.” So what about safety? "Continental’s new dual-mode display screen situated in a vehicle’s center stack. Based on the angle of the viewers, the screen shows one image to the driver and another to the front-seat passenger, without either person seeing what the other is viewing." In other words, the driver can look at maps and arrows while the passenger watches a Savannah Sampson movie. (Needless to say, the display system will be available in the U.S. in 2010.) No seriously. Safety is serious. Hence another Ward's article on in-car info overload. "Twenty-two percent of car accidents or near-accidents are due to non-driving related distractions, says Steve Polakowski, executive director-advanced interiors and electrical/electronics systems for Magna International Inc.’s Decoma International subsidiary." But really, we heart toys! Hence another article on a new sat nav system that predicts traffic jams, and routes (BMW?) drivers accordingly. Mixed messages? Nah. Just caring and sharing. [NB: equal time was given to fans of Eric Stromer.] 

How's that for a mouthful? Driving and brittle diabetes are a dangerous combination, and affected individuals can't necessarily feel their sugars bottoming out, a condition called hypoglycemic unawareness. Recently available technology now allows for wireless transmission of near real-time sugar readings to glucometers and devices such as Blackberries. At the American Diabetes Association meeting this week, medical device manufacturer Medtronic unveiled a mashup of glucometer and Lincoln MKZ. It's not clear whether or not FoMoCo was part of the venture, but at least it wasn't a crashmobile such as the Hertzvette.

The Scotts invented Free Masonery, Scotch and Golf. They then kicked back, cursed the English and watched their American cousins play with the world. Until now. Edinburgh-based Artemis is claiming that they've doubled an internal combustion powered car's mileage. Their new tech– officially launched in 2005– replaces the port and swash plates in a typical slushbox with hydraulics and a computer-controlled solenoid valve system. According to cleantech.com, a "third party" compared a brace of BMW 530is. One sported a five-speed manual, the other Artemis's hydraulic hybrid system. The HEDDAT equipped Bimmer achieved 41.1 mpg (Euro city cycle) and 39.6 mpg on the highway (Euro highway cycle). The system also reduced all-important CO2 emissions by 30 percent. Instead of storing regenerative energy in a battery, hydraulic hybrids store the power hydraulically. That makes "charging" faster. Discharging, too. Also, the harder you drive, the more energy gets stored for later. Exactly the opposite of an electric hybrid, where hard driving tends to create much more energy than can be fed into the battery. Artemis is also claiming their HEDDAT system is cheaper and more durable than an electric hybrid. Artemus has already inked a deal with Bosch to get the Digital Displacement system into on-highway vehicles.

The automotive industry has long borrowed technology from the aerospace industry. Head-up displays, space frame construction, "drive by wire" controls and lightweight materials all first showed up on modern aircraft. Now BMW is turning back the clock a century or so. Just like a WWW I-era biplane, the BMW GINA Light Visionary concept car is fabric-skinned. The water-resistant material is stretched over a lightweight frame that can change its shape as you drive in a process that's visually akin to Bruce Banner's transformation into the Hulk. There are no visible gaps in the car's "body" except the door openings, the headlight covers open like cat's eyes, the taillights shine through the fabric and the engine is accessed through what looks like a surgical incision in the "hood."  In the video, designer Chris Bangle babbles on waxes eloquent about "a philosophy that says 'let's do things differently'" and "context over dogma" (whatever that means).  It's a cool concept, Chris, but enough is enough.  Why not just shut up for once and  (as you suggest) "let the material do the talking?"

Yes, we pat ourselves on the back. Why wouldn't we? As branding guru Al Reis once advised me "Tell 'em who you are, tell 'em that you told 'em and tell 'em again." Or something like that. Anyway, back in April, we reported that Porsche was finally putting DSG into their venerable 911, plus the usual we-need-something-for- existing-owners-to-lust-after power bump. Classic Driver confirms that the refreshed Carerra wil be blessed with a seven-speed double-clutch gearbox. Porsche calls their system Porsche-Doppelkupplung or PDK, which they invented, dammit! ("Porsche points out that its engineers developed the principle for motorsport some 25 years ago.") The updated car also also gets direct injection, debuted (to not much effect) on the Cayenne GTS. "The 3.6-litre Carrera models are up 20bhp to 345bhp, while the 3.8-litre Carrera S has jumped 30bhp, and now develops an impressive 385bhp." AND they're cleaner, more economical and .2 seconds faster from zero to 62mph. One thing we didn't foresee: new LED lights fore and aft. Now, when this PDK thing hits the Boxster S, we'll see just how fast I can drive backwards– if you know what I mean.  

AutoExpress offers a "review" (in the Motor trend sense of the word) of the European Focus, complete with Ford's new dual clutch gearbox. Parsing AutoExpress' usual PR puffery, it's not sounding amazing. Whereas VW's DSG is a viable alternative to a manual transmission– it accelerates faster than rowing your own and returns even better mileage than the stick– Ford's sounds little better than a bog standard autobox. AutoExpress says "But there are no steering wheel-mounted paddleshifters with which to change up or down – and no Sport mode on the box, either – as Ford is keen to stress the gains in economy and emissions offered by Powershift, rather than its outright sportiness." Right, so that puts the "stick replacement" theory to bed. It's just a better automatic transmission. AutoExpress also notes that the Powershift's a very expensive option only available on higher end cars (this is what VW does, too, but not as badly). The rumor is that PowerShift is coming to the US (would be great paired with EcoBoost). Let's hope FoMoCo's boffins reprogram it not to suck.

Why isn't GM's OnStar quaking in its e-boots? The proliferation of portable GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) devices has rendered their telemetry system's navigation service the VHS of sat knavery. Speaking to WardsAuto, OnStar's President says pish-posh [paraphrasing], and reveals himself as a fan of John F. Kennedy's "rising tide equals multiple boat lifting" shtick. Chet Huber claims "the boom in portable navigation systems is good for his business too." Yes, but what's the Unique Selling Point? "There is a lot to be said for the aesthetics of a factory-installed system." Meanwhile, OnStar fights back! "OnStar currently offers turn-by-turn navigation to subscribers and for the ’09 model year will make “Destination Download” available to 80% of all GM vehicles. The feature allows subscribers with screen-based navigation systems to download destinations from an OnStar adviser on the fly. Another feature bowing later this year for screen-based users is 'OnStar e-Nav' which allows a subscriber to plan routes at MapQuest.com and then download up to five destinations to his vehicle." Wait! Do you hear it? Sounds like somebody closing the barn door after the horse has bolted.