Distracted drivers may soon get some warnings from their windshield displays about road hazards such as children playing in the street or vehicles in the driver's blind spot. General Motors has teamed up with university researchers to bring the concept to market around 2016, the New York Times reports.

The enhanced vision system would monitor a driver's eye and head movements via sensors located both inside and outside the vehicle. The display would then overlay enhanced views of the road on top of the actual scene visible through the windshield. GM hopes that the augmented reality (AR) windshield display can allow drivers to view GPS directions without looking away from the road, and cope with difficult driving conditions in fog or at night. Read more »

Unless you live in, oh, Palm Springs, convertibles are better in concept than reality. With the top on, a pleasure machine can become a cramped, compromised ride. And even when the weather is perfect, backseat passengers can expect a case of windburn. But with the 2011 E-class Cabriolet-the fourth and final member of the redesigned E line-Mercedes is betting that gadgetry can beat the elements. Read more »

Flying cars may seem to keep receding into that deliciously-imagined future, but this, one of the earliest prototypes, hails from 1934. It is now slated to go up on the auction block in Atlanta this coming weekend, according to Wired's Autopia.

Inventor Frank Skroback designed the 21-foot-long plane that includes six wings with seven-foot spans. As Autopia points out, that sounds a bit lacking when it comes to producing the necessary lift to get the beast off the ground. Maneuvering the plane … car … in the air might also present a problem with the relatively tiny vertical control surfaces. Read more »

Readers feeling jittery on their second or third cuppa might giggle at the concept of the Carpuccino, but few car owners will. The wacky UK invention comes in the form of a converted 1988 Volkswagen Scirocco that downs about 56 espressos per mile, the Daily Mail reports. That should only cost about 25 to 50 times the cost of running a car on gas.

The concept came out of the BBC1 science program called "Bang Goes the Theory," and will go on a 210-mile drive between Manchester and London that consumes about 11,760 espressos. But coffee aficionados shouldn't scream just yet -- the fuel comes from waste coffee grounds provided by a branch of Costa Coffee. Read more »

I’m anything but a rev head, but I was interested in information on a couple of new cars that John D sent me.

I’m not sure what the category “supercar” means, but I gather it is a very expensive, high-performance car that would set you back a couple of hundred grand.

First there is this little beauty from Porsche. Read more »