BBC's Top Gear always seem to land themselves in hot water. Last time it was the Mexican incident ... this time it's faking the race results for one of the most talked about electic sports car ... the Tesla.

"The BBC is being sued by the makers of the electric sports car, the Tesla Roadster, over claims a race on Top Gear was rigged. Tesla Motors claims the test set up by Jeremy Clarkson on a 2008 edition of the show was rigged to make it look like the Tesla ran out of power when racing a petrol powered Lotus.

The Tesla Roadster is the world's fastest production electric car. A Top Gear spokesman said the BBC would be "vigorously defending" the claim."

Source: Newsbeat

Even super sports cars are going green ... well at least half-way there with a "Hybrid". Yes, you've already heard about it ... but the Porsche 918 Spyder Plug-in Hybrid is coming to all you millionaries in 2013. It will cost you a mere $845,000 (GBP 530,000).

"The 918 Spyder will be a plug-in hybrid and built in limited numbers. The car will use a high-revving V8 with over 500hp combined with a pair of electric motors that will develop at least 218 additional horsepower for the car. Porsche also claims that the vehicle will consume 3L/100km on the New European Driving Cycle test. The EPA figures for the car will be announced near the end of 2013."

Source: Dailytech

2012 Tesla Model S prototype(credit: tesla cars)

See that big display in the middle?  The Tesla CEO has announced that there will be support for third party apps on that screen.  That makes me wonder if they've considered that anything with support for third party appls will have malware made for it.  And if they've considered just what malware could do to an entirely electrically controlled car!

"Musk made the announcement during the question-and-answer portion of his keynote speech at the Cleantech Forum in San Francisco. He was wearing jeans and a plaid shirt in a standing-room-only crowd full of suits.

'We want people to develop car-specific applications [for the Model S],” he told the audience. “And text-to-speech technology can address some of the issues with driver distraction.'"

Source:  Green Car Reports

The increasing interconnectivity in modern cars has been concerning for security professionals, especially now that the ECU (Engine Control Unit) of the car can be re-programed remotely, as car most of the other computers in the car (like say, the GPU built into it, the door locks, etc.).

Now security researchers have found a way to attack the stereo systems in some modern cars, using a music track.  For the first time, downloading an mp3 can actually cause a virus infection!

"Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of Washington have spent the past two years combing through the myriad computer systems in late-model cars, looking for security flaws and developing ways to misuse them. In a new paper, they say they've identified a handful of ways a hacker could break into a car, including attacks over the car's Bluetooth and cellular network systems, or through malicious software in the diagnostic tools used in automotive repair shops.

But their most interesting attack focused on the car stereo. By adding extra code to a digital music file, they were able to turn a song burned to CD into a Trojan horse. When played on the car's stereo, this song could alter the firmware of the car's stereo system, giving attackers an entry point to change other components on the car. This type of attack could be spread on file-sharing networks without arousing suspicion, they believe. "It's hard to think of something more innocuous than a song," said Stefan Savage, a professor at the University of California."

Source: IT World

No this is something really "Funky" ... Augmented reality, TomTom, Route 66 maps. What a combination. So do I look at the screen or the road or both?

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, February 2011 - ROUTE 66, a pioneer in mobile mapping and navigation solutions for smartphones and tablets, today announces the launch of ROUTE 66 Maps + Navigation, a new app for Android leveraging TomTom’s highly accurate maps and enhanced location content. ROUTE 66 Maps + Navigation is the first application coming to market that is based on the global agreement between ROUTE 66 and TomTom announced at the end of 2010.

Wow ... I love this car, it's absolutely lush! The Formula XL1 is powered by a Hybrid diesel-electric engine and just looks amazing.

"Formula XL1 can travel up to 22 miles on battery power alone. We don't usually think of the Qatar Motor Show as a place where major automotive product announcements/advances are made, but Volkswagen used the show to unveil the latest in its line of vehicles aimed at extracting the ultimate mileage out of a single gallon of gasoline.

The German company today announced its Formula XL1 concept car that makes use of a two-cylinder turbodiesel engine, hybrid" electric motor (with a lithium-ion battery pack), and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. The Formula XL1 has enough juice from its lithium-ion pack to travel for 22 miles on battery power alone, and gets a total combined fuel efficiency rating of 260 mpg.

Source: Dailytech

PCPer reviews the Samsung Galaxy Tab. This one is on a Verizon plan. I previously had a go a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and although it is pretty good ... I thinks it's still not as smooth as the iPad.

"After all the buzz around new tablets at CES 2011, we take a look at the current best Android tablet on the market. Does the Galaxy Tab, available on either the Verizon or the Sprint network, have the chops to compete with the iPad? And how does the performance of the Galaxy Tab compare to current high-end smartphones?"

Source: PCPer

This is one of the cutest gadget I've seen, and the funkiest ;) ... It's a mini MP4 player with built-in radio and a 1.8 inch Color TFT screen. It's no bigger than a credit card in width, and comes with a built in car charger. It features a USB port for connecting to your PC/Mac so you can upload movies to it, and there's also a micro-SD card slot for storage.

For controls, you get Play/Pause, Volume +/-,  Fowards and Reverse. It supports most file formats including MP3, WMA, DIVX, AVI, RMVB, 3GP, MP4 and JPG. This particular model will set you back a measly USD $40!