Nissan's Google Glass rival keeps you connected to social media [w/Video]

Nissan will premiere a wearable heads-up display (HUD) at next week's Tokyo motor show. The Google Glass-like 3E prototype can connect to the Internet in real-time, allowing users to overlay information onto the lens, record projected images and communicate with others by sending information to their device. This is likely to include vehicle performance analysis and the driver's vital signs as well as social media feeds for increased connectivity if its recently released Nismo smartwatch is anything to go by.

Better Place EV Battery Swap business goes bust

It seemed like a good idea: take the cost of batteries out of the cost of buying an electric car and instead charge EV owners to use ‘Battery Swap’ stations where depleted batteries could be swapped for fully charged ones in the time it takes to fill an ICE car with petrol. But it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. Better Place – which partnered with Renault in 2009 to make the battery swap technology viable – has failed to find anyone to add to the $750 million already involved in the project and has filed for bankruptcy.

GM closes UK Advanced Design Studio

CDN has learnt that General Motors is closing its UK Advanced Design Studio as part of its ongoing restructuring program. Clay Dean, GM's executive director of advanced global design and Cadillac's brand director, arrived at the studio on 4 August to announce the closure to staff. The UK studio, which opened in 1999, was predominantly involved in the creation of Cadillac concept cars and was originally planned to be a short-term confidential operation as the smallest of GM's design studios.