Zodiac Enclosed Life Raft on 2040-parts.com

Volkswagen XL1 concept car (2011) first photos

Volkswagen 'will build the XL1' - Piech Volkswagen today unveiled the XL1 - its latest concept car iteration of its 'one-litre' eco car, 2011-style. Originally the brainchild of Ferdinand Piech, the VW L1 was the 2002 vision for a green car that supped just one litre of fuel per 100 kilometres. Now the idea is back for 2011, and it's called the XL1.

Center stack is new high-stakes battleground; showdown with safety regulators looms

For auto suppliers and gadget companies eager to get a piece of the auto industry, the hottest chunk of vehicle real estate now is the center stack. That corridor of interior space, running from the driver's right hip up through the center of the cockpit to the bottom of the windshield, has become a California gold rush of opportunity. But it is less so for traditional suppliers of molded plastics, cables, levers, buttons and radios.

ICEM Style creative design software launched

ICEM Ltd, known for its ICEM Surf Class A surface development software, has launched ICEM Style, a new software product developed specifically for use by creative designers in the transportation design and industrial design industry. The launch presentation highlighted the integrated workflow from concept development in ICEM Style, through to refinement in ICEM Surf, enabling designers and engineers to share the same model data throughout the design process. According to ICEM, it is now possible, for the first time in a concept design tool, to design in a photo-realistic modelling environment, without using third-party visualisation products, or to wait for a static rendering to be generated.