Traffic is a waste. It wastes your time, your car’s life, and most importantly it wastes fuel. Thanks to a push from the Obama administration to invest in roads and infrastructure, the U.S. Treasury Department found out that American drivers are wasting about 1.9 billion gallons of fuel annually while idling in traffic jams.

It’s no secret that Colorado is a fan of alternative energy. The state government offers additional subsidies for people interested in vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, offering thousands in incentives. Still, it seems far into the future that the state — or anyone, will start fueling cars with feces.

Despite that, there is such a vehicle currently being used at the Denver Zoo. A 20-year-old motorized rickshaw from Thailand, better known as a tuk tuk, has been re-engineered to run on, well, poop.

Mike Dunbar is one of the mechanical engineers working at the zoo who helped engineer the waste wagon, which runs on animal dung and other zoo waste. The vehicle’s power system compresses the material, creating a gas that is then used to generate electricity. That charge is then used to power everything on the rig.

While the tuk tuk is painfully slow, its creators say the point is to demonstrate that it’s possible to run a vehicle on trash. The vehicle is still incomplete, but is expected to be finished by the fall.

“This is not just a zoo thing,” Hale said to the Denver Post. “It can be applied on campuses, in communities and many other environments.”

Once completed, the project currently powering the puttering tuk tuk will be scaled up to generate 20 percent of the zoo’s energy, which translates into repurposing roughly 1.5 million pounds of waste annually.

Watch a video of the vehicle in action after the break.

[Source: Denver Post]

Crooked cops are scary, hard to pin down and dangerous but one California man caught one — literally — flying into his back seat. 

Volvo’s “ Mean Green” is one tough looking truck. Although it is not ready to haul any trailers down the road, the hybrid is going to make an attempt to break its own record by hitting a top speed in excess of 165 mph (260 km/h).

“Mean Green” puts out a whopping 2,100 hp and makes just under 5,000 lb. ft. of torque, firmly installing it in the insane category when it comes to trucks. The hybrid truck uses a highly tweaked version of Volvo’s D16 engine and a modified version of Volvo’s automated I-Shift gearbox.

The hybrid system adds all the acceleration to the diesel engine to make this a speed machine. “The result is a lightning-speed boost from start-off without any of the customary diesel-engine delay,” said Boije Ovebrink, ‘Mean Green’s owner and driver. “It’s like a champagne cork, but without the sound effects. For the first couple of seconds the truck just makes a slight whistle until the diesel engine, which runs on renewable liquid rosin diesel, starts delivering with an explosive force.”

‘Mean Green’ makes its attempt on April 27th at Wendover Airfield in Utah, USA. You can watch a video of the truck racing a Ferrari after the jump.

Peugeot is taking automotive advertising to the next level with its latest spot for the 208 hatchback.

The ad is over seven minutes long and features sex, nudity, strip clubs, bicycle chase scenes, explosions and so much more. If that already hasn’t piqued your interest, this will: the commercial is interactive and can take different twists and turns based on your decisions.

Few ads today exceed a two-minute run time, with the general consensus being that if you can’t get the point across quickly, you shouldn’t make the commercial at all because people have short attention spans.

Peugeot took the opposite route, opting for length and substance to make its ad memorable.

Watch it below, but keep in mind that you can’t control the interactive portion unless you watch it on YouTube.

Nevada is the first state to pass laws regulating driverless vehicles. To qualify for a special state license, engineers at Continental have built and driven a heavily modified Volkswagen Passat with its brake and steering controls removed and replaced with sensors to digitally read and interpret surroundings. According to engineer Ibro Muharemovic, the Passat has logged almost 10,000 miles of autonomous driving and during a more recent trip from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Brimley, Michigan, home of Continental’s development and testing center, more than 90 percent of the journey did not involve the use of hands and feet.

Unlike Google’s ambitions to create a sophisticated fully autonomous vehicle, Continental went along to develop an interim semi-autonomous option that could take over duties during stop-and-go traffic or extended stretches of highway, the least satisfying of driving conditions. However, Continental and Google’s endpoint is identical: to create a solution that will reduce accidents, congestion, and fuel consumption. Continental director of engineering systems and technology Christian Schumacher said, “We still have a long way to go, but the technology is amazing.”

According to Ravi Pandit, CEO of India’s global IT and engineering company KPIT Cummins, “There is a strong business case for an autonomous car that can drop you off or a cab without the expense of a driver.”

Despite the optimism, mass production semiautonomous cars are still a couple years away. The technology exists but the idea raises questions of liability, regulation, and public acceptance. NHTSA will begin a study of autonomous driving in August with a one-year pilot project in Ann Arbor, testing 3,000 cars with the ability to communicate with one another to avoid an accident. What’s more, in an event of a crash, the law has yet to resolve who is reliable or whether the occupants of an autonomous car are legally exempt from bans on mobile devices.

As for passenger anxiety, Ravi Pandit is confident that, “A car can see better than a human can, and the car responds faster.”

Engineer Ibro Muharemovic commented, “I was surprised by how well it worked.” Continental’s Volkswagen Passat is fitted with a stereo camera that can monitor speed-bumps or potholes as far as 220 yards away and adjust steering, braking, and acceleration accordingly. Muharemovic adds, “The driver is always in control and can override the system any time.”

If testing is successful and Continental is qualified for Nevada registration, a special red license plate will be provided to distinguish the driverless car. In the future, production driverless cars would receive a green license plate.

Check out video footage of Continental’s autonomous Volkswagen Passat driving itself below. 

The witch hunt is already in motion for anything that distracts drivers: cell phones, iPods, even GPS with moving maps. Given that, it might seem short-sighted and illogical to market an in-car espresso machine.

Offering the mighty 6.3-liter V8 AMG engine in almost every model in its current line-up, Mercedes-Benz is a master of creating powerful machines cloaked in rather inconspicuous exteriors.

Politics is boring stuff, maybe that’s why Canadian politician Danielle Smith is injecting a little “boob” humor into her campaign.

75 cars gathered on March 20 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., for a singular purpose; to participate in every hoon-hound’s favorite activity behind the wheel, doing donuts.

All the cars did donuts simultaneously and broke a Guinness World Record for most cars to perform the stunt simultaneously for at least 15 seconds. The event was recorded and sent to Guiness for approval, but it is clear that the drivers in the video completed the task.

The previous record was set in Australia when 57 cars gathered for the same circuler purpose.

Over 200 spectators watched the spectacle of ruined rubber and tire smoke, and many videos have surfaced thanks to all the iPhones in attendance.

Three of them are below, though more are sure to surface as people upload from their smartphones and cameras. It’s not clear if Guinness will actually award them the distinction, but it doesn’t look like an official witnessed the event.

Who ever thought the Baywatch star famous for her slow motion running on the beach scenes would ever be a race enthusiast, let alone own and run a race team.

Most of the time, bringing a new car home is an exciting occasion. It was quite the opposite for one California woman when her 70-year-old husband with dementia pulled up in a new Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet.

Setting a new bar for himself, and the world, Østberg completed a world record snow jump at the “DC All in Trysil” event, a winter extreme sports festival held last weekend at Trysil, Norway, sponsored by DC Shoes.

Østberg took three attempts, leaping off a snowy ramp in his WRC Ford Fiesta, the first of which saw him barely clear the landing ramp. His second jump was cleaner but not quite record-worthy. Finally on the third try he cleared 50 meters (164 feet). Spectacular as it is to watch, the jump isn’t “official” and won’t be recorded in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Before you start grumbling about fees at your local DMV, have a look at how much some people in China need to pay just to get a new license plate, it’s more than a lot of people spend on their car.

This motorcycle rider isn’t afraid of much, or at least that’s how it seems given his devil-may-care riding style up Mulholland Drive, outside Los Angeles. 

The crazy guy repeatedly tips his sidecar-equipped motorcycle onto two wheels in a circus-esque balancing act that could easily end in serious injury. We see the daredevil taking his ride around corners and along straight stretches of road, casually popping the sidecar into the air as if it was common practice.

You can watch the video below, just don’t try this yourself.

Richard Hammond, one of the world-famous Top Gear presenters, will host a new series aimed at an American audience.

We first broke news of BBC America’s new show,  Richard Hammond’s Crash Course, last month. In typical larger-than-life fashion, Hammond will get behind the wheel in some massive machines, leave a trail of destruction, and squeezing in a little television presentation along the way. These heavy machines include logging equipment in Oregan, an industrial trash compactor in Florida, cranes and magnets in a Louisiana salvage yard and an M1A2 Abrams main battle tank.

Having proudly owned a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, 1967 Ford Mustang GT 390, and a 2008 Dodge Challenger SRT-8, Hammond loves American cars and is probably the best choice to host a U.S. show.

Check out the promo trailer for BBC America’s new Richard Hammond’s Crash Course below.

Sometimes living simply can get a person entangled in legal complications.

Three years ago, British motoring show Fifth Gear organized a daring loop-the-loop stunt special that presenter Tom Ford described as, “the biggest and bestest thing Fifth Gear has ever done.”

In preparation of the stunt, Fifth gear and a team that included a Cambridge physicist laid the plans for a massive 40-foot loop in a Suffolk airfield and a heavily modified tiny Toyota Aygo to do the job. The stuntman, Steve Truglia, must enter the loop at a speed of 36 mph in order for the run to be successful. Any slower, and the Aygo would plummet 40 feet before landing on its roof. Any faster, Steve Truglia may black-out from forces exceeding 6 G’s and the loop’s structural integrity may get compromised as well.

Upon successful completion of the loop-the-loop stunt, Fifth Gear claimed, “Take a moment to savor the world record for driving a car around the largest loop-the-loop. Chances are, you’ll never see it executed so perfectly ever again.”

Not so fast. On September 23, 2011, a team of Chinese thrill-seekers sought to break the record. The physics principles remain the same, except this time, the Chinese team erected a steel loop that measured 42ft and 2.69 inches in diameter, 2 feet more than Fifth Gear’s. Behind the wheel of a Lotus L5 with a full roll-cage (the same Youngman Lotus that made a bid for Saab last year), driver Li Yatao successfully completed the loop-the-loop and has now become the new record holder.

Check out the video provided by the Guinness World Records below. Please do not try this at home; leave it for the math and physics wizards instead.

Attention frat boys and country music fans: Willie Nelson’s Rolls-Royce styled golf cart will be up for auction in Palm Beach, Fla. during the upcoming auction from April 5 through 7.

Fans of the commercial shared their thoughts on KFC’s Facebook page, “The Pot Pies are delicious, but my nod goes to the Dodge Charger!” Another shared the same sentiment, “Man, that’s one sexy 1970 Charger!”

Speeding is dangerous. Speeding at night time while drunk is just stupid. Doing all that with young children on board has to be among the dumbest things a person can do.

When it comes to reusing and recycling, this vintage Jaguar repurposed as a bookshelf isn’t just a cool eco-idea, it’s also a great way to get people interested in reading.

Jeep blazes trails in mountains rocks and mud, but this time the company is taking steps to tread new ground in education.

Doo-dads to keep speeding cameras from catching your license plates on film are all over the market, but one Chinese man thought of a better, or at least different plan to speed in his Porsche without penalty.

Gas prices affect a lot of decisions in the automotive industry. Earlier reports had car buyers paying more attention to fuel economy, and the car industry looking for more fuel efficient solutions for vehicles. However, new reports are surfacing that show how higher gas prices could affect the driving habits of different age groups.

Michael Schumacher had twinkly eyes when he got his new bike, or at least that’s what Daimler said in its press release.

The Terrafugia Transition has been a work in progress since 2006, but will finally show off its unique design at the 2012 New York Auto Show. 

The Transition is being called the first practical street-legal airplane by the company, and will no doubt garner some attention when it hits the show floor. The car has folding wings and a full propeller drive system that allows it to take flight as well as drive on the street.

Terrafugia will need to impress the right people, as the Transition is estimated to cost $279,000.

For that price, the eccentric consumer gets a small airplane that fits in a single-car garage. The Transition also runs off super unleaded gas instead of airplane fuel and is able to drive safely on the road, according to the company.

The same 100-hp engine capable of spinning the rear-mounted propeller or powering the wheels on the ground, both via a continuously variable transmission.

Terrafugia’s video explains most aspects of the car in detail. You can watch it below.

When BMW purchased the Rover Group in 1994, it inherited the prestigious Triumph name plate though little else came of the acquisition.