Pesky breakdowns in the middle of a busy street due to engine trouble would become a thing of past as future technologies would enable a car flash ‘health report' well in advance indicating `all was not well with it'.

"Your car could send an `e-mail' telling you that its time to drop in for a health check up at your nearest service centre,” said Dr Alan Taub, executive director, GM Research and Development in Warren Michigan, while tracing the future technology in the automotive industry.

"It could warn you well in advance that it was having an engine problem or that the break pads were getting worn out or that the battery has not been charged enough,” he said.

The component of electrification and electronification of value-added software in vehicles especially in the high-end segment will go up to 40 per cent by 2015, said Allan. The vehicle would have sophisticated software that could be serviced by just downloading a patch of software.

GM, which has already made available parts of this sophisticated technology in the US, is working on increasing the content of sophisticated software that could be addressed through remote applications, Dr Nady Boules, Director, Electrical and Controls Integration Research Lab said.

The technology which will be made in India in future, would enable the driver to receive a `once-in-a-month' report from the vehicle telling you its health status.

The technology would help monitor the critical systems in the car from time to time and send indications if it was going to face some trouble, said Boules.

"The indicators could be available in various ways, you could have a green says that it is time for a check up, a yellow that could indicate that you need to hurry and red which meant that you swerve immediately to your service centre", said Boules.

GM is working on software at two ends, one that could be made available on the driver's panel and another that could be availed through remote control, he said.

"Next time you find you have locked your car and left the keys inside, you could call the backoffice of the company, inform them and they could in turn `break in' the software and unlock the car. Or if you find there is some problem that needs to be immediately attended to they could through remote application attend to it immediately,” he said.

In the US currently, a driver whose vehicle has been stolen, could intimate


Courtesy : Expressindia.com

Technology and entertainment topped Google Inc's searches in 2007, with the iPhone grabbing the No 1 slot on a list of the fastest-rising search terms in the United States, the company said on Tuesday.

"iPhone, of course, is a word very few people typed in a search box in 2006," said Marissa Mayer of Google, an Internet search engine. "It didn't exist."

Apple rolled out the iPhone, which is a mobile phone, music and video player and Internet browser device, in the United States last summer.

Four social networking sites made the top 10, including Webkinz, which grabbed the No 2 slot. Webkinz is a stuffed animal that customers can register and play with online.

Celebrity news Web site TMZ ranked third, while transformer toys took the No 4 slot.

Transformers are the wildly popular toys that shift their shapes, for example from cars to alien robots, and they got a big boost from the 2007 hit movie Transformers.

"There's a lot of interest in the celebrity culture, television and movies," said Mayer.

YouTube, the video-sharing Web site, grabbed the No 5 spot while Club Penguin, a networking site for children, came in No 6. Social networking site MySpace took the No 7 slot. Heroes, Facebook and Anna Nicole Smith rounded out the top 10.

Google also released a list of fastest rising global search terms and the iPhone topped that list too.


Courtesy : Expressindia.com