Volkswagen Touareg part 2

Lane assist is also included in this pack, scanning the road ahead and warning you if you drift out of lane. It's a useful extra, but it doesn't automatically keep the car in the right lane, which rival systems, such as those on the new Ford Focus, do.
Front assist uses a radar sensor to monitor the traffic in front, letting the car maintain a constant distance behind the vehicle in front up to the speed limit that you set. It works really well and is easy to adjust, both for speed and distance, using the control stalk to the left of the steering wheel. The system can't be used to automatically apply the brakes in an emergency though, which is a shame as Ford has this on the new Focus.

You can easily adjust the cruise control speed and the distance to follow the vehicle in front at.

Parking sensors are fitted as standard to the front and rear, making parking such a big beast much easier, particularly in small spaces in London.

The clear parking sensor display makes it easy to part this large vehicle, even in tight spots.

They can be activated to come on automatically, but this can be annoying in some situations. Driving through rush hour traffic in London we were constantly bombarded with beeps as the parking sensors activated automatically by cyclists zooming behind us. Switching the system off so that it's only activated by putting the car in reverse is pretty easy thanks to the central touchscreen control system, plus there's a dedicated button to activate the system.

You can manually enable the parking sensors if you don't want them to turn on automatically.

Volkswagen Touareg

For its updated Touareg, VW has focussed on making the big 4x4 a comfortable drive on the road, backed up by all of the latest hi-tech kit to make it a luxurious drive. For the most part, it has to be said that VW's done a great job.

The high driving position and comfortable leather seats combined with the spacious cabin make even the longest journeys an exercise in relaxed luxury. It helps that VW has designed the Touareg for road journeys, with it stable and comfortable through tight bends. A rotating switch in front of the gearbox lets you adjust the ride for Comfort, Normal and Sports mode, helping you get the most from your driving mood and type of surface that you're on.

We road tested the 4.2-litre V8, which is certainly no slouch and will hit 60mph in under six seconds. It should come as no surprise that this monster engine provides plenty of power for fast acceleration, while overtaking, even at speed, is easy. There's also a 3.0-litre engine available, which still packs plenty of punch, but improves on fuel economy and puts the car in a lower tax bracket.

We found the eight-speed auto gearbox smooth, plus there's an optional Tiptronic addition, so you can manually take control of gear changes by flicking the gearstick forwards for up and back for down. For driving in traffic we're big fans of the Auto Hold feature, which automatically engages the handbrake if it senses the car's starting to role. Combined with the automatic gearbox, slow-moving traffic is a breeze to drive through.

Auto-hold means you can drive the Touareg through traffic with the greatest of ease.

One of the issues of driving such a big car is visibility, particularly of other vehicles. VW has a range of systems designed to make driving safer for you and other road users. The Driver's Assistance pack (from £2,095) is the best option, getting you most of the kit that you could want.

It includes radar sensors for blind-spot elimination (Side scan lane assist). When turned on lights in the wing mirrors light up if there's another vehicle coming up behind you or in your blind spot. Indicate and the respective light flashes quickly to warn you. In short, provided you indicate, with this system pulling out on another car unaware should be a thing of the past.

Lights in the wing mirror warn you if there's another vehicle in your blind spot.

2012 Mercedes-Benz ML350 Safety Features

The safety features found on the 2012 Mercedes Benz ML350 include the ability to avoid a rear end collision and detect if you're sleeping behind the wheel.

IAR Systems provides development tools for the new low-power V850E2 microcontrollers from Renesas Electronics

Uppsala, Sweden—March 16, 2012, IAR Systems® announces complete support for the V850E2/Fx4-L microcontroller series from Renesas Electronics.

The V850E2/Fx4-L series features very low power consumption paired with high functionality. It is designed for the automotive comfort and body segment, for applications such as roof or window lifters, HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning), body control modules, and door, seat and light modules. These new microcontrollers provide power-saving features such as the sequencer (SEQ).

 The SEQ supports hardware monitoring of digital inputs in deep stop mode without any usage of the CPU or memory. When the SEQ detects activities at the digital inputs, the device switches from deep stop mode to run mode. Another feature is the LIN-master controller (LMA) which supports the automatic LIN-frame detection without CPU interactivity.

The highly-optimizing C/C++ compiler and debugger tool suite IAR Embedded Workbench® for V850 supplies extensive support for all devices in the V850, V850E, V850ES, and V850E2 families. The V850E2/Fx4-L microcontrollers are supported by IAR Embedded Workbench for V850 version 3.81, available today. This new release also adds support for Reneas E20 emulator, integration with the version control system Subversion, and new license features, such as commuter licenses, automatic license activation and support for virtual servers.

IAR Embedded Workbench is available for a variety of Renesas targets, in total more than 4.000 devices.

 IAR Systems is the largest independent vendor of development tools for Renesas microcontrollers, and is committed to continue to deliver high-performing, user-friendly tools for all Renesas microcontrollers.

To read more about IAR Embedded Workbench for V850, and to download evaluation versions, go to www.iar.com/ewv850.

Mind-controlled skateboard