The 2018 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas has just wrapped up and this year it brought us very little in the way of surprises. There were a couple of big TVs from LG and Samsung (which were mightily impressive), some new earphones from Sony (which were not) and some development in the field of "smart kitchens", which, even to us technophobes, sounds rather exciting. Considering that these days, automobiles are a bit more than just mechanical parts, it's no surprise that motor manufacturers are now using CES as a showcase for their high-tech futures, especially in the line of…

I was fortunate enough to grab some time with Jari-Matti Latvala at the Autosport International show last week. By a sheer stroke of good luck, we were left undisturbed in the media centre for a spell, and the talk flowed.

Jari-Matti is one of the sport's icons, and his flat-out approach and tendency to wear his heart on his sleeve has endeared him to legions of fans all over the world. He's heading into what could be a pivotal year for him and his lifelong ambition to become world champion, with the outrageous-looking Yaris WRC now a seriously competitive package…

By quirk of fate, or the simple happenstance of test automobile booking schedules, this week I find myself driving a Ford Mondeo. Which would be not at all mentionable, but for the fact that it is the venerable Ford's 25th birthday. Yes, just weeks before Christmas 1992, Ford unveiled the first-generation Mondeo to the world (and indeed the name was chosen because it sounded like world in some languages - Monde, Mundo, etc.) and Ford would never be the same again.

That was partially because the Mondeo was the first 'world' Ford, designed to be sold in the US, Europe…

The 2017 Automobility LA Design and Developer Challenge invited creative professionals from around the world to help Los Angeles host a global sporting event in the year 2060, with each of the 11 teams coming up with a film presenting their vision of what mobility, sport and life may be like in the City of Angels, 43 years from now. There was a main award for the Judges' Pick, but also secondary awards for the best visions for the Industry Pick and People's Pick. Here's a run-down on what came in.

Byton Design
Global start-up team, Byton Design, dreams up…

LA-based ZGF Architects, represented by Osautomobile Ramos and Sarah Winter, has let its collective imagination run loose with a 'multi-storey transportation system featuring magnetic-levitation lanes, Level 8 autonomy vehicles and transmuting structures'.

Now, that last bit is the most interesting - it basically means shape-shifting vehicles. Responsive Reconfiguration Technology (RRT) sees the vehicles adjusting their shapes, according to their passenger loads. The red Compact pods don't actually shape-shift, but instead accommodate 10 people seated and 10 standing individually, and can operate either on their own or as part of trains of vehicles.

The orange Mid-Sized machines have an EFTE-3000 membrane…

URB-E wants to give Los Angeles 2060 back to its human occupants, it says, by parcelling up the city into four mile-long-square 'Gigablocks'. In these zones, no automobiles or fast-moving transportation devices are allowed, making the streets totally safe for humans to mill about on them, checking their social media apps or generally just loafing from place to place.

Instead, everyone has a personal transportation device for the areas within the Gigablocks, which are ringed by arterial roads. A person wanting to go and view sport in another Gigablock messages the cloud as to where they want to go, and…