In GM's "Windows of Opportunity"  project with researchers and students from the Future Lab at BezalelAcademy of Art and Design in Israel came up with some amazing amusements, though the company said if they were to be put into production, they would likely use electronically charged "smart glass" that can reflect projected images and is capable of variable translucence and transparency.

An OLED lighting concept for car roofs is the result of a longstanding cooperation between BASF and Philips in the R&D of OLED modules. Transparent when switched off, these allow for a clear view outside the vehicle, yet provide light only within the vehicle when switched on.  The transparent OLED sandwich structure can also be combined with equally transparent solar cells.
 
“This combination allows the driver to enjoy a unique open-space feeling while it generates electricity during the day and pleasantly suffuses the interior with the warm light of the transparent, highly efficient OLEDs at night,” said  (left) Dr. Felix Görth, head of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes and Organic Photovoltaics at BASF Future Business Gmb.

Google's autonomous vehicle research programme has achieved 200,000 miles without an accident while the cars were under computer control and there is a lobby out for legislative changes to permit the vehicles on the nation's road. Nevada legalised driverless cars in 2011 and similar laws go to legislatures in Florida and Hawaii with California coming soon.

But writes John Markoff in the New York Times, the issue has not answered simple questions as to whether police have the right to pull over autonomous vehicles? Autonomous vehicles cannot currently recognise a law officer or safety worker motioning a driver to proceed in an alternate direction.

Then the politeness of the law-abiding robotic vehicle might grind it to a halt, as less polite human drivers do not stop at four way intersections. Legal liability and insurance is completely unknown territory as are hackers could causing chaos by jamming GPS data transmission.

As for autonomy, it will only reach that state when as Brad Templeton, software designer and consultant to the Google project said, when instructed to "drive to work..it head to the beach instead."

AUTOMOTIVE  IN EUROPE ALSO NEEDS LEGAL DEBATE

Europe offer its forum Advanced Microsystems for Automotive Applications AMAA 2012 at the endof May in (right) Berlin, where ICT, components and smart systems essential for a multitude of recent innovations, both inside the vehicle and at its interface to networks of data and energy will be under discussion. 


Ambitious objectives such as fuel efficiency, reduced emissions, zero accidents, imply a paradigm shift in the concept of the car regarding its architecture, materials, and propulsion technology.



Experts from industry and academia are submitting papers addressing current research, developments and innovations and discussion at the conference and will focus on a wide range of application areas: power train & vehicle efficiency, electrification, safety & driver assistance, networked vehicles and components & systems.  

This  will not only require an intelligent integration into the systems of transportation and power but will have to  consider the legal and insurance angles to “Smart Systems for Safe, Sustainable and Networked Vehicles.”