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Jaguar Land Rover and Cambridge have developed a touchless touchscreen

Jaguar Land Rover and the University of Cambridge are working on new touchscreen technology that eliminates the need to touch the screen. Counterintuitive, right? It’s called “predictive touch” for now, in part because the system is able to predict what you might be aiming for on the screen.  The video at the top of this post is the best way to understand how users will interact with the tech, but weÂ’ll do some more explaining here. You simply reach out with your finger pointing toward the item on screen that you want to select. ItÂ’ll highlight the item and then select it. HereÂ’s how it works, according to the University of Cambridge: “The technology uses machine intelligence to determine the item the user intends to select on the screen early in the pointing task, speeding up the interaction. It uses a gesture tracker, including vision-based or radio frequency-based sensors, which are increasingly common in consumer electronics; contextual information such as user profile, interface design, environmental conditions; and data available from other sensors, such as an eye-gaze tracker, to infer the userÂ’s intent in real time.” Cambridge claims that lab tests showed a 50 percent reduction in both effort and time by the driver in using the screen, which would theoretically translate to more time looking at the road and less time jabbing away at the screen. If the prediction and machine learning tech is good enough, we could see this resulting in a reduced number of accidental inputs. However, on a certain level it almost sounds more difficult to point at a screen while moving than it does to actually touch a section of that screen. Without using the tech and its supposedly great predictive abilities, we canÂ’t come to any grand conclusions. One comparison you may already be thinking of is BMWÂ’s Gesture Controls. ItÂ’s already been addressed with a subtle diss from Cambridge: “Our technology has numerous advantages over more basic mid-air interaction techniques or conventional gesture recognition, because it supports intuitive interactions with legacy interface designs and doesnÂ’t require any learning on the part of the user,” said Dr Bashar Ahmad of the University of Cambridge. Of course, this tech can be used for much more than just vehicle touchscreen control. Cambridge says it could be integrated into ATMs, airport check-in kiosks, grocery store self checkouts and more.

Junkyard Gem: 1995 Jaguar Vanden Plas

Sold in Europe as the Daimler Six, the 1995 Jaguar Vanden Plas had all the luxury bling that mid-1990s high-rollers needed. This one now resides in the imports section of a self-service wrecking yard near Denver, just like any ordinary Jetta or Lanos. The Vanden Plas name started out in Belgium in 1870, eventually ending up as a British Leyland brand via the Austin Motor Company. 2009 was the last year that luxo-Jags were slugged with the Vanden Plas name. Ford owned Jaguar by this time, of course, but the engine in the XJ6 series remained a traditional Jaguar straight-six. This one is a 4.0-liter rated at 245 horsepower. After 1997, the Jaguar sixes were gone from the XJs, replaced by V8s. The MSRP on this car was $62,200, which amounts to about $102,000 in inflation-adjusted 2017 dollars. It costs real money to keep a car like this running correctly, and once maintenance corners start getting cut... well, the end is near. You should feel fear when you see this. This car is battered and many parts have been yanked by junkyard shoppers, but try to imagine it when it had that new Jag smell. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Built in the proud new spirit of Jaguar.

The story behind Bridgestone's new tires for the rare and beautiful Jaguar XJ220

The Jaguar XJ220 is a beautiful, fast, and arguably under appreciated supercar from the early 1990s. While contemporaries like the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 garner more than $1 million at auctions, the XJ220 might pull in half that. Maintaining an older car requires work, a task made more difficult when parts aren't available. Last year, Bridgestone announced it was producing new tires specifically for XJ220s. The Japanese tire supplier has released a 42-minute video documenting the process. There were only 275 XJ220s ever built, fewer than both the F40 and 959. Until recently, no supplier made four same-spec tires that would fit the XJ220. Early Dodge Viper owners suffer from the same problem. Thanks to both Bridgestone and Pirelli, owners now have two options to choose from. Bridgestone worked with Don Law Racing, the go-to shop for all things XJ220, when developing the right tire for the car. It isn't simply a reproduction of an older-spec tire. Bridgestone tested a number of new compounds. With so few cars available, from the beginning this was going to be a money-losing prospect for the tire maker. Enthusiasts within the organization fought hard to get everything approved. Watch the full video to hear how much time and effort went into the project. Related Video: News Source: Bridgestone via Motor1Image Credit: Getty Jaguar Videos tires jaguar xj220