• more about #volkswagen more comments →
    jjigen: this won't work when people fight over parking spaces. if someone else rushes into the space after your car has already started its process, how will ... more »
    bricatoxchod: It would have been nice to get some reference or idea where the whole "runs over people" point comes from. Rosa mentions it over and over and over but... more »
    günter macbeetle, codename: chrystlubitshi: after watching this video again...... i have to say... i want some friggin' lasers for my VW... not for parking assistance... but more for .. well... ... more »
    KingSnakeX4: God forbid someone leaves a shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot. How would the car know to drive around something or sit and wait? I pictur... more »
    badhatharry: My boss has the Lexus that parallel parks itself, but refuses to try it out. Nothing really to add to this post, just his refusal to try out that fea... more »
    m.dean: They've documented that it runs people over. That means it's no longer a bug, it's a feature. Call it the "Future Empty Space Initiator." p.s. thanks... more »
    Undead Ponies: As a personal injury attorney, I see nothing wrong with having 3,500 pounds of steel try to park itself in an urban environment. #vailautonomousvaletp... more »
    OCEntertainment: Unacceptable! Does Volkswagen have any idea what this will do to the valet industry?! This will cannibalize the wages of honest, hard-working American... more »
    Enochrewt: They need to polish this and put it in newer luxury cars, STAT! There will be a lot less jackasses that park crooked or across two spaces in the futur... more »
    jakebathman: Can I press a button when I leave the store and have it come pick me up? Wake me when that happens #vailautonomousvaletparking more »
  • #automotive

    Self-Parking Car Works Perfectly, Except For That Whole Running People Over Thing

    Volkswagen is onto something great with this concept demo. You just step out of this car and it parks itself. Great, now they just need to iron out those details about detecting obstacles like lil' ol' grannies crossing parking lots. More »
  • #architecture

    Volkswagen's Level Green: A Crazy Geometric Holodeck Wonderland

    As if its Sci-Fi parking garage wasn't cool enough, VW's now built this amazing exhibition for its Autostadt attraction in Wolfsburg, Germany. The 1000m2 space has 25 installations exploring three aspects of sustainability: the environment, society, and the economy. More »
  • #cars

    Volkswagen Caddy Van Features a Wooden Boat Deck For Sunbathing

    The designers at Volkswagen brought out the big guns for an upcoming recreational vehicle show in Düsseldorf, Germany by crossing one of their small commercial Caddy vans with a sailboat. While the Caddy Topos Sail design is not capable of traveling on water, it does feature a sailboat style deck on the roof that can be modified for relaxation and sunbathing. It even features a wooden ladder built into the glass to grant easy access to the roof. I suppose that it is clever in a stupid sort of way, but no matter how you feel about the quirky design, it is only a concept. More »
  • #workaholicmobile

    T6 Volkswagen Concept Car is an Office on Wheels

    Having easy access to your office 24 hours a day can be both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, you will never miss a beat. On the other, it may seem like you are always stuck at work. With that in mind, check out the T6 concept workaholicmobile designer Alexander Zhukovsky has put together. It comes complete with all of the technology and space you and your co-workers need to get the job done—even when you are stuck in traffic. In other words, it is a boardroom on wheels. More »
  • #ego

    Volkswagen Shows Us Cars From the Future

    Volkswagen thinks they know what cars from 2028 will looks like (which is probably fair, since they can basically make the whole thing one big self-fulfilling prophecy). Still, it's exciting to see the designs. The one pictured here is Ego. It's a sporty two-seater without a front window (no, not because people in the future can see with their minds, but because it will be loaded with all sorts of cameras and sensors that are better than a window). More »
  • #icar

    Volkswagen/Apple iCar On Hold, Upper Middle Class Weep

    If you've been looking forward to a possible Volkswagen + Apple car, or iCar, you'll have to wait slightly longer as talks between the two companies have just been put on hold. The bad news is that the exploratory talks are at an end, but the good news is that there were exploratory talks to begin with. VW fans and Apple fans overlap pretty well (picture a Venn Diagram with Batman on one circle and Bruce Wayne on the other), and will be willing to purchase any type of iCar that will eventually be sloshed forth from the combined loins. [Presseportal via German Car Blog via Jalopnik]
  • #homegrown

    R/C Stoner Van Streams Live Video While Truckin' (Video)

    Built and demonstrated by our very own Nick McGlynn, this webcam-mounted R/C Volkswagen bus streams video live via a hidden Sony Vaio laptop with Sprint EV-DO card. Unfortunately for Nick, the camera is fixed facing forward, limiting its upskirt potential. Oh well, there's always V(W) 2.0. [Justin.tv]
  • #ibug

    Steve Jobs and VW Chairman Talk iCar

    A Volkswagen spokesperson told German magazine Capital that an iCar may be on the way. Steve Jobs and VW Chairman Martin Winterkorn got together in California a few days ago to "plan an intensive co-operation with the building of vehicles." It might even be called an iCar. This is against a background of chatter we heard floating around last month, but we're not thinking Apple's going to get into the car business. More »
  • #portablemedia

    LG Dresses Up Its FM37 PMP in Volkswagen Colors

    Looking for every angle to avoid commoditization, LG teams up with Volkswagen for a painted-up version of the FM37 PMP first announced last October, a little media player that matches the colors of the VW Beetle. It'll be available in Salsa Red, Shadow Blue, and Sunflower Yellow, just like the car. More »
  • #portablemedia

    VW Golf Renamed in Honor of the iPod (We Assume)

    Introducing the Volkswagen iGolf. It is the exact same thing as the VW Golf, but it has a fairly convenient iPod dock and a big, fancy, pretty advertising campaign to go with it. We have seen companies of all shapes and sizes slap a lower-case i in front of a product name and the product is usually an iPod accessory, but a car? Seriously, are we in a world where the car is now an accessory to the iPod? More »
  • #gadgets

    Chinese Artists Take a VW Down the Hershey Highway for V-Day

    The Valentine's Day madness has apparently spread around the world, as evidenced by this chocolate-covered Volkswagen Beetle parked in front of a supermarket in China. After first wrapping the vehicle in plastic, seven enterprising car company employees slathered on 440 pounds of chocolate, resulting in the day's biggest internal-combustion chocolate truffle. More »
  • #gadgets

    VW Sleds Are Slick, Slippery and Schweet

    VWs are in the Gizmodo news these days, where the other day we saw one pulling a Boeing 747, and now here's a sled carrying the earmarks of the timeless Volkswagen Golf GTI design. Is this one badass-looking conveyance, or what? More »
  • #gadgets

    I-Playaz '59 Volkswagen Beetle, Speakers for Your Kid's DAP

    We've had just about enough DAP speakers for one day—or lifetime, for that matter—but this one we just couldn't resist. Aimed at kids, the I-Playaz '59 Volkswagen Beetle from Jada Toys lets you plug in any music player, and when you get that music cranking it starts to blastin' with lights flashin' as it "moves and jams with the beat." More »
  • #gadgets

    Design Concept: Comfort Sphere for Captive Audiences

    The Comfort Sphere was designed by Volkswagen for trade shows, but might be a great idea to enhance the work and concentration required of writers, think-tankers, and hey, maybe even a blogger or two. More »
  • #gadgets

    VW's Automated Parking Garage

    When we first saw these two photos of the Volkswagen's storage facility in Wolfsburg, Germany, we thought this was an artist's rendition for some sort of science fiction movie. It's not. This is an actual 20-story car tower that takes up just 20% of the space of a conventional parking garage handling the same number of vehicles. Volkswagen uses the facility in a showy delivery process for its new-car customers:
    "In a fully automated procedure, your new car is brought down to you from one of the 20-story Car Towers. Large signboards in the Customer Center show you when your turn has come. Then, you're handed the keys, your picture is taken, the glass doors open and your brand-new car appears. You're all set to go."
    Not only does it save space, but the storage facility's automated elevator system is able to retrieve cars much quicker than a potentially-careless human parking lot attendant. More »
  • #portablemedia

    Audi & Volkswagen Drop XM, Sign Exclusive Deal with Sirius

    If you love Howard Stern, this news might make you happy; if you love having choices, this news will make you sad. Audi and Volkswagen recently announced they will be dropping XM satellite radio receivers as an option for their cars beginning with the 2007 models in favor of an exclusive deal with Sirius. Both Audi and Volkswagen will be offering Sirius satellite radio receivers with new cars through 2012. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, but Volkswagen will be offering three free months of Sirius radio to new buyers and expects to equip 80% of new vehicles with their receivers. More »
  • #gadgets

    Google and VW Join Forces

    Looks like Google and Volkswagen are banding together to work on a vehicle that will use Google Maps/Google Earth in a VW in-car navigation system. Working with NVidia to build the system, it will include three-dimensional graphics and, hopefully, other features like automatic personalized information updates. But don't hold your breath—there are still no definite plans to release this system to the public, and right now it's just a prototype. More »
  • #gadgets

    Live From CES: DARPA's Touareg

    You may remember "Stanley," the robotic Volkswagen Touareg which won the $2 million prize at the DARPA's race back in October. Well Stanford went and brought the champion out here for all to ogle. The Stanford robot Touareg finished the course in 6 hours, 53 minutes, beating everyone else to take the record, so it's pretty cool to see something this expensive and powerful up close. I noticed they had a tent to hide it from the sun. I suppose they were afraid it'd drive off on its own and run over the CES crowd. Johnny 5 is alive!
  • #portable

    VW Goes USB

    The center armrest is not just for stashing jewel cases and weapons any longer: Volkswagen is putting a USB port in there too. The car stereo will recognize the memory device once you plug it in, and display up to six music folders. And then the controls work just as they would for a CD. The space inside the armrest is meant for a memory stick, but there is no reason you can't plug any old MP3 player (with an adapter) in there as well—the only problem being the number of folders that can be displayed on the stereo window. This feature will be available as an alternative to the regular CD player in the Golf, Golf Plus and Toureg starting this December, and other models come next year. More »