To drive this catamaran-inspired luxury car, the driver would use a drive-by-wire steering pad and a completely customizable multi-point touch screen. Rådbrink contends that our hands are far more accurate for driving than our feet, so he's eliminated pedals. Everything is controlled via the steering wheel. "Since the car is powered by electrical motors [found in each of the four wheels]," Rådbrink says, "there is no transmission and you break intuitively by pushing the steering wheel away from your body."

The kicker is that this 14.5-ft. car is designed with lightweight materials meant to increase mileage and efficiency. How light is light? Try roughly the same weight as the diminutive SMART fortwo. "I believe that this design paradox of low weight and large presence could be the way we’ll define premium in the future," Rådbrink said. Just don't forget the futuristic airbags if this ever makes it into production. [Jon Rådbrink via DZEEN]

Now then, I'm all for snazzy features that may prevent you running down the kids when you return from the Mall's Xmas Meet-n-Greet but, as someone whose last car was an ancient Mercedes 280 SLC bought for $1500, these kind of features leave me a bit cold. [AutoSpies]

It's a pretty slick setup, and it'll be available on the new Lexus 570s this year. –Adam Frucci with video by Richard Blakeley

I don't want to argue details. We are actually very fond of the self-parking sedan's endless list of innovations and toys, too. But being a geek car isn't just about the dashboard. The car itself is a gadget, too. And toys be damned, this one is the automotive equivalent of a Stepford wife. It's fantastic, but it's too boring to be a 10.

There's a much better car to nominate for that.

It shouldn't even be a mystery. The front runner for a Gizmodo's "Perfect 10" Geek Car is the Tesla electric roadster. It's an ill kept secret that the Tesla is built on a Lotus Elise's chassis, which I had the pleasure of driving through canyons in the deserts outside of Vegas. (Pictured above) And, my informal poll of roughly a dozen auto journos shows me it's the car most would buy if they had to choose. I'd agree. I've never had so much fun driving, credit to the endless grip in this street legal go kart. I even enjoyed it more than the Ferrari F430. The Tesla's addition of powerful electrics gives this chassis the geek cred it needs to be our "Perfect 10". And since this is Gizmodo, you should know that the Lotus did have an iPod dock with a mount that could withstand exceptional cornering forces. –Brian Lam

2007 Lexus LS 460 L [CNet]

It's not easy engineering these LEDs for headlight use, because they get hotter than a two-dollar pistol, plus that heat from the engine compartment doesn't help, either. We're glad they sorted that out, though, because check out how way-cool these rides look. Not long from now, vehicles with old-skool conventional headlights will be about as appealing as grandma's mustache. – Charlie White

LED Headlights [Wheel Talk, via treehugger]

The car backs in to the spot correctly—which is the hardest part of parallel parking—so you just have to switch it into drive and even out the job. – Jason Chen

Parking! CNBC's Phil LeBeau Lets Lexus LS 460 Park Itself [Jalopnik]

But even the Tesla car can't park itself. Explanation of how the Advanced Parking Guidance System works, information on how this thing rips CDs, and other e-goodies, after the jump.

UPDATE: The video had some hiccups. Fixed.

Here's how it works.

1. You drive past a parking spot at 12mph or less. The four rear and six front sonar sensors detect the cars, and the gap between them.

2. Putting the car into reverse activates the wide-angle backup camera. There's a little button on the bottom of the screen that looks like a car parking. Hit it. If the spot is more than 6.5 feet longer than the car itself, the car enters Advanced Parking Guidance System mode. This is where the magic happens.

3. Crawl backwards, keeping your foot on the brake. If you touch the gas, or the wheel, the mode shuts itself off. Make sure to stay under 2.5mph, or it'll shut off, too. The wheel, as you can see from the video above, spins itself like its being ghost-driven. The sonar system is constantly measuring distance, beeping with more urgency as you get closer to obstacles.

4. When you're in the spot, the computer will announce that parking is complete.

Sonar Panels

Parking Mode buttons

Pretty sweet. Dan Neil, automotive journalist for the LA Times, and one of my favorite writers evar, sat next to me when I got the demo. He said he thought it was a pretty neat system. And that he could use it, since his better half was also the better parallel parker.

That's the best part of this car, but it's not the only awesome thing about it.

The car has adaptive cruise control, which uses millimeter-wave radar to slow you if a car in front of you hits the brakes. If the system detects a collision, it'll add pressure to the brakes to help stop time, and electronically tighten seatbelts.

It has the world's first 8-speed transmission, which uses fewer moving parts than the old 6-speed, in about the same space. I thought a car with 8 gears would flip through them like playing cards, but they were geared fairly tall to take advantage of the grunty 4.6-liter, 380-horsepower V8 engine. By the way, the pair gets the car up to 60mph in 5.4 seconds.

Like the Prius and other late-model Lexus cars, its key uses radio frequency to enable the door lock and starter buttons from a few feet away. Seems like a hack waiting to happen. But there's another drawback: One journalist took the car back to SF from Marin county, and left the key at the restaurant. The car keeps going, until you shut it off. Then, get ready to call AAA for a tow.

The headlights were inspired by crystal wine glasses. When they modeled a plastic assembly after the glasses, it didn't shine the way they wanted it to. So they took the headlamp, made it out of crystal, and studied the way it refracted light to get a similar look. The taillights are made from LEDs.

The car is so quiet, they had to redesign motors in the windows and locks because they were intrusive at first.

The backseat is not a bad place to be. The seats are adjustable in position, and feature heating, as well individual climate controls. There's a refrigerator big enough to hold a four cans of...soda. There are individual vanity mirrors, and a 9-inch motorized fold-down screen for the DVD player. The screen also can view and control (not sure if that's by remote or touch) the navigation, in case the driver is too busy speeding. There are rear sun shades that go down when the car is in reverse, and back up automatically when the car goes over 9mph.

The controls...for the back seat.

The tire pressure monitoring receiver sits on the roof, checking all 5 tires, yes, even the full-sized spare.

Finally, we reach the center console.
The nav system is the fifth generation of Toyota's system, centered around a 9-inch, 800x600 screen. The system uses XM to receive live traffic data, with icons for traffic jams, accidents, closed roads, construction, bad weather conditions, etc. But that data is only available in some areas. The system also has integrated Bluetooth for pairing with a cellphone, for speakerphone and addressbook access. The entire system can be controlled by voice commands.

The stereo's 7.1-channel surround, with some 19 speakers pushes 15 discreet channels. The total power? 450 watts. It sounded...okay. The optical drive in the dash plays back CDs, DVDs, and CDs burned with WMA and MP3s. What's cool is that the same HDD that the satellite nav system uses to store maps can also hold MP3s that the car rips from CDs. First car, to my knowledge, that can do this.

The Intuitive parking system is the more simple of the two parking aids. It uses the car's sonar to increase the tempo of beeps as you get closer to cars you're parking near.

How does it drive? It moves a bit like a hurricane-driven cloud, quickly running through its 8 gears to its electronically regulated 135MPH, or something close to that. The car moves, but without much confidence that the road won't fly out from under you in corners. – Brian Lam

Lexus LS 460L [Jalopnik]

Lexus IS350 [ Lexus ]
Rob Capps gets hands on the Lexus IS350 Sedan [ Wired Gadgetlab ]

What's the big deal? There's a 30GB hard drive for both music and navigation, and enough cameras to produce a TV talk show—three of 'em—to help you to park the thing as well as keep you in your lane. There's also the obligatory touchscreen voice-activated navigation system, Bluetooth for your phone, live traffic reports and a rockin' 19-speaker Mark Levinson sound system that can play back MP3s. And then there's that eight-speed automatic transmission.

You'll see the LS 460 rolling out this fall, replacing the Lexus LS 430. We're hearing there's even a hybrid LS model on the way. Too bad it costs upwards of $60,000 or we'd be blogging from one right now.

Survey Results [Telematics Research Group, via Autoblog]

Finally - Mac Mini In Is300!! [My.IS]

Personal Pond by Eric Chan of Ecco Design - office desk of the future [Trendir]

Personal Pond by Eric Chan of Ecco Design - office desk of the future [Trendir]