dashboard

Picture this: You're motoring down the highway, following route guidance on the navigation screen, when the guy in the passenger seat decides he wants to watch Raising Arizona on DVD. Mercedes-Benz and Bosch jointly devised a novel gizmo can satisfy both viewing requests, without a sword and the smarts of Solomon. It's a dual-view LCD monitor system called, elegantly enough, Splitview.

The touchscreen in Nissans new $70,000, 480-horsepower GT-R sports car does more than show you the fastest route to the shopping mall—it makes you a better driver. The system logs data such as steering angle and G-force so performance freaks can squeeze the very most out of the car. And a gearshift map shows when to shift for optimal fuel efficiency.