Mercedes Benz

After a week of rumor-mill musings online, Mercedes-Benz and its high-performance specialist division AMG offered a first look at a prototype all-electric sports car. And by "first look" we mean "better use your imagination." The company released some details on a version of its upcoming SLS AMG roadster with an electric drive system. Propelling the concept car are four in-wheel electric motors providing 526 horsepower and a maximum torque of 649 lb-ft. That means, when the SLS AMG electric hits the streets -- rumored to happen in 2015 -- it'll likely be quite a performer.

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.

Tennis has the Hawkeye system, hockey tried out that weird streaking puck display, and now golf is going high-tech, too. The Golf Channel is going to start using the TrackMan Tour System, a radar technology that measures golfer's swings and the flight of the ball, for certain tour events.

Trackman records the golfer's swing motion in 3D space, then tracks the launch, flight and spin of the ball with unprecedented precision. The USGA used it this past summer to track and analyze pros's swings, and now Golf Channel viewers will be able to see virtual replays of certain shots.

The first showing will be at the Mercedes-Benz Championship on December 3rd.—Gregory Mone

Via Yahoo News

We tested two new night-vision systems that are available in the top-of-the-line Mercedes Benz S550 and BMW 7-Series luxury sedans. They operate on virtually opposite principles-Mercedes illuminates the environment with projected infrared light; BMW detects thermal energy emitted from objects-and each works well under different circumstances. Click here to see what we found.

It sees at night, prevents accidents, and leaves most sports cars in the dust: The ninth-generation Mercedes-Benz S-Class is more than a simple luxury upgrade. Its Brake Assist Plus system uses long- and short-range radar to anticipate and avoid collisionsor, at the very least, lessen the severity of a crashby automatically braking with full force if you don't stomp on the brake hard enough to stop in time. More impressive is the Night View Assist, which shines infrared beams down the road to illuminate hazards that are beyond the reach of the headlights.

The E55 AMG--A station wagon that gets to the grocery store before you do

By Scott Mowbray

Some of my fellow editors hold the station wagon in special contempt, and it's true that the basic wagon is sexy like elastic-waistband pants. But I like the wagon because it is a car, not a car pretending to be an after-school bus (i.e., a minivan) or a truck pretending to be a Bradley Fighting Vehicle (any full-size SUV).