What's Next

It’s late and you just want to get those last 100 miles of interstate behind you, drowsiness be damned. Bad idea. Recognizing that too many fatigued road-trippers end up in accidents, Mercedes-Benz developed software, dubbed Attention Assist, that monitors behavior and urges sleepy drivers to get some rest. The system will debut on two of the company’s 2010 luxury sedans, the redesigned midsize E-Class [concept design above] and its flagship S-Class.

A new type of charger called the Green Plug aims to replace the pile of power bricks under your desk with a hub that powers multiple devices at once, but only when they need it. The idea behind the system, due out early next year, is that software in gadgets would let them tell the hub exactly how much power they need. When its battery is full, the device tells the Green Plug to cut the juice. Current chargers keep drawing a small amount of power as long as they’re plugged into an outlet.

Japans latest sci-fi monster, the Yamaha Tesseract, hunches on four wheels instead of two. This beastie is designed to retain all the turning sensations of a two-wheeled ride, without the threat of Godzilla-style carnage in the hands of an inexperienced rider.

For all of todays in-car entertainment options, live, local digital TV still isnt one of them. Even at home, digital television signals can break up if you wiggle the antenna, and you cant get a picture at all in a moving vehicle. But soon, you may see flawless video even if your set is barreling down the road at more than 100 mph.