Honda plans to take to the Tokyo Motor Show this December with the largest display of any automaker in attendance. The company will show off a range of production and concept vehicles, including a slew of motorcycles.

The car side of the line will offer visitors the chance to get cozy with a new plug-in hybrid concept as well as an EV. The ACX offers plug-in enthusiasts a vehicle that can function equally as well in urban environs or on the open highway thanks to a two-mode drive system with an engine drive mode for a sportier experience and an automatic drive mode for everything else.

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A new series of health studies may have discovered a link between vehicle exhaust and a range of ailments, including autism, Alzheimer’s Disease and more. The Wall Street Journal reports that scientists around the world have conducted studies investigating the impact of exhaust fumes on families living close to highways. The researchers are quick to point out that the results are still circumstantial at this point, but that doesn’t make their findings any easier to live with. For example, children who live in areas affected by high levels of emissions typically score lower on intelligence tests than their peers and are more prone to depression, anxiety and attention issues.

Then there are the autism rates. Researchers found that children born to mothers living within 1,000 feet of a major roadway in Los Angeles, Sacramento or San Francisco were twice as likely to be born with autism regardless of factors like race, gender or family education level. In Mexico, the studies found that exposure to exhaust can cause a type of brain swelling similar to what Alzheimer’s patients endure.

It doesn’t get much better for those of us who are occasionally trapped in traffic jams. The studies found that breathing in high-traffic areas for just 30 minutes can cause increased brain activity in the areas responsible for personality and decision making. Head over to The Wall Street Journal for a look at the full report.

We hate to be the ones to tell you this, but there’s a scant chance most of us will ever exceed 200 miles per hour here on planet Earth. Sure, you can hop in a commercial jet liner and easily best that figure in the comfort of coach, but it’s not quite the same as skimming along mere inches from the ground in an hurling ball of aluminum, glass and fury. Maybe that’s what makes the Speed Demon’s latest run on the salt so impressive. As you may recall, the team behind this particular Streamliner recently pulled off a standing mile of 426 mph.

They recently headed back out to try their hand at another pass, and the result was a standing mile of 458.189 mph with an exit speed of 462.345 mph. This time, the crew strapped enough ReplayXD cameras to the Streamliner to catch every aspect of the high-speed run, and the finished video gives us a pretty good idea of what it’s like to clip along at ludicrous speed. Hit the jump to check it out for yourself.

Gordon Murray, designer of the truly insane McLaren F1, swept the board at the RAC Future Car Challenge this Saturday — but for something much more sensible. It’s the 1,500lbs T.27 EV, the little wonder in the picture above, which just carried two people the 57.13 miles from Brighton to London on just 64p ($1.20) of electricity. Compared to a car that burns oil, that would be the equivalent of getting 350MPG. It’s believed the T.27 can easily make 100 miles on a single four-hour charge and scooped eleven awards on the day, including most efficient and best EV.

The T.27, which competed against more than 65 entries including the latest technology from 11 major car manufacturers, won ‘Most Energy Efficient Small Car (Prototype)’, ‘Best Overall Pure Electric Vehicle’ and ‘Best Overall Entry – RAC Future Car Challenge Winner.’

The vehicle covered the 91.94 km (57.13 miles) from Brighton to London carrying two occupants inside the allocated time, using energy equivalent to 350 miles per gallon (or 0.81 litres per 100 km) and with emission totalling only 37 gm CO2/km. On a full charge, taking only four hours, the T.27 can do more than 160 km.

The design is the latest vehicle to use Gordon Murray Design’s innovative iStream manufacturing process, which the company says sets new standards in weight, footprint, small car dynamics, safety, packaging and efficiency whilst addressing full lifecycle CO2 emissions, congestion, parking and low cost motoring.

iStream, the company says, is F1 technology for the everyday motorist, delivering benefits from ‘light-weighting’ along with high levels of safety – GMD recently completed a structural durability test which showed the T.27’s iStream chassis to be up to 60 times more durable than a standard steel structure.

“This win represents a huge step forward in our race to reduce automotive energy consumption and emissions. This year’s success, in combination with last year’s win with our petrol powered T.25, awarded ‘Most Economic Small Passenger ICE Vehicle’ and ‘Most Economic and Environment Friendly Small Passenger ICE Vehicle,’ proves absolutely that lightweight is our most powerful tool for solving our energy problems,” Gordon Murray said.

SOURCE via Gordon Murray Design

See this photo? That’s a Noble, a McLaren MP4-12C and a Lamborghini Aventador being prepped for taping in Lecce, Italy. And what trio of personalities will be piloting these exotic machines? None other than Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, of course. Top Gear is about to get its Roman and rural Italian groove on.

We’ll look forward to finding out next season why they’ve paired the two English with the Italian – a grouping that, especially in Italy, seems the equivalent of bringing a bull to a knife fight. Hit the jump to see the video featuring lots of rumbling horsepower and behind-the-scenes Clarkson.

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Remember those rumblings about Mozilla and its very own mobile OS known as Boot to Gecko? We now have further details to share, and unlike most operating systems — which demand their own hardware — this one is aiming to shack up with Android smartphones. Given the existing complexity of altering many of these devices, Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko will likely find favor among geeks alone, but the project itself has much greater ambitions. First and foremost, the OS will be designed with web apps in mind, yet with functionality and device integration that’s on par with native applications. The true boon here is the potential for other operating systems to integrate Mozilla’s technologies into their own browsers, thus allowing true cross-platform application development and the possibility of bolstering platforms that struggle for developer interest. Right now, much of the project exists only in the minds of a few tenacious developers, but the group hopes to unveil a public demo early next year. As if this weren’t wild enough, while Mozilla has no intention of creating its own Boot to Gecko device, the group has expressed a willingness to work with OEMs that share its dream of a web-based future.

SOURCE via The Verge

Tango, the video calling service finally hit the Marketplace today, more than a year after launching on iOS and Android, and barely a month after expanding to PCs. Compatible with Windows Phone 7.5 or higher, Tango for Mango allows users to make free phone and video calls over 3G, 4G and WiFi connections, including free international calls to fellow Tangonians. Users can also chat with Tango members across other operating systems and platforms, which should help tide them over until that Skype integration becomes a reality. Loquacious legions can download the app now, from the source link below.

SOURCE via Windows Phone Market