Autopia

NASA has a big new rocket in the works, one designed to carry astronauts into space for the first time since the Saturn V took us to the moon. The Space Launch System will, among other things, make a trip …

Forget black and white Crown Vics and battle-scarred Chargers. The cop cars of tomorrow will shoot drones, transform from four-wheelers into quadrocopters and fly high above the dystopian hellscape formerly known as the LA Basin.

Say goodbye to catenary wires. Utah State University has unveiled an electric bus that charges through induction, topping off its batteries whenever it stops to pick up passengers.

Volkswagen pimps the sweet new Jetta Hybrid with a fuel economy race from San Francisco to Los Angeles.

There’s a largely covert war to the auto industry over the operating systems that will control the gadgets in and behind your dashboard. As in the smartphone biz, the battle line is between proprietary and open-source software.

The promise of hypersonic flight sending us halfway around the world in a matter of hours is being bandied about again, this time by a British company that declares, with all due humility, that it has made “the biggest breakthrough …

The car of the future is now even further beyond our reach.

We plotted the farms first and then pondered the logistics. It’s therefore no surprise that Americans feel transportation should come to us instead of the other way around. We pick a place to live and then figure out how to …

The LA Auto Show’s focus on in-car connectivity and infotainment is utterly pointless. Such technology is not an option, it’s something buyers demand when purchasing a new car. They expect it, and take it for granted. You can’t showcase the …

Can’t make it out to this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show? Here’s our comprehensive guide of the low lights, highlights and everything in between.

Fiat finally shows off the all-electric version of its cute and compact 500, but it’s only for sale in California and it’s only being sold to appease the state’s zero-emissions vehicle mandate.

The Mercedes-Benz Ener-G-Force concept might look like its ready to tackle a lunar landscape, but it could be destined for your driveway in 2025.

The same company that makes those battery-powered RC helicopters you see at the mall is building a full-size version. We want one.

The Spanish company that wants to take you up, up and away to 120,000 sends a scale model of its balloon soaring 104,000 feet.

The battle for dashboard supremacy is heating up, and the latest contender comes in the form of Sprint Velocity, the telecommunications company’s first comprehensive in-car infotainment and telematics architecture aimed at automakers.

We play with the first automotive application of Apple’s Siri-based “Eyes Free” voice-activation.

A team of Japanese researchers are hoping to use a version of everybody’s favorite non-stick material to help the aviation industry avoid the deadly problem of in-flight icing.

Cars are getting smarter and beginning to react on their own, but the gray matter manning the helm is still the vehicle’s Achilles heal. So to really get inside a driver’s head, automakers are going through their faces, analyzing expressions …

The Brutus motorcycle is touted as a go-anywhere two-wheeler, but the stats betray it’s limited potential of being good at anything.

Few vehicles scare me like the Dodge Viper. It isn’t the massive V10 shoehorned under the hood, or the dimwitted steering, or even the broiling interior of the original that’s as comfortable as a root canal. No, it’s the fact …