Every driver knows the feeling… When you drive nicely under the speed limit towards a speed bump, this frustration starts growing. You already know that, even though you drive slow, your car will be launched. And that is exactly the same feeling as being punished while you didn’t do anything wrong. Why are you being punished for following the rules? Finally some designers have tried to come up with a solution.

On Yanko Design we found a product by designers Jae-yun Kim & Jong-Su Lee. THey designed “a speed bump that’s based on retractors that open if the impact with them is small enough. These speed bumps can be configured so that if a car is going below 30km/h, the speed bump flattens; over 30km/h, the force causes the retractor to stay closed, keeping the speed bump active.”

The fact that all drivers are being punished by speed bumps will finally end. People who drive slowely will finally get a positive advantage over people who speed. Smart and hopefully soon to be developed.

In an attempt to save the planet (and sell more cars in the proces) Ford is working on a new type of dashboard. The company came up with the idea that drivers will become eco-drivers when they are shown what the results of their driving style is. Unfortunately they completely missed the purpose of a dashboard in the process.

The dashboard they’ve been working on is called SmartGauge. It is actually a big LCD screen that can display all kinds of information. On the display they integrated EcoGuide. This EcoGuide translates your driving style into a plant: when you drive green it shows a full-grown vine with leaves, but when you start driving bad it starts to become brown and die. This way Ford is trying to make you more aware of your driving style. It’s actually the next generation Tamagotchi, which lives or dies depending on your care.

While this may sound like a good idea, the implementation seems to fail. In a demonstration of SmartGauge it becomes clear that technology is leading, at the cost of usability. Because of the LCD screen the engineers must have thought: ‘Hey, this is a great way to pack away a lot of useless information in this car!’ Now the driver will see different screens while driving and even needs a tutorial to explain all the functions. Why is this necessary?

I personally do like the idea of EcoGuide. Not all drivers will embrace this, because they like driving fast and in bursts. But more and more people will be proud to show of that they are indeed living green. This said: wouldn’t it be cool if you could take EcoGuide outside your car. Maybe the vines can be displayed on your carkey, so that people will know how green you really are.

It has been around since 2005, but is still interesting: the Nissan Pivo Concept Car. This weird looking vehicle owns some nifty technologies, changing the way we interact with the car. One of them is the ability to turn the cabin around in the direction you are driving, making parking a pleasure. And yes, the car can drive sideways. To make this driving experience work they integrated an ‘Around View Monitor’ which constantly generates a 360-degree view of the car’s surroundings on the dashboard.

But what makes it really interesting for Johnny is the way you interact with your navigation system, audio player and other technology. At Nissan they came up with the “Magic 4″ concept, which is a new type of interface. Your hardware isn’t physically controlable anymore, but integrated in the car. Through a central display screen they can be controlled, but this display doens’t have a touchscreen or physical buttons… You simply have to point your finger at the IR system, while keeping your hands on the steering wheel. Pointing one finger will activate the first feature, while pointing three fingers will activate… the third (how surprising). And when you want to make the music louder, you simply motion your finger upwards. The display on the first Pivo was integrated directly below your windscreen, into the dashboard. While on the Pivo 2 it is a special screen again.

The dashboards of the Pivo 2 and Pivo: