General Motors announced 2011 Chevrolet Volt have mountain mode

General Motors the US car manufacturer announced that 2011 Chevrolet Volt will have mountain mode as a standard feature. The new feature will come in addition to the normal and sport mode.

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt is powered by 16-kWh, T-shaped lithium-ion battery that powers the electric drive unit, which allows it to drive 40 miles on battery power alone. The car puts out 150-hp and a maximum torque of 273 lb-ft, allowing the Volt to go from 0-60 mph in about 9 seconds, hitting a top speed of 100 mph. The battery can be recharged by plugging into a household outlet and takes less than 3 hours to recharge on 240 volts, and about 8 hours on a standard 120-volt outlet.

The 2011 Chevrolet Volt also holds a 1.4L 4-cylinder engine system that allows the five-door, FWD sedan to travel additional miles while averaging a fuel economy of fuel system is 50 mpg. A fully charged battery and full tank of gas will allow the Volt to travel 300 miles.

The new mountain mode in 2011 Chevrolet Volt will allow Volt drivers to set a larger reserve capacity in the battery in terrain that would require the vehicle to use extra power. The mountain model will indeed reduce the Volt’s zero emissions range. If you’re going up the hill, you want that engine to come on sooner for the sake of efficiency and optimal driving experience.

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General Motors next generation Head Up Display technology

General Motors the US car manufacturer come up with new Head Up Display technology in 1988. After that many car manufacturers sell cars with HUD. Currently GM is working by collaborating with many universities on the next generation system.

We're looking to create enhanced vision system. Let's say you're driving in fog, we could use the vehicle's infrared cameras to identify where the edge of the road is and the lasers could ‘paint' the edge of the road onto the windshield so the driver knows where the edge of the road is." said in a statement by Thomas Seder GM R&D group lab manager.

Existing systems rely on a small part of the windshield being HUD active, and in most cases only the driver can see the information on display. GM wants to make the full windshield an HUD hub by finishing it with transparent phosphors which produce visible light when energized by a light rays. To this function the light beam comes from a compact laser.

Shared with a sophisticated night vision system the new HUD would pick up pedestrians and animals within close proximity in extremely dark or misty situation and show the information obviously. It can be assisted with the Insignias symbol sensing technology to aware of the driver about related road signs.

"We have done testing on a number of drivers and their performance is better relative to head down systems that are commonly used in vehicles today. It is a compelling design.” said by Seder.