Technology

It’s the dream of any motorist: free fuel for life – and Nissan Australia is poised to find out if it’s possible and practical. Nissan has unveiled three electric-car charging stations at its head office in Melbourne powered by solar panels on its roof. They are part of a 200-day trial to find out if solar-powered charging stations can provide truly emissions-free motoring.

Samsung has become the second Android phone manufacturer to support wireless Android Auto, following in the footsteps of Google's own Pixel phones. According to a report from Android Police the Galaxy S8, S9 and S10, along with the Note 8, 9 and 10 all support wireless smartphone mirroring – provided the user is running Android 9 and version 4.7 of the Android Auto app. You also need to be in the USA, Canada or Mexico.

Czech brand Skoda has become the latest manufacturer to offer a Siri-like intelligent in-car assistant, launching a new "Hey, Laura" function for the Kamiq crossover and Scala small car. The online-based voice control system understands natural speech in six languages, according to the Volkswagen Group subsidiary, and forms part of the 'Amundsen' infotainment system that's available for the Kamiq and Scala.

If you haven’t been in a big city like Brisbane or Melbourne lately, you might not have realised how popular electric scooters have gotten. Now Hyundai is looking to get a piece of the action. The company first presented an electric scooter prototype at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The foldable scooter wore the Ioniq nameplate like their hybrid/electric hatchback and was designed to be stowed and charged in the driver’s side door pocket of the Ioniq hatch.

If you check your bank statement, you’ll probably notice a lot of separate subscription fees. From Netflix to Spotify, seemingly everything is now following the subscription model. BMW is now extending this to technical features in your car. UPDATE, 21/8/19: BMW Australia has issued a statement regarding the new subscription model for adaptive cruise control and adaptive high-beam. See bottom of article for details.