KEY POINTS:
Enjoy Auckland's light traffic while you can - because post-holiday congestion will stress you out for sure. A study in Britain by automotive research group Trafficmaster says driving in heavy traffic is more stressful than financial or work pressures, Christmas shopping or even meeting in-laws for the first time. Almost 50 per cent of respondents admitted that road-based stress in the morning affected their whole day. British health psychologist David Moxon said stress was most accurately measured by increased levels of a naturally occurring hormone, cortisol. The study found that stress at the wheel provoked an increase in cortisol levels. Moxon said studies had shown that long-term elevated exposure to cortisol within the body could suppress the immune system and damage blood vessels.
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Nissan remains sceptical about the market for petrol/electric hybrid vehicles, despite taking the wraps off its first such model at the Los Angles and Detroit motor shows. Nissan's US marketing boss, Jan Thompson, said: "What we don't want to do is create a glut of these vehicles where we have to offer heavy incentives to sell them." But Thompson acknowledged there was growing interest in "green" vehicles.
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The US Air Force has been testing a "first-responder communication system" designed to alert key military and civilian services of terrorist attacks. Trouble is, the radio frequency it operates on is home to 50 million garage door openers in the US. The garage doors of hundreds of homes during military tests around Colorado Springs the other day were opening and shutting like a sly grog shop. The Air Force shut the system down to work on a more sophisticated filtering system. "I never thought my garage door was a threat to national security," one homeowner said.
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Toyota is developing a system for cars that detects drunken drivers and automatically shuts the vehicle down if sensors pick up signs of excessive alcohol consumption. Cars fitted with the detection system will not start if sweat sensors in the driving wheel detect high levels of alcohol in the driver's bloodstream.The system could also kick in if the sensors detect abnormal steering, or if a special camera shows that the driver's pupils are not in focus.
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A fellow who stole a safe from a restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska, tried to open it by dragging it behind his pick-up truck, reports the Associated Press. But his masterplan attracted the attention of road users and he stopped to cut the safe loose. That's when police turned up.
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The BBC reports that a judge in Scotland released Chinese student Hui Yu from a traffic charge by disregarding two police officers' identification of Hui. Said the judge: "All Chinese people can look the same to a native Scot. It's only when you have time to look that you begin to see the differences."
