There sure is a lot of car-related news today. Anyways, despite the automotive glut this story was too cool to pass up. Nissan’s futuristic Pivo 2, a “robot assisted” car that lets you drive backwards and even sideways will hit the road in Portugal in 2011. Sideways driving ability and robotic car controls aren’t the only futuristic feature on the Pivo 2, the cars are also equipped with “green” electric engines. Portugese Prime Minister Jose Socrates announced on Wednesday that his country will begin building a national network of electric car charging centers so that Nissan and Renault can start selling the Pivo 2 there in two and-a-half years. It becomes available worldwide in 2012.

The Pivo 2 has four engines, pivoting wheels, and a rotating cabin so you can face front while driving in multiple directions. This unique design helps people to avoid tight parallel parking jobs forever.

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Not everyone wants to solve their parking problems by sacrificing their dignity and squeezing into one of those tiny urban cruiser cars. Luckily for San Francisco residents, the city is stepping in to try and help them avoid the parking crunch. As part of a $95.5 million program called SFPark, 6,000 of San Francisco’s 24,000 metered parking spaces are being outfitted with sensors that will allow drivers to spot open parking spaces by checking maps on their cell phones or by looking at displays on street signs.

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Reviving WiFi isn’t the only new thing Philadelphia is doing. As part of a city-wide campaign called “Drive CarePhilly,” which is against aggressive driving in Philadelphia, PA-100 junctions have been painted with fake speed humps. These said speed bumps offer an illusionary appearance of a three-dimensional barrier to any oncoming motorist while in fact the road is completely flat.

This is exactly what drivers need in the city of Philadelphia; additional obstacles to feed their ill-temper. The catch? It only works on a driver one time. I smell accidents coming.
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Forget cellphones, all the screens going into cars nowadays are causing all of the crashes. It’s not that the driver of the car is driving wrecklessly, it’s the driver of the car behind the car with the movie playing. Really people, watching movies while driving is not safe!

Now we have the Visor. It is a flip-down visor has a TV/DVD player with an FM transmitter in order to keep your passengers entertained and out of your hair. So however unsafe this device is (and however illegal), if you can afford it, you’ll probably be rushing out to your local hi-tech car shop to rip this off of the shelves. $300 is all it’ll cost you. Is that really worth the peace and quiet while driving? –Nik Gomez

Car 7-inch Sun Visor TV/DVD Player and FM Transmitter [via The Gadget Blog]