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Hands-on with Acura's novel touchpad infotainment interface

After Acura's Precision Cockpit was unveiled here in LA, I sat in the, uh, driver's seat of the wheel-less interior mockup to get a feel for how this new touchscreen-free touch interface works. There are a lot of good ideas inside. Here are 11 things you should know. It's less like a trackpad and more like a remote-control tablet. So instead of letting you move a cursor relative to its last location like the trackpad on a laptop, each point on Acura's trackpad is mapped to a corresponding point on the center display. If you want what's in the upper right corner of the display, you touch and click in the upper right corner of the trackpad. Simple. I figured it out in two minutes. Maybe less. The whole thing is surprisingly intuitive. The ease of use is helped by the fact that the targets on the screen are pretty big – no tiny "buttons" to fiddle with. The clicks are real. The trackpad actually moves when you press down, so no need for simulated haptic feedback. In their research, Acura engineers found that accidental touches and presses are a real issue. We could have told them that – hit a bump while using a finicky remote interface like Lexus's all-but-abandoned joystick thing, and you select an item half-way across the screen from the one you intended. The placement of the trackpad in this concept interior also helps avoid unintentional inputs – it's not in the middle of the center console where it might get brushed or bumped, but instead in its own little cave at the base of the center-stack waterfall. (Acura's low-profile button-based transmission selector suddenly makes a whole lot of sense.) View 13 Photos Lots of cues cut down on distraction. You hover over the option you want before positively confirming the selection with a hard press. There's no cursor to find and reposition like in the Lexus trackpad system The red highlight gives the necessary visual cue that you put your finger in the right place. The pad is slightly dished to give you a tactile cue of where the center and edges are. It allows you to build up muscle memory, sort of like how you know generally where the "keys" are on your smartphone or tablet's virtual keyboard by now. Or at least I do on mine. You look at the screen, not what you're touching. The problem with touch screens is that they have to be low down in the car so you can reach them. That means you have to look down from the road to stab at what you want.

Acura confirms more 2016 NSX details

Acura served up a slew of engineering details about the soon-to-launch 2016 NSX. Fittingly, they were explained at a dinner at the SAE International World Congress in Detroit, where morsels about the new Acura supercar were likely gobbled up quicker than the main course. Among the highlights: The NSX will mark Acura's first use of a multimaterial space frame, and it includes high-strength steel and aluminum. This will allow the NSX to hit its weight targets, while maintaining rigidity. The NSX uses a so-called "ablation" technology, which allows the ultra-rigid castings to be used within the car's crush zones. For more details on this, scroll through the press blast below. As expected, the NSX will pack a twin-turbo V6 engine, and Acura confirmed it will displace 3.5 liters. The unit will be mounted amidships and team with hybrid components to increase performance and efficiency. The supercar also features the most advanced evolution of Acura's Super Handling All-Wheel-Drive system, and it's capable of distributing more torque than any other setup the brand has used. The NSX has 10 air-cooled heat exchangers that will cool the powertrain, and the V6 alone will have three radiators. There are also twin intercoolers in the side air intakes that further cool the system. The next generation of the NSX was unveiled in January at the Detroit Auto Show, and production launches this fall in Ohio. Related Video: New Technical Details of the Next Generation Acura NSX Revealed at SAE 2015 World Congress and Exhibition . DETROIT, April 23, 2015 – In advance of the market launch of the highly anticipated next generation Acura NSX, the engineers leading the supercar's development shared new technical details and design strategies with the automotive engineering community at the April 22nd SAE Detroit Section dinner, held in conjunction with the SAE 2015 World Congress and Exhibition. Additional information about the team's efforts to achieve a true "New Sports Experience" included details of the NSX's world's first body construction process that helped create a multi-material space frame resulting in class-leading body rigidity, the advanced total airflow management system and an update on NSX's power unit specifications. Ted Klaus, chief engineer and global development leader of the new NSX, introduced key powertrain, body and dynamic performance engineers who shared new product and technical details in their related areas of the development.

Why the 2015 Detroit Auto Show will be the best since The Crisis

The Detroit Auto Show clearly has its swagger back, and the 2015 edition will be a veritable feast for the enthusiast senses. We're talking serious performance, and it will be exhibited in a variety of forms. Sports cars. Supercars. Muscle-bound luxury cars. They're all set for splashy debuts in January in the Motor City. It's another signpost that companies have recovered from the global economic crisis that gripped the industry from 2008-09. For a while, automakers played it safe at Detroit and other shows. Environmentally friendly cars were important, especially for General Motors and Chrysler that were living on loans from Uncle Sam. Ford, Toyota and other companies generally focused on their best-selling or core models. With a few notable exceptions, recent auto shows have been a bit more buttoned-down than in the past. Boring probably isn't the right word, but austerity has been reality. That's changing. Car companies are making money. Sales are up. Aside from the many nagging recalls – and they are notable – the industry now has the time and energy to make performance cars a priority. That will be offered in hard evidence in Detroit. A year from now when we look back at this auto show, we'll sum it up with one word: Horsepower. But make no mistake, this isn't frivolous. Sports and luxury cars are expensive. They're profitable. They boost images and highlight strengths. With that in mind, here are five significant performance-oriented reveals to watch for when the show kicks off in less than two weeks. 2016 Acura NSX Acura's reborn NSX is a strong bet to earn plenty of votes for our Editors' Choice awards. It's one of the most anticipated – and strung-out – reveals of the year. Think back: we actually saw an NSX concept at the 2012 Detroit show, and Acura has spent the last three years teasing the car in a variety of ways. The slow burn, however, means we know a lot about the NSX. It's will use a mid-mounted twin-turbo hybrid powertrain and run with all-wheel drive. It will also wear an innovative zirconium e-coat paint, a new paint process that Honda says is more environmentally friendly. Honda has also said it will build the new NSX in Ohio, where a large part of the car's development work has been done. The original NSX was produced from 1990-2005 and helped establish Acura's performance credentials in the United States. It was a landmark car and a shot across the bow of Ferrari, Lamborghini and others.