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Boston bombers were tracked using Mercedes mbrace [w/video]

We now know Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two brothers said to be behind the Boston Marathon bombings, planned to head for New York City to detonate more improvised explosive devices. As it turns out, that plan was foiled by the quick thinking of one Mercedes-Benz owner, diligent police work and the Mercedes-Benz mbrace system. When the brothers carjacked a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur identified only as "Danny," they didn't realize his Mercedes-Benz M-Class was equipped with the mbrace system, which can call for help in the event of an accident or track the vehicle in the event of a theft.
According to reports, the Tsarnaev brothers held Danny hostage for nearly 90 minutes while they drove around Boston forming a plan until they had to stop for fuel. When one of the brothers went inside to pay, the other put his gun down for a moment. Danny took the opportunity to unlatch his seat belt, open the door and run to another nearby gas station, where he told the owner to call the police.
When police arrived, they used the mbrace system to track the SUV after receiving Danny's permission, and it wasn't long before a shootout between police and the brothers ensued. When it was over, the eldest brother lay dead in the street. For more on the story, view the video report available below.

Popular Science magazine's Best Of What's New 2012 all ate up with cars

Popular Science has named the winners in its Best of What's New awards, the victors coming in the categories of aerospace, automotive, engineering, entertainment, gadgets, green, hardware, health, home, recreation, security and software. The automotive category did not go wanting for lauded advancements:
Tesla Model S: the Grand Award winner for being "the standard by which all future electric vehicles will be measured."
BMW 328i: it's 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder gets called out for being more powerful and frugal than the six-cylinder it replaces.

VW, Fiat, Mercedes could be CNG winners in Europe

Fiat ads in the US try to play up the exotic, sexy side of Italian culture. On the home front in Italy, however, passenger-vehicle sales are marked by something less edgy and quite a bit more practical: the growth of compressed-natural-gas (CNG) powered car sales. In fact, Italy is leading a group of European countries where CNG sales are on the upswing and may be benefiting automakers like VW, Fiat and Mercedes-Benz, according to Automotive News. VW started sales of its Golf TGI natural-gas vehicle this year – the company's fourth in Europe – while Mercedes-Benz added a natural-gas B-class model. Fiat accounts for about 50 percent of CNG vehicles sold on the continent. In all, Europe's CNG sales through September totaled about 67,000, up seven percent from a year earlier, Automotive News Europe says, citing research firm JATO Dynamics. And the number of CNG vehicles on Europe's roads could jump tenfold within the next decade. The draw is a combination of lower refueling prices and a CNG drivetrain that typically emits less CO2 than diesel vehicles. As for Italy, about five percent of new-vehicle sales are CNG. To put that into perspective, hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and diesels combined to account for about 4.2 percent of US vehicle sales last year. News Source: Automotive News - sub. req.Image Credit: Volkswagen Green Fiat Mercedes-Benz Volkswagen Natural Gas Vehicles CNG