The problem with the backseat - really with the whole rear of the car - is that it's in your way when you're trying to reverse. So researchers at Keio University in Japan have applied optical camouflage technology to automobiles, making the back seat appear transparent so the driver can see straight through it when reversing.

The Bloodhound rocket car has another year of development ahead of it before Wing Commander Andy Green of Britain's Royal Air Force attempts to accelerate it to speeds upward of 1600 kilometers per hour (the current land speed record is 1220 kilomters per hour). In the meantime, the project is teasing us with glimpses of just how powerful this supersonic vehicle's power source will be. Earlier today at Newquay Airport in Cornwall, UK, the development team test fired the rocket engine that will power the Bloodhound across the flats of South Africa next year. Hold on tight.

A couple of years back, Rick Cavallaro and his wind-powered car - Blackbird - silenced an online debate about whether its possible for a wind-powered vehicle to move downwind faster than the speed of the wind itself by going out and outrunning the wind. Now, Cavallaro and company have reconfigured their car to travel upwind and proved that it's possible to travel upwind at more than twice the speed of the headwind, setting what has to be a record for upwind terrestrial sailing.

It might not be a real, purchasable item just yet, but this carbon-chassis electric motorcycle from Norway already has our mouths watering.

Getting around in the future is going to be something of a trip, at least to let classics of science fiction like TRON, Blade Runner, Aliens, and Star Trek tell the story. In a rare glimpse into the mind of the man that largely shaped Hollywood's sci-fi representation of the future of transport, a collection of visionary designer Syd Mead's paintings is currently on display in Manhattan.

Flying objects can achieve forward thrust in a few ways, but here's a unique new one: Flipping inside out to move forward. Designed by the people who brought us the amazing robot seagull, the SmartInversion flying object can move through the air indefinitely.