The third application is the transmission of technical information from computers monitoring the car's mechanical parts direct to the manufacturer or dealer.

ECONOMIST: Clean machine

It could, for instance, be particularly useful in environmental monitoring of smokestacks and car exhausts.

ECONOMIST: Lasers

Leckar responded that those are questions for another day, but this case was about the illegal attachment of a monitoring device to a car.

FORBES: GPS Case Leaves Justices Groping For A Rule

These, he says, are 1, 500 times better than existing sensors at detecting hydrogen. (The gas combines with the tubes, changing their electrical properties.) Hydrogen detection is used to help control certain processes in industrial food production, for tweaking fuel combustion in car engines, and in monitoring certain bacterial infections.

ECONOMIST: Was the carbon nanotube overhyped?

Each came equipped with Porsche Stability Management, which maintains stability by continuously monitoring the direction, velocity and acceleration of the car.

FORBES: How To Drive A Porsche In The Snow

The criminal complaint against Afzali said he falsely asserted that he never told Zazi that agents were monitoring him on the phone, nor did he ask Zazi about evidence in his rental car.

CNN: Terror suspect: 'Our phone call is being monitored'