Cop Car of Future Stops at Times Square

NYPD hasn't committed to new cruiser

It goes from zero to 60 in barely six seconds (wow), and tops out at 155 mph. It's got automatic license-plate recognition (yikes), and radiation threat detection.

And it has comfortable seats and looks really cool.

Sound like a car ad? A cross between a new Porsche and the EM-50 Urban Assault Vehicle from "Stripes," perhaps?

It's actually the E7 from Carbon Motors, a 300-horsepower crime-fighting machine that earned a few oohs and aahs at Times Square Thursday morning. It's being touted as the cop car of the future, essentially.

Where many current squad cars are simply modified versions of civilian vehicles, the E7 is designed with officers' specific needs in mind.

"It is the world's first purpose-built law enforcement patrol vehicle, developed ... from ground up, bumper to bumper, for our homeland-security responders all across this country," Carbon Motors Chairman and CEO William Santana Li said.

Loaded with lots of high-tech doodads, the car can scan 1,500 license plates at a time and run them against a criminal data base.

It has WMD threat-protection capability to scan for biological and radiation threats.

Its molded seats are supposed to be good for those 8+ hour shifts, it has cup holders that heat up and cool down, and air-conditioned headrests.

And, Li claims, it's even good for the environment, using 40 percent less fuel than the standard-issue cop car.

All this hoopla, but no word yet on whether NYPD -- or any department for that matter -- will use it.

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