Because our resident automotive enthusiast Matt Burns up and decided to go camping this week, I was lucky enough to attend BMW’s sneak preview event in NYC today where I got a first look at two new eco-friendly vehicles: the BMW i3 and i8. Referred to as mega-city vehicles (or MCVs if you will), both are built with the urban driver in mind, capitalizing on green features and stability. The all-electric i3 is really more of a compact SUV, while the hybrid-electric i8 is a sexy little sports car.
We were lucky enough to get a hold of Richard Kim, external designer for both vehicles, who details the what and why of these new cars. A couple key points he made is that the vehicles are much lighter than your average car, thanks to carbon fiber-reinforced plastic materials used for the cars’ frames. The i3 and i8 have also been created from the ground-up, as opposed to electric or hybrid-electric vehicles that are merely conversions of existing models. In this way, the assembly and design of the i3 and i8 are much more efficient, with bulky batteries laying flush along the bottom and the “life module” seamlessly sitting on top.
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Earlier today we ventured to downtown New York for a demo of a BMW equipped with MOG’s music streaming app. MOG has been working with Mini and BMW on this app for a while. The BMW version is slated to launch in mid-October and it works with BMW’s new ConnectedDrive technology, available in 2011 and beyond models. MOG’s music library contains 12 million songs.
http://player.ooyala.com/player.swf?embedCode=lrZ3NlMjqM7CJJj9PV5x5ngX9HG5TeI4&version=2 Mini’s rolling out a slick new in-vehicle system and we recently got a hands-on demo. Mini Connected features much of what you’d expect for a modern infotainment system including a tight integration with iOS devices but there are some nifty new tricks. Everyone wants RSS feeds in their car, right? The fun parts starts when the car uses the phone’s data connection to search Google Local and then feeds the info to the car’s navigation. No longer are owners stuck with potentially outdated navigation data as the results are pulled directly from Google. Mini also developed a fun social app called MINIMALISM Analyser that collects and presents all sorts of fun driving data. It records everything from driving distance to gas millage with the goal of increasing fuel efficiency. More to come from Kyle’s trip to BMW’s Silicon Valley design facility. → Read More
Take a quick look at where BMWs are conceived. The video doesn’t show much, but clearly gets across the message that BMW is committed to making the world’s best cars. Crafting prototypes out of solid aluminum says commitment. Nuts. → Read More
BMW announced today the all-new BMW 6 Series Coupé with a Bang and Olufsen sound system with 16 loudspeakers driven by 1,200 watts of power. There are seven tweeters that come paired with mid-range speakers for consistent sound. The other two speakers are the two massive subwoofers mounted to the car body under the front seats. This method ensures there aren’t any vibrations or rattles from the subwoofers. → Read More
Auto maker BMW recently established a New York-based venture capital firm dubbed BMW i Ventures that it seeded with $100 million to seek out partnerships that might facilitate BMW-i product adoption in urban markets. BMW-i is a BMW sub-brand solely focused on developing and producing sustainable mobility vehicles.
Its first investment was made public this week: BMW pumped $5 million into MyCityWay, a user-driven, location-aware city guide. FirstMark Capital and IA Ventures, who participated in an earlier $1 million seed round, joined BMW. → Read More
The Paris Motor show is going on now. The usual car unveilings are a given, but also the shows are becoming a place for automakers to showcase and release exciting new tech. Take BMW for example, they are known around the globe for making the “ultimate driving machines.” Now, they are entering the realm of being the ultimate connectivity machine. → Read More
I always wonder what is really meant when people say that BMW, or Ferrari, or whoever, colluded with this or that consumer tech company to create a product. Obviously they didn’t get the lead designer for the 5 series to work on these from the ground up, but at the same time they didn’t hire the guy who created the seat-recline mechanism.
I’m guessing they get a few sketches from the art department at BMW, who are asked what a BMW headphone might look like. Then Sennheiser does the rest, runs it by BMW for a thumbs up, and then proudly says “we collaborated!” That’s just my guess. → Read More
You’ve probably heard about the BMW Mini E lease program — 500 or so of the little buggers were let into the wild to be given real-life, long-term testing by regular people. It seems like the program was a success, because BMW is doing it again, this time with their Active-E (Activeeee!) concept, a more practical car for most people, but also mighty expensive. → Read More
Remember that time you left your phone in the car on a cold night when you went to dinner, and when you got back to it, the battery was nearly dead because it had gotten so cold? Yeah, that would be happening a lot if you had an electric car that didn’t take temperature into account.
And so the testers of BMW Mini Es are finding out in cold weather: range seems to be reduced by half in 23° temperatures. → Read More
Ford and Microsoft have found great success partnering together on Sync and the rest of the automotive industry have finally taken notice. We’ve taken Sync for a ride or two and know that it works as advertised. We even took a 2010 Mustang for a spin over the weekend and even without the full-fledged Nav system with touchscreen, Sync worked great. BTW- Ford kicked some ass on the new Mustang. The interior is plush.
Anyway, BMW and Nuance announced earlier today that they’ve partnered to bring Nuance’s Music Search and One-shot Destination Entry tech to the Bavarian’s 2010 lineup of whips with Professional. Said system launches this month in the US and Europe. The speech recognition technology will go hand-in-hand with BMW’s already overly complicated iDrive system. Have fun with that. → Read More
One lucky Californian dude is cruising in style after he took delivery of the very first production electric Mini. The Mini-E is available for lease on a very limited basis reminiscent of the GM EV-1 from the ’90s. Except this time around, the plug-in electric car will only be in customers hands for one short year instead of three. Presumably, the 500 cars will be sent back to Mini for testing and evaluation after the one year is up.
Anyway, Peter Trepp has a blog up about the car and his experiences. He seems totally satisfied despite driving the car in bad LA traffic his first time out. Interestingly, he notes that the Mini-E drivers will not have to touch the brake pedal at all thanks to the strong brake regeneration system, which makes me think this vehicle has a similar system as the Chevy Volt that I didn’t like. → Read More
BMW is out to improve its vehicles efficiencies and has turned to NASA for help. The car company plans on equipping thermoelectric generators on upcoming models to power secondary systems and therefore improving gasoline economy. Now, this update to BMW’s Efficient Dynamics isn’t a huge leap forward, but rather an evolutionary step towards the space age. Some satellites employ similar thermoelectric generators on satellites where the power is derived from the heat generated by radioactive decay which is then turned back into electricity. BMW’s system works similarly – sans the nuclear power of course – by harnessing the combustion engine’s hot exhaust for something other than polluting. This system generates up to 200W of power which is enough to power even high-demand electrical systems such as climate control and therefore taking strain off of the motor’s electrical generation system. This passive system improves gasoline efficiency by nearly 5%. That’s not a whole lot, but it’s better than stop-start brake energy regeneration that recovers energy wasted on braking. Plus, it shows that the company is committed to find better ways of working with current combustion platforms rather than reinventing the wheel in times of economy doom and gloom. BMW expects to get this system on models by the 2014 model year. Better start saving pennies now. CAR via Autoblog → Read More
Thermaltake and BMW have teamed up to create the “Level 10” PC case, which is on display at the CeBIT conference in Hanover, Germany this week. The case definitely looks interesting, with all the components outside the case yet inside their own compartments. It kind of looks like one of those apartment complexes in a warm climate where the elevators are indoors but the hallways to everyone’s domiciles are out in the open air. → Read More
Dare we call the current crop of GPS units dumb. While they can tell you how to get between A or B, they don’t really know you. BMW’s upcoming Intelligent Learning Navigation System, or ILENA for short, will get to know you and your spouse intimately. → Read More
Now, you could just go down a list and tick the options you want, but that wouldn’t really be posh enough for you, would it? You’re getting a Bimmer, and you want the experience to be luxurious and classy from start to finish. And that’s why they’re employing a Microsoft Surface to choose your options and check out your car’s features instead of a good old piece of paper. The interface looks pretty standard to me, but like most Surface apps, the fun is in actually doing it, and prospective BMW customers will have a great time exploring it. As always, I’m glad to see this fun technology showing up outside of Microsoft Labs. Also, the guy explaining it is awesome. → Read More
BMW is jumping into the niche market of battery-powered automobiles with the Mini E. The car is set to be unveiled next month at the LA Auto Show, but all the details have been just been released. → Read More
Supposedly TiVo is using an online survey to test users’ responses to a new interface. That’s a screen shot from it up there. Most interesting to me, as a non-TiVo user, is that BMW ad along the top of the screen. It’s not intrusive at all, which is what makes it effective. It sort of hides right in there. Not for nothing, but it also reminds me of Aeon, the skin for XBMC. → Read More
