Feb 27th, 2015
My work forces me to travel on a regular basis. And because most car service drivers drive like madmen, I always rent a car for my trips between the airport and my clients’. Unfortunately, my experience with car services has been far from great. In fact, it’s probably my second worse customer experience after air travel. That was until I discovered Silvercar. continued →
Feb 14th, 2015
Or is the future already in your pocket in the form of your smartphone? Either way what you see here is the Android based key fob that BMW will introduce this fall for the BMW i8. However like most technology within the BMW Group, we expect this to make its way down the range of BMWs and even MINI in some form in the years ahead. continued →
Feb 13th, 2015
If you’ve never heard of Apple, it’s a small technology company that has changed the world, over and over again since 1976. It also recently became the first U.S. company to manage a $700 billion market cap and is now possibly making headways into the automotive space. To be exact, Apple already has a presence in the automotive space with CarPlay, but this new hire along with reports indicating that Apple’s design team has met with a number of key automotive executives and creators in recent months, adds more fuel to the potential fire. continued →
Feb 4th, 2015
Earlier this week, we linked to an article from the Washington Post describing how car enthusiasts feel about technology-generated engine sounds. Our takeaway was that Active Sound is a necessary evil given the advances made in fuel efficiency (e.g. displacement on demand) and safety. Since I have not had the chance to exchange with an engineer from MINI about this technology, I’m the first to admit that my knowledge on the topic is very limited. With that in mind, and thanks to a detailed anonymous tip from a SME, we’ve decided to demystify the inner workings of Active Sound. In short, it is not evil and has nothing to do with fake engine noise. continued →
Jan 31st, 2015
Cars are becoming more connected each day and just like with computers, smart phones and other “internet of things” connected devices it makes them targets of hackers. The 2014 – 2015 F55 and F56 feature a version of “MINI CONNECTED” that allows the BMW Group’s servers to provide live updates, web connectivity and features such as unlocking or preconditioning of cars. It’s this feature that has been exploited.
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Jan 25th, 2015
When it comes to tech, it’s fair to say that the US always get the cool stuff first, but this time around it seems our European counterparts have had exclusive access to a very interesting service since 2012. That service is called Google Compare and serves, amongst other things, as an auto insurance hub. In Europe, you can basically buy you car insurance through Google. As it turns out, this service might soon be available in the US. continued →
Jan 14th, 2015
Everything that we know is about to change! That’s a bold statement, but given the scoop Autocar managed to grab from BMW’s Advanced Engineering Department, we are in for a wild ride regarding future BMW and MINI models. According to Autocar journalist Hilton Holloway, the BMW Group is on a quest to a radical engineering overhaul which will result in reinventing legacy cars into all-wheel-drive range-extender electric cars. To comply with EU fuel consumption regulations, future BMWs and Rolls-Royce will boast unprecedented EfficientDynamics technologies, including:
- Mix of steel, aluminum and composites for body construction
- Electric motors as primary drive source while combustion engines act as energy generators
- Advanced aerodynamics to reducing air and rolling resistance at speed to a minimum
- 3D connected navigation systems that anticipate traffic and road types
Although it will require some time before the Group can pack all these innovations into a single vehicle, we’re already witnessing the efforts of the Advanced Engineering Department with the successful i3, i8, and upcoming G11 7 series. continued →
