BMW's autonomous i3 learned how to park and forgot how to crash

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By Sean Cooper - engadget

BMW is at CES this week demonstrating some of its newest advances in the field of highly autonomous driving. If you remember, last year we were taken to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and sped around the track in a tricked-out driverless 4 Series. This year's theme remains essentially the same, though rather than focusing on high-speed driving and drifting, the German automaker has slowed everything down. We were invited to a hotel's rooftop parking area where a couple BMW i3s were parked at either end of the space. One would demonstrate 360-degree collision avoidance and the other fully automated parking. They both did a very impressive job.

Both i3s were equipped with four laser scanners: front, rear and one on both the left and right front-quarter panels. Using the scanners, the car is able to create a temporary map of its environment; picture a box extending out from the car on all sides. Once it drives past an object such as a pylon or a giant block -- and there were many on hand, like real-life Minecraft blocks -- they're remembered for a time.

For the second run, I kept the pedal hard against the floor, but we still stopped at the same smooth pace.

The experimental software and hardware at play know the precise shape of the car and where it is in space. If any part of the car is in danger of hitting any obstacle, the system gently, but insistently stops the car. Of course, the system can also be overridden in a pinch -- for instance, stomping on the pedal will force it into motion no matter what.

In our first test, we drove straight toward a giant block. The BMW rep with me in the car told me to just keep my foot in it and the car would stop. It did, but with the center stack's proximity alerts howling and mostly red. We then did the same exercise, but in reverse. For the second run, I kept the pedal hard against the floor, but we still stopped at the same smooth pace. The rest of the demo saw us circling a rooftop outbuilding attempting various maneuvers to see how the i3 would react while parallel parking and trying to deliberately knock a mirror off. The proximity sensors, while useful in low-speed driving, are mostly useless at speeds greater than a parking pace. To demonstrate this, our last run at the blocks was from a much greater distance and the system stopped as before, but this time without the proximity alerts wailing.

The other i3 on the roof was sitting next to a valet parking sign. Using the same scanners as the 360-degree collision-avoidance system, the fully automated parking demo also adds maps to the mix. GPS might work well in a rooftop parking area, but once you head below ground, GPS goes away and our car would be stopped and stranded. BMW's solution is that the cars be supplied with detailed maps of the parking area so that they can both orient themselves to find the entrance or exit and help select a space to park.

We hopped in the back seat of car and the BMW tech produced a ZenWatch running a BMW app and tapped the "Park Vehicle" button. The car did a quick 180-degree turn and off we went to find a spot. After a few hundred feet, the i3 chose to back into a spot between two other BMWs -- of course -- and did it perfectly. Retrieving the car was done exactly the same way using the app, but this time the car pulled out and headed back to where we left it. The experience of sitting in the back seat of a car as it drove itself about was pretty unsettling at first, but we quickly forgot about that and just enjoyed the drive.

We'd buy these systems tomorrow for our cars as an aftermarket add-on or bundle them in our next new purchase in a flash. The demos -- yes, they were in a controlled environment -- were that compelling. But unfortunately, this gear is being built, designed and tested in lockstep with BMWs vision of the Highly Autonomous car. This was the carmaker's way of telling us it wasn't coming to the next-gen i3 or any other model in the current lineup. Instead, these are small steps in a much larger vision of how vehicles will interact in all manner of different driving situations. Eventually, BMW hopes they'll form a complete and safe automated-driving experience. Again, to be crystal clear, we love driving, but give me the option to read mail instead of mindlessly drifting in traffic and I'm on board. Drop my car off and let it park itself while I get my groceries and then meet me at the curb for a pickup? Yes, we'd line up for that! It's sort of like making dinner -- we'll always want the potatoes; we just won't have to do the peeling anymore.

BMW Dazzles CES with the BMW M4 Concept Iconic Lights

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By Alexander Kalogianni - Digital Trends

Like everything else on cars nowadays, headlamps are getting smarter. We’ve already begun moving away from heavy, space-hogging bulbs in favor of smaller OLEDs, giving us cleaner beams of light in the process. Having brought laser boosted lighting to the market with the i8 hybrid sports car, BMW illuminates the path ahead with BMW M4 Concept Iconic Lights vehicle.

The white metallic car itself is just a showcase of how the future lights would look on a typical BMW vehicle. The laser lights themselves starts blue in color, but a phosphor plate inside the light converts it to a bright white light that mimics daylight. The beams are ten times as powerful as any other light source like xenon or LED, and has a projection range of 600 meters.

You’re probably reading this now, imagining how blind you’ll be when one of these heads down the road ahead of you. Don’t worry, BMW’s thought of that, too. Dynamic actuators control the Selective Beam system, which spots oncoming traffic with a set of cameras and prevents the headlights from dazzling oncoming vehicles.

In fact, the dynamic ability of these lamps goes even further, allowing people and animals detected by an infrared camera to be “spotlighted” for the driver’s immediate attention. Forward sensors can also detect if the way ahead has enough clearance for the vehicle and provides a laser projection to indicate the available width.

From a design standpoint, the implementation of laser and OLED headlights open up realm of possibilities to give the vehicle a distinct appearance, front or back. For instance, as each segment can be individually illuminated, the lights could change so something more fierce in appearance if sport mode was selected.

The headlights themselves may be designed to prevent dazzling other drivers, but consider us stunned.

BMW retakes U.S. luxury auto sales crown from Mercedes-Benz

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BY Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) - BMW (BMWG.DE) on Monday regained bragging rights as the top-selling luxury brand in the United States, ending the one-year reign of German rival Mercedes.

BMW ended with a lead last year of more than 9,000 vehicles over Mercedes-Benz, which in 2013 seized a title BMW had held for the previous two years.

The BMW brand sold 339,738 vehicles in the U.S. market last year, a 9.8 percent jump from 2013. BMW's sales growth outpaced the overall U.S. auto market's 5.9 percent increase. Daimler AG's (DAIGn.DE) Mercedes-Benz brand showed an increase of 5.7 percent to 330,391 vehicles.

Last year, Mercedes-Benz outsold BMW by about 3,000 vehicles. BMW won the sales crown in 2011 and 2012.

Toyota Motor Corp's (7203.T) Lexus brand narrowed the gap on the two German brands, but remained in third last year with 311,389 vehicles, up 13.7 percent.

From 2000 to 2010, Lexus was the luxury sales leader, but the two German brands jumped the Japanese brand in 2011 when a damaging earthquake and tsunami struck Japan.

Volkswagen AG's (VOWG_p.DE) Audi brand overtook General Motors Co's (GM.N) Cadillac for fourth place. Audi's sales of 182,011 were up 15.2 percent while Cadillac sales fell 6.5 percent to 170,750 vehicles.

Honda Motor Co's (7267.T) Acura brand showed a 1.5 percent gain in the year to 167,843 vehicles, followed by Nissan Motor Co's (7201.T) Infiniti at 117,300 vehicles, up 0.8 percent.

In eighth place but gaining was Lincoln, the Ford Motor Co (F.N) luxury brand that a couple of decades ago was the luxury market leader. Lincoln's sales rose 15.6 percent in the year to 94,474 vehicles.

Owners of BMW electric cars get paid not to drive

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By David R. Baker - San Francisco Chronicle

Some Bay Area drivers of the BMW i3 electric hatchback may soon qualify for an odd perk — getting paid to delay recharging their cars.

Drivers who participate in the German automaker’s new i ChargeForward program will receive up to $1,540 in return for letting BMW delay the recharging process whenever California’s electricity grid faces a heavy strain. The delays are expected to last no longer than an hour.

The experimental program — developed by BMW and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. — will test one way to ensure that electric vehicles don’t burden the grid as their popularity slowly grows. If it works well, it could lead to a future in which EV drivers get paid for helping to maintain the grid’s stability. And that money could, in turn, offset the price of electric cars, which still cost substantially more than their gasoline-burning brethren.

“If they will provide us grid service, we can provide them some incentives that will help lower the cost of these vehicles,” said James Ellis, PG&E’s director of electric vehicle programs.

The new program, announced by PG&E and BMW Monday, is just one of many efforts under way to study how best to plug electric cars into the grid. A consortium of automakers, including BMW, is developing a standardized communication platform that will let utilities communicate with their customers’ EVs, letting utilities balance charging times among thousands of customers. Some researchers are also studying ways to use electric cars as big batteries that could feed power to the grid when necessary.

That won’t be part of the BMW experiment.

Instead, BMW and PG&E want to see if they can persuade drivers to give up a little control over recharging times, to prevent electric cars from straining the grid when power supplies are low. It’s similar to the “demand response” programs that utilities already run, which typically give big businesses a break on electricity bills in return for agreeing to cut power use during emergencies.

Starting this month, BMW will seek online applications from Bay Area i3 drivers willing to participate in the program. Those interested can register at www.bmwichargeforward.com. The program will enroll 100 drivers, who will receive $1,000 up-front.

Whenever power supplies on the electricity grid run low — say during summer afternoons — PG&E will send a notice to those drivers through a BMW smartphone app. The notice will warn them that their plugged-in cars will temporarily stop charging. Drivers who absolutely need a full charge can use the smartphone app to opt out, ensuring that charging continues.

At the end of the program, in late 2016, drivers will receive a second payment worth up to $540, based on the number of times they let the system delay charging.

In all likelihood, not all participating drivers will agree to delay charging each time the system sends an alert — they could be on the road or know they need a full charge soon. So BMW will tap a bank of used electric-car batteries, located at the automaker’s technology office in Mountain View, to make up the difference, sending PG&E enough electricity to make up for the drivers who opted out.

“That’s our way we’re ensuring that we always meet our commitment to PG&E while never sacrificing mobility for our customers,” said Julia Sohnen, an advanced technology engineer in sustainable mobility for BMW.