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BMW Routes: load scenic routes onto your iDrive

February 19, 2009 at 2:49 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, Technology, Videos

BMW Routes

The next time you plan a holiday in Europe, you may want to rent a BMW and make it a road trip holiday. BMW’s new BMW Routes feature (currently still in testing and might be offered on BMW Online services soon) has 25 routes in 5 European countries, designed to run over the course of multiple days with detailed information including photos and even the opening hours of the various stops for interesting sights or food etc you can make along the way. It’s an online portal where you can choose your route and have it sent to your BMW’s iDrive system via ConnectedDrive.

Future plans for BMW include the ability for customers to define their own routes and even share them with other BMW Routes users. This will be useful not only for great sightseeing trips but I can see people mapping out their favourite twisty B-roads for others to have a fun go at. I can’t wait for features such as BMW ConnectedDrive to come to BMWs in Malaysia, but as it is a telco dependant service BMW Malaysia is still in discussions with potential mobile telcos on implementation.

It’s all pretty neat, check out the video after the jump!
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2009 S-Class facelift to feature Mercedes-Benz SPLITVIEW Screen Technology

December 12, 2008 at 4:30 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Mercedes Benz, Technology

Mercedes-Benz SplitView
Click to enlarge image

The 2009 Mercedes-Benz S-Class will debut an enhancement to the vehicle’s COMAND navigation and entertainment system called SPLITVIEW. Yes, you got it right, it’s going to appear in a production car. Basically, the COMAND 8 inch LCD screen at the front will be able to display two different screens depending on the angle you are viewing it from.

For example, the driver sitting on the left (in a left hand drive car) will be able to view a screen displaying GPS navigation maps and instructions while the front passenger viewing the screen from the right will be able to watch a DVD. To prevent distracting the driver, the passenger can use a supplied pair of headphones for the DVD’s audio.

This is achieved by a technique that places pixels adjacent to each other, then using a filter that divides the image in such a way that only certain pixels can be seen depending on the viewing angle.

What about the rear passengers you say? Won’t they be looking at something a little jumbled up when viewing straight on? Well, I suppose SPLITVIEW is going to be a high-end specification and in cars that will have it available, the rear passengers could most likely have their own COMAND display integrated into the backs of the front passenger seats.

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Silicon replacing graphite: the key to long range electric cars using lithium ion batteries?

November 16, 2008 at 7:20 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Technology

Electric Proton Persona

Hanyang University of Korea’s Professor Cho Jae-Phil claims his research team have discovered a way to produce lithium ion batteries that have 8 times more battery life than existing lithium ion batteries!

Now if this were a gadget blog you’d immediately think longer battery life for laptops, but since this is an automotive blog I’m pretty sure you’re thinking what I’m thinking – could this finally seal the fate of electric cars as the new mode of propulsion of the future?

It seems that the lithium ion batteries of today, while still superior to nickel batteries, are limited by the ability of its graphite cathode to store lithium ions. By applying a three-dimensional porous silicon, Professor Cho’s research team claims to be able to store up to 8 times the amount of lithium ions compared to current battery technology.

In another related news story earlier this year, a Stamford University research team discovered a (similiar?) way to improve lithium ion batteries to hold as much as 10 times more charge. It also involved replacing the graphite with a “forest” of silicon nanowires which can store much more lithium compared to graphite.

Related Posts:
DRIVEN: Detroit Electric’s electric Lotus Elise
Detroit Electric to base electric cars on Proton cars?
BMW confirms plans to build electric city car
BMW unveils the MINI E electric car
Pininfarina B0 Electric Car Concept

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New Nissan Cube to debut new catalyst with low precious metal content

November 16, 2008 at 5:55 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Nissan, Technology

New Nissan Catalyst

Between 30% to 50% of the world’s platinum output is used in automobile catalytic converters, and automobile-based usage are set to become even higher of fuel cell cars become more popular in the future, as platinum catalysts are also used in fuel cells.

Platinum is called a precious metal for a reason. Some keywords found in the definition of a precious metal include rare, and high in economic value. Thus it would make sense for an automaker to try to reduce the usage of such precious metals in their vehicles.

Nissan has developed a new ultra-low precious metal catalyst that will debut on the new Nissan Cube, set to be launched this week on the 19th of November 2008. They claim it uses half the amount of precious metals (rhodium and platinum) compared with regular catalysts – 1.3 grams versus 0.65 grams.

In regular catalysts, the high exhaust gas temperatures cause the precious metals to cluster together, thus reducing exposed metal surface. To counter this, catalysts typically contain more precious metals. Nissan’s catalyst adds a “wall” which prevents the clustering of the precious metals.

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New Michelin Lunar Wheel based on the Tweel

November 16, 2008 at 3:55 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Technology

Michelin Lunar Wheel

At first sight you’ll recognise the wheel above as the Michelin Tweel. The Tweel was a concept wheel which used flexible spokes which deform to absorb shock. It does not need air pressure. It also had the ability to be “tuned” to have different vertical and lateral stiffness. This way, vertical stiffness can be reduced to improve ride comfort while lateral stiffness can be increased to improve handling and cornering ability. This allows one tweel to have the best of both worlds!

The Tweel has undergone more R&D and will in the future be used as a lunar wheel for NASA moon rovers. Michelin already supplies NASA with tyres for its space shuttles for more than 20 years now. According to Michelin, the new Tweel-based lunar wheel maintains flexibility and constant ground contact pressure even at very low temperatures to enable moon rovers to navigate loose soil and lunar craters with ease. It has a lower mass with a higher load capacity that is 3.3 times more efficient than the original Apollo Lunar Rover wheels.

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Nissan develops nuclear “X-ray” for engine oil flow

November 11, 2008 at 11:34 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Nissan, Technology

Nissan has partnered up with the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) to develop a new neutron imaging system which can be used to precisely visualize oil flow in an engine operating at high speed, allowing the car manufacturer to study the behaviour of lubricant in an engine and pin-point precisely where frictional losses are happening so that fuel consumption and CO2 emissions can be reduced. This is a project under the Nissan Green Program 2010.

The system uses neutron radiography and high-speed imaging to look at the oil flow through the engine block to each component, oil splash from the crankshaft and oil delivery to the final drive gear.

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Hyundai R-Engine all-aluminium turbodiesel

November 4, 2008 at 8:54 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Hyundai, International News, Kia, Koreans, Technology

Hyundai R-EngineHyundai has just announced a new all-aluminium diesel engine family, the R-Engine family which comes in two displacements – 2.0 litre and 2.2 litre. These motors are key to Hyundai and Kia’s continued efforts to make it big in the European market, and they are Euro 5 compliant thanks to a close-coupled diesel particulate filter. The 2.0 litre unit produces 184 PS and 392Nm of torque while the 2.2 litre unit produces 200 PS and 436Nm of torque, which are pretty impressive figures for a single-turbocharged engine.

It uses an electronically controlled variable geometry turbocharger and a third generation commonrail system with piezo-electric injectors injecting fuel pressurized at 1,800 bar. It is driven by an internal steel silent timing chain, and also has a lower balance shaft encased in a stiffened ladder frame for increased rigidity. These measures helps reduce vibration.

The new R-Engine family will go into production in 2009 and will first appear in new SUVs and large saloons. The Hyundai ix55 and the new Kia Sorento will probably be one of the first few Hyundai vehicles to feature this engine.

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BMW Konfigurator powered by Microsoft Surface lets you configure your BMW, CSI-style!

October 15, 2008 at 11:01 pm By Paul Tan Filed Under BMW, Cars, Technology, Videos

BMW LogoThis is an experimental demo of a BMW car configurator using the new Microsoft Surface technology. Even if you are not someone that keeps up to date with the tech world, if you watch CSI: Miami you probably have already seen it in action.

Real life usage can be found in AT&T stores. It’s essentially a system running Windows Vista which uses 5 cameras to record infrared light from human fingertips on the “surface”, as well as specially tagged objects.

The BMW car configurator is appropriately called the BMW Konfigurator, and although it is currently still in prototype form we may see it a regular feature in BMW showrooms soon. Basically you have a 30 inch touch screen display on a table which you are able to interact with to configure your BMW car.

For example, you can change colours of the exterior and interior, change the wheel design, and add other accessories. At the end of your selections the system will quote you a price. You can also view photos and videos on the car.

You can look after the jump for a video I recorded of the BMW Konfigurator being used to configure the latest F01 BMW 7-Series.
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ZF’s quick shifting 6-speed automatic thanks to “twin torsional dampers”

September 15, 2008 at 2:06 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, International News, Technology

ZF Torque ConverterSome companies like Volkswagen have decided to ditch the conventional automatic transmission for an all-twin clutch offering when it comes to a gearbox for those who do not want to bother with shifting and clutching, but many companies still swear by the automatic transmission with planetary gearsets and a torque converter as they usually offer much smoother shifts and thus are usually more suited for a comfortable drive.

Twin clutch and single clutch automated manual transmissions are catching up in terms of smoothness of shifting but the torque converter is also making progress when it comes to shift speed and fuel efficiency. ZF Sachs recently celebrated the 20 millionth torque converter to roll off its Schweinfurt plant.

The latest in ZF’s torque converter technology is the use of twin torsional dampers in the torque converter to allow the lock-up clutch to close at an earlier point in time. This results in faster shift times and better fuel efficiency due to the fact that the mechanical linkage thanks to the lock-up clutch is active more often rather than having power transferred through the oil. This quick-shifting gearboxes have appeared in some higher end BMW vehicles such as the BMW X5.

So yes, conventional automatics apparently aren’t going to disappear anytime soon, with ZF Sachs recently investing another 80 million Euros at its Schweinfurt plant to expand capacity. The plant will also be making ZF’s new 8-speed automatic transmission, that’s said to be making a production appearance on an upcoming V12 760i version of the F01 7-Series and a future Rolls Royce.

Though ZF appears to be committed to improving and pushing the limits of how far the conventional auto can go, ZF will also be venturing into the world of dual clutch transmissions. Two twin clutch boxes are said to be in the works – the 7DCT50 and the 7DCT70 which seems to indicate 7-speed units. Too bad it missed the M DCT boat – BMW’s 7-speed twin clutch box is sourced from Getrag, which traditionally supplies manual boxes to Munich.

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New Honda Motion Adaptive Electric Power Steering

September 5, 2008 at 1:35 am By Paul Tan Filed Under Cars, Honda, International News, Technology

Honda VSA with Adaptive ESP

Honda has added a new safety feature to its Vehicle Stability Assist system called Motion Adaptive Electric Power Steering (Motion Adaptive EPS). Currently only available with the newly launched Honda Legend, it will be added to the Japanese-market Honda Accord (not the same as our Accord as it is known as the Honda Inspire there) and the next generation Honda Odyssey.

Motion Adaptive EPS provides steering wheel feedback to the driver during an unstable slippery corner to prompt the driver’s action in steering the wheel the right way as sometimes drivers tend to over-correct the steering angle. It can also correct steering input when braking on a surface which causes uneven traction between the left and right side wheels of the car.

While it remains a premium feature for now, like all technologies Motion Adaptive EPS should slowly trickle down to the rest of the Honda range. The only question is how long?

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