Topic: Auto Tech: BMW's Tech Innovations

[Autos_Editor]

Trick building materials and magic road-reading transmissions cap off a tour of BMW's latest technical wizardry.

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[JohnM]

"sense slower moving cars ahead, and will downshift the transmission in preparation for overtaking."

I would think this would trigger a Pavlovian response in the driver's mind that strongly predisposes him to passing.  Like having someone in the passenger seat yelling "Go for it Lesley!"

I'm not sure this is a good idea for off-the-track driving.

Cheers,
John M.

[tpl]

All this techno stuff is indeed good...but I wonder if, industry wide, it would not be cheaper to pressure governments to make the standards easier...all the way up to bribes and blackmail.   I am always surprised when the EPA in the states puts out new rules that  a gang of Republican congresscritters doesn't  force them to stop.

[JohnM]

" I am always surprised when the EPA in the states puts out new rules that  a gang of Republican congresscritters doesn't  force them to stop."

One small part of the US government seems to work.  I wonder for how much longer?  This is NOT to imply Canadians are doing any better.

Cheers,
John M.

[Noto]

I'm always a fan of innovation, and would love to award BMW for its contributions - but they have to get their electronics reliability in check and they have to stop pricing their vehicles so aggressively.  Then again, they sell, so why should they?

Well, at least their competitors will soon adopt their technology and then we'll have it at a lower price point

Kudos, BMW, and Kudos, Lesley for a very, very interesting read!

[Northernridge]

I'm curious to see how luxury car makers decide to handle innovation in the longer run. These days technology finds its way to lower priced cars super fast – more and more it's actually introduced in these cars. It seems the days have passed when meaningful innovations always appear first in the most expensive cars.

It hardly seems impressive to be riding around in a $100k car when similar technological features can be had in cars costing a third the price. I think there is increasing pressure on the Germans, Lexus, Cadillac, etc. to pull some new tricks out of their hat. Either that or consumers accept that technological innovations happen at every price point and are not the domain of expensive cars...this would put more pressure on the luxury, design and performance quotients.

[aquadorhj]

I'm curious to see how luxury car makers decide to handle innovation in the longer run. These days technology finds its way to lower priced cars super fast – more and more it's actually introduced in these cars. It seems the days have passed when meaningful innovations always appear first in the most expensive cars.

It hardly seems impressive to be riding around in a $100k car when similar technological features can be had in cars costing a third the price. I think there is increasing pressure on the Germans, Lexus, Cadillac, etc. to pull some new tricks out of their hat. Either that or consumers accept that technological innovations happen at every price point and are not the domain of expensive cars...this would put more pressure on the luxury, design and performance quotients.

me too.    i guess they could go old school, and start building cars with more human again...  convey the luxury in attention to detail rather than throwing more tech at it..

and integrating tech in a way that is totally not obstructive, not even perceptible to drivers (or passengers)

[Fobroader]

I'm curious to see how luxury car makers decide to handle innovation in the longer run. These days technology finds its way to lower priced cars super fast – more and more it's actually introduced in these cars. It seems the days have passed when meaningful innovations always appear first in the most expensive cars.

It hardly seems impressive to be riding around in a $100k car when similar technological features can be had in cars costing a third the price. I think there is increasing pressure on the Germans, Lexus, Cadillac, etc. to pull some new tricks out of their hat. Either that or consumers accept that technological innovations happen at every price point and are not the domain of expensive cars...this would put more pressure on the luxury, design and performance quotients.

me too.    i guess they could go old school, and start building cars with more human again...  convey the luxury in attention to detail rather than throwing more tech at it..

and integrating tech in a way that is totally not obstructive, not even perceptible to drivers (or passengers)

Yeah, but people are really impressed by acronyms, the more the better and therefore the safer and more tech the car is.

[mmret]

I'm curious to see how luxury car makers decide to handle innovation in the longer run. These days technology finds its way to lower priced cars super fast – more and more it's actually introduced in these cars. It seems the days have passed when meaningful innovations always appear first in the most expensive cars.

It hardly seems impressive to be riding around in a $100k car when similar technological features can be had in cars costing a third the price. I think there is increasing pressure on the Germans, Lexus, Cadillac, etc. to pull some new tricks out of their hat. Either that or consumers accept that technological innovations happen at every price point and are not the domain of expensive cars...this would put more pressure on the luxury, design and performance quotients.

me too.    i guess they could go old school, and start building cars with more human again...  convey the luxury in attention to detail rather than throwing more tech at it..

and integrating tech in a way that is totally not obstructive, not even perceptible to drivers (or passengers)

I want to hope that the extra coin going into the high end stuff will be spent on improving overall "quality".... reliability, how the doors sound when they close, nicer leather, thicker glass, that sort of stuff.

But I suspect they may just go down the route of putting ridiculously big touchscreens in the expensive cars and smaller ones in the cheap cars. That seems to be how the cell phone world works.

[evil_twin]

I want to hope that the extra coin going into the high end stuff will be spent on improving overall "quality".... reliability, how the doors sound when they close, nicer leather, thicker glass, that sort of stuff.

Likewise.

I'd only really care about a certain level of tech when shopping for a luxury car:  Nav, LED lights, heated seats (tech?), auto closing/opening hatch and windows.   That's about it.   I can do without active lane, park by wire, blah, blah, blah.

All just frivolous stuff (for my driving experience at least) that I can't see caring about other than worrying about the sensors breaking.

I'd much rather save that money or put it into getting a bigger engine and crafting an interior out of the finest materials available.

[tpl]

"Building cars with more human"   I'll go for that...lets have Morgan open a factory here and build cars for Canada...or even just start to sell cars here.
There was a Wheeler-Dealer episode where they replaced the chassis on a Morgan...could just about be done in a large domestis garage with a lift and a couple of friends.   That is way cars should be. Wood and hand shaped metal panels.

[Fobroader]

"Building cars with more human"   I'll go for that...lets have Morgan open a factory here and build cars for Canada...or even just start to sell cars here.
There was a Wheeler-Dealer episode where they replaced the chassis on a Morgan...could just about be done in a large domestis garage with a lift and a couple of friends.   That is way cars should be. Wood and hand shaped metal panels.

Hear hear...I saw that episode as well. I liked it better when they changed the chassis on that TVR

[JohnM]

"That is way cars should be. Wood and hand shaped metal panels."

And with pedals.

Cheers,
John M.

[tpl]

"That is way cars should be. Wood and hand shaped metal panels."

And with pedals.

Cheers,
John M.

Yep,  3 is a good number.  Not to mention RWD and manual steering.   I am not sure I'd want to go back to SU carbs and ignition with points tho...some of the modern stuff is worth keeping.

[Noto]

I want to hope that the extra coin going into the high end stuff will be spent on improving overall "quality".... reliability, how the doors sound when they close, nicer leather, thicker glass, that sort of stuff.

I'd only really care about a certain level of tech when shopping for a luxury car:  Nav, LED lights, heated seats (tech?), auto closing/opening hatch and windows.   

I'd much rather save that money or put it into getting a bigger engine and crafting an interior out of the finest materials available.

^^^This (these?).

When I get into the 2006 RX400h (no longer the 'pinnacle' of luxury), I appreciate the comfy seats, backup camera, the 1-touch open/close windows, rain sensing wipers, and fancy swivelling headlights.  I like that it's rattle-free and everything feels nice to the touch.  I could care less about whether it can park itself or stop by itself - safety does not equate to luxury - it should be standard no matter the car.  Features, materials, and build quality, on the other hand...that's what I'm after.

With that being said, that's why I like BMW so much.  Not content with the usual materials, they're bringing the benefits of carbon fibre to the volumes at a reasonable price, they're producing PROPER turbo engines that have excellent fuel figures, they're bringing updated diesels, reducing drag, active grille shutters, etc.  This, to me, is what drives society - innovation, not "hey, we have heated rear seats."  Likewise for Nissan/Infiniti - the new steering is great, the Pathfinder/JX/QX70's clam-shell second row seat (folds while a child seat is still installed), etc. - These are things we need and can better our driving experience (in some ways).

[nlm]

I want to hope that the extra coin going into the high end stuff will be spent on improving overall "quality".... reliability, how the doors sound when they close, nicer leather, thicker glass, that sort of stuff.

Likewise.

I'd only really care about a certain level of tech when shopping for a luxury car:  Nav, LED lights, heated seats (tech?), auto closing/opening hatch and windows.   That's about it.   I can do without active lane, park by wire, blah, blah, blah.

All just frivolous stuff (for my driving experience at least) that I can't see caring about other than worrying about the sensors breaking.

I'd much rather save that money or put it into getting a bigger engine and crafting an interior out of the finest materials available.

Me too. I would rather see the budget spent on closing the compromise gap than tech that I don't use or care about.

[chignectohead]

" The new, water-cooled exhaust manifold gently warms the cooling fluid to keep the engine at optimum temperature and helps to reduce friction."

This makes no sense to this mechanical engineer: if the water-cooled exhaust gently warms the cooling fluid RATHER than the cooling fluid cooling the exhaust gases, we have a problem, Houston.

All new engines from all manufacturers now have two cooling circuits, one for the head, one for the block, because virtually all new engines have exhaust manifolds within the head which is aluminum. If you don't want to melt the aluminum immediately, you have to cool this internal manifold very aggressively. The cooled exhaust gases have a further benefit for exhaust gas recirculation which is used to lower peak combustion temperatures and thereby lower the formation of NOx. As well as leaving less deposits of coking carbon on the backside of intake valves in direct injection engines.

If BMW gave the original explanation, their marketers don't understand their engineers. Also, how does cooling exhaust gases lower friction? Where is the correlation for causality?

Did BMW provide any real explanation or was the trip just marketing puff? I think they're using free trips to influence technical naifs that they're doing something unique, when all manufacturers are all over this stuff worldwide. That's why there are constant technical symposia for automotive engineers to spread the word on advances. I suppose each maker wants ro seem it's run by geniuses and fudges the amount of "innovation" they're introducing.

Carbon fibre is where BMW excels.

[aquadorhj]

Carbon fibre is where BMW excels.

Their cars weight certainly doesn't seem to reflect this excellence.

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk

[mixmanmash]

" The new, water-cooled exhaust manifold gently warms the cooling fluid to keep the engine at optimum temperature and helps to reduce friction."

This makes no sense to this mechanical engineer: if the water-cooled exhaust gently warms the cooling fluid RATHER than the cooling fluid cooling the exhaust gases, we have a problem, Houston.

All new engines from all manufacturers now have two cooling circuits, one for the head, one for the block, because virtually all new engines have exhaust manifolds within the head which is aluminum. If you don't want to melt the aluminum immediately, you have to cool this internal manifold very aggressively. The cooled exhaust gases have a further benefit for exhaust gas recirculation which is used to lower peak combustion temperatures and thereby lower the formation of NOx. As well as leaving less deposits of coking carbon on the backside of intake valves in direct injection engines.

If BMW gave the original explanation, their marketers don't understand their engineers. Also, how does cooling exhaust gases lower friction? Where is the correlation for causality?

Did BMW provide any real explanation or was the trip just marketing puff? I think they're using free trips to influence technical naifs that they're doing something unique, when all manufacturers are all over this stuff worldwide. That's why there are constant technical symposia for automotive engineers to spread the word on advances. I suppose each maker wants ro seem it's run by geniuses and fudges the amount of "innovation" they're introducing.

Carbon fibre is where BMW excels.

Lol.  You know that it is an alloy, right?  It's not going to melt instantly.    Typically, the coolant circuit is running series to help heat up the coolant to optimum temperature quickly and then in parallel.

Secondly, in their turbo applications, I can't see them cooling the exhaust pre-turbo otherwise it won't have the same energy to spin the turbocharger.