BMW creates a way for cars to talk to other cars

By Mike Flacy October 24, 2011

BMW i8 Concept with BMW Laserlight — Image used with permission by copyright holder

While BMW ConnectedDrive has been tying technology like mobile phones or GPS navigation into the driving experience for over a decade, BMW is taking a new step toward a future where vehicles can communicate with other vehicles to provide assistance to the driver. Aptly called Car-to-X communication, the new technology from BMW is designed to provide a safer driving experience. For instance, a driver that starts signaling for a left turn on a busy road will continue to see vehicle alerts on the dashboard until the left side of the road is clear to make the turn. This can be invaluable in situations where there is limited visibility due to a hairpin curve or a large building obscuring the view.

The same concept can be applied when pulling out onto a busy road from a driveway or perhaps from a parking spot. BMW also plans to design the technology to warn other drivers of hazards in the road, adverse weather conditions or bumper-to-bumper traffic. For instance, a car that runs over a hazard in the road would automatically issue a warning to the next vehicle that reaches that area. When a vehicle comes to a stop at a slowdown in traffic while on a morning commute, the drivers of the incoming vehicles see an alert in the dashboard and are aware of the upcoming stoppage. The technology can also be applied to police and other emergency vehicles issuing a warning to drivers about pulling to the side of the road. BMW also hopes to try this technology into traffic light systems.

Recommended Videos

Car-to-x communication currently operates through mobile phone connections or WLAN. There are currently latency issues with using mobile phone connections, but BMW claims that these will improve over time. High-speed WLAN networking is currently more suitable for the real-time communication between automobiles.

Contributing Editor

By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…

Cars

How a big blue van from 1986 paved the way for self-driving cars

Lineup of all 5 Navlab autonomous vehicles.

In 1986, a blue Chevy van often cruised around the streets of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania near Carnegie Mellon University. To the casual observer, nothing about it appeared out of the ordinary. Most people would pass by it without noticing the camcorder peeking out from its roof, or the fact that there were no hands on the steering wheel.

But if any passerby had stopped to inspect the van and peer into its interior, they would have realized it was no ordinary car. This was the world's first self-driving automobile: A pioneering work of computer science and engineering somehow built in a world where fax machines were still the predominant way to send documents, and most phones still had cords. But despite being stuck in an era where technology hadn't caught up to humanity's imagination quite yet, the van -- and the researchers crammed into it -- helped to lay the groundwork for all the Teslas, Waymos, and self-driving Uber prototypes cruising around our streets in 2022.

Cars

Watch folks react to their first ride in GM Cruise’s driverless car

Two people taking their first ride in an autonomous car.

General Motors autonomous car unit, Cruise, has started to offer driverless rides to residents of San Francisco as it moves toward the launch of a full-fledged robo-taxi service.

Following a test run of the service last week, Cruise has released a video (below) showing the reaction of the very first passengers as they rode through the streets of the Californian city in a vehicle that had nobody behind the wheel.

Cars

BMW shows off an electric car with color-changing paint at CES 2022

A color-changing BMW iX electric SUV.

From engine sounds to seat massagers, modern cars let drivers personalize almost everything. At CES 2022, BMW is taking that idea a step further with a concept version of its iX electric SUV that sports color-changing paint.

The effect relies on E Ink, the same electronic paper technology used in e-readers. Millions of microcapsules approximately the diameter of a human hair are embedded in an exterior wrap made from laser-cut electronic paper segments, according to BMW. They contain negatively charged white pigments and positively charged black pigments. Activating an electric field causes different amounts of each pigment to collect on the surface, shifting the color between black, white, and gray with the press of a button.