BMW X5 M Takes Off

Just when you thought BMW couldn't make its X5 SUV any better, they just had to add more power. The M Series performance cars in the BMW lineup always pack quite a punch and the X5M is no exception. With a nice amount of cargo space, this SUV combines the best of performance and utility. With a 4.4 liter twin turbocharged V8 producing 555 horsepower, you'll rocket from zero to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds.

It also sports a unique all-wheel drive system that has been tuned for enhanced driving performance without sacrificing too much off-road capability. If you're looking for a SUV that can handle itself on the track, then be prepared to pay up. With a base price close to $90,000, this powerful rig doesn't come cheap.

2019 BMW 8 Series Convertible Takes A Bow In LA

The first ever topless BMW 8 Series has made its public debut.

BMW recently pulled the covers off the first ever 8 Series Convertible. Now, the topless sports car has made its public debut at the 2018 LA Auto Show, allowing us to marvel at it in the metal. It’s safe to say the 8 Series Coupe’s mix of muscularity and elegance hasn’t been compromised. In fact, we’d argue it looks even better without a roof.

Raising or lowering the fabric roof takes just 15 seconds at speeds up to 30 mph. The roof is then stored under a cover with a surface finish and stitching matching the instrument panel and interior door and side panel trim. The subtle “double-bubble” contour of the cover behind the two rear seats apes the design incorporated in the BMW 8 Series Convertible’s roofline. When raised, the fully-electric soft-top roof that helps reduce weight from the very top of the car, while also lowering the center of gravity and improving handling and performance.

You can enjoy the car's open-top driving thrills in cooler temperatures too, thanks to optional neck warmers integrated into the front-seat headrests. A rollover protection system also improves the car’s safety, activating when data analyzed by the central safety electronics indicate a risk of a roll-over. If this system is activated, two high-strength aluminum rollover bars fitted behind the rear headrests are extended.

Inside, the driver-focused interior includes a leather M Sport steering wheel with multifunction buttons and shift paddles, along with comfortable sport seats finished in premium Merino Individual leather. Behind the steering wheel, you'[ll find a high-resolution instrument cluster with a 12.3-inch screen and a 10.25-inch control display incorporating the automaker's new iDrive system with the new touch-operated BMW Operating System.

In the US, the BMW 8 Series Convertible will only be sold in M850i xDrive trim. Like its Coupe sibling, power is provided by an upgraded 4.4-liter V8 that sends 523 hp and 553 lb-ft of torque to all four wheels via BMW’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system. The V8 unit is mated to an updated eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission. WIth this setup, 0-62 mph takes 3.8 seconds before the 8 Series Convertible tops out at 155 mph.

Sales for the 2019 BMW 8 Series Convertible kick off next March, with prices starting at $121,400 plus a $995 destination charge. An 8 Series Gran Coupe and the first ever M8 will also go on sale the same year.

Google Chrome Takes Down Browser Extension Which Secretly Mined Cryptocurrency

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Tesla's HR chief takes leave of absence amid Elon Musk's tumult

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla Inc.’s head of human resources and facilities has been on a leave of absence as the electric-car maker has dealt with a period of intense tumult spurred by Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk.

Gabrielle Toledano, who joined Tesla as chief people officer in May 2017 from Electronic Arts Inc., confirmed she’s on leave when reached by phone Wednesday and declined to comment further. A Tesla spokesman said the leave was prompted by Toledano’s request and her duties are being handled by other members of the HR team.

Toledano, 51, is one of Tesla’s highest-ranking women. She reports directly to Musk and was among the handful of executives who stood on stage with him at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June. A week later, Musk announced that the carmaker would dismiss more than 3,000 employees, or about 9 percent of its workforce, as part of a push for the profits that have largely eluded the company to date.

Musk stirred up weeks of controversy this month by tweeting he was considering taking Tesla private and had secured funding to do so. He abandoned the effort just 17 days later and now faces shareholder lawsuits and an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Tesla shares fell 2.2 percent Wednesday to $305.01, the lowest closing price since Aug. 1.

Management turnover

Several senior executives have taken extended leaves of absences from Tesla in recent years. Doug Field, who had been senior vice president for engineering, went on leave in mid-May and didn’t return. His last official day with the company was June 27, and his departure was part of a spate of top management turnover earlier this year.

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Read more: Tesla defections mount as Musk reworks management structure

In 2015, Jerome Guillen, then Tesla’s vice president of worldwide service and deliveries, took leave but ultimately returned. He’s now leading Tesla’s Semi truck program and has played a key role in ramping up production of the Model 3 sedan.

Tesla director Steve Jurvetson, who’s also on the board of Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp., has been on leave from both roles since his November resignation from DFJ, the venture capital firm he co-founded.

During Toledano’s tenure, Tesla has struggled to ramp up production of its mission-critical Model 3 sedan, and the UAW campaigned to unionize the company’s sole auto assembly plant in Fremont, Calif. She played a role in the hiring of Laurie Shelby, Tesla’s first vice president of environment, health and safety, earlier this year.

Tesla has grown rapidly in recent years. At the end of 2010, the year of its IPO, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company had roughly 900 employees. Tesla acquired solar-panel installer SolarCity Corp. in 2016 and ended last year with 37,543 full time employees, according to its most recent annual report.

ATTENTION COMMENTERS: Automotive News has monitored a significant increase in the number of personal attacks and abusive comments on our site. We encourage our readers to voice their opinions and argue their points. We expect disagreement. We do not expect our readers to turn on each other. We will be aggressively deleting all comments that personally attack another poster, or an article author, even if the comment is otherwise a well-argued observation. If we see repeated behavior, we will ban the commenter. Please help us maintain a civil level of discourse.

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Ford Mustang, lone survivor of brand's car cull, takes on bigger role

DETROIT — After 10 million vehicles over 54 years, the Mustang remains one of the most vital nameplates in Ford Motor Co.'s stable.

It's Exhibit A for what the Ford brand wants to stand for: bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers.

The rest of its cars lack that cachet, which is why, after the Fusion sedan disappears from showrooms early next decade, the Mustang effectively will be Ford's last car standing as the brand shifts to a lineup dominated by pickups and utility vehicles.

Now, Ford is trying to re-create that Mustang magic in its crossover and SUV lineup. One vehicle in particular, a yet-to-be-named battery-electric crossover, was heavily inspired by the Mustang; Ford floated the name Mach 1 for it this year, though the production version is likely to get a different moniker.

"It's core to what people see Ford as," Carl Widmann, the Mustang's chief engineer, told Automotive News. "We wanted a vehicle that would draw people to the showroom floor. There's clear evidence that's the case."

The Mustang has been the best-selling sports coupe in the U.S. since its redesign in 2014. Ford began selling the Mustang globally in 2015 and now sells it in more than 140 markets, including China, Germany and Australia.

Despite the Mustang's importance to the company, CEO Jim Hackett reportedly pushed back the seventh-generation program by about a year.

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A redesigned Mustang now is expected in 2021. The car rides on an exclusive rear-wheel-drive platform but could move to one of the company's five new modular architectures, presumably the rwd/all-wheel-drive unibody underpinnings it would share with utilities such as the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. That would give Ford the option of building an awd pony car for better handling in winter and to compete with the awd version of the Dodge Challenger that launched in 2017.

The company also plans the first Mustang hybrid, set to arrive in 2020.

Members of the Mustang team were mum on details about the next-generation car but said the move to a modular architecture won't hurt their design creativity.

"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle," the Mustang's chief designer, Darrell Behmer, said. "The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang."

'A tremendous trick'

Widmann said the move won't fundamentally change the car.

"The general layout of rwd has morphed over time, but it's still the general architecture that it has been," he said. "In the architecture world of a rwd — which you're going to end up with a rwd architecture — I think these pieces of it are pieces that will always work. As you tune it and put a top hat on it, you can get different combinations and can define a lot of the emotion."

The current-generation Mustang resonates so well, Widmann said, because of its styling, diverse powertrains and driveability on or off a racetrack.

The team worked to give the 2015 model a more aggressive look while keeping traditional design elements. The vehicle's footprint was unchanged, but the roof and hood were lowered about 1.2 inches. Visibility also was key, Widmann said, as the team tried to maintain the previous generation's proportions.

"It's critical to always have the ability to keep theme elements but not be stuck in a rut," Widmann said. "It's a balance of not being caught in the past but still moving forward, which is a tremendous trick."

Ford has made incremental improvements since the 2015 redesign, adding a 10-speed automatic transmission and dropping the V-6 engine in 2018. It also has reintroduced special editions, including the Bullitt and California Special, and revived performance variants such as the Shelby GT350 and Cobra Jet.

Although U.S. sales are down 4.8 percent this year to 48,362 through July, the car is outselling its chief rivals: the Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro.

"It's the heart and soul of Ford," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said at a celebration this month of the 10 millionth Mustang produced. "It's one of the reasons why we're different and it continues to inspire other vehicles in the lineup."

Performance and utility

The Mustang-inspired electric crossover, due in 2020, likely will borrow heavily from the pony car's front-end design and combine the performance of an EV with the utility of an Explorer-like crossover.

Just don't expect it to be called Mach 1, a name Ford used for a Mustang performance option at various times from 1968 through the 2004 model year.

"We put that out there to evaluate it," Farley said of the name. "There are pros and cons. I don't want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people."

After Ford released a teaser video for the vehicle this year, one YouTube user responded: "If they end up calling an SUV a Mach 1, I will never buy a Ford car or truck as long as I live. Blasphemy!"

Another added: "As a man who owns a 2003 mach 1 5-Speed, I am DISGUSTED. The mach 1 is the most iconic stang and you're disgracing its name with this. Shame."

Regardless of what name Ford picks, people who have helped shape the Mustang are excited by the prospect of expanding its DNA to other vehicles.

"Mustang has a soul. It's a balance of performance and design," Behmer said. "If you can capitalize on the cachet and let that rub off on the rest of the portfolio, it's a good thing."

ATTENTION COMMENTERS: Automotive News has monitored a significant increase in the number of personal attacks and abusive comments on our site. We encourage our readers to voice their opinions and argue their points. We expect disagreement. We do not expect our readers to turn on each other. We will be aggressively deleting all comments that personally attack another poster, or an article author, even if the comment is otherwise a well-argued observation. If we see repeated behavior, we will ban the commenter. Please help us maintain a civil level of discourse.

View the original article here

Toyota takes car connectivity for a spin in world's biggest testbed

Hideki Hada, executive engineer at Toyota's technical strategy department for advanced safety, calls the trial at the University of Michigan's Mcity an unparalleled opportunity. Photo credit: HANS GREIMEL

DETROIT — Toyota is teaming with the city of Ann Arbor, Mich., to jump-start testing of the car connectivity system that the Japanese carmaker plans to deploy stateside in 2021.

A network of roadside sensors will communicate with specially outfitted cars to improve everything from safety to traffic flow. The expanding system, expected to be the world's largest connected-car test bed by the end of this year, is run by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and builds on a network deployed in 2012. By year end, Ann Arbor will have 75 vehicle-to-infrastructure transmitter sites scattered among its streets and some 3,150 cars plugged in.

The expansive scope of the project is an unparalleled testing opportunity, said Hideki Hada, executive engineer at Toyota's technical strategy department for advanced safety.

"Even conservative Toyota became confident to move forward," Hada said in an interview. "It was in the research phase, but now it's in the realization phase."

Toyota Motor Corp., which employs about 1,800 people at its U.S. r&d hub near Ann Arbor, aims to leverage the system to test its dedicated short-range connectivity, or DSRC, technology.

The company in April said it would deploy the systems in Lexus and Toyota brand vehicles in 2021 and spread them across most of their lineups by the mid-2020s.

Toyota has offered the technology on some models in Japan since 2015, under the name ITS Connect. More than 100,000 DSRC-equipped cars are on the road there.

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Those systems add about $250 to the base price, Hada said.

The Mcity autonomous driving proving ground in Ann Arbor, Mich. Photo credit: HANS GREIMEL

Now, Toyota is inviting the r&d hub employees and their family members to install the DSRC systems in their personal cars and participate in the Ann Arbor pilot project.

The test isn't limited to Toyota. Four other automakers, suppliers, city-operated vehicle fleets, local taxi companies and the University of Michigan are joining the endeavor, said Debby Bezzina, senior program manager for the Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment. She declined to name the other auto companies and suppliers taking part.

"It falls under the build-it-and-they-will-come model," Bezzina said. "We have significant usage of the environment, even now before it is fully deployed."

About 550 vehicles already are equipped with the system, and the total is expected to top 3,000 by year end. Volunteers are paid $40 to have their vehicle outfitted. The system includes a DSRC antenna and a global navigation satellite system antenna, along with a speaker and digital screen to communicate with the driver through tones, speech and signals.

DSRC systems use a dedicated 5.9 GHz radio bandwidth to allow cars to communicate with each other and with the infrastructure around them. They transmit much faster than today's 4G cellular links, enabling split-second reactions even at high speeds. And DSRC can transmit up to 300 meters and around corners, offering better visibility than most camera-based systems.

But to work, they require a network of DSRC boxes installed along roads and intersections.

DSRC suppliers include Michigan-based Lear Corp. and Danlaw Inc., Savari Inc. of California, and Aptiv PLC, the Ireland-based auto parts maker spun off by Delphi Automotive.

Debby Bezzina, senior program manager for the Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment, demonstratrates DSRC technology at Mcity. Photo credit: HANS GREIMEL

A demonstration this month for Automotive News at the University of Michigan's Mcity autonomous-driving proving ground highlighted some of the system's potential. The system can warn of:

Sharp curves, work zones or icy roads ahead

Sudden braking of cars farther down the road that are out of sight

Impending collisions

Objects such as cars or pedestrians hidden in blind spots.

Toyota is joined by General Motors in pioneering the deployment of DSRC technology. GM introduced a DSRC-based vehicle-to-vehicle system in the Cadillac CTS sedan in 2017.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen, Ford and BMW are exploring a competing technology based on next-generation 5G cellular networks.

Proponents of 5G systems say they will offer super-fast connectivity and a wider area of coverage through an upgrade of the existing cellular network.

But 5G has yet to commercially debut in consumer electronics, and the automotive rollout is expected to take even longer.

Toyota sees potential in 5G and also is researching that field, Hada said. But its engineers have been validating DSRC technology for years and see more immediate payoffs there.

Toyota sees DSRC as remaining relevant in car connectivity until around 2030, Hada said.

"Until it becomes reality, we cannot make a product," Hada said of 5G systems. "And DSRC, the one we have spent almost 10 years or more fully validating, it can be used for many years."

View the original article here

Ford Mustang, lone survivor of brand's car cull, takes on bigger role

DETROIT — After 10 million vehicles over 54 years, the Mustang remains one of the most vital nameplates in Ford Motor Co.'s stable.

It's Exhibit A for what the Ford brand wants to stand for: bold, emotional designs that elicit passion among its customers.

The rest of its cars lack that cachet, which is why, after the Fusion sedan disappears from showrooms early next decade, the Mustang effectively will be Ford's last car standing as the brand shifts to a lineup dominated by pickups and utility vehicles.

Now, Ford is trying to re-create that Mustang magic in its crossover and SUV lineup. One vehicle in particular, a yet-to-be-named battery-electric crossover, was heavily inspired by the Mustang; Ford floated the name Mach 1 for it this year, though the production version is likely to get a different moniker.

"It's core to what people see Ford as," Carl Widmann, the Mustang's chief engineer, told Automotive News. "We wanted a vehicle that would draw people to the showroom floor. There's clear evidence that's the case."

The Mustang has been the best-selling sports coupe in the U.S. since its redesign in 2014. Ford began selling the Mustang globally in 2015 and now sells it in more than 140 markets, including China, Germany and Australia.

Despite the Mustang's importance to the company, CEO Jim Hackett reportedly pushed back the seventh-generation program by about a year.

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A redesigned Mustang now is expected in 2021. The car rides on an exclusive rear-wheel-drive platform but could move to one of the company's five new modular architectures, presumably the rwd/all-wheel-drive unibody underpinnings it would share with utilities such as the Explorer and Lincoln Aviator. That would give Ford the option of building an awd pony car for better handling in winter and to compete with the awd version of the Dodge Challenger that launched in 2017.

The company also plans the first Mustang hybrid, set to arrive in 2020.

Members of the Mustang team were mum on details about the next-generation car but said the move to a modular architecture won't hurt their design creativity.

"Mustang is still going to be a strong, well proportioned vehicle," the Mustang's chief designer, Darrell Behmer, said. "The modular architectures will still give us flexibility; it's not going to bastardize Mustang."

'A tremendous trick'

Widmann said the move won't fundamentally change the car.

"The general layout of rwd has morphed over time, but it's still the general architecture that it has been," he said. "In the architecture world of a rwd — which you're going to end up with a rwd architecture — I think these pieces of it are pieces that will always work. As you tune it and put a top hat on it, you can get different combinations and can define a lot of the emotion."

The current-generation Mustang resonates so well, Widmann said, because of its styling, diverse powertrains and driveability on or off a racetrack.

The team worked to give the 2015 model a more aggressive look while keeping traditional design elements. The vehicle's footprint was unchanged, but the roof and hood were lowered about 1.2 inches. Visibility also was key, Widmann said, as the team tried to maintain the previous generation's proportions.

"It's critical to always have the ability to keep theme elements but not be stuck in a rut," Widmann said. "It's a balance of not being caught in the past but still moving forward, which is a tremendous trick."

Ford has made incremental improvements since the 2015 redesign, adding a 10-speed automatic transmission and dropping the V-6 engine in 2018. It also has reintroduced special editions, including the Bullitt and California Special, and revived performance variants such as the Shelby GT350 and Cobra Jet.

Although U.S. sales are down 4.8 percent this year to 48,362 through July, the car is outselling its chief rivals: the Challenger and Chevrolet Camaro.

"It's the heart and soul of Ford," Jim Farley, Ford's president of global markets, said at a celebration this month of the 10 millionth Mustang produced. "It's one of the reasons why we're different and it continues to inspire other vehicles in the lineup."

Performance and utility

The Mustang-inspired electric crossover, due in 2020, likely will borrow heavily from the pony car's front-end design and combine the performance of an EV with the utility of an Explorer-like crossover.

Just don't expect it to be called Mach 1, a name Ford used for a Mustang performance option at various times from 1968 through the 2004 model year.

"We put that out there to evaluate it," Farley said of the name. "There are pros and cons. I don't want to handicap it at this point, but we got a very strong reaction from people."

After Ford released a teaser video for the vehicle this year, one YouTube user responded: "If they end up calling an SUV a Mach 1, I will never buy a Ford car or truck as long as I live. Blasphemy!"

Another added: "As a man who owns a 2003 mach 1 5-Speed, I am DISGUSTED. The mach 1 is the most iconic stang and you're disgracing its name with this. Shame."

Regardless of what name Ford picks, people who have helped shape the Mustang are excited by the prospect of expanding its DNA to other vehicles.

"Mustang has a soul. It's a balance of performance and design," Behmer said. "If you can capitalize on the cachet and let that rub off on the rest of the portfolio, it's a good thing."

ATTENTION COMMENTERS: Automotive News has monitored a significant increase in the number of personal attacks and abusive comments on our site. We encourage our readers to voice their opinions and argue their points. We expect disagreement. We do not expect our readers to turn on each other. We will be aggressively deleting all comments that personally attack another poster, or an article author, even if the comment is otherwise a well-argued observation. If we see repeated behavior, we will ban the commenter. Please help us maintain a civil level of discourse.

View the original article here