BMW plans major internal overhaul to further self-driving/smart car initiatives

BMW doesn’t want outsiders coming in, or rather, they don’t want to be the “Foxconn for a company like Apple, delivering only the metal bodies for them.” According to Klaus Froehlich, a BMW board member who oversees research and development, told Reuters at the Geneva auto show that the German automaker is planning major corporate changes to build its “most intelligent car.” The company doesn’t want to rely on the Internet players like Google and Apple out of fear that they might just become another supplier. Even though, it might be beneficial for them to tap the tech players who are more familiar with software.

BMW supposedly plans to have half of its R&D team become computer programmers within the next five years. At the moment, just about 20 percent of its 30,000 R&D team work in software. Not all of these would come in-house, though. Froehlich believes they would need to partner with others and outsource some of the work. BMW has supposedly held talks with Apple before but haven’t reportedly come close to an agreement.

Source: Apple Insider

Video: First look at VW's Golf R Touch multi-touch smartcar at CES 2015

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Las Vegas - Volkswagen is a first time exhibitor here at the International Consumer Elexctronics show and they certainly made a huge splash during their first keynote. The automotive giant talked about their eGolf electric vehicle as well as various technologies that are coming to their line of cars. The kicker was showing off a smart concept of their Golf R sports hatchback.

Named a Golf R Touch, the car has all the specs and performance expected of a modern day GTI but also features a wide range of multi-touch, haptic, and even motion control features a la Microsoft's Kinect. I was one of the first journalists who was able to get in the backseat and record a working demo of the car's interior, navigation, and even gesture based mood-lighting features. The Golf R Touch also features integration with Android devices as well as Apple's CarPlay for a truly cross platform solution coming to market this year. Aside from this, parking assist is onboard and the Golf R Touch will be able to talk to smartphones, tablets and even smartwatches easily. This migh just be the "People's Tesla."