2012 Mercedes-benz Sls Amg on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lewis Hamilton wins Spanish Grand Prix, takes 17-point lead over Vettel

BARCELONA, SPAIN – Lewis Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix in a commanding Mercedes one-two on Sunday to stretch his Formula One lead over Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, who finished fourth, to 17 points. The victory, in a race that stayed dry despite the threat of rain, was the Briton's second of the season, 64th of his career and third at the Circuit de Catalunya. It also set a record, one that Hamilton had previously shared with seven times champion Michael Schumacher, of 41 wins from pole position. "This is more like it, let's keep this up," Hamilton told his celebrating team over the radio as he swept past the checkered flag. "Today the car and myself, I felt that synergy which I hadn't been feeling for the whole year," he added in a pre-podium interview after parking up in pit lane. "It's a good feeling." Hamilton's win followed on from the lucky victory that fell into his lap in Azerbaijan two weekends ago, but Sunday had nothing to do with chance and all to do with the champions being back to their best. He now has 95 points to Vettel's 78 after five rounds of the 21-race championship. Mercedes regained the lead in the constructors' standings and are now 27 points clear of Ferrari who had 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen retire from the race. Finland's Valtteri Bottas was second, a hefty 20.5 seconds behind, with Dutch 20-year-old Max Verstappen completing the podium for Red Bull – his first of an incident-filled season. Australian Daniel Ricciardo was fifth for Red Bull, ahead of Denmark's Kevin Magnussen for Haas and Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Renault) and Fernando Alonso (eighth for McLaren). Sainz's points lifted Renault ahead of McLaren and into fourth place by a single point. Mexican Sergio Perez was ninth for Force India and Monegasque rookie Charles Leclerc took the final point for Sauber. While Hamilton pulled away cleanly at the start, and Vettel passed Bottas into the first corner for second place, there was carnage behind as Romain Grosjean spun his Haas in a cloud of smoke. The Frenchman then collected the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and Pierre Gasly's Toro Rosso in a major smash, fortunately without injury, that brought out the safety car for the first six laps. Stewards gave him two penalty points and imposed a three-place grid drop for the next race in Monaco.

Daimler, Qualcomm working on wireless EVs

Despite not being available on any mass-produced electric vehicle, wireless charging is not new. In fact, Qualcomm is an old name in the business and has announced partnerships with major automakers before. In 2011, for example, Qualcomm and Renault said they would work together on wireless electric vehicle charging technology. Just something to keep in mind when you read about this past weekend's announcement that Qualcomm and Daimler are going to work together on wireless charging. To be fair, the announcement goes beyond just integrating wireless charging technology into new EVs. Qualcomm has a lot of future tech work going on that connect your car to other systems, like the 3G/4G cell network. These are the sorts of things that the two companies are going to work on first, but Halo Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) is on the To Do list. Qualcomm has said its Halo wireless charging parking spot technology, originally developed at the University of Auckland, could also be used in roadways at some point, so keep an eye out for Daimler test vehicles repeatedly driving over the same patch of asphalt. Daimler and Qualcomm Announce Strategic Collaboration on Connected Car Technologies MONACO – May 23, 2015 – Today, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Daimler AG announced a strategic collaboration focused on pioneering innovation in the connected car. In the first phase of the collaboration, the companies will focus on transforming future vehicles with mobile technologies that enhance in-car experiences and vehicle performance such as 3G/4G connectivity, wireless charging technology for in-vehicle use and implementation of the Qualcomm Halo™ Wireless Electric Vehicle Charging (WEVC) technology. In addition, the companies are jointly assessing the application of Qualcomm Technology's newly developed Automotive Solutions. Qualcomm Technologies is collaborating with Daimler on its Wireless Power Transfer 2.0 high performance program for electric vehicles. The Qualcomm Halo™ WEVC technology provides high performance and high power in a small vehicle package that could allow Daimler customers to charge their electric vehicles (EV) and plug-in hybrid EVs without ever having to plug them in. In addition, Qualcomm® WiPower™ technology enables consumer electronics to charge wirelessly in-vehicle.

BMW negotiates Daimler alliance, buys out car-service partner Sixt

Sixt sells its stake in DriveNow car-sharing to BMW BMW in talks with Daimler to combine car-sharing Combining car-sharing business to aid robotaxi plans FRANKFURT — Germany's BMW has bought out partner Sixt from their joint venture DriveNow, paving the way for a broader car-sharing and driverless taxi alliance with Daimler to compete against Uber and Lyft. Car rental company Sixt said on Monday it would generate an extraordinary pre-tax profit of about 200 million euros ($248 million) in 2018 from the sale of the DriveNow stake to BMW for 209 million euros. "With DriveNow as a wholly-owned subsidiary, we have all options for continued strategic development of our services," said Peter Schwarzenbauer, BMW's board member for Digital Business Innovation. "Our experience with mobility services supports our development of future autonomous, electrified and connected fleets," he said, adding that BMW aims to have 100 million customers for "premium mobility services" by 2025. The Sixt deal comes as BMW moves closer to a deal to combine its car-sharing services with Daimler's Car2Go, a person familiar with the discussions told Reuters last week. The German carmakers want to build a joint business that includes car sharing, ride-hailing, electric vehicle charging, and digital parking services, a senior executive at one of the companies said on Monday. Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and BMW declined comment on the status of potential talks on their car-sharing business. "This is speculation, we do not comment," BMW said. The senior executive, who declined to be named because the plan is not public, said: "This will create an ecosystem which can also be used for managing robotaxi (driverless taxi) fleets." BMW would contribute its ParkNow and ChargeNow businesses to the common company, the executive said, adding that there were still differences of opinion over the valuation of Car2Go. The market for ride-hailing services currently makes up around 33 percent of the global taxi market, and could grow eightfold to $285 billion by 2030, once autonomous robotaxis are in operation, Goldman Sachs said in a recent research note. BMW and Daimler are now working on developing autonomous cars, vehicles which could enable them to up-end the market for taxi and ride-hailing services.