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BMW brings laser headlights and HUD helmet to motorcycles

BMW is complementing its array of cutting-edge tech at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show with the ConnectedRide concept that adapts automotive innovations to the motorcycle world. To highlight the two-wheeled future, the company modified a K1600 GTL with a laser headlight and controls for a helmet-integrated head-up display. The result could make riding safer if these developments ever come to market. Some of BMW's latest models like the i8 and 7 Series can already cut through the darkness with laser headlights, and this K1600 GTL brings that technology to motorcycles. The bright light can shine down the road up to 1,969 feet, which the company claims is about twice as far as a conventional unit. The additional visual range gives riders extra time to evaluate what's ahead at night and could make for a safer journey. The concept laser headlight on the bike is only a feasibility test for now, but preliminary development is underway. However, the lights might need modification to see production in the US because BMW had to turn down the power on the units in the i8 to get FDA approval, according to BMW Blog. BMW also wants to make riders safer through a helmet-integrated HUD that ensures they never need to take their eyes off the road. While other companies already offer similar products, this solution maximizes the available information. Through controls at a person's left hand on the handlebars, a user can select displays of current speed, selected gear, tire pressure, oil and fuel level, and even speed limits, and the system displays the desired info right in front of the wearer's eye. A front-mounted camera can record the trip, and a rear-mounted one can simulate a rearview mirror. Real-world production of the HUD is still a few years away, but BMW says future versions could incorporate vehicle-to-vehicle communications to let the system receive hazard warnings, too. BMW Motorrad ConnectedRide. Concepts for motorcycle laser light and helmet with head-up display. BMW Motorrad will be displaying two innovations at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on 6-9 January 2016. Laser light for motorcycles and a helmet with a head-up display will be presented, setting new standards of motorcycle safety, along with a technical outlook of how they may be employed in series models of the future. BMW K 1600 GTL concept vehicle with BMW Motorrad laser light.

BMW i8 and M1 reunited in mid-engined Bavarian retrospective

The BMW i8 may be the cutting edge today – it did, after all, just win our Technology of the Year award – but as rare an event as it is, it's not the first time that BMW has put out an extreme mid-engined supercar. The last time was in the late 1970s with the M1, a Giugiaro-designed, (partially) Lamborghini-developed piece of exotic machinery. The better part of four decades later, Auto Express has brought together an original M1 with its spiritual (if much more advanced) successor for the video comparison that was bound to happen. The question we can't help but ponder, initial sales success aside, is whether the i8 will mature into a classic in the same way the M1 has.

BMW Vision Gran Turismo takes M235i Racing to the virtual extreme [w/videos]

Late last year, Mercedes-AMG worked up a concept car called the Vision Gran Turismo. It presented it at the Los Angeles Auto Show, but that wasn't the point: the point was that it would feature in Gran Turismo 6 on the PlayStation 3. It wasn't the first concept created specifically for the popular driving simulator - following similar projects by Citroën and Red Bull Racing - and as we reported just a month later, it wouldn't be the last. What we have here is the next.
Looking like an even more extreme version of the M235i Racing, the BMW Vision Gran Turismo concept builds on "the tradition of the successful BMW touring cars of the 1970s" in a heart-pumping, if unfortunately strictly virtual form. It's got more extreme aero than the aforementioned M235i Racing and a striking take on the M division's signature light blue, dark blue and red stripe over white livery.
Underneath the digital bonnet sits the same 3.0-liter inline six as the M235i, but pumping out a prodigious (if theoretical) 549 horsepower - far more than the 333 hp in the actual Racing version or the 320 hp in the roadgoing model. Of course BMW has given it an ideal 50:50 front-rear weight distribution and a curb weight of 2,600 lbs - nearly a thousand pounds less than the roadgoing M235i.