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BMW to show car that can park itself in a multi-story garage at CES

Automatic parking systems are something of a novelty, in their present form. Sure, modern parallel parking systems work well enough. And they're great if you lack the special awareness required to complete such a task. But frankly, how often is the average owner of such a system in a position to use it? Perpendicular parking systems, meanwhile, are basically an admission that you don't really deserve a driver's license. Novelties these systems may be, but they promise a future where we won't even need to be behind the wheel to park our cars. BMW is going to deliver a vision of that future at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show with the Remote Valet Parking Assistant, a smartwatch-activated system that takes the driver out of the parking equation and replaces them with an advanced collision avoidance system. Fitted to an i3 for CES, the BMW system relies on four laser scanners to map the surrounding environment and identify obstacles. Combined with a digital site plan for a building, the company claims its car can navigate its way to an open parking spot, moving around even unexpected obstacles like improperly parked cars. The car's owner can step out of the vehicle at the intended destination, and then tap the smartwatch app for vehicle parking and retrieval. BMW claims this system will allow more precise control than GPS, particularly in something like a multi-story parking deck. While it's an intriguing route with autonomous technology, we wonder how much is required of these digital site plans. There are more practical uses of this technology, beyond valet parking. According to BMW, the collision-avoidance technology can aid a driver in low-light conditions, automatically braking the car for its driver when an obstruction is detected. Look for more on BMW's Remote Valet Parking system as the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show approaches. Until then, scroll down for the full press release. BMW Innovations at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. 360-degree collision avoidance and fully-automated parking in multi-storey car parks. BMW Remote Valet Parking, CES 2015. (12/2014) Munich/Las Vegas. BMW was already demonstrating at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2014 how perfect control technology can provide highly automated mastery of all drive statuses right through to very tight margins.

European car sales up 8% in February

Three weeks ago an analyst increased projections for European car sales this year, expecting them to climb three percent compared to last year instead of 2.7 percent. That number is a postive sign after years of hard times but it turns out February was especially good, overall European sales climbing eight percent on a wave of southern European recovery and discounts - and this comes after five months of gains including January's 7.2-percent jump over the year before.
The only country of Europe's five largest markets to post a decline was France, just as it did in January, Germany, the UK and Italy posting solid double-digit numbers, Spain rocking the charts with an 18-percent increase because of a government program to encourage trade-ins.
The only brand to miss the wave was Volkswagen, dropping 0.8 percent as it watched the double-digit growth at sister brands Audi, Seat and Skoda lift the Volkswagen Group sales up by seven-percent. Peugeot overcame flat sales at Citroën to improve the group by 3.5 percent, BMW and the Mercedes-Benz/Smart combo rose by four percent, the Fiat group jumped 5.8 percent, Ford was up 11 percent, the Renault Group 11.5 percent, General Motors 12 percent and the Toyota clan by 14 percent.

BMW patents strange three-cylinder pushrod engines, perhaps for cruiser motorcycle

For decades BMW's motorcycles were easily identified by the two opposed cylinders sticking out of each side of the bike. While you can still find this layout on some of its products, these days the company also uses a variety of other layouts, depending on the model line. Based on European patents, there might even be a Bimmer in the ranks eventually with an absolutely bizarre-looking W3 configuration. BMW actually has two separate patents on these W3 designs, and both of them have the goal of cramming three cylinders into the space of a traditional V-twin. The first splays the cylinder out into a fan shape with pushrods operating the valves. The description submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization describes the solution as, "The embodiment according to the invention represents an as of yet unknown type of W-3 reciprocating piston internal combustion engine having cylinder angles which can be largely freely sized." The other solution is more of a modification to the traditional V-twin. Two of the cylinders share a crankpin, but the third has its own and is positioned inside the angle of the V. It's a very odd-looking engine. With BMW's assertion that these designs are meant to fit in place of a traditional V-twin, Jalopnik speculates that they could be for a future cruiser from the company, and that would make sense. While brand offers a line of sport tourers with the K1600 line, it doesn't have something more classic to take on the likes of the Ducati Diavel. Creating such a weird engine would probably grab early interest from riders.