6-speed Manual; Titanium Silver Metallic; Black Dakota Leather on 2040-cars

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The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Permanent erection lawsuit against BMW thrown out

The California man who claimed that he suffered from a 20-month erection after a four-hour ride on his BMW K1100RS motorcycle (similar model pictured above) has had his case dismissed. It seems the court found his claims too hard to believe.
Henry Wolf filed a product liability lawsuit against BMW and seatmaker Corbin-Pacific in the California Superior Court in April 2012 after he claimed a motorcycle ride in September 2010 caused a long-term case of priapism from the "ridge-like" saddle design. He asked for compensation for lost wages, medical expenses and emotional distress from both companies.
Nearly two years later, according to Visor Down, Judge James J. McBride decided that the case didn't have enough supporting evidence. A urologist testified that the plaintiff had priapism, but the court rejected the testimony of a neurologist who claimed the motorcycle's vibration caused the disorder. The defendants presented testimony from the bike's former and subsequent owners. Corbin-Pacific CEO Mike Corbin also spoke in the company's defense.

The Rinspeed Etos is a BMW i8 that drives itself and comes with a drone

Outlandish as they can be, we've grown accustomed to seeing Rinspeed unveil its avant-garde concept cars at the Geneva show every year. But this time the Swiss studio will present its latest showpiece outside of its native country, taking the veil off at CES in Las Vegas. It's called the Etos, and takes the advanced concept of the BMW i8 even further. Frank M. Rinderknecht and company designed the Etos around autonomous technology. Now if you're wondering why anyone would need a self-driving sports car, we're with you. But if Rinspeed is out to capture our attention, the svelte shape, eye-catching yellow paint, and 20-inch Borbet alloys have certainly done that much. Recognizing the transformation possible in the cabin of a self-driving automobile, Rinspeed fitted the Etos with a retractable steering wheel. That allows unfettered access to a pair of 21.5-inch ultra-HD widescreen displays hooked up to a connected infotainment system that learns from the driver's (or occupant's) habits to minimize the necessity to manually input information. No less than eight exterior cameras work in conjunction to all but completely eliminate the notion of the blindspot. But like so many mullets festooning the streets of Las Vegas and the slopes of the Swiss Alps alike, the party trick is found around back. Not unlike a megayacht with a helipad, Rinspeed fitted a remote-control helicopter on the rear deck that can be used for anything from selfies on the go to retrieving packages along the driving route. The drone lands on a platform with 12,000 individually controlled LEDs and covered in Gorilla Glass furnished, as with the glass roof, by Corning. Combine the drone with the ability to pay tolls and other charges through NFC signal while charging your phone inductively, and the driver/occupant may never need to get out of the car unless he or she wants to (and the singularity controlling all these systems permits). Fortunately Rinspeed made the interior a comfortable place to be, filled with niceties and distractions from a watch winder on the dashboard to the ceramic and titanium trim to the San Francisco skyline stitched, for some reason, into the seatbacks. Few of these features strike us as strictly necessary, and the most outlandish of them (we're looking at you, drone) will likely never be implemented on a production automobile. And what features do will likely find their home in more accommodating vehicles than a two-seat sports car.