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BMW's Vision Next 100 concept celebrates past, predicts future

Forecasting 100 years out is a tough job, so we'll forgive BMW if not everything in this concept comes true in the next century. It's the first of several that will celebrate BMW's centenary this year – concepts from Mini, Rolls-Royce, and BMW Motorcycles will follow later – and aims to guess what and how we'll be driving in the distant future. Although it's no longer a question of if, we still don't know when cars will make the switch to autonomous driving. So yeah, there's a lot up in the air. What this concept promises is more of everything. What this concept promises is more of everything: more comfort, more assistance, and a more intense experience – when you want that. Plus new, lighter materials, increased customization, and of course all the connected smarts you can throw (or will be able to throw) at a set of four wheels and some seats. It starts inside with an out-there dashboard display. Going a step further from the typical head-up display, the Alive Geometry transforms everything in your periphery into a digital blanket of context stretching from the interior to some of the exterior panels. This tessellation of moving triangles is supposed to mimic a flock of birds to bring you subtly changing information about what's going on around you. BMW gives this idea the made-up term of 4D printing. BMW gives this idea the made-up term of 4D printing, as it believes that in 30 years it will be possible to rapidly prototype this flock-of-informative-seagulls design to provide function (the fourth dimension, apparently?) in addition to the physical form. We'll check back in 2046. BMW also notes that displays in current cars will give way to OLED displays and then to the windshield-as-display concept that has been promised for a while and is seen here. About the car driving itself: BMW highlights two new driving modes for the concept, Boost and Ease. Boost is for when the driver is in control, the vehicle doing what it can to heighten the experience and the driver's awareness. It can use the Alive Geometry to show the best line or warn of other cars, integrating all the current active safety tech and more. BMW believes this will allow the driver to improve instead of just going faster. We would have called this mode iStillDriveSometimes, but hey, marketing still has 100 years to come around to that one. The important idea is that the driver will still have the choice to drive.

BMW ReachNow just became a full-fledged mobility services program

Since officially opening its doors with 370 cars in Seattle in April, BMW's ReachNow has made little expansions. It stared operations in Portland and grew to 760 cars. Today, it also announced that Brooklyn would join the list, and that the number of available cars to share would climb to 1,030. But the big news is that the scope of ReachNow's efforts has just grown tremendously. Instead of just the original, short-term car rental option ReachNow will now be able to do all sorts of things. These include: ReachNow Ride: Similar to Lyft and Uber, this is a ride-hailing program where someone drives you to your destination. You can request a driver and set personal experience options, like setting a radio station or requesting silence for the ride. A pilot program will start in Seattle. ReachNow Fleet Solutions: BMW's version of Zipcar, but only for residents of specific apartment buildings. This is a station-based, dedicated car sharing plan and the first pilot will be in Manhattan, starting in a few weeks. It will be based at The Solaire in lower Manhattan and will use plug-in i3s exclusively. ReachNow Reserve: Remember good, old-fashioned rental cars? This is like that, but a bit fancier. BMW's longer-term rental service will let you schedule a particular model, which will then be delivered to you. You can keep it as long as you like, but we assume that if you're thinking of not giving it back for a few months, you're doing it wrong. ReachNow Share: BMW saw what Turo (nee Relay Rides) was doing and figured it was a good idea. With this program, you will be able to rent out your own 2016 or 2017 Mini for a minimum of two days, making you a bit of cash from your car when you're not using it. This rolls out in December in Seattle, and ReachNow CEO Steve Banfield said that it may expand to other models in the future. At #AutoMobilityLA, @turo says it has 2 million activated users and 120,000 listed vehicles. Claims the average monthly earning is $536* pic.twitter.com/gWHdrvPRWV — AutoblogGreen (@AutoblogGreen) November 15, 2016 ReachNow currently have 32,000 members, and all of these services are available to them through the ReachNow app. For a "limited time," new users can save the $39 registration fee as part of an introductory offer, and per-minute charges for the regular ReachNow service are 41 cents a minute instead of 49. At #AutoMobilityLA , @reachnow announces third city for @BMW's car sharing services: Brooklyn.

2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata named World Car of the Year

Kicking off Day Two of the New York Auto Show, the World Car of the Year awards are finally being handed out. The overall winner is, as God himself intended, the Mazda MX-5 Miata. It beat the Audi A4 and the Mercedes-Benz GLC-Class. The unique thing about these awards are that they aren't limited to the US domestic market (that's why they're called the World Car of the Year awards). For example, nominees for the overall award included the Skoda Superb, Renault Kadjar, and Subaru Levorg. In the Performance category, the forbidden fruit was repped by the Honda Civic Type R. But both the Civic and the Mercedes-AMG C63 Coupe were beat out by a far more expensive competitor – the new Audi R8. The fourth-generation Toyota Prius and the second-generation Chevrolet Volt, were two of the big finalists for the World Green Car of the Year award. They both lost out, though, to the Mirai fuel-cell car. Yes, a hydrogen car beat out two of the world's premiere hybrids. The luxury race that was perhaps the hardest to predict. That's because each of the three finalists have received near universal acclaim. In the end, though, the BMW 7 Series beat out the Audi Q7 and Volvo XC90. Finally, we have the World Car Design of the Year, where the overall winner (MX-5) and the Mazda CX-3 faced off against the new Jaguar XE. While both the CX-3 and XE are handsome vehicles, the WCOTY committee realized the answer is always Miata, and awarded Mazda's iconic roadster another 2016 award. Related Video: AND NOW THERE IS ONE... MAZDA MX-5 - 2016 WORLD CAR OF THE YEAR NEW YORK – March 24, 2016 - For Immediate Release The Road to World Car journey ended today with the declaration of the MAZDA MX-5 as the 2016 World Car of the Year. The winner was announced during a press conference hosted by the New York International Auto Show, Bridgestone Corporation and Autoneum. 2016 marks the 10th anniversary of the partnership between World Car and the New York show, and the third consecutive year that the World Car Awards have retained their ranking as the number one automotive awards program in the world in terms of media reach. Mazda Motor Corporation is no stranger to the World Car Awards program – now in its 12th year. The Mazda2/Mazda Demio was the 2008 World Car of the Year. While the Mazda3 (2014), Mazda6 (2013) and Mazda MX-5 have all earned "Top Three in the World" status as voted by our 70 plus international automotive journalists that make up the jury.