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BMW starts Apple-like "Genius" program to explain tech

Even workaday cars are so capable now that even most auto scribes don't truly find out about a car's limits until a professional driver shows them what they are. It's the same with a vehicle's suite of features and the technology inside - there's so much of it that most people will have no idea what their cars can offer them. BMW is the latest company to make a personal effort to change that, introducing "young, tech-savvy employees" to dealerships as part of its "BMW Genius Everywhere" initiative.
Having no part in the actual sale of a vehicle, a BMW Genius is present on the showroom floor only to answer questions about the company's products and their features. If the customer decides to buy, he is transferred to a salesperson. A pilot program in the UK proved its effectiveness, it will now be rolled out across Europe and then come to the United States toward the end of this year in time for the launch of the i3. Details are still being worked out, but each BMW dealer will have at least one Genius.
For assistance that doesn't require visiting the auto mall, BMW is also putting vehicle and feature tutorials on its US website to "make our knowledge about our brand more interesting and more accessible to the consumer." They will appear online sometime in the latter half of the year, and will also be bundled into iPhone and iPad apps.

Car designer Frank Stephenson wants to show you something ... smaller

Influential car designer Frank Stephenson has often thought small. Now he’s thinking smaller. Throughout the past three decades, he has shaped — literally — some of the most indelible designs in automotive history: the modern Mini, the Ferrari FXX track star, the Maserati Gran Sport, a range of stunning McLarens and down to the funky 21st-century version of the Fiat 500. Now heÂ’s turned his pen to fashioning watches. His Cosmos analog piece, made to mirror “a black hole in space” and detailed “with an orange pinstripe which simulates the supernova glow of a neutron star,” features a Japan-built quartz movement and was created in concert with the Time Concepts company. “ItÂ’s the age-old adage ‘car people are watch people,Â’ so it was a natural step for me to get creative with timepieces too,” Stephenson said in a statement. “The collection showcases the love I have for exceptional and emotionally charged design, just like what is required in designing world class cars.” While Stephenson, who is 64, may be best known publicly for his vision of “affordable style” with the Mini and the Fiat, his ethos also translated to the utilitarian. In the case of BMW in the mid-1990s, the company was hustling to market an SUV, and turned to him for inspiration. His team had six months to complete the project. The result was the high-end X5, which Stephenson sketched during a two-hour flight. In 2018, Stephenson established the independent design company, Frank Stephenson Design, based in London. Related video: Design/Style BMW Ferrari Fiat Maserati McLaren MINI Gadgets watch frank stephenson

Trump reportedly says he wants to wipe German cars off the U.S. map

BERLIN/FRANKFURT — A report that U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pursue German carmakers until there are no Mercedes-Benz rolling down New York's Fifth Avenue dented shares in the luxury car manufacturers on Thursday. An excerpt from German magazine Wirtschaftswoche's article, which cited several unnamed European and U.S. diplomats but did not include any direct quotes, could not be independently verified, while a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Berlin referred questions to Washington. The news and current affairs magazine said Trump had told French President Emmanuel Macron in April that he aimed to push German carmakers out of the United States altogether. Macron's administration in Paris declined to comment on the report. The Trump administration last week opened a so-called Section 232 trade investigation into vehicle imports, which could result in a 25 percent tariff on cars on the same "national security" grounds Washington used to impose metals duties in March. This could destroy exports by German carmakers, which control 90 percent of the U.S. premium market and are the biggest European Union exporters of cars to the United States. BMW owns Rolls-Royce, while Daimler has Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen controls Bentley, Bugatti, Porsche and Audi. Daimler, BMW and Audi declined comment. Porsche was not immediately available for comment. BMW shares were trading 0.5 percent lower at 0939 GMT, while Daimler and VW's shares were down 1 percent and 1.6 percent respectively, underperforming Germany's blue-chip DAX. Trump has railed against German carmakers before. And in early 2017, in an interview with German newspaper Bild, he said he would impose 35 percent tariffs on imported cars. At the time, the president called Germany a great car producer but said that the business relationship with the United States was an unfair one-way street. Germany's auto industry association VDA says its members exported 657,000 vehicles to North America last year, with total exports of vehicle components, cars, engines, as well as second-hand vehicles totaling 31.2 billion euros in 2016. Imports from the United States to Germany amounted to 7.4 billion euros, meaning a trade deficit of 23.8 billion euros the VDA's latest available figures show. However, German brands also have huge factories in the United States, where they built 804,000 cars last year, VDA said, providing jobs for U.S. workers. Berlin has reacted angrily to the U.S.