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What happens when you take an engineer sliding in a BMW i8

The BMW i8 is a pretty impressive car, and a highly visible one at that. It's a great brand ambassador, but not just for BMW. It's really no surprise that Formula E chose it as the safety car from the electric racing series. And, for its duties at tracks around the word, the i8 safety car got some slick upgrades, including wireless charging capabilities courtesy of Qualcomm. It's not your regular, cut-and-dry technology presentation. In the video below, Qualcomm engineers explain a little bit about what they do to enhance electric vehicles. But it's not your regular, cut-and-dry technology presentation. The engineers are forced to answer questions about Qualcomm's technology while riding along in the BMW i8 Qualcomm Safety Car driven by none other than Formula E driver Nelson Piquet, Jr. Sure, riding shotgun for hot laps at Donnington Park in an i8 sounds like a lot of fun, but these guys have a job to do, and Mr. Piquet isn't making it easy for them. The Qualcomm guys talk about taking technology and beefing it up for automotive use, explain the benefits of wireless charging and discuss some other stuff that's hard to pay attention to while watching the i8 get totally sideways in a smoky powerslide. See for yourself in the video below. If you miss something, don't worry; Qualcomm provides more explanation about its automotive technologies at its website, including safety, communication and, of course, inductive charging.

New Forza 6 car pack adds 1,000 hp German race truck

Today, Forza Motorsport 6 continues its pattern of monthly updates with seven new cars in the Turn 10 Select Car Pack. The diverse group of cars spans nearly 60 years of motoring history with a combination three street and four track cars from Germany, Italy, the UK, and the UK. Turn 10 Studios will also release an update that brings back Monza, Catalunya, and the Circuit of the Americas tracks. The seven vehicles in the pack are the 1957 BMW Isetta 300 Export, the 1969 Ford Brawner Hawk III, the 1980 Fiat 124 Sport Spider, the 2014 Jaguar #14 Emil Frey GT3 Jaguar XK, the 2014 Chevrolet #4 ROAL Motorsport RML Cruze TC1 WTCC, the 2015 Mercedes-Benz #24 Tankpool24 Racing Truck, and the 2015 McLaren 570S Coupe. The BMW, Fiat, and McLaren all represent iconic vehicles for their respective brands. While the BMW may not be fast and the McLaren is the baby of the brand, their importance can't be overstated. It also can't be a coincidence that Fiat is releasing an all-new 124 Spider, now based on the Mazda MX-5 Miata, just as Forza is adding in a version of the original. The racecars share a similar iconic nature. The Ford Brawner Hawk III won the 1969 Indianapolis 500 with Mario Andretti at the wheel. The team behind the GT3 XK has ties with Jaguar going back decades. The Chevrolet Cruze is one of the most successful cars in the history of the World Touring Car Championship. Finally, the Mercedes-Benz racing truck was added because the developers saw them in real life and thought racing these big trucks would be cool. The car pack is available to for $7 total, or players can purchase each car individually. Related video: Related Gallery Forza 6 Car Pack Toys/Games BMW Fiat Mercedes-Benz forza car pack

8 automakers, 15 utilities collaborate on open smart-charging for EVs

We're going to lead with General Motors here. GM is one of eight automakers working with 15 utilities and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) at developing a "smart" plug-in vehicle charging system. Why did we start with GM? Because it's the first automaker whose press release we read that mentioned the other seven automakers. Points for sharing. For the record, the collaboration also includes BMW, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Chrysler, Mitsubishi and Ford. The utilities include DTE Energy, Duke Energy, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric. The idea is to develop a so-called "demand charging" system in which an integrated system lets the plug-ins and utilities communicate with each other so that vehicle charging is cut back at peak hours, when energy is most expensive, and ramped up when the rates drop. Such entities say there's a sense of urgency to develop such a system because the number of plug-in vehicles on US roads totals more than 225,000 today and is climbing steadily. There's a lot of technology involved, obviously, but the goal is to have an open platform that's compatible with virtually any automaker's plug-in vehicle. No timeframe was disclosed for when such a system could go live but you can find a press release from EPRI below. EPRI, Utilities, Auto Manufacturers to Create an Open Grid Integration Platform for Plug-in Electric Vehicles PALO ALTO, Calif. (July 29, 2014) – The Electric Power Research Institute, 8 automakers and 15 utilities are working to develop and demonstrate an open platform that would integrate plug-in electric vehicles (PEV) with smart grid technologies enabling utilities to support PEV charging regardless of location. The platform will allow manufacturers to offer a customer-friendly interface through which PEV drivers can more easily participate in utility PEV programs, such as rates for off-peak or nighttime charging. The portal for the system would be a utility's communications system and an electric vehicle's telematics system. As the electric grid evolves with smarter functionality, electric vehicles can serve as a distributed energy resource to support grid reliability, stability and efficiency. With more than 225,000 plug-in vehicles on U.S. roads -- and their numbers growing -- they are likely to play a significant role in electricity demand side management.