2009 BMW 7 Series: Electronic Back Seat Driver

A little write up over at CarAdvice.com.au talks about one of the coolest features in a new car since sliced bread (huh?). We've had trip computers and speed monitoring computers in cars for ages but this new feature called Speed Limit Display will, well, display the speed limit.

The system uses a little camera mounted near the passenger side rear-vision mirror which watches the side of the road for any speed limit signs (including those funky LED-based electronic ones they like to use around construction zones) and pops up a little alert on the car's HUD if you're going over it.

However, before alerting the driver the new system chats with the car's nav system to see if the speed matches the speed in the GPS data so maybe it's not exactly like a back seat driver.

Oh, and BMW really wants to make sure you understand that the system won't try to slow you down, we wouldn't want THAT now would we!?

Read more about the 2009 BMW 7-series.

Balls On Strings Never Looked So Cool

Engadget has a little write up and a video showing an art installation at BMW's museum in Munich. Imagine a field of 714 silver orbs floating on air flowing in and out of various shapes (including cars).

It took me a while to figure it out but the video shows near the end that they're suspended on fine strings (probably fishing wire or something). Still, very cool and relaxing... *sigh*

If nothing else this proves BMW has plenty of balls.

Bendy BMW GINA Concept Car

Today Autoblog posted an article about a wikkid looking BMW concept car which has no solid panels but rather a stretchy fabric "skin" covering a moveable but safe skeleton. Just a quick glance and you wouldn't notice anything whacky but when it BLINKS at you or opens up its chest to display the engine underneath you'll have trouble stopping yourself from saying "COOL!"

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