Mercedes S-Class aims to set new premium driving standards

Mercedes introduced the new S-Class at an Airbus facility (Photo: Daimler)

Daimler introduced the new Mercedes S-Class to the world this week, unveiling a model it hopes will be the benchmark for tomorrow’s premium driving experience. The German luxury car maker’s top-of-the-line model traditionally features cutting-edge technologies that will make their way into other Mercedes models later on. The 2013 S-Class is no exception. From the [...]

Kroes: Internet of things requires 1 European telecoms market

Kroes will propose legislation for a common EU telecoms market (Photo: EU)

Europe needs an integrated telecommunications market as machine-to-machine connectivity takes on growing importance, EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Thursday. Kroes, who is in charge of Europe’s digital agenda, said in a speech to the 11th European Business Summit in Brussels that the absence of a Europe-wide telecoms market is a major obstacle in the way [...]

Volvo cites strong sales of V60 plugin hybrid

The V60 Plugin Hybrid can cover 50km on full electric power (Photo: Volvo)

Volvo Cars is boosting production of its V60 Plug-in hybrid amid strong demand for its first diesel-hybrid model. The Swedish automaker said it will almost double production of the model at its Torslanda plant to 282 cars a week from 150. It cited particularly strong demand in Holland, Belgium and Italy. The V60 plugin hybrid [...]

GM opens new data center as transformation of IT continues

GM will manage global data from Warren, Michigan (Photo: GM)

General Motors opened a new 130 million-dlr data center this week, as the automaker continues its company-wide IT transformation. The center – in Warren, Michigan, outside Detroit – will serve as the backbone for all of the company’s global computing operations. It is one of just two that will replace 23 global IT centers over [...]

Newsletter: Daimler and others flock to India for r&d

Daimler's r&d center in Bangalore is the biggest of its kind outside Germany (Photo: Daimler)

BANGALORE – Companies in mature markets are increasingly transferring r&d abroad and premium car maker Daimler is no exception. The company recently inaugurated a new r&d center here, underscoring the importance it attaches to the fast-growing Indian market. “India is one of the core markets of our Mercedes-Benz 2020 growth strategy, and it has enormous [...]

Newsletter: Execs talk about BMW Website and “Future Retail” program

Ulrich Lenz (left) and Hartmut Wagner pay particular attention to the user experience on BMW Web sites (Photo: Claus Dick

BMW has upgraded its online presence, seamlessly integrating user data with business processes running in the background. Ulrich Lenz, head of the premium car maker’s interactive marketing, and Hartmut Wagner, IT manager process IT, sat down with automotiveIT to discuss the benefits of the integrated approach, how they defined the requirements of the new site and what [...]

BYD to adopt Nuance speech technology software

BYD unveiled the Si Rui at the Shanghai auto show (Photo: BYD)

BYD will use Nuance speech technology to operate a range of functions in its new models. The Chinese car and battery systems maker will use the software to operate functions such as radio, TV and DVD player as well as the navigation system in its new Si-Rui models. BYD, which showed the new models and [...]

German companies see big savings potential from BPM software

Companies want BPM software to be simple (Photo: Metasonic)

German managers see big savings potential from the use of business process management software, according to a recent poll. The Software Initiative Germany (SID), an industry association, and software group Metasonic interviewed 100 German business managers and found that 58 pc of them see an industry-wide savings potential of around 5 billion euros. Another 35 [...]

BMW to conduct future mobility research in Singapore

The electric BMW i3 city vehicle will be launched later this year (Photo: BMW)

BMW has teamed up with Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to conduct research on future transportation technologies. The collaboration will focus on advanced battery materials for electric vehicles, human machine interfaces and mobility patterns and concepts. BMW and NTU said in a press release that their joint research, which will be conducted in a new [...]

US proposes concrete steps to reduce driver distraction

The US Administration wants drivers to keep their eyes on the road (Photo: NHTS)

The US administration released guidelines Monday that include concrete measures to reduce driver distraction. The recommendations, issued by the Transportation Department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), call on automakers to disable manual text entry for messaging and internet browsing while a car is in motion; not include video-based entertainment and communications in infotainment systems; and [...]