Automotive IT News and Facts
New BMWs in Germany will be equipped with specially adapted Vodafone SIM cards from this summer as the German premium carmaker pursues its ConnectedDrive strategy. Under a five-year agreement between BMW and Vodafone Germany, new cars will be fitted with the SIM cards at the assembly plant. The cards use machine-to-machine technology that allows different [...]
Jaguar Land Rover and Chery Automobile are seeking regulatory approval to jointly build Land Rover SUVs – and possibly Jaguars at a later date – at a plant near Shanghai, the Reuters news agency reported Monday. The two companies are planning a 17.5 billion yuan car venture in Changshu city, the report said. Jaguar Land [...]
General Motors and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen on Wednesday said they are forming a global alliance that will let the two carmakers share platforms, create a purchasing joint venture and potentially save billions of dollars in annual operating costs. As part of the agreement, GM will take a 7 pc stake in PSA, which will raise an additional [...]
As the global head of marketing for the Volkswagen Group and its core VW passenger car brand, Luca de Meo is responsible for defining what the group and its products stand for. That message needs to get across globally to VW buyers of all ages and nationalities. In an interview with automotiveIT, the Italian-born executive, [...]
Onstar is teaming up with Spanish telecommunications group Telefonica to expand its telematics offerings globally. “Earlier this year we announced that OnStar is growing its global footprint,” said Jon Hyde, director of OnStar Global Expansion. “This partnership is one of the first vital steps in that process.” OnStar, which is fully owned by General Motors, [...]
Volvo’s new V40 model will feature a new kind of airbag that covers the front of the car in a collision with a pedestrian. The Swedish automaker said the new V40, which will be officially unveiled at the Geneva auto show March 6, will have a range of new safety and driver-assistance technologies, including Volvo’s [...]
Volkswagen Group has chosen SAP to reorganize its customer relationship managenemt software, industry insiders say. SAP, the world’s largest maker of business software, will provide CRM software for all passenger car brands belonging to the VW Group. Rollout will start in Germany in coming months and other countries, including Spain and Italy, will get the [...]
Bill Ford called on the automotive and mobile industries to work closely together to deal with the challenges posed by the growing number of cars clogging the roads in a world with ever more megacities. In a keynote address to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ford, the chairman of the US carmaker that bears [...]
BMW is launching the Aupeo! personal radio iPhone App, the first global application developed by a third party. The Munich-based premium car maker said Aupeo! will soon be available for all current BMW and Mini models. The launch of Aupeo!, a kind of personal DJ service similar to the North American Pandora internet radio service, [...]
The US administration is stepping up the pressure on carmakers to make in-vehicle electronic devices less distracting to drivers. US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Thursday issued a series of proposed voluntary guidelines for in-car communications, entertainment, information gathering and navigation devices. The guidelines, which were issued by the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [...]
