Over the last few weeks, Motoring Weekly has been publishing articles about the companies behind the scenes of autonomous vehicle development. Most are unknown to the general public, however this article covers a name that everyone knows about: BMW. Firstly though, it is important to define what “autonomous” means and the levels of autonomy that the industry has agreed on - … [Read more...]
Wilhelm Maybach
With the renewal of the Maybach name as another sub-brand under Daimler-Benz, we thought it would be good to highlight just how important the Maybach name is to the automotive industry. In fact the names Daimler and Maybach have been connected for over a century in one form or another. Wilhelm Maybach was born in 1846 in a small town in southern Germany, which later became … [Read more...]
An Update on Nokia Maps, Now Called Here
A few years ago, a consortium of German auto makers acquired the Nokia Maps business to help embed the system into their cars and to manage their relationships with Apple and Google. Nokia had bought a company called Navteq back in 2007. Navteq was a mapping company that used first hand knowledge of terrain rather than official Government sourced maps unlike many of their … [Read more...]
Lanchester
This weeks history article is about Lanchester, one of Britain’s first car companies, in fact it was founded as the motor industry was snowballing as many companies had sprung up to satisfy initial demand for motor vehicles. Their first claim to fame was that they built the very first British motor car in 1895 - a few years before the company was formed. The Lanchester … [Read more...]
Nikolaus Otto
Nikolaus Otto is an engineer who probably did more to get the industry moving than anyone during the early days. Otto’s claim to fame is the Otto Cycle that the majority of internal combustion engines use as the process to create power. Otto was born in the Rhineland, Germany in 1832 the same year his father died. He did the usual schooling for the time and although he … [Read more...]