Most BMW owners consider it a sacrilege to let someone else drive their cars, let alone take the driver out of the equation entirely. After all, the reason you buy a BMW in the first place is because you like to drive. But BMW is testing an autonomous 5-series that doesn't need a human pilot for anything except to start the car.

Researchers on BMW's Highly Automated Driving project have clocked more than 2,700 miles in a self-driving BMW 5-series sedan in Germany. The vehicle is equipped with advanced decision-making software, GPS, maps, cameras, and sensors that … Read more

Today GM released a new version of its OnStar RemoteLink app that provides a seamless way to send an address from your smartphone to your car.

Powered by Microsoft's Bing on Android and Google Maps on iPhone, RemoteLink users can search for a nearby businesses using voice or text and send the destination to their OnStar-equipped vehicle, provided they have an active Connections and Directions subscription. Users can save up to five addresses in the app, and send addresses from a contact in their address book.

I reviewed OnStar's app last year, and found myself frequently wishing I … Read more

TomTom's Live connected navigation service gets more useful with the addition of travel-specific apps by Yelp, TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Twitter. The TomTom Go Live 1535M will be the first device to take advantage of the new functionality, with owners of the Go Live 2353M gaining parity through a software update this fall.

The new apps will live in the Services menu and, to be fair, "Services" is a more apt description of the new functions than "Applications," but we shan't split hairs. What most of the apps do is provide access to a wider selection of points of interest (POIs) than could be preinstalled on the unit, along with secondary information about those POIs.… Read more

Much as I like some of the nav apps available on smartphones, I'm not really a fan of using my phone as a GPS. You have to buy a special windshield or dashboard mount for it, and it's harder to use for things like phone calls and Pandora when it's pulling navigation duty. Not impossible, mind you, just less convenient.

That's why I remain a fan of the standalone GPS--especially one like this: TigerDirect has the TomTom XL 325S 4.3-inch GPS for $99.99. A $50 mail-in rebate (PDF) brings the price down to $49.… Read more

Hughes Telematics is casting a wider net to catch customers, partnering with AAA Club Partners (ACP) to offer its In-Drive-connected services to the automobile club's 12 million drivers in 20 states.

In-Drive is a telematics service connecting the vehicle and driver to Hughes operators in the event of an emergency or accident. Devices plugged into the vehicle's On-Board Diagnostics port and mounted on the visor connect the driver and the vehicle to Hughes' team of operators, who are available to help drivers coordinate emergency response and detect when a vehicle has been in a crash.

AAA hasn't … Read more

BMW announced a few months ago that it was developing technology to make left turns safer. Recently, the auto manufacturer released a video demonstrating this technology in action, along with several other videos that show other uses for its next-generation Car-to-X Communication technology, including working with traffic infrastructure and sending information between vehicles.

Left-Turn Assistant By using vehicle-mounted cameras and GPS, the Car-to-X technology can determine if a driver is about to make a left turn and activate a system of warning lights.

Intersection Assistant The intersection assistant notifies the driver using visual warnings on a heads-up display to notify … Read more

Your navigation app may show you the fastest or most fuel-efficient way to get where you are going, but does it show you the most fun route?

BMW's Ultimate Drive app for Android and iPhone lets users search for, create, and share their favorite drive routes. The navigation app is less about how to get where you're going, and more like a travel guide for Sunday drives.

Using the free app, you can search for routes by location or sort them by length, newness, and user rating. As of today, there are a handful of submitted drive stretches for each location I searched. That may be because the app is only a day old, but it could also be because it's a little difficult to enter routes.

The app lets users create their own drives using Google Maps, but at least in the iPhone app, it doesn't have the benefit of letting users manually enter addresses or drag around route guides. You have to visually place the starting point, waypoints, and end point.

If you need to enter granular driving directions, which many secret stashes require, the app could get tedious. But once a stretch has been submitted, you can add comments, share the route via e-mail or Facebook, or send it to your GPS device. In the app, other users are free to add their comments and rate the route on traffic, scenic quality, fun, and amount of twisties. … Read more

Recently, I took a road trip from San Francisco, Calif., to San Diego and back. Yes, I was headed to Comic-Con 2011 and yes, I had a blast while I was there, but ask any real car lover and they'll tell you that the best part of any road trip is the getting there part. And if you're a technophile like I am, the getting there will usually include a few tech toys.

Partially by design and partially by accident, I used a different tech loadout for the two legs of the trip. Getting there, I used a … Read more