Enlarge / Neither of these test BMWs has a human in the driver's seat. (credit: BMW)

BMW provided a flight from San Francisco to the Czech Republic and three nights in a hotel so we could visit the Sokolov test center. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

On a large empty slab of asphalt, two BMWs take off. They drive in figure eights and along an oval path separate from each other but nearly in tandem, like two ice skaters practicing the same routine on a piece of black ice before coming to a stop.

Neither of the cars has a driver. That's not that impressive; self-driving cars in testing environments shouldn't impress anyone at this point. Essentially the automaker tells the car to drive a route, and it does it. The important thing here is why these cars, outfitted with additional sensors, are driving along the same route again and again, each time depressing the accelerator the same amount and applying the exact amount of pressure on the brakes: They're testing hardware with the least amount of variables you can encounter outside of a lab.

"It's boring for human drivers," says BMW's project lead for driverless development, Philipp Ludwig. When a human is asked to perform the exact same task repeatedly, the quality of the work diminishes as they lose interest or become fatigued. For a computer-controlled car, it can do this all day. And it has done exactly that.

Enlarge / BMW is testing a remote parking solution. (credit: BMW)

BMW provided a flight from San Francisco to the Czech Republic and three nights in a hotel so we could visit the Sokolov test center. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

Part of the autonomous driving dream is the ability to jump out of your vehicle in front of the store, mall, concert hall, or museum and let the car find its own parking while you enjoy life. No more creeping along in garages thinking you found the perfect spot, only to have your delight dashed by the motorcycle you couldn't quite see.

While true autonomous driving is still years away, regardless of the declarations of automakers and startups, there's another way to have your car seemingly park itself: remote teleoperation. BMW and Valeo are teaming up to make this a reality at BMW's new Future Mobility Development Center in Sokolov, Czech Republic. The automaker gave us a sneak peek and let us remotely drive a vehicle in a simulated parking lot.

Sim racing rig, but less exciting and more anxiety-inducing

As I stood in a small building, about 100 m away sat a BMW iX waiting to be piloted via the rig sitting before me. It resembled the typical online racing rig you see in the homes of car enthusiasts and gamers, except that the side monitors didn't expand the view horizontally. Instead, they were used to display an overhead version of the world around the vehicle. Below those monitors were tablets with controls (forward, reverse, etc) and vehicle status.

Enlarge (credit: Karol Serewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Good news, electric road-trippers: DC fast chargers are about to become a lot more common. On Wednesday, a group of seven major automakers announced a plan to create a new charging network of more than 30,000 chargers across North America starting next year.

BMW, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, and Stellantis are creating a joint venture to significantly expand the number of fast charging sites in the US and Canada. The sites will use the new National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure guidelines , which means, among other things, 97 percent uptime for each charging port. The sites will support both CCS1 and NACS plugs , and the chargers will also support the plug-and-charge protocol.

"North America is one of the world’s most important car markets—with the potential to be a leader in electromobility. Accessibility to high-speed charging is one of the key enablers to accelerate this transition. Therefore, seven automakers are forming this joint venture with the goal of creating a positive charging experience for EV consumers. The BMW Group is proud to be among the founders," said BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse.

Enlarge / The eighth-generation 5 Series has the least-outrageous styling we've seen from BMW in some time. (credit: Jonathan Gitlin)

BMW provided flights from DC to Milan and back, plus three nights in a hotel so we could get a preview of the new 5 Series and i5. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

COMO, ITALY—BMW has earned a reputation for challenging car designs. It's not a new thing, either. People mocked the Z1's disappearing doors. The Z3 coupe's "clown shoe" nickname was not at all affectionate. And few could find a kind word about the infamous "Bangle butt" on the fourth-gen 7 Series. But it doesn't take those kinds of risks with every model, particularly not the latest 5 Series, which now includes a fully electric i5.

The 5 Series is BMW's midsize sedan, and until the advent of the luxury SUV—a category that BMW basically invented—it was the company's bread and butter. There's a new 5 Series out this October, the eighth generation to bear the nameplate. Like other recent BMWs, it uses the manufacturer's latest flexible architecture that supports battery-electric, plug-in hybrid, and conventional powertrains, something we've seen to good effect with the 4 Series and particularly with last year's 7 Series and i7 .

The sedan is not dead

"We're particularly happy with how it turned out proportion-wise. I think it is a long, elegant, sporty sedan, and that, for me, is the essence of any BMW anyway. And the 5 series, of course, is the core of the brand in many, many markets," said Adrian van Hooydonk, design director at BMW Group.

Enlarge / The E46 BMW 3 Series is highly appreciated by enthusiasts, but there's no excuse to not have replaced the Takata airbag by now. (credit: BMW)

In 2015, the largest automotive recall in US history began, due to faulty airbag inflators manufactured by the automotive supplier Takata. At first, 32 million cars were recalled, but the following year, that number grew to as many as 67 million airbags in 42 million vehicles, with at least 24 people killed due to the defective parts. But quite a few recalled cars have not yet had their airbags replaced, and on Thursday, BMW issued a "do not drive" warning to approximately 90,000 owners, telling them to park their vehicles if they have not been fixed.

The problem is a lack of a desiccant or chemical drying agent that would otherwise prevent the ammonium nitrate propellant from taking on moisture due to long-term exposure to heat and humidity. As the propellant ages and takes on moisture, it can fail to properly inflate the airbag during a crash and may even throw metal shrapnel around the vehicle interior.

Takata knew from testing as early as 2000 that some of its airbags might not deploy properly, with the first US incident occurring in 2004. In 2009, a driver in Oklahoma was killed when the airbag in a Honda Accord ruptured, and later that year, Honda recalled half a million cars to fix the problem.