Stephan Durach Named to Fast Company’s 2011 100 Most Creative

Head of BMW Group Technology Office acknowledged for the group’s innovative work on in-car connectivity

Woodcliff Lake, NJ – June 10, 2011…  Stephan Durach, Head of the BMW Group Technology Office has been named to Fast Company’s 2011 list of the Top 100 Most Creative People in Business.  Durach was acknowledged for the group’s innovative work on in-car connectivity.  The most recent innovation to reach production from the BMW Group Technology Office are the BMW Apps and MINI Connected options which offer unprecedented access to a range of music and other features of the Apple iPhone safely and conveniently using the car’s integrated display and controls.  

“This is quite an honor, but the ability to be surrounded by some of the most creative and innovative people in the world is exactly what led the BMW Group to establish an engineering group in the heart of Silicon Valley more than a decade ago,” said Durach. “Our latest BMW Apps and MINI Connected options show what is possible with in-car connectivity. Safety is always our top priority so the goal is to ensure that information and music can be accessed in the car without ever having to touch or look at your iPhone.

BMW Apps enables the driver to be more seamlessly connected than ever before using their Apple iPhone.  Vehicle compatible apps like the BMW Connected App can be downloaded from the iTunes store, enabling customers to access Twitter and Facebook updates, listen to internet radio from around the world with Web Radio, and use the Last Mile feature to help find their parked vehicle. In addition, popular music streaming services like Pandora can be easily and safely streamed into and controlled by the BMW vehicle interface.

The flexible design of BMW Apps allows unprecedented integration of smartphone functions, taking the in-car integration of iPhone, entertainment and online functions to a whole new level. BMW Apps adopts the familiar BMW display and controls to ensure that all functions can be operated comfortably, simply, safely and intuitively while minimizing driver distraction. The functional repertoire of BMW Apps can be extended easily by dipping into the BMW Approved iPhone Apps.  Once connected, all functions can be operated using the vehicle’s iDrive controller, steering wheel buttons and on-board monitor.

As well as enabling the integration of approved apps, the BMW Apps option also offers another in-car entertainment function known as PlugIn, which supports the Apple-designed, automotive grade interface called iPod Out. This allows the operation of functions via the familiar Apple iPod user interface to appear in the car’s display. Since the PlugIn feature gives the car direct access to the iPod functions of the iPhone, BMW owners can avail themselves to all the extended options in the car. These include Genius playlists that allow the driver to automatically generate mixes of similar tracks from the music catalogue. All stored playlists are shown with their original album cover art – just as they would be on an iPhone or iPod.