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Rolls-Royce brings Pebble Beach 2019 Collection to Monterey

Rolls-Royce brought 13 Bespoke Commissions to Monterey Car Week, each of them only available to guests attending car week. Among the pride, said to be inspired by the resurgent natural landscape of Pebble Beach after years of natural disasters, are a single Phantom, four Cullinans, four Dawns, two Ghosts, and two Wraiths. The Phantom gets the most modest treatment, attired — as usual — for business in a Black Diamond and Gold Bespoke exterior. The interior highlight is the Phantom Gallery, which turns a swath of the instrument panel into a canvas for personalized art. The four Cullinan SUVs begin to taste the rainbow, drenched in the luxury maker's iced finish, which Rolls-Royce says is one of its most popular offerings. The ice finish entails a mildly paradoxical combination of a matte color with an elegant shine, and on the quartet of Cullinans comes in Burnout Grey, Black Green, Iced Gunmetal, and Galilea Blue. Outside the collection but just as interesting from a color perspective, Rolls-Royce showed a bespoke Cullinan in Fux Orange, the paint named after a collector who asked Rolls-Royce to color-match a woman's wrap he bought in Miami. The Ghost, Wraith, and Dawn go all the way with color as part of a Pastel Collection, their "painter's palette of colors" keyed off the riot of ground cover and wildflowers newly returned to the Monterey Peninsula. They include three Black Badge Commissions, the aim to show that Black Badge need not mean somber or dowdy. Rolls-Royce did the same thing last year with its Paradiso Black Badge Collection in Quail Blue.  This year's Ghost Black Badge comes in the new color Light Green Solid over a black interior livened up by Serenity Green splashes. The Wraith wears Semaphore Yellow over a Selby Grey and Lemon cabin speckled by the Black Badge Starlight Headliner. The Dawn shows off Coral Solid on its bodywork and Aero Cowling, made pristine by seven coats of paint and more than nine hours of hand polishing. The interior gets Arctic White and Sunset leather, evoking the "blooming northern California hills and valleys." Every one of the Black Badge Commissions will feature a "Pebble Beach 2019" treadplate, and the hardtops all get Black Badge Starlight Headliners. Anyone who is keen to put money down has one more day to get to Monterey.

Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini utilities await approval from German parents [w/poll]

A cursory look at the top of the automobile market would suggest that the world's carmakers are gunning it full steam ahead into a new stratosphere of ultra-luxury and high-performance utility vehicles. After all, companies like Bentley and Maserati are preparing to launch their very first crossovers, while established players like Mercedes-Benz and Land Rover keep producing ever more expensive sport-utes of their own. But that's not the case across the board.
Rolls-Royce, for example, has yet to receive the green light to start working on its proposed CUV project. Though the dimensions of its sedans may already eclipse those of some crossovers, this would be the first time that Goodwood would produce a utility of its own. But while the British automaker's financial performance may have earned it a degree of autonomy, the final call may still come down to parent company BMW, which just might be waiting to see how Bentley fares with its upcoming crossover - and how much money it brings in to the Volkswagen Group - before deciding on whether or not it should proceed.
However, Rolls-Royce may not be alone in waiting for its German parent company to approve its high-priced ute. It's been two and a half years since we first laid eyes on the Lamborghini Urus (pictured), but the Italian automaker reportedly has not yet received approval from its parent company Audi and the greater Volkswagen Group to proceed with development and production. Envisioned to share its platform with the next Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and the production version of the Bentley EXP 9 F concept, the high-riding Lamborghini was originally set to reach production as the marque's third model line in 2017. But while Audi drags its feet - potentially waiting to see how the Bentley version pans out - the Urus' launch keeps getting pushed back, if it's ever to be made at all.

BMW's Connected Drive feature vulnerable to hackers

BMW is working to fix a cyber-security flaw that has left 2.2 million vehicles worldwide vulnerable to hackers. Cars equipped with the automaker's Connected Drive remote-services system are affected, according to the German Automobile Association (ADAC), which first discovered the problem. Researchers found they could lock and unlock car doors by mimicking mobile communications and sending phony signals to a SIM card installed in affected vehicles. An attack could be launched "within minutes" of accessing the system without the perpetrators leaving a trace, according to their report, in part because once they had gained access to the network, the communications were not secure. In response to the security gap, BMW says it has been upgrading software via over-the-air updates over the past week, so no visits to dealerships are needed to remedy the security hole. In fact, owners of affected cars may not have even noticed the updates taking place. The problem affects BMW, Rolls-Royce and MINI vehicles equipped with Connected Drive since 2010. Flaws were first reported to BMW last year by ADAC, which is the country's equivalent of AAA. ADAC says it withheld a public announcement until the car company could address the problem. While BMW has pushed the software patch to most affected vehicles, the organization said it's possible some at cars in the United States had not yet been updated. BMW did not respond to a request for comment Monday. In a written statement, the automaker said it knows of no real-world breaches. 2015 Off To Dubious Start The hack could raise the eyebrows of industry leaders: Cars are now the equivalent of mobile computers and cyber-security experts have been warning that the auto industry has been slow to close its security holes. BMW's breach marks the second time in 2015 that researchers have found a popular automotive feature with little or no security precautions. Last month, experts said a popular device made by Progressive Insurance that allows motorists to track their driving habits contained no security whatsoever. Like the Connected Drive smart-phone app, many automotive components and infotainment features were conceived and produced at a time when industry executives never considered the possibility someone might want to hack into them. But increased connectivity brings increased risk. Going forward, BMW says its Connected Drive features will now operate by using encrypted communications via the HTTPS protocol.