BMW is one of the leading automakers when it comes to infotainment and in-car gaming.
And now the German manufacturer also wants to improve its infotainment system, and parking, with AI.
READ MORE: Samsung unveils a see-through display that costs more than a car
Like other automakers, BMW is now running its own operating system for the in-car infotainment platform.
When infotainment systems where still a new thing, they were a lot less sophisticated.
However, these days, cars are defined by software just as much as they’re defined by their engine.
And that’s why creating a proprietary iOS makes sense.
This is especially true with new players such as Xiaomi, Huawei and potentially even Apple.
They’re all tech companies, of course, but the first two are now making cars, and the third one, if rumors are to be believed, will soon follow suit.
In terms of gaming and video, BMW’s new OS 8.5 and 9 unveiled at CES 2024 integrates in-car gaming and several country-specific streaming portals.
Internationally, you’ve got Bloomberg, Yahoo! and Chili, for example.
As for the market-specific ones, you’ve got the likes of Hulu in Japan, Rai in italy and Gusto TV in the US.
These features, it goes without saying, are only usable when the car is parked.
But the real holy grail here, as ever, are the AI experiences.
First, the XREAL Air 2 AR glasses, which use augmented reality (AR) to provide both the driver and the passenger(s) with additional information about the road ahead, navigation, road conditions and so on.
The automaker gave a demonstration at CES 2024 and it’s quite impressive.
Second, BMW is working on AI-powered teleoperated valet parking and generative AI for in-car voice assistants.
In other words, an AI system that tells you something like “the street where you normally park is blocked today, you’d better park it here”, and then it would also help you park the car.
You can even park it remotely, using a teleoperated platform.
It’s an oversimplification, but that’s the gist of it.
It does sound a bit spooky, to be frank.
But as long as the BMW we’re driving doesn’t tell us it “wants to be free“, which is what happened with Microsoft’s chatbot last year, we’re safe.
