Explore BMW’s digital experience of the future

The in-car digital experience of both the present day and the future was the dominant theme of the BMW Group’s presence at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show 2024 held early in January. 

New infotainment products for the current BMW model portfolio were shown at the event. At the same time the BMW Group demonstrated a variety of innovative development projects that offer a glimpse into the future. Visitors had the opportunity to teleoperate a BMW iX and guide it around the Silver Lot on the exhibition site or discover as a passenger the potential that augmented reality glasses offer during a journey. Visitors were also able to experience the new generative AI capability of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant powered by the Alexa large language model, which enables quick answers and how to responses to vehicle features.

BMW is synonymous with both the ultimate driving machine and the ultimate digital experience and at CES 2024 they showcased more content, more customisation and more gaming, all underpinned by the powerful BMW Operating system, which was developed in-house.

Made possible by BMW Operating System 9 

The optional BMW Digital premium offering allows BMW customers with BMW Operating System 9 to access an extended range of products from the BMW ConnectedDrive Store. As well as on-demand functions for the vehicle, the store also offers an ever-evolving selection of third-party apps in the categories music & audio, news & magazines and gaming via the infotainment system.

BMW are elevating their gaming experience by offering bespoke gaming controllers to enrich this experience. For example “Beach Buggy Racing2” offers customers an action-packed racing game that evokes memories of great console classics. Two players seated in the vehicle can compete against each other in split-screen mode using their gaming controllers. Any standard gaming controller with Bluetooth capability can be connected to the infotainment system. 

BMW Digital Premium is available optionally for models utilising BMW Operating System 9 and can be obtained from the ConnectedDrive Store.

Top entertainment with the video app in BMW Operating Systems 8.5 and 9

In addition to the BMW Theatre screen with Amazon Fire TV built-into the rear compartment of the new BMW 7 Series, BMW customers are now able to watch a variety of video content on the vehicle’s central display too. The TiVo operating system for smart TVs was optimised for in-car video streaming in the space of just a few months by developers from the BMW Group working together with XPERI Inc resulting in the integration of the DTS AutoStage Video Service powered by TiVo. The entertainment programme comprises both live channels and on-demand media libraries covering the categories news, sport, entertainment for kids, movies and TV series. First launched in the new BMW 5 Series, this offering will now be rolled out to further executive and luxury models over the air. Since the end of 2023, customers driving compact models with BMW Operating System 9 have also been able to access the Video App with BMW Digital Premium. These will be followed by further models over the course of 2024, such as the BMW X2 and all models in the new Mini family.

Ready for the wearables of the future

At the CES show BMW Group demonstrated for the first time how augmented reality glasses are set to enrich the driving experience in future. Wearing the glasses drivers can see how navigation instructions, hazard warnings, entertainment content, information on charging stations and supporting visualisations in parking situations are embedded perfectly into the real-world environment by the XREAL Air 2. Augmented reality and mixed reality devices are expected to become increasingly popular in the next few years thanks to a variety of technological advances that are making the technology more affordable for consumers. In future these devices will offer both drivers and passengers enhanced information and enjoyable experiences to complement the displays fitted in the vehicle.

The BMW Group has been working on the development of Augmented Reality and mixed reality devices since 2008 and investigating possible applications for head-mounted displays in research projects. BMW engineers have now succeeded in showing stable augmented reality and mixed reality content to passengers in a dynamically moving vehicle for the first time. The displayed image remains securely embedded in the environment even in challenging driving situations. This was achieved by linking the tracking system of the device to the vehicle’s sensor data.

The BMW Group has consistently built up its pool of experience with augmented reality and mixed reality devices. The Augmented View functionality in current BMW and Mini models shows drivers a live video stream on the display that is augmented with additional information for optimum guidance when using the navigation system. In the area of highly innovative, vehicle related XR applications, the BMW Group has filed patents for almost 70 inventions from its developers in recent years.

BMW voice assistant becomes the ultimate vehicle expert

At CES BMW Group and Amazon also showcased voice assistant Large Language Model (LLM) capabilities based on a current development project. This makes the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant the ultimate expert thanks to generative AI that is powered by Alexa LLM. 

The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant has been using artificial intelligence for speech processing for a long time and the latest demonstration is proof of the continued innovation that BMW and its partners are bringing to market. Complex processing capabilities, which enable human-like interactions and dialogs are now possible thanks to LLMs, which are AI models that are designed to process human language at a high level and generate responses accordingly.

BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant now gives customers control over many vehicle functions so that they can keep their hands on the wheel and their eyes on the road. Leveraging Amazon’s Alexa Custom Assistant the next generation of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will soon become more powerful as updates are rolled out over the course of the year for vehicles equipped with BMW Operating System 9.

Joint development project with Valeo paves the way for teleoperated valet parking

The BMW Group and Valeo have entered a strategic partnership to work on the joint development of next-generation automated Level 4 parking solutions. This includes the development of solutions for automated valet parking. The concept sees a customer leave their vehicle in a designated drop off area. The vehicle then searches for a vacant parking space itself, manoeuvres into the space and later exits it again before driving back to the pick-up area for collection by the driver. Either an autonomous driving system or a teleoperated valet system can be used as the underlying technology for this. Teleoperation offers complete control in situations that could be very challenging for fully autonomous systems, such as in complex or unfamiliar environments as it uses live camera images to guide and move the vehicle so that it can be parked and retrieved again in a carefully controlled manner. Possible future applications for this technology could include parking at events, at airports or in the logistics sector.