The BMW Group put a significant emphasis on the in-car digital experience at CES 2024. The automaker revealed new infotainment products for its vehicles and shared development projects for other future technologies.

CES attendees were able to teleoperate an iX electric SUV and guide it around a parking lot at the Las Vegas Convention Center, use augmented reality glasses during a simulated journey, and experience a new generative AI capability for the brand’s Intelligent Personal Assistant powered by the Amazon Alexa large language model (LLM), which enables quick answers and how-to responses on vehicle features.

“BMW is synonymous with both the ultimate driving machine and the ultimate digital experience,” said Frank Weber, a member of the Board of Management responsible for BMW Group Development. “At the CES, we [showed] more content, more customization, and more gaming. This is all underpinned by our powerful, in-house developed BMW Operating System. And we [took] a look to the future, of course, with perfectly integrated augmented reality and strong, reliable artificial intelligence at the interaction between human and machine.”

 

New gaming experiences

The optional Digital Premium offering allows customers with Operating System 9 (OS 9) vehicles to access an extended range of products from the company’s ConnectedDrive Store. In addition to on-demand vehicle functions, the store offers a growing selection of third-party apps for music and audio, news and magazines, and gaming for the infotainment system.

The company says more games are now being made available via this channel, and vehicle occupants will be able to play using proper gaming controllers in the future. Any standard gaming controller with Bluetooth capability will be able to connect to the infotainment system in a few steps. The controller link-up will be made available over the air for OS 9 later this year.

The in-car AirConsole App already lets its customers play single and multiplayer games in their cars. The casual games offered are easy to pick up for anyone; the user’s smartphone serves as a controller, allowing simple control of gameplay that is quick to learn. Additions are constantly being made to the choice of games in the in-car app.

Digital Premium is optionally available and can be obtained from the ConnectedDrive Store either online, in the MyBMW App, or directly from the car. It allows customers to enjoy in-car use of all the apps available in their countries as well as covering the necessary data usage. The package offerings include enhanced navigation functions and added customization options.

 

New video entertainment app

In addition to the Theatre Screen with Amazon Fire TV built-in in the rear compartment of the 7 Series sedan, customers are now able to watch a variety of video content on the central display. The TiVo operating system for smart TVs has been optimized for in-car video streaming by developers from the BMW Group and Xperi Inc. The result is the integration of the DTS AutoStage video service powered by TiVo. The entertainment program comprises both live channels and on-demand media libraries covering news, sports, entertainment for kids, movies, and TV series.

First launched in the new 5 Series, the platform will now be rolled out to further executive and luxury models over the air. Since the end of 2023, customers driving compact models with OS 9 have also been able to access the video app with Digital Premium. These will be followed by further models in 2024, such as the X2 and all models in the new Mini family. The video app is currently accessible in the U.S., UK, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, and will be coming soon to Japan.

 

Enhanced driving experience with AR

At CES, the BMW Group demonstrated for the first time how AR (augmented reality) glasses are set to enrich the future driving experience.

Visitors were able to test the possible uses of AR glasses on a drive through Las Vegas. Wearing the glasses, they could see how navigation instructions, hazard warnings, entertainment content, information on charging stations, and supporting visualizations in parking situations are embedded into the real-world environment by the Xreal Air 2 glasses.

The company believes AR and MR (mixed reality) devices will become increasingly popular in the next few years, thanks to technological advances and entry-level models that are more affordable for customers. In the future, it says that AR and MR devices will be able to offer both drivers and passengers enhanced information and enjoyable experiences to complement vehicle displays.

The group has experience with AR/MR devices over the years and presented the results to the public. These include the initial Mini Augmented Vision project, the collaboration with Meta Reality Labs, the ConnectedRide Smartglasses from BMW Motorrad, and the M Mixed Reality Driving Experience. The Augmented View function 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. The group said it has filed patents in the area of vehicle-related XR (extended reality) applications for almost 70 inventions in recent years.

“Thanks to the recent research collaborations with Meta Reality Labs and Xreal, we have made considerable progress in our preparations for integrating external XR devices into our driving experience in production models,” said Peter Lehnert, Vice President of Research for New Technologies and Innovations Digital Car at the BMW Group.

 

Voice assistant powered by Alexa LLMs

At CES, the BMW Group and Amazon showed voice assistant LLM capabilities based on a current collaborative development project with an eye toward a potential series rollout. The Amazon technology will make the automaker’s Intelligent Personal Assistant the “ultimate vehicle expert,” thanks to generative AI by the Alexa LLM. At CES, visitors experienced quick instructions and answers about vehicle functions from the voice assistant in a much more human, conversation-like manner, while being able to control some vehicle functions.

Complex processing capabilities, which enable human-like interactions and dialogs, have not yet been integrated into BMW series production vehicles. The automaker said such capabilities are now made possible by the LLM AI models designed to process human language at a high level and generate responses accordingly. The group is taking careful steps to build a safe and trusted experience for customers and it continues to test and iterate these LLM capabilities with its partners.

 

Automated valet parking with Valeo

The BMW Group also shared more on a strategic partnership with automotive supplier Valeo on the joint development of next-generation Level 4 automated parking technology.

This includes the development of an automated valet parking (AVP) system, which enables a customer to leave their vehicle in a designated drop-off area. The vehicle then searches for a vacant parking space itself, maneuvers into the space, and later exits it again, and can even drive 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.

CES visitors had the opportunity to try out teleoperated valet parking. Teleoperation offers complete control in situations that could be very challenging for fully autonomous systems such as in complex or unfamiliar environments. The teleoperator uses technology and live camera images to guide and move the vehicle so that it can be parked and retrieved again in a controlled manner.

Possible future applications of the technology could include parking at events, at airports, or in the logistics sector.