BMW is ready to follow Mercedes in personal assistance technology. After the Stuttgart-based manufacturer launched the Hey Mercedes assistant, now BMW is doing the same with the introduction of the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant — a new proprietary in-car AI assistant that will enhance the BMW driving experience.
The always on-call technology platform is an intelligent, digital character that responds to the prompt “Hey BMW” and has the ability to serve the driver in a range of ways from controlling vehicle settings, navigation and entertainment systems to explaining vehicle functions and even conducting a conversation.
In the future, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will be at the driver’s beck and call outside their vehicle too, whether it’s at home with the help of a smart speaker or while out and about via a smartphone. What’s more, it will be compatible with other digital voice assistants, thereby providing a link to other rapidly growing ecosystems.
Thanks to the link-up with BMW’s Open Mobility Cloud and the use of artificial intelligence, the personal assistant’s capabilities will be consistently enhanced and grow with the user over time. Regular updates will keep expanding the range of functions and skills available.
BMW’s Intelligent Personal Assistant learns routines and habits so that it can apply them in the appropriate context. It helps the driver, learns their preferences and is familiar with their preferred vehicle settings. For example: seat heating preferences or frequent destinations (“Take me home”). One unique feature compared to other digital assistants of this type is that drivers can name the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant (for example, “Charlie” or “Joy”) to assign even more individual character and personality.
Not only does it await the driver’s every command, it’s always there to assist them too or even provide casual conversation (“Hey BMW, what’s the meaning of life?”).
The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will debut in 2019 and mark the start of a new era. In the USA, Germany, UK, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Brazil, Japan and (beginning in May 2019) China, the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant will feature more natural voice control along with further intelligent functions such as Point of Interest Search, Weather and Music, for example. The personal assistant will be offered for models featuring the new BMW iDrive 7.0 and as part of the Live Cockpit Professional.
