BMW launches its own AI assistant in 2019

Drivers of BMW cars will soon receive a nice surprise. The car company is working on its own personal assistant, built on the basis of artificial intelligence. This was unveiled yesterday at a conference in San Francisco.

The intention is that the assistant will be rolled out to cars in March next year. This happens at the same time as the roll-out of the new BMW Operating System 7.0. The Intelligent Personal Assistant is reminiscent of the functioning of other AI assistants and can be called up by saying Hey BMW.

Very personal

Unlike other assistants, the call phrase can be personalized. This comes with the possibility to give the AI-assistant a name. BMW Group mentions possibilities such as Charlie and Joy. Whatever the assistant’s name is, he will at least learn the driver’s behaviour.

Routines and habits are all taught by the Intelligent Personal Assistant. Based on this new knowledge, the assistant can also apply the knowledge in a certain context. In this way, the assistant learns which settings a driver likes to use, such as the temperature of the seat heating. The assistant also learns which places people often drive to, on the basis of which routes can be planned.

Natural behaviour

The assistant uses natural language processing to learn what kind of terms people use in everyday life. So it can be noted Hey BMW, I’m cold, on which the assistant will raise the temperature in the car. It is also possible to explain various functions, including the High Beam Assistant, the assistant can check oil levels and fuel and explain certain warning lights in the car.

The features will be available in 23 languages from March 2019. These include Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. The intention is to release the assistant in China in May 2019. The first cars the assistant receives include the BMW 3 Series, BMW X5, Z4 and 8 Series.