BMW showcases the future of in-car infotainment at CES 2024

MANILA: The BMW Group is presenting the new infotainment products for its current model portfolio at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024 held at Las Vegas, Nevada, United States.

“BMW is synonymous with both the ultimate driving machine and the ultimate digital experience. At the CES, we are showing more content, more customization, and more gaming. These are all underpinned by our powerful, in-house developed BMW Operating System and we will take a look to the future, of course, with perfectly integrated augmented reality and strong, reliable artificial intelligence at the interaction between human and machine,” BMW Group Board of Management for Development Member Frank Weber stated.

The BMW Connected Drive Store, which allows vehicle owners to purchase third-party apps for the infotainment system’s gaming, news, and audio features, is making its debut at this year’s CES.

In the future, the channel will also allow passengers to play using proper gaming controllers. Two players in the vehicle will be able compete against each other in split-screen mode using their gaming controllers. It will only take a few steps to connect any standard gaming controller to the vehicle’s infotainment system. This feature will be available over the air in BMW Operating System 9 within the year.

Another infotainment product showcased at the CES 2024 is the Video App in BMW Operating Systems 8.5 and 9. It allows BMW 7 Series owners to stream video content on the central display aside from the Theater Screen with Amazon Fire TV in the rear compartment. The platform includes on-demand media such as news, sports, entertainment for kids, movies, and television series.

The Video App will also be rolled out to other models over the air. It is currently accessible in the United States, United Kingdom, South Korea, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain.

The BMW Group is also showcasing how augmented reality (AR) glasses could enhance the driving experience in the future. CES visitors may experience firsthand the potential of AR glasses on a drive through Las Vegas.

They will get to test the XReal Air 2 AR glasses and how it seamlessly integrates navigation instructions, safety alerts, entertainment content, charging station details, and supporting parking visualizations into the real world.

Since 2008, the BMW Group has been developing AR and mixed reality (MR) technology and exploring potential applications for head-mounted displays. Passengers in a moving car may now see stable AR and MR information thanks to the efforts of BMW engineers and development partners. Even under challenging driving conditions, including turning, accelerating, or driving over large bumps, the displayed image stays firmly embedded in the surroundings.

In 2022 and 2023, the BMW Group partnered with Meta Reality Labs to build up its expertise with AR/MR devices. They have filed patents for almost 70 inventions in the field of highly innovative automotive XR applications.

“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. We are proud to be leading the way here and are well prepared to offer our customers breathtaking XR experiences in the future,” BMW Group Vice President for Research, New Technologies, and Innovations Peter Lehnert said.

Another innovation that is presented at the CES is the next-generation automated level 4 parking solutions jointly developed by the BMW Group and Valeo. This technology allows the driver to leave their vehicle in a designated drop-off area. The car will then look for a spot to park itself and even drive back to the pickup area to fetch the driver.

All these innovations can be seen and experienced at the CES 2024 happening today until Friday, January 12.

Photos from BMW

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