You guys might remember the video that BMW sponsored us to do last year at CES
with the mirrorless i8. That thing was freaking unreal. And well, they have
done it again. So behind me is the BMW i
inside future. This is like a kind of
radical reimagining of the role that the
automobile is going to play in our lives in the near to mid future. So,
autonomous driving is upon us at this point. Here at the show, BMW is showing
off autonomous 5 series prototypes that
are using ultrasonic front radar, rear
camera, front camera, and what BMW is calling an HD map to safely navigate to
your destination. This is combined with a kind of fleet learning that I wouldn't
have dared to dream of even 2 to 3 years
ago. So BMW is not only using their own
cars to recognize and modify changes to
the route, like say for example a construction zone, but they're actually
actively working with other OEMs to ensure that everyone is using the most
up-to-date information. So that means even little details like how long you
can expect to sit at a red light, you get a freaking countdown timer, can be
accurately predicted in this way. And
there are additional layers of intuitive convenience that can be refined as we
move into the future. So Siri and Alexa
have been joined by prototype Cortana integration through the open mobility
cloud. And through that same network
connectivity paradigm, you could even do things like order chocolates on Amazon
on the way to a visit with grandma and have the driver meet you midway. So you
don't even have to take an extra 5 minutes to go into the store to get
them. And valet in parking lots. I mean,
even multi-level parking lots where it would be pretty darn difficult to use
GPS navigation, for example. Valets could be replaced by robots that guide
autonomous cars to a birth and then don't ask for a tip for their trouble.
But naturally, you'd need a very different kind of car to get the most
out of this idea. And that is where the
sculpture, as they're calling it, they've they've been very firm with me.
Do not call it a car. Do not call it a prototype. Do not call it a concept.
It's it's a sculpture. It's an idea. So, the interior design has been
dramatically altered. Instead of bulky dashboards, even kind of futuristic
feeling stuff like LCD monitors and cool looking illuminated buttons, BMW
envisions a much more open and spacious alternative. This would give the driver
and the front seat passenger room to relax and stretch out in autonomous mode
or even enjoy a movie with a similar level of comfort to home. They even
allow the passengers to have different audio experiences with what they're
calling sound curtains. So, these are speakers in the headrest and the seat
that are only audible when your head is within a very small zone. And they even
include active noise cancellation in the sound system. So whatever music your
passenger is listening to is completely
inaudible to the driver, which is great if you have very different tastes in
music from your passengers. Or say you want to get on a conference call with
someone and the passenger doesn't want their music or their movie to be
interrupted. Of course though, you still need to interface with the car in
driving mode. BMW is still a a driving
company. So, this is really cool and the engineer who showed it to us was super
awesome. Um, they designed a holographic display with gesture sensing and haptic
feedback. Okay, so the holographic display is visible only to the driver.
So, you see buttons just floating in the air in front of you. It's pretty trippy.
Gesture control is handled by Intel Real Sense technology. So the car knows when
your finger is over a button. But the
craziest part, and this was what the engineer actually had worked on, and she
was like really proud of this. It's freaking awesome, is the array of
ultrasonic transducers or or or speakers
that feels like a mild um tingling
sensation on your finger when you push down on a button or interact with the
holographic display. It It's really cool. You kind
of have to try it, and I'm sorry that you guys can't. You'll just have to take my word for it. In the back is kind of
like a living room on wheels. I mean, obviously this is I won't use concept
phase, this is sculpture phase stuff that we're looking at here. And while
cork is perhaps a realistic, sustainable
natural material to use in the future, moss probably won't make it into a
finished product anytime soon. But the idea of having a tablet enabled 4K
projection screen in the back of the car to watch movies or like a bookshelf
where I can pick something out, get comfortable, and relax and read while
the car takes me wherever it is I need to go is amazing. Especially for people
like me who don't really suffer from motion sickness in the back of vehicles
or while reading. So, autonomous cars cannot come soon enough for me.