BMW cars are set to get a lot smarter. In collaboration with Microsoft, the German automaker unveiled the BMW Connected service on Thursday at the tech giant's Build conference. Powered by Microsoft's Azure Cloud, BMW Connected is available in the Apple App Store on Thursday.
For now, BMW Connected would only work with the carmaker's vehicles from 2014 onwards. The carmaker announced, however, that future updates would enable the app to be compatible for vehicles that were released as early as 2011.
While modern vehicles are quite saturated with mainstream services such as Apple Car Play and Google Android Auto, which are mainly centered on vehicles' infotainment systems, BMW Connected takes the model a step further by making the car itself interact with the driver, fostering a driving environment that is both efficient and safe.
Randy Cavaiani, director of partner and product marketing for BMW, is optimistic about the potentials of the app, lauding the capabilities of Microsoft's cloud platform.
"This is all about safety and convenience through an app that learns all about who you are and what you do. The cloud is critical to something like this, where in order to scale the service you need tremendous computing capacity to deal with adding users and their data as well as growing partner services," he said.
BMW Connected has a pretty impressive suite of services, including automatic navigation directions according to the driver's calendar appointments, as well as the ability to send pre-written text messages to contacts that state the driver's estimated time of arrival.
Thus, if BMW drivers are running late, the app would help the driver send text messages or email to their co-workers, giving them a heads-up about the driver's late arrival. Of course, to avoid tardiness altogether, the BMW Connected app also features an enhanced traffic system.
Due to its cloud-based platform, BMW Connected would be able to detect any areas that have heavy traffic. During these times, the app would automatically suggest a detour, allowing drivers to avoid clogged streets on the way to their destination.
Of course, there would be times when drivers would need to park their vehicles away from their final destination. In these cases, the BMW Connected app would provide the driver with walking directions, which the carmaker dubs as the "last mile" feature.
Apart from these, the BMW Connected app also features cross-platform functionality. For example, opening Yelp and choosing a restaurant would trigger the BMW Connected app to immediately show the directions to the restaurant's location.
Sanjay Ravi of Microsoft's automotive, aerospace and industrial alliances division stated that the BMW Connected app is all about providing users with a personalized experience.
"The idea is simply to use the power of our cloud service to create a branded experience for the customer. Every consumer today wants a personalized experience. To do that, you need to weave in the intelligent cloud and its ability to provide real-time machine learning and data analytics on a huge scale," he said.
