Video games and artificial intelligence drive BMW’s vision – Driving

Last year, the boffins in Munich created an event called #NEXTGen, a soire which highlighted BMWs technological developments and how they plan to shape the future face of transportation. Festivities in 2020 have understandably been moved online but continue to showcase new tech and vehicles, while also looking at some very specific examples of what next-gen mobility will look like.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer the stuff of Star Trek androids or rebelling robots being wrangled by Will Smith. BMW uses AI in more than 400 applications and in every relevant area of the company.

It says it plays a particularly important role in the development of new vehicles and technologies, including the basis for automated driving. Interestingly, AI isnt solely implemented when trying to take humans out of the equation; its deployed when assessing natural user experiences as well.

The prerequisite for any application of artificial intelligence is, of course, a comprehensive database. In order to virtually map traffic in its driving simulation centre, and to train BMW vehicles on Automated Driving, the real-world road network and traffic events must be digitized nearly a quarter-million kilometres of road to date. Computer nerdsaficionados will appreciate knowing the BMW Group High Performance D3 has over 230 petabytes of storage capacity in the target expansion, as well as more than 100,000 processor cores and over 200 GPUs (Graphics Processing Units).

AI is already on the road in certain vehicles from the BMW Group, popping up in the form of the companys Intelligent Personal Assistant (IPA). This feature is intended to make it easier for customers to operate the vehicle by simply speaking the command Hey BMW, activating the IPA and controlling many functions by voice command. The irony of this feature sharing its acronyms with a drink youre not supposed to consume while driving is not lost on your author.

AI helps here because it doesnt necessarily require predetermined commands to interpret what the user wants. In time, itll learn your phrases and cadence, meaning the days of saying Call Patricia and the car replying Calling towing assistance are starting to fade into the rearview mirror.

It takes a team of professionals to make all this work, of course, and the challenges put in place by 2020 have made virtual collaborations more important than ever. Rethinking vehicle development is a key goal, with traditional engineering tools no longer adequate for developing features like the AI mentioned earlier. For that reason, BMW is the first manufacturer in the world to use technology from the gaming industry, having collaborated with video game developer Epic Games since 2015.

A mixed-reality system, developed using components from the computer game industry, is used on projects such as these. This saves an abundance of time and effort, particularly in the early stages of development. Unlike conventional engineering tools, gaming technologies have functions like virtual reality and the ability for users to interact, which shortens lead times and permits designers to quickly visualize vehicle functions and new interior concepts. These tools also give developers a totally new level of flexibility unseen in older methods of design.

The ability to study vehicle functions and new interiors in a virtual reality space opens up many new ways in which to test concepts. For example, the team can make a simulation of city driving, making it possible to test aspects of a concept car that would normally only reveal themselves in the real world.

Visibility and different viewing angles can be assessed, while the effect different seating positions have on the view of a display on a screen can be tested. This gives the development engineers the impression of experiencing a real-life road situation inside an actual car, without ever leaving the studio.

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Video games and artificial intelligence drive BMW's vision - Driving