Digitalisation is the dominant element in the radical ongoing
transformation of personal mobility. It paves the way to a new driving
experience, expands the possibilities for enhancing safety and comfort
out on the road, and opens up new opportunities for efficient yet
customer-focused development and manufacture of vehicles. The BMW
Group is systematically forging ahead with digitalisation across all
areas. Thanks to its capacity for innovation, not only does it develop
cars and motorcycles for the premium segment that stir the emotions,
it also devises customer-centric services that optimise the mobility
experience as a whole. As part of the Digital Day 2018 event, the BMW
Group is offering an insight into current product developments,
technological concepts, innovations and manufacturing processes that
will enable it to shape the future of mobility.
Today, the BMW Group is already blazing a trail for intelligent
vehicle connectivity and the integration of digital mobility services.
It is exploiting the potential of digitalisation to further strengthen
its status as the leading provider of personal mobility at premium
level. The BMW Group has defined the key areas that will form the
stepping stones to digitalised and emission-free mobility in the
future with its corporate strategy NUMBER ONE NEXT. In the
process, it is driving forward the D-ACES themes (Design, Autonomous,
Connected, Electrified and Services) with particular vigour through
considerable investment in research and development. The innovations
and initiatives presented at Digital Day 2018 exemplify the company’s
transformation into a mobility tech company.
5G mobile standard: BMW Group is ready to embrace the
high-speed information highway.
With improved transfer rates and minimised latency, the future 5G
mobile standard offers significantly improved technical possibilities
when it comes to data transfer – developments which can also be used
to enhance vehicle connectivity. The BMW Group is already working on
technologies which will help to utilise the full potential of 5G here.
The aim is to be able to offer systems and functions based on 5G as
soon as it becomes commercially available in series-produced vehicles
in several years’ time.
At Digital Day 2018, the BMW Group is showcasing the benefits of an
innovative feature of 5G mobile networks known as network slicing.
This technology involves making parts of the network infrastructure
available on demand in a way that suits specific applications and
their respective requirements. The customer has access to a virtual
network made up of individual slices, which can be used to update HD
navigation maps, for example, enable the direct exchange of data
between vehicles and allow videos to be streamed in HD quality.
Artificial intelligence enhances safety.
Artificial intelligence plays a key role in the development of
algorithms, which sort through and evaluate large quantities of data
and incorporate it into decision-making on how vehicles should behave.
The BMW Group is using artificial intelligence in the development of
systems for automated driving which can deal with even extremely
complex traffic situations in city centres. Autonomous driving in
which artificial intelligence helps to ensure safe and comfortable
mobility for all is another BMW Group development goal.
The benefits of systems equipped with artificial intelligence include
their boundless capacity for work. Unlike humans, an intelligent
system can maintain constant performance levels. It doesn’t get tired
or distracted, and maintains full concentration even in confusing situations.
Mixed reality assists the development process.
Mixed reality describes the combination of real-life prototypes and
virtual simulation that can be used to accelerate and optimise vehicle
development. The BMW Group leads the way in the use of such methods
and employs technologies from the consumer electronics and computer
gaming sectors and a new generation of data glasses which enable users
to visualise a growing number of components and vehicle functions
extremely realistically. In this way, the impressions created by
physical components can be enhanced with digitally generated experiences.
One area in which the BMW Group uses mixed reality is the development
of vehicle interiors. Here, computer-generated simulations are
combined with an interior model (a mock-up). This allows an
all-encompassing image of the driving experience inside a future
series-produced model to be created at an early stage of development.
BMW Operating System 7.0: the display and control concept of
the future.
Dubbed BMW Operating System 7.0, the next generation of BMW’s display
and control system is entirely digital and highly sophisticated in
nature, and is designed around the user’s individual requirements more
closely than ever. Thanks to its clear layout and structuring,
intuitive operation, and customisable and personalised displays, it
has been designed to always provide the driver with the right
information at the right time.
The redesigned all-digital instrument cluster has space to display a
section of the navigation map as well as further, individually
selectable content. At the same time, it forms a seamless, uniformly
designed display cluster with the Control Display in the centre
console, which has been further optimised to deliver intuitive touch
operation and visualises content in real time on up to ten freely
configurable main menu pages, each containing between two and four
pads. The flat menu structure also enables fast access to all settings
and functions. Multimodal interaction between the driver and vehicle
has likewise been further improved with BMW Operating System 7.0. The
customer has a choice of iDrive Controller, touch control, voice
control and gesture control.
Real-time hazard warning system prevents accidents.
By sending out local hazard warnings to its intelligently connected
vehicles, the BMW Group is increasing safety out on the road. To do
this, the data registered by the vehicle sensors is collected in
anonymised form and processed centrally so information indicating
hazard situations can be derived from it. This allows warnings of
accident sites or extreme local weather conditions to be relayed
specifically to vehicles in the vicinity of those situations.
Warnings of both weather-related hazards, such as fog, black ice,
heavy rain and aquaplaning, and broken-down vehicles have been
transmitted to BMW vehicles with the requisite connectivity technology
since November 2016. This technology still offers a great deal of
untapped potential, though. Over the course of 2018, real-time traffic
jam reports are set to become even more specific by using instances of
emergency braking, while requests from the police to keep a corridor
free for emergency vehicles will also be transmitted. The swift and
accurate relaying of information on road conditions and traffic
situations also provides an important basis for optimising the
operation of automated driving systems.
The BMW Group’s secure IT backend provides connected vehicles
with live information and digital services.
Connected vehicles are now able to receive live information and
transmit data to the BMW Group’s permanently available IT backend via
a secure mobile connection in a total of 46 markets. Besides real-time
hazard warnings, navigation map updates can also be delivered over the
air in this way.
In future, the secure IT backend will provide the platform for other
data-based applications. The BMW Group employs technologies from the
fields of cloud computing and artificial intelligence to both optimise
existing functions and develop new services. Data protection and data
security take top priority here. Security and availability are
guaranteed thanks to the coordinated interaction between specialised
systems controlled by the BMW Group. This approach also enables
regulated opening of the backend to integrate services from external
partners, allowing the internet’s rapid pace of innovation to be used
to the benefit of customers. Specialised systems include the Open
Mobility Cloud, which is used for providing personalised services from
BMW Connected, and the Location Platform for transmitting hazard
warnings in real time.
Digital processes speed up development and manufacturing.
Digitalisation is opening up new opportunities on the production side
as well. The additive manufacturing techniques collectively known as
3D printing stand out in particular for their success in delivering
fast, flexible und customisable processes. Classic examples of
additive manufacturing applications can be found in areas where
custom-made and sometimes highly complex components are needed in
small numbers. This is the case especially in prototype development,
vehicle validation and vehicle road testing.
An additively manufactured water pump wheel was fitted in DTM racing
cars for the first time back in 2010. And the new BMW i8 Roadster
features a soft-top cover with an aluminium bracket made using metal
powder laser melting, a cutting-edge technique that has never been
used before in car manufacture. Meanwhile, the new MINI Yours
Customised product line enables customers to personalise the design of
selected components and then have them produced via 3D printing. On
top of all this, the Additive Manufacturing Center at the BMW Group
Research and Innovation Centre (FIZ) in Munich now supplies around
140,000 prototype parts a year to the company’s various development departments.