BMW launches personal voice assistant for its cars – TechCrunch



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At TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2018, BMW today introduced its personal digital assistant for its cars, the aptly named BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant. But you will not have to say "Hey, BMW's Intelligent Personal Assistant" to wake him up. You can give it the name you want.

The announcement comes just weeks after BMW also launched its integration with Amazon. Alexa, but it should be noted that these are complementary technologies. The BMW Assistant is all about your car, while its partnerships with Amazon and Microsoft allow for other functions that are not directly related to your driving experience.

"BMW's personal assistant gets to know your voice commands and your car over time," said Dieter May, vice president of digital products and services for BMW. "It's getting better every day."

Keep up with Microsoft's precedents, The assistants of Google and Amazon, the voice of BMW's assistant is female (although BMW often uses male names and pronouns in his press materials). Over time, there will surely be more voices.

So, what can the BMW assistant do? Once you're in a compatible car, you'll be able to control all the standard on-board functions by voice. Think about navigation and air conditioning ("Hey John, I'm cold") or check tire pressure, oil level and other engine parameters.

You may also have more informal conversations ("Hey Charlie, what is the meaning of life?"), But perhaps most importantly, the assistant will always learn more about you. At present, the wizard can remember your favorite settings, but over time it will learn more and even suggest changes proactively. "For example, when driving out of town at night, the personal assistant might suggest BMW Beam assistance," May said.

In addition, you can also use the wizard to learn more about the features of your car, which becomes increasingly difficult as cars become computers on wheels with ever increasing complexity.

BMW created the wizard over Microsoft's Azure cloud and conversational technologies. Azure has long been BMW's favorite public cloud, and the two companies have had a close relationship for years. After all, BMW has also incorporated some support for accessing Office 365 files and using Skype for Business in its cars, with support for Cortana soon also.

It seems a little confusing. Why have three assistants in the car, after all. All this "Hey Alexa", "Hey Charlie", "Hey Cortana" will get a little confused after all. But BMW maintains that everyone has a specialty. For Alexa, you may be shopping while Cortana focuses on the job and the BMW only affects your car. And if all else fails, BMW's existing concierge service is always there and lets you talk to a human.

The wizard functionality will be available in a basic version that supports 23 languages ​​and markets from March 2019. In the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria , in Brazil and Japan as the support for weather research, the search for points of interest and access to music in March 2019. In these markets, the assistant will also present a more vocal natural. In China, this extended version will be released a little later and is currently scheduled for May 2019. In these markets, it will be deployed on cars that support the BMW 7.0 operating system as part of the Live Cockpit Professional program. of the society.

If you order a BMW 3 Series from November, the assistant will be immediately available and included for the first three years of your property. For new X5, Z4 and 8 series models, BMW Assistant assistance will be delivered as a live software upgrade from March 2019.

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