BMW combines the connected car with wearable technology
Picture credit: BMW
Smartwatches have only started hitting the mainstream consumer market this year, but German car manufacturer BMW is already coupling the technology with its vehicles.
BMW is dreaming of a world where people can get out of their car on the ground floor of a multi-story car park, tap their smartwatch and let the car drive through the levels to an available space on its own.
This technology currently only exists in the company’s BMW i3 research vehicle, equipped with the fully automated Remote Valet Parking Assistant that uses four laser scanners to record the environment and identify columns or poorly parked cars.
In what seems very Knightrider inspired, the car waits in the parking space to be summoned by the smartwatch and a voice command. When this occurs, it calculates the time until the driver arrives at the car park and starts the car so it can get to the car park exit at the right time.
GPS insufficient
According to BMW, GPS does not have the necessary accuracy for car parks, so it connected the vehicle’s sensors with a digital site plan. Although the company also says that it does not require complex infrastructure to allow navigate the area.
The driver assist system has 360-degree collision avoidance, meaning the vehicle can be brought to a standstill with mere centimetres to spare. Once the driver steers away from the obstacle then the brakes are released.
BMW has been testing automated vehicle control in some form or another for the last five years. It first made the headlines in 2009 when demonstrating the technology around the North Loop of the Nürburgring racing track.
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