BMW: Connected Drive - Added Value Through Connectivity.

MULGRAVE, AUSTRALIA – Ocotber 7, 2010: Under the term Connected Drive, the BMW Group already unites a unique portfolio of innovative features that enhance comfort, raise infotainment to new levels and significantly boost safety in BMW Group vehicles. Whether it is the latest traffic updates, Advanced Emergency Call, Surround View, email and internet access, or hooking up mobile phones and audio players - thanks to BMW ConnectedDrive and MINI Connected features, your car can be your personal concierge, guardian angel or entertainer, as the situation demands.

In future, Connected Drive will be extending this portfolio with numerous new features arising from the link-up between driver, vehicle and surroundings. On the information and entertainment front, for example, connecting with web servers is opening up fresh possibilities, while mobile devices mean that vehicle functions can be used virtually anywhere, and application-based programming ensures the car's functions are as up-to-date and extendible as possible.

In terms of safety, Connected Drive innovations significantly widen the driver's scope of action and reaction, so that in critical and poor-visibility situations on the motorway, in heavy city traffic or when parking, the BMW Group driver assistance systems help avoid hazardous situations and accidents, or mitigate their consequences.

The scenario becomes even more interesting when the developers link up the Connected Drive features with other vehicle functions, such as Efficient Dynamics technologies. Indeed, Connected Drive information and sensor data perfectly complement the fuel-saving measures of Efficient Dynamics. The upshot is that the car can recognise “green” routes, get to know the driver, his driving style and the traffic environment, and consequently “look into the future” to some degree. This holds out the prospect of the car being optimally prepared for driving situations ahead.

Good prospects.
The sheer number of highlights presented here from the current state of research and development demonstrates just how intensively the BMW Group is working in the multifaceted field of vehicle networking and the potential it sees within this area. The projects outlined below offer a glimpse of the next logical steps as well as the automotive future from the BMW Group perspective.