CES2015: Just Step Out Of The Car, And Let The New BMW i3 Electric Car Park Itself
The next time you are running late for an appointment, just drive into the parking lot, step out of the car, close the car doors and run to your meeting. Never mind that you left your car right in the middle of the way. If it is the new BMW i3 Electric Car it will drive itself around the parking lot, finds an empty parking space and park itself. Although, this technology is different from Google’s self driving car as it only allows the car to find a parking spot for itself, but it is still pretty slick.
BMW, the Munich automaker showed off its new ‘Remote Valet Parking Assistant’ at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is just one on the many auto-tech innovations BMW has to showcase at the CES2015 that is now winding up.
Hildegard Wortmann, the head of product management for BMW Group said, “Remote parking, as well as gesture recognition for occupants using the multi-function center console screen, are to us less revolutions and more natural advancements of the kind of tech we have always pursued. Two worlds converge at CES, technology and automotive, and we are the use case for the former.”
The automaker says it is planning in rolling out two new features that are going to become standard features in most upcoming BMW models.
One of these features is a camera embedded in the headliner found between the driver and the passenger. The camera will capture gestures and translate them into action on the main screen. For instance, when a call comes in while you are driving, the driver simply accepts the call by moving a finger towards the screen. If the driver swipes his finger to the right, the call is rejected. Should the driver be listening to music while driving, a simple circular rotation of the index finger in the air will increase or decrease the volume.
The other feature is connecting a tablet connected to the BMW of the near future. The tablet allows rear-seat passengers (presumably VIPs or bored kids) to control the car’s various systems by using the tablet. The passenger can turn the car’s air conditioning on or off, choose which music or movie to play inside the car among other things. This will give the car’s driver an easy experience of just concentrating on the driving and not turning on/off systems within the car in order to make the passengers more comfortable.
