BMW Plans To Connect All Its Automotive With IoT

German auto giant is now looking forward to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) concept in its line of vehicles. The software it will be installing for this purpose is called Connected Drive Technology, a complete suite of applications that will connect your car with the outside world. The present version of this software connects the car only with the owner’s smartphone which is an immediate step to interact with other devices connected with the vehicles. The German auto legend, plans to take this to next level by allowing its cars to connect with other devices directly in coming years.

The car’s connectivity with IoT will ensure less dependence on smartphones and will bring lot many benefits to designers and engineers working in BMW. The direct control over the connection will permit BMW to see how its cars are being used by the drivers. The information abstracted from these drivers will prove useful in detecting design flaws, improvisation of features, and new kind of innovation. The consistent connection with cars will help BM engineers in securing a better connection with the car. It will, for example, help people in giving security updates to vehicles directly and keeping the vehicles from being hacked by hackers.

The connection of car will be done by SIM cards which are used in smartphones and several other kinds of mobile handsets. As the product manager of BMW, Andrew Furse, likes to add, “All UK cars have a SIM card built into them, so that’s enabling every car to be connected. That means we can keep the car connected throughout its life, not just new cars coming though.” The technology will also help the owner’s to establish a connection between their homes and cars with the help of Samsung SmartThings that was introduced during the first half of this year. It will help BMW drivers in keeping a check and monitoring their homes right from the roads, they can get straight message for smoke alarms, burglary alarms, or water leakages.

In short, all BMW cars are going to be smart cars that will be taking the IoT technology to roads simplifying customers’ lives and bringing more efficiency to them. As Furse explains further, “The car can learn where you go and what sort of times you travel and make moving from house to the car a seamless transition.” The car will also have the ability to warn the drivers about upcoming traffic conditions. All these features present a vibrant example of the speed with which auto industry is moving towards full automation that is complete self-reliance. Connected Drive Technology is another endeavour to establish better connectivity between vehicles and take automation to next stage. BMW likes to refer this technology as Active Assist which grant a car ability to be partially or completely self-drivable. BMW believes this technology will be a standard features of all its products by year 2021. At present, around 500, 000 BMW UK vehicles have been connected with each other. It has transformed the face of industry to an extent that customers don’t wish to go for offline vehicles.