BMW’s stand at Geneva will show a special vehicle which is fully Internet capable. Using a system BMW calls ConnectedDrive, users will be able to complete a vast array of online tasks by simply moving their mouse around. In this case the mouse isn’t the conventional type, but BMW’s iDrive knob.
Surfing the web is apparently really easy. Just like on a standalone machine like a laptop, Windows PC or Mac, Internet surfing involves typing in URLs to visit web addresses. This is possible. Possible also is saving favourite websites, just like on your desktop/ laptop. BMW has set up a special server to handle the influx of expected Internet use. They therefore guarantee fast connetions using EDGE technology, which is up to four times faster than GPRS. Unless there are extra DVD screens in the rear, Internet will shut itself down once the car exceeds 5km/h, a safety measure standard in most factory-fitted TV/ DVD in-car entertainment and information systems.
The technology is able to download Google Maps from other machines, which can then be used directly as navigation destinations. Although ConnectedDrive will be on view at the Geneva Motor Show, it only goes public towards the end of 2008 where customers will be able to tick an options box while ordering their cars. At the factory the system will be fitted before it gets to buyer.
Press Release
Sheer driving pleasure and the joy of surfing
BMW combines the thrill of mobility and unrestricted use of the internet. As the world’s first car maker, BMW allows unrestricted access to the World Wide Web in the car’s display.
Offering this outstanding innovation, BMW ConnectedDrive gives the driver and his passengers the option to surf the internet while travelling, calling up any random internet site either by entering the URL address through the iDrive control system or via a personalised list of favourites, and then presenting the website on the central display in the instrument panel.
This system developed in the context of BMW ConnectedDrive is the consistent enhancement of the intelligent network connecting the driver, the car and their surroundings. Following the highly beneficial features already offered by BMW Online and the option presented in summer 2007 to use the Google online search machine and its various categories in the car, BMW ConnectedDrive now for the first time offers genuine internet in a BMW.
As in the case of BMW Online with direct access to Google, BMW is now once again taking on the leading role in providing online services in the car. Again, therefore, the world’s largest manufacturer of premium automobiles is proving its competence in the area of vehicle electronics.
As a special offer by BMW ConnectedDrive, internet surfing in the car will be available as an optional extra in BMW’s production models straight from the factory in the course of 2008. The version presented at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show is a prototype very close to series production.
Also when using the internet: maximum convenience thanks to BMW iDrive
BMW ConnectedDrive brings the complete World Wide Web into the car on the display, offering more functions all in one go than the driver will usually enjoy on the internet in his office or on his PC at home. This is made possible by the unique BMW iDrive control system activating and masterminding all telecommunication, entertainment, navigation and air conditioning functions via the Controller on the centre console and the centre display in the dashboard.
In using the internet, the BMW iDrive Controller acts in the same way as a conventional computer mouse: Moving the Controller in various directions, the user is able to move the mouse on the internet site shown in the display. Then, pressing the Controller, the user clicks the mouse on the PC to select links or specific items in the menu. By turning the Controller, finally, the user scrolls up and down to the appropriate internet site.
The display presents internet sites in high resolution, an additional function serving to enlarge specific sections on the display by a factor of 1.5 or 2.
The presentation of internet sites on the display is only possible for safety reasons with the car at a standstill. As with the configuration of TV and/or DVD functions available as an option on cars with BMW iDrive, the internet site disappears as soon as the vehicle exceeds a speed of 5 km/h. But on models equipped with an optional DVD system in the rear, the internet function might also be added, allowing passengers on the rear seats to surf the net also when driving at higher speeds above 5 km/h.
High-resolution presentation, fast data transfer
Apart from high-resolution presentation of web contents on the display, fast transfer of data is also guaranteed, with data transfer based on EDGE technology (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution), which, unlike third-generation telephony, is already available on a broad scale and is three to four times faster than GPRS mobile connections.
A special BMW server quickly transfers internet sites into the car and ensures optimum presentation on the display. It also optimises flash animations and other so-called applets with extremely high data volume, which might otherwise slow down the fast transmission rate required. In this way, therefore, BMW ConnectedDrive ensures improved data transfer for comfortable surfing within the car.
A further option is to receive and send e-mails straight from the car, with additional applications such as online banking also being conceivable in full in future.
Using the existing BMW Online portal in the internet, BMW is already the first car maker to offer, through BMW ConnectedDrive, the option to transmit navigation destinations generated by Google Maps into the car from any PC. Then the address data may be used directly in the car as navigation and telephone dial destinations. In the near future, therefore, the BMW Online portal in the internet will allow the configuration of web addresses shown in the car as favourites on the car’s internet starting page.
Over and above the activation of links on the internet sites shown in the display and the choice of web addresses as favourites, BMW also allows the direct selection of new contents simply by entering a URL. To do this, all the user has to do is enter the URL in the browser’s address field, also using other entry fields on internet sites. The entries are made via a selection of letters which, in their function, correspond to the entry of addresses in BMW navigation systems, with convenience and ease of operation being optimised once again.
Whenever the car is used by several drivers one after the other, personalised starting pages may be installed without problems. In that case each driver is able to retrieve the starting page he requires by making his personal registration in the system.
Surfing the internet in the car’s display will be available before the end of this year as a new offer from BMW ConnectedDrive installed directly at the factory and provided together with an unlimited data flatrate.
BMW ConnectedDrive: optimum mobility, maximum comfort
Offering internet on the car’s screen as an outstanding innovation, BMW is once again making a pioneering breakthrough in the area of intelligent networking, bringing together the driver, the car and the world around them and consistently enhancing the wide range of internet-based services already offered since 2001.
BMW combines such individual online, assistance and service systems in the car under the general term “BMW ConnectedDrive” referring to services which may be used directly through the navigation system or over the telephone in the interest of significantly enhanced comfort and safety.
One example is BMW Assist which, apart from providing an emergency call function and the latest traffic information, also offers a personal enquiry service. Data requested on restaurants, cinemas or hotels may, for example, be fed directly into the BMW navigation system as the driver’s destination. Internet-based services such as stock values, the weather report and free parking space, in turn, are covered by BMW Online. And BMW TeleServices, finally, registers the car independently and automatically with the customer’s BMW Service
Partner whenever service is required
This wide range of internet-based services in the car and the technology involved has been consistently enhanced since 2001. Integrating such services completely in the car’s electronics, BMW Online has a unique position in the market to this day. Such integration of services allows convenient access to local information in the car, BMW Online now also comprising mobility services such as looking for parking space and orientation by mobile phone and an e-mail account with an address directory, information on travel and leisure-time activities as well as hotels and restaurants, an enquiry service, news and weather, the “My News” (RSS feeds), as well as business news and the stock exchange.
In summer 2007 BMW became the world’s first car maker to offer the Google search function in the car, allowing users throughout Germany to retrieve local information directly from the internet through the world’s best-known online search machine. The information obtained is then presented conveniently at the touch of a button in the navigation system and also goes to the user’s mobile phone. The system detects the location and destination of the car independently and presents the results obtained in the area covered together with their address, telephone number and distance, enabling the user to search for names and addresses in a local directory, for example the addresses of restaurants, hotels, filling stations, banks, supermarkets, cinemas or local authorities.
The Google search function in the car consistently enhances the intelligent link of the car and the internet. Introducing the “Send to Car” function, Google and BMW already offered the possibility before to send search results from the Google Maps website directly to the car. And now the Google services search function provides direct access to the internet from the car itself as a further milestone in BMW ConnectedDrive.
Source: BMW
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