Speech Klaus Fröhlich at the BMW Group Press Conference CES 2016

Ladies and Gentlemen, a very warm welcome to the BMW Group and the future of mobility. I know it’s quite early, thanks for being here.

This is our third time at the CES. Last year, we presented our fully autonomous valet parking i3 and gave you a taste of our gesture control system. That feature is now already standard in our 7 Series.

Since then, digitalization in mobility has really picked up speed. Today our cars are already becoming an integral part of the internet of things. Digitalization will bring disruptive changes to our industry. I would like to give you four examples:

First: IT will offer customers greater convenience and safety – initially through driver assistance systems and then, in the more distant future, through fully autonomous cars.

Second: Customer wishes are changing. Drivers expect to be able to integrate vehicles seamlessly into their life – for example, their smartphone or their connected home.

Third: Both trends will also open up new possibilities to use and experience the interior and the user interfaces of our cars.

And last, but not least: Digitalization will open up the automotive industry to new competition. I can asure you, the BMW Group welcomes competition! It has always made us stronger.

We are well prepared for the challenges of the future. Since 2007, our Strategy Number One has paved the way to sustainable mobility with BMW i.

We have expanded our service offering with Drive-, Park-, and ChargeNow. And with “Connected Drive”, we have always been ahead of the “classic” competition.

Our joint acquisition of HERE – also will give us access to high-definition and real Time maps as a prerequisite for autonomous driving.

If you take a look at our new 7 Series, you will see the benchmark for current technologies.

• remote control parking,
• over-the-air updates,
• touch, gesture, and natural voice recognition,
• semi-autonomous “Autobahn” assistance up to 130 mph,
• a touch command tablet for our rear-seat passengers.
• and and and

This is all “state-of-the-art” at BMW!

And now let’s take a look further ahead.

I have brought along a concept vehicle from my R&D department to illustrate our vision of the not-so-distant future:

First: This is a concept with a strong emotional appeal. I think we at BMW are pretty good at building cars like this – and creating emotional products will be even more important in the future.

Besides engineering, we also focused on a second theme: How can we integrate the car into our customers’ mobility AND digital lifestyle? How can we be a part of what we call the “customer journey” throughout the day?

So, let’s take a look! Allow me to present the “BMW i Vision Future Interaction”.

Isn’t it a fantastic car? For me, it represents the heart of BMW: breathtaking design, innovation and driving pleasure.

I personally believe we should build it as soon as possible!

Right now, I don’t want to talk about the normal facts and figures like power, torque, fuel economy, top speed and so on… Let’s focus on other topics:

What are the challenges we face in day-to-day driving, commuting for example: Heavy traffic, stress and time pressure are often the downside of today’s mobility.

So we asked ourselves: What will the future of “sheer driving pleasure” look like?

How can we make our customers’ lives easier, more convenient and safer AND retain the fun factor of mobility?

The answer does not lie in any single solution. It takes a smart combination of different concepts and offerings.

For this reason, we developed a personalized digital companion for our customers. We call it “BMW Connected” – an intelligent approach, which organizes our customers’ mobility in a flexible and simple way.

But, before we go into the details, let’s watch this brief film where “BMW Connected” interacts with our Concept Car. It provides a good overview of what it’s all about.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

BMW Connected is our solution for digital premium mobility services.

It connects personal data, physical devices and various services in an intelligent way to create a new and seamless customer experience.

BMW Connected is based on an Open Mobility Cloud. This processes data and information from various sources.

However, the system doesn’t just process this data, it also learns from the user’s behavior, habits and preferences. On this basis, BMW Connected is able to offer customized solutions for every daily routine.

Each ride is therefore safer, more convenient and more entertaining. The BMW Group is the first auto manufacturer to offer its customers personalized digital services.

So, what does this mean?

BMW Connected creates individualized mobility proposals. This data is updated on an ongoing basis.

As you saw in the film, BMW Connected informs the customer proactively, if changes need to be made.

All of this information can be displayed on various output devices.

This might be a smartphone, a watch or, as in the film, an interactive mirror: Our service is seamlessly integrated into the internet of things and the world of digital services.

When I get behind the wheel, the navigation is already programmed with the ideal route, the car cooled or heated according to the weather. Parking options at the destination are displayed and can be reserved.

BMW Connected also takes the surroundings into account that might be relevant for the customer – such as preferred shopping, a restaurant or a store that has already been searched for online.

Real-time data from the cloud opens up almost endless possibilities. This is another area where HERE will be an important asset as the future “reality index” across different industries.

Connectivity and highly-automated driving will make mobility safer and simpler.

But it also creates opportunities:

A peek inside our Vision Car shows how the interior can enhance sheer driving pleasure and, at the same time, create a space for communication and interaction – for example asymmetric seats allow for relaxed conversation or viewing the on-screen Entertainment.

This will be another aspect of “sheer driving pleasure” in the future: the possibility of using time in the car for oneself or with your passengers in a meaningful and relaxed way.

Here, you can also see the next phase of gesture interaction vehicle – our Air-Touch Display.

This system is able to recognize three-d movements and relay them to the interface. This next step in gesture control will open up new possibilities.

Finally I would like to direct your attention to our BMW Motorrad stand –we are also thinking about new ways to assist riders in city traffic. Today, we will give you a realistic outlook with BMW Connected Ride, the helmet of the future.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This was just a brief glimpse of the topics we are currently working on. Thanks to seamless interaction between real-time data from the cloud, adaptive systems and fully-interconnected products, we are able to create an entirely new mobility for our customers.

Thank you for your attention. My colleagues and experts at our stand look forward to talking to you.