From idea to series feature in just a few months: BMW Group and the Swiss start-up AirConsole have rolled out a jointly developed solution for in-car gaming in record time. Since July, BMW drivers and passengers have been able to pass the time with computer games on the vehicle’s Curved Display during breaks, using their smartphones as controllers. The function is being made available for the first time with the launch of the new BMW 5 Series and will be offered successively for other models. This innovative collaboration proves the success of the venture client model developed by the car manufacturer for the BMW Startup Garage.
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MotorTranscript
00:00 You know, 3.2 billion people play games on this planet, so needless to say it's extremely
00:06 relevant to bring content to those people.
00:10 We did a lot of research.
00:12 There's nothing comparable on the market.
00:15 It's super exciting to be able to spearhead gaming for BMW inside the car.
00:23 One of our goals is to bring gaming for all of our customers and that's why we're planning
00:49 like casual games which are usable for everybody.
00:53 When it comes to Inca gaming, we're looking at how to operate a game in the car.
00:58 We don't normally have a gaming controller like at home.
01:03 We've been working on Inca gaming for a while, then we looked at the market and
01:10 coincidentally found AirConsole, a gaming platform which has the special feature of
01:16 being able to operate the game with your smartphone.
01:21 When we started with the idea of AirConsole, we cracked a really interesting knot.
01:26 The ease of access, but only in their living room at home.
01:30 So moving that into cars and making it truly universally accessible is really, really exciting
01:36 and it's something we didn't dream of.
01:38 We've already created the prerequisites for integrating such external services in the car.
01:45 And that's where we've arrived at AirConsole. And it worked immediately.
01:54 I was so astonished by the fact that BMW put so much effort into the initiative of having
02:00 start-ups, working with them. And the BMW Start-Up Garage basically bridged the experience
02:06 from the big car world to the start-up world.
02:13 The transition from the R&D to the series development was seamless.
02:20 The BMW Start-Up Garage is a good institution at BMW because they have the freeness to try
02:28 a lot of things out. To get new, cool ideas quickly into the company and into our vehicles.
02:35 That's the challenge.
02:37 I heard from AirConsole first in the beginning of 2022 and there was a lot of work done already
02:45 when they did the proof of concept. So they showed me the concept and then in 2022 we
02:52 moved to the series development.
02:56 The integration is very cool because we have now a browser technology in our vehicle and
03:01 with that it's much easier than before. And you get a full collection of games and it's
03:09 really fun.
03:13 Twenty years from now, we're going to look back and we were the ones, together with BMW,
03:19 that spearheaded gaming inside the car. And making history like that with a strong partner
03:25 is just so rewarding. Yeah, it was super great to work towards this launch.
03:30 When we get done, it will not be the end of the story because AirConsole is just the first
03:35 step in it. And it's a long path to go, but it's very exciting to be part of it.
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