Regular Cars.co.za contributor (and seasoned motoring journalist) Calvin Fisher provides some insight into the latest Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology found inside the new BMW 3 Series, which was revealed at the Paris Motor Show last week…

While sitting at a table across from Dieter May, the Senior Vice President of Digital Services for BMW, I am trying to conceal my disappointment. This is the man charged with steering the Bavarian brand into the future, but after some prying, he's just admitted to me that he's not really into sciencefiction. As someone who's into space flicks and the like, it hurt to hear that Mr May is instead a self-titled "product guy" and, as such, is all about optimising a system's user experience. So no Minority Reportstyle human interfacing for now, but that's not to say the BMW Personal Assistant in the new 3 Series doesn't represent several steps in the right direction.

It's a voice-activated artificial intelligence, much in the same vein of the one that only recently begun doing service in the products at a rival marque, MBUX (Mercedes-Benz User Experience, as featured in the new A-Class). The reason for this is simple; much like navigation systems and automatic transmissions, outsourcing of components is key to staying competitive in the automotive marketplace. And while the systems in both (with its Microsoft brain) is developed out-of-house, BMW's own engineers turn theirs into what it is now, a wholly-BMW-programmed item that functions much in the way a Google Home or Amazon's Alexa does.

The BMW 3 Series features voice-activated artificial intelligence that's expected to develop rapidly in the near future.

So, no carefully recited commands such as, "set temperature to 26 degrees in the passenger seat". Simply say, "Hey, Mona Lisa, I'm cold," from the front passenger pew and it will handle the rest. And yes, on our demo of the new system, the 3 Series was named Mona Lisa, but you'll have the opportunity to give it a name of your choice:Maggie Thatcher, Angela Merkel, Victoria Beckham, Cher –whatever you fancy.

Lighting, navigation, media –you have control over it all by simply speaking to your car. BMW’sofficially moved from the traditional voice command systems of the past into the world of free-form dialogue. It understands more, your intent specifically. But in the firm's own words, this is just the first version – the beginning.

And, if you believe that we've already begun down the road to autonomy (and I firmly believe we have), it's nice to have a partner, even if it's a digital one. We're already on the cusp of "Hey Sabine, let's cruise at 120 kph, thanks", so how long until it's followed up with "and take me home," too? Dieter feels we're close, and grows considerably more excited when he expands on his vision for digital services. “This is an opportunity for us also to really get to know our customers, to have access to them, their desires from our vehicles, their habits. The Personal Assistant is our newest and best touch-point with them.”

Planes, Cars, Phones and such

"Eleven months, that's how long it takes before there's a new one of these," Dieter says as he raises his iPhone. "For us (car manufacturers) it's closer to 4 years.And that's just a facelift." We spend some time discussing this, how rapidly technology moves in the realm of smartphones and how the motor industry is a dinosaurcompared with the personal electronics market;a big ship that's slow to change course. Indeed, step into the cockpit of a Boeing 737 (as an example) and you'll be greeted with a cabin featuring instrumentation that looks 30 years old, which is, again, prehistoric by comparison. It makes you wonder if the airline's insistence on us keeping our phones off during flight isn't born out of spite more than anything else…

The future is now-now

The new BMW 3 Series is expected to arrive in SA in March 2019.

With the Smart Assistant, BMW can roll out updates quicker than ever before, claiming that “even directly after launch there’ll be the next level of functionality to roll out.” And that’s all very exciting, but we’re already quite fascinated by how organic the conversation has become. Again, you can hardly refer to it as a simple (do this, do that) response to commands or prompts anymore, as we run through examples such as – “navigate me to Place A, I’d like to fill up on my way there, and what’s the weather like when I get there? Also, I’m hungry.” The dash area is now cleaner than its ever been, and with the advent of a Smart Assistant, I can’t help but wonder how long it will be before our cabins will be completely bereft of any buttons.

For now, the voice system only caters for the front occupants (not really a problem in something like the new Z4, obviously), but you can expect more functionality when it arrives in something larger like an X5 – eventually rolling out to all 3rows of seats and of course, greater control over even more facets of driving. Add to this the fact that, like your phone – software (firmware) updates and upgrades will be performed over the internet, no dealership visits required, essentially a remote service upgrade.

Easter Eggs

You know how the Germans are world-renowned for their sense of humour? Here’s just one example when we told our 3 Series demo that we were bored. Mona Lisa’s response? “I can’t imagine that. Maybe you haven’t had the chance yet to try Sport Mode?” before promptly activating said mode for me, as well as displaying the sports telemetry across the dashboard screen. Smart. And we’re told there are many more of these gems to be discovered…

Buy a new or used BMW 3 Series on Cars.co.za

Related Content:

New BMW 3 Series: This is it

The new BMW M340i: Your budget-friendly M3

BMW 3 Series (2019) International Prototype Drive

Classic Drive: BMW 325iS "Gusheshe" & 333i