BMW is at CES showing off a range of tech it envisions as part of a connected car experience. While the entire vision is a neat look into where BMW expects the near-future of connected, automated cars to go, one particular inclusion will stick out to Microsoft fans: Cortana.
AS shown off as part of CES 2017 demo, BMW sees Cortana living in the car's dash to offer the same voice-activated assistance with which you're already familiar. From BMW (via Neowin):
The system being presented at CES 2017 is the in-car application of Microsoft's Cortana. This means that the voice-controlled capabilities already offered by Microsoft Cortana on a home PC could or smartphone in future also be available on board a BMW. For example, BMW Connected can provide a reminder en-route of an upcoming appointment for which no location has yet been fixed. And Cortana can be used to make a suitable restaurant recommendation and reserve a table.
Microsoft has been nudging ever-closer to the car industry as of late, and BMW's experimentation with Cortana in the car is just the latest highlight. Nissan also recently teased a Cortana-related announcement for CES that we should be hearing more about soon, and Volvo has also said it is looking into bringing Cortana on the road in its cars.
This follows what seems to be an industry trend in making AI and digital assistants more ubiquitous across the board. Apart from cars, Microsoft has also been busy readying Cortana to branch out to more third-party hardware thanks to a dedicated Cortana Devices SDK.
