The BMW i3 Personal CoPilot at the Mobile World Congress

Although the Mobile World Congress seems to be dedicated only to showing us the latest phone news, these kinds of events offer far more than phones, tablets and accessories. In this case, we are going to talk about a new BMW model, a version of the BMW i3 equipped with the BMW Personal CoPilot, the German brand’s latest technology designed to make autonomous driving more practical. In fact, the tests carried out at MWC showed that this vehicle has level 5 autonomous driving capability.

That said, although it is capable of carrying out all the manoeuvres needed to drive by itself, the experience focused more on everything a fully connected car can offer. The test showed that you can summon an autonomous car from a mobile app. Thanks to it, the car leaves its parking space and drives to the spot where the person who requested the service is waiting. A screen located in the window shows the name of the person who requested the car and asks them to touch the window to access the vehicle.

The user sits in the front passenger seat and lets the car take them along. If they chose to use the rear seats, or if there were more users, they also have a screen in front of them, on the back of the front seats. This screen provides all the information needed to follow the car’s route, its speed, its destination and anything else that may be important to users. In addition, the car keeps some controls on the touch screen, so the user can use the horn, the high beams and other controls, helping the occupants feel safer on board this BMW i3. That said, the prototype keeps the steering wheel, so we assume it could be driven manually.

Furthermore, from this screen we can enjoy the media player, to listen to music, watch films or series stored in the car’s memory. The aim is to make the journey as pleasant as possible for the user. The technology used in this BMW i3 PCP will not be available in road cars, because it is a prototype. That said, part of this technology will be enabled in the iNext, which will have level 3 autonomy, meaning it will be able to perform some manoeuvres but always with the assistance of a human driver. This will arrive in 2021, so there is still a long way to go before reaching that longed-for yet feared full autonomous driving. What do you think of this small autonomous car?