Preview From Retrospect

2023 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-08-25 09:36

BMW teaches the navigation device to learn. A newly developed program will keep the routes covered as a wealth of experience and incorporate the values into current route calculations.

BMW is developing an adaptive navigation system. To this end, the researchers are working on a program that can be used to predict the next route without entering a destination. "We want to know before the start where the driver is going and which route he will choose," explains BMW researcher Robert Hein in Munich. By evaluating previous trips based on time, day of the week, location and vehicle user, the software determines the most likely destination.

Learning device

With this information, the developers want to train the car in a “predictive” driving style. Even without active route guidance, for example, with a hybrid drive, the batteries could be discharged before a downhill stretch, or with a normal gasoline engine, the output could be increased towards the motorway exit. To do this, the navigation not only learns the driver's movement profile, but also feeds the database with contour lines, curve radii and speed limits for each tour. When it comes to route guidance, in addition to the shortest, fastest or most economical route, there will also be a personal route with individual sneak and detours. And even when the navigation system is switched off, BMW can use it to warn of traffic disruptions. However, there is no specific date for the start of series production of the system, says developer Hein:"We're talking about years rather than months." (dpa / tmn)