German automaker BMW revealed its M Mixed Reality (MR) platform for developing real-time immersive driving experiences.
BMW unveiled the new technology at the Web Summit in Lisbon earlier in November, leading to a location-independent driving experience with the company’s M2 coupe.
The new technology converts the entire M2 vehicle as a controller for the MR system, using cutting-edge immersive solutions from Helsinki’s Varjo Technologies to merge the real and virtual worlds.
Franciscus van Meel, Chief Executive of BMW M GmbH, said,
“We won’t just be bringing digital services into the vehicle. The vehicle will merge with the physical and virtual world of the users. They may want to drive vehicles that they own in real life in the latest racing game”
BMW Keynote Address
For the event, van Meel explained to audiences that the technology had “started as a small experiment” with company engineers but developed as a “truly amazing technology.”
He added: “It’s not only bringing the virtual world into our vehicles – even more: our cars became a controller that merge virtual and physical world like never seen before”
Speaking further on the programme’s collaboration with Epic Games, he stated the M2 experiment was a merger of partners that typically were unconnected with mobility or cars, but “who create exactly these virtual worlds in which our future customers are already operating today.”
Explaining further, he said,
“[That’s] what made us the first automaker to look into the gaming industry – the experts of virtual worlds – back in 2016. With Epic, we have found the best possible partner. Over the last couple years, we have gained a lot of experience with them and their Unreal Engine. Bringing the vehicles into the virtual world already turns out pretty well – also thanks to our great partners.”
The German CEO joined Heiko Wenczel, Epic Games’ Head of Detroit Lab, to explore how ‘human centricity’ allowed developers to create more meaningful technologies amid the partnerships.
Test Driving the Future
In a BMW Blog report, German automaker BMW has developed its own Metaverse platform – the M2 Mixed Reality – combining physical driving with immersive reality experiences.
BMWBlog’s Nico DeMattia attended the Web Summit 2022 in Portugal’s capital city, incorporating Varjo XR-3 headsets synched with movements from one of BMW’s top motor machines.
Using a physical car park, the company’s G87 M2 motor recreated a cutting-edge virtual race course, complete with coin-collecting activities as the physical vehicle drifted in the physical race track space.
A qualified safety engineer supervised the entire experience, which leverages hand and eye tracking to simulate the virtual, parallel racing space. The setup also taps a gaming PC to power Varjo’s VR kit, including a tracking bar for following the driver’s position.
Varjo’s MR solution combines real movement data from the M2 vehicle along and offers passthrough functions for the driver’s field of view (FoV), allowing the driver constant views of their hands.
Motor Companies Meet the Metaverse
The news comes as XR gaming company holoride debuted a solution for immersive entertainment with rival German auto firm Audi of the Volkswagen Group last week.
The impressive system also leverages real-time driving data to create virtual experiences via HTC VIVE’s Flow headsets, where passengers can immerse in virtual worlds while avoiding motion sickness.
BMW has long supported immersive technologies for its product lineup, namely after collaborating with Finnish immersive firm Basemark for an augmented reality (AR) platform for navigational systems.
The new tool overlays AR digital navigation visuals over real-world activity, with the device first installed in the company’s iX model vehicles.
The carmaker also selected ByteDance’s Pico Interactive headsets for its Formula E Motorsport engagement workshop in a major partnership with Irish immersive learning firm ENGAGE XR.
The solution allowed BMW engineers to lead attendees in a virtual garage to showcase some of the company’s latest racing designs, complete with X-ray visuals.
Conversely, Varjo’s industry-leading Aero headsets have allowed pilots to earn course credits for European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certifications by tapping the Finnish enterprise’s advanced hand and eye-tracking, field of view (FoV), and photorealism technologies.
