[Mark]

BIMMERPOST NEWS

IBM Watson making its way into BMW as well

25
COMMENTS

Tweet

BMW is planning on working closely with IBM at their Watson lab in Munich in looking at ways of integrating machine learning into the car.

For you layman out there, machine learning is basically getting a computer to do something without being told to do something. Right now, its being used to do basic tasks such as identifying objects or events in images. In a variant it is also being used to run self-driving cars. The current system of self-driving cars, across the board, are very very rudimentary forms of 'machine-learning' as the cars are responding to pre-programmed limits, ie, dont cross yellow lines.

Machine learning systems such as IBM Watson take the concept to a much higher level.

Machine learning has been around for a long time, but in the last ~5 years the field has exploded due to newer techniques such as Deep learning and neural networks.

IBM is one player in this field with their Watson system, but unlike the more advanced systems out there, IBM has not revealed to the world how their system actually works. This has left many machine learning enthusiasts highly skeptical of IBM's Watson. They have been excellent at marketing the system and making headlines with their Watson system in the game of Chess, on Jeopardy! and in healthcare.

This skepticism has many in the community thinking this project will go nowhere as with many other projects.

Lets say something does actually come of this. How will Watson be integrated into the car you ask? Good question. It will probably be evolving but for now they say they want to expand personalization of the driving experience and create better driver support systems. Sounds like they want to go for a better semi and fully autonomous driving system to rival other players in the market such as Tesla, Google and rumors of Apple. They sound like they want to differentiate themselves by integrating the machine learning aspect to learn what you as the driver likes and help you in that regard.

How I personally translate this is this example: Every morning on the way to work you stop off at around 8AM for a coffee at a nearby Starbucks. If its 8:30 and you are late then you goto the drive-thru coffee at McDonald's instead. On Thursday nights at around 5:30PM you always stop at the laundromat to pick up your clothes before returning to work. The Watson enabled car would without you asking it, learn these patters and would actually drive you to Starbucks if it can get you there at 8AM, if not it would then decide to goto McDonalds, and of course every thursday would take you to the laundromat. If you are manually driving and its a thursday, the car would gently remind you to get the laundry.

Sounds like a boat load of fun huh

IBM is ambitious, they are also highlighting natural language tools as part of the collaboration. So in theory you could yell at your car "I'm so sick of getting the f----ing laundry" and it would learn to re-route and skip the laundry today. With machine-learning, if it knows you like ice-cream, maybee it would be as bold as to take you to the ice-cream shop instead to calm you down.

Source: R&T

[psuibmw]

Watson is just a marketing BS ... there is nothing Watson can do that others cannot ... I guess IBM has to survive somehow they should have gone long time ago

[08njSTEP]

Really? A partnership with IBM so the owners manual can be read to you in your native language. WOW! Groundbreaking.

How about making a real driving enthusiast car and leaving the gimmicks to GM.

[8k4]

Just simply L O L

[Agni]

Another example of how BMW does not get technology anymore. Tesla Model 3 will do to BMW what iPhone did to Nokia.

[jpnh]

I for one welcome our overlord AI masters....

/sarcasm

[Powaup]

Very good read. Machine learning is kind of hard to explain but this was well put

[Fake News 2017]

Originally Posted by Agni

Another example of how BMW does not get technology anymore. Tesla Model 3 will do to BMW what iPhone did to Nokia.

Piss on Tesla, keep that electronic powered $hit away from me :

[dzvero]

IBM is pushing watson a lot, they try to use it for medical diagnosis

[KSERGEI-BY]

Originally Posted by psuibmw

Watson is just a marketing BS ... there is nothing Watson can do that others cannot ... I guess IBM has to survive somehow they should have gone long time ago

Thing is ... Watson can replace "others". your guess about Ibm's "survival" is false.

[KSERGEI-BY]

Originally Posted by dzvero

IBM is pushing watson a lot, they try to use it for medical diagnosis

In couple of other areas too. Its a developing thing...

[Agni]

Originally Posted by TypeM4

Piss on Tesla, keep that electronic powered $hit away from me :

Says the guy with an numb electric steering car and fake engine noises eminating from the speakers.

[1and1]

Has IBM actually started making money from Watson?

Last I looked into it, oh, about 6-8 months ago, it was still a bit of lipstick on a pig. IBM is having a rough time transitioning to their newish business model. At that time there was quite a bit of interesting reading to be done on the subject, worth a quick google. The kind of stuff that makes me wonder how much IBM paid BMW for the privilege of using BMW as a marketing tool...

[Fake News 2017]

Originally Posted by Agni

Says the guy with an numb electric steering car and fake engine noises eminating from the speakers.

yep, i would get rid of the fake engine noise and electric steering but i can't

Electric still sucks and you know it!

[KSERGEI-BY]

Originally Posted by TypeM4

yep, i would get rid of the fake engine noise and electric steering but i can't

Electric still sucks and you know it!

I like the electric stearing. Maybe it feels a bit different, but i like thet all weghty and leaky stearing hydraulics stuff are gone.

[The Wind Breezes]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec's_paradox

Not holding my breath for anything super cool to happen for a while.

[ron_jeremy]

Right now, BMW are behind in the autonomus race, Maybe Watson is the key to make it a number 1 priority.

[fecurtis]

Am I the only person who doesn't care about cars driving themselves?

[Jono2112]

Isn't this how SkyNet started?
"I'll be back...for your Bimmer!"

[rwjr44]

If done well, Watson will be very useful. Don't knock it until you see the implementation. :-)

[raysspl]

Could be marketing gimmick, could be not. As a software engineer, I think this is still in the right step in evolving driver & passenger UX

[MightyMouseTech]

Originally Posted by fecurtis

Am I the only person who doesn't care about cars driving themselves?

Nope. Can't wait, then all those morons who merge onto the highway at half the speed limit, or drive in the left lane at 10 under the limit can go buy one and stay the hell out of my way.