On today’s show…BMW will collaborate with IBM to test Watson in its vehicles…GM will start building autonomous Bolt prototypes next year and Continental thinks it has a more intuitive way of delivering audio commands. All that and more coming right up on Autoline Daily.

This is Autoline Daily the show for enthusiasts of the automotive industry.

GM BOLTS TOWARD AUTONOMY
The other day we reported how Michigan signed new laws into action that allow autonomous cars to test on its roads and GM is already taking advantage of this. The automaker has started testing self-driving Bolt EVs at its Technical Center, but will expand to some of the public roads on the outskirts of the Center and in the next few months will move out into the metro Detroit area. This is also where GM will conduct winter testing of its autonomous vehicles. Along with this the automaker announced that its Orion assembly plant in Michigan will build a test fleet of autonomous Bolt EVs starting early next year.

CONTINENTAL CREATES INTUITIVE AUDIO SYSTEM
Supplier company Continental thinks it has a more intuitive way of delivering audio commands to the driver. It has created a centralized audio management system that it calls Functional Audio. It works by sending an audio output to the side of the vehicle that an event is coming from. For example, say you’re on the freeway and you go to pass slower traffic on the left, but the car’s sensors pick up that somebody is already in that lane. The system will send an audio cue of some sort to the left speakers to warn the driver. The same could be done for approaching traffic. Functional Audio can also be used with the navigation system. If the next turn on your route is a right, an audio cue would come from the right speaker. It all sounds like an interesting idea and I’d love to test it out to see how well it works. But one great part of Functional Audio is that you’d be able to change the sound of the turn signals. I don’t know about you but I’ve been in some vehicle with some pretty annoying blinkers and it would have been great to change them.

Still to come…BMW partners with IBM to test artificial intelligence in vehicles.

BMW PARTNERS WITH IBM
IBM’s artificial intelligence system, Watson, is becoming popular with automakers. Earlier this year, Local Motors, the company that 3D prints cars, installed Watson in its small autonomous bus Olli. And recently General Motors announced it will integrate Watson with OnStar. And now BMW is teaming up with IBM to research how to improve artificial intelligence systems in vehicles. The companies plan to equip four BMW i8’s with IBM’s Bluemix cloud platform to test how Watson can enable conversations between cars and drivers.

HONDA TO TEST UNI-CUB AT AIRPORT
A few years back, Honda created a personal mobility device called the UNI-CUB β. It’s similar to a Segway in that you shift your weight to control the vehicle but unlike the Segway, you sit on Honda’s device. And now the company is letting the public try it out. For ten days beginning on January 13, Honda will demonstrate the UNI-CUB at the Haneda airport in Japan. Travellers can use it to move about the airport and staff will also use it to assist air travellers. The device is powered by a lithium-ion battery, has a top speed of just under 4 mph and has a range of about 3.7 miles.

Mobility services are set to explode over the next five years but what impact could it have on car sales? We’ll take a look at that coming up next

MOBILITY SERVICES IMPACT ON CAR SALES
Automakers think there’s an opportunity to make big money with mobility services, that’s why we’re seeing so much activity in this field. But will car and ride sharing have a negative or positive impact on car sales? On Autoline This Week we’re joined by Samir Salman, the head of supplier Continental’s NAFTA region. And in the following clip he shares his opinion on what impact mobility services will have.

(The ATW preview is only available in the video version of today’s show.)

For more of Samir’s insight into future automotive trends you can watch that entire discussion right now on Autoline.tv or you can find it on our YouTube channel.

But that’s it for today, thanks for watching, have a great weekend and join us again on Monday for the latest news in the global automotive industry.