Driving the New BMW M2 in a Mixed Reality World - BMWBLOG

BMW conscionable helped make its ain Metaverse, truthful to speak, that’s infinitely much absorbing and breathtaking than conscionable playing Sims with your Facebook friends. The BMW M2 Mixed Reality is 1 of the strangest, astir interesting, exciting, things I’ve ever seen virtual world do. And we experienced it each from the driver’s seat.

We popped implicit to Lisbon, Portugal, for the Web Summit 2022, and portion on-site, BMW invited america to trial their ///M Mixed Reality. The task uses a batch of high-end tech,  including a VR headset from Varjo and a Smart Track instrumentality from AR-Tracking. The elevator transportation for this is that you beryllium successful the driver’s spot of a BMW M2, portion wearing a VR headset, and you really thrust the car. But alternatively of the existent satellite you’re really in, you’re seeing a virtual world world.

Combining Digital and Analog

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In this caller video, you tin acquisition the BMW M2 with a VR headset, connected virtual contention track, yet successful a carnal bare parking lot. What we saw done the headset was a digital, futuristic racetrack, similar thing retired of an arcade game. We drove done it, collected Roundel tokens successful the way similar it was Bavarian Mario Kart, and had to halt successful a integer box. In reality, we were really driving and adjacent sliding the existent BMW M2, with a information technologist successful the rider seat. So successful a way, we were immersed successful a virtual satellite physically driving the caller G87 M2.

The acquisition is rather surreal and you are surely afloat immersed into this VR world. The 4K graphics are awesome and the tech is arsenic exciting. The VR headset adjusts its video prime by tracking wherever your eyes are looking and determination is virtually nary distinguishable lag. Of course, that’s partially due to the fact that determination is simply a consumer-grade gaming PC sitting successful the trunk with precise abbreviated cables connected to the VR headset and the Smart Tracking devices.

High-End VR Headset

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Varjo is the institution that makes the headset but Art is the institution that makes the tracking bar, which tracks the driver’s caput movements. There are countless sensors and GPS tracking, truthful the strategy knows precisely what the car is doing, wherever it’s going, and wherever it is, truthful it tin safely let you to thrust done a way that’s some integer and physical.

A BMW technologist told america that the Mixed Reality strategy fundamentally uses each the “motion” information from the car. So immoderate question created by the caller M2, it’s being captured and utilized by the MR system.

The operator sees their ain existent hands, the existent steering wheel, and the existent dashboard successful beforehand of them. However, the rider side, from the A-pillar back, and the rear of the compartment are each integer to the driver’s VR-covered eyes. And to support the operator from getting question sickness, the headset takes successful each of the car’s motion, arsenic good arsenic the driver’s inputs, into account, truthful that the operator tin spot what they’re physically doing, different they’d get sick.

BMW_Mixed Reality

Unique Use Cases

What’s the constituent of each this? Well, for starters it’s conscionable cool. But determination are immoderate absorbing applications for mixing the integer and carnal worlds portion down the instrumentality of a car. Imagine investigating a car astatine a dealership for the archetypal time. If they tin find a large capable bare parking lot, they tin let the operator to deterioration this VR headset and trial the car connected a virtual mentation of existent contention tracks, for example. It could beryllium a mode to acquisition existent way driving, without really being astatine the track.

The full strategy runs from a high-end gaming microcomputer successful the trunk, packing an NVIDIA 3090 GPU. Just the headset unsocial costs $6,500 and the remainder of the strategy is acold much expensive, truthful it’s not arsenic if you’re going to spot this astatine your section BMW trader anytime soon. However, it’s a fascinating, if a spot frightening, exertion that could person immoderate absorbing applications successful the future.