BMW AirConsole: Swiss startup revolutionizes gaming in the car
In half a million BMWs and Minis, passengers can play "Uno", for example, with each other via infotainment and cell phone. Worldwide! However, the AirConsole system is not developed by a tech giant, but by a start-up from Zurich. AutoSprintCH went for a test drive.
Seriously, would you admit to gaming on your smartphone? No, we wouldn't either. But we (almost) all do, because it's fun. At BMW and Mini, our playfulness has been professionally encouraged for around a year and a half now: AirConsole is already running in 500,000 BMWs and Minis worldwide (20,000 of them in Switzerland) and is already being praised as the leading car gaming platform.
The special feature: As was once the case with "I see something you don't see" or car type guessing, you can also play together instead of just alone. Pair your cell phone, scan the QR code on the infotainment, enter your name - then play along via smartphone. There's "GoKartGo!" (à la "Mario Kart"), "Who wants to be a millionaire?", jump-'n-run, puzzle or football games - or "Uno".
"To pass the time while charging an electric car, for example. And to have the fun that our vehicles are fun to drive, even when stationary," says Sergio Solero. Solero has been with BMW for 26 years, has held management positions in Italy, Asia and at Group headquarters in Munich - and has been CEO of BMW Switzerland since this year, Solero admits sympathetically and frankly: "My son pointed out to me that we have this."
The BMW Group Switzerland in Dielsdorf ZH is virtually at the source. The BMW headquarters in Munich (Germany) has not teamed up with Asian or American software giants to let us play cool games in the car, whether alone or together. Instead, it has teamed up with AirConsole, developed by the start-up N-Dream AG from Zurich, which currently has 20 employees. Speaking of 20: After other games, "Uno" recently celebrated its premiere as the 20th game for the car - and it speaks for AirConsole that Mattel, the world's second-largest game manufacturer after Lego, has awarded the license for in-car gaming to AirConsole.
What we find really great: The system is very intuitive and designed to be perfectly adapted to the conditions in the car. What's more, with AirConsole, it's no longer just the passengers on their smartphones: families can now play digital games together. The only downside is that this is still only possible when the car is stationary, for example at a charging station or in a traffic jam (the machine must be set to P). But it's probably only a matter of time before not the person at the wheel, of course, but all the other passengers will be able to play "Uno" together while the car is moving at full speed.
