OREANDA-NEWS. With "Drive and Enjoy", Deutsche Telekom will be giving a sneak peek at what the future of in-car entertainment might look like - at IFA, the consumer electronics show in Berlin. Show visitors will experience an online onboard program in the car, part of a concept study. Multimedia content is transmitted directly to the car from the cloud through a broadband connection, i.e. a WiFi hotspot. The driver and passengers can choose their personal program of videos, TV shows, audio books and much more, making long drives entertaining for families and other passengers.

The IFA concept study concentrates on safe, convenient controls while driving: thanks to integration with BMW ConnectedDrive, the driver can access the on-board program for him/herself and for passengers even while on the move by using the driver display and the controls on the dashboard. A special app for mobile devices (iPads and iPhones) also lets passengers select and retrieve content from the on-board program. Parents can control their children's devices on the back seats, for example, ensuring that they are only watching age-appropriate content. The trip monitor is a special feature of the on-board program: it gives passengers a special driving experience from the perspective of the car's front camera.

IFA visitors can test the various features of the new concept themselves. A family-friendly BMW GT 3 Series will be demonstrated at the Deutsche Telekom stand in hall 6, with iPads in their holders in the back seats.

3,500 BMWs with hotspots available at Sixt
Deutsche Telekom already presented a mobile WiFi solution: The "BMW ConnectedDrive hotspot" is now in use. The first BMW cars from rental car company Sixt hit the roads with this mobile hotspot technology this September. In total, around 3,500 Sixt cars are to be equipped with broadband Internet connections. Now driver and passengers can go online with up to eight WiFi devices concurrently (smartphones, laptops and tablets), through a broadband Internet connection. Customers will be able to surf with them free of charge until the end of July 2014.