BMW Unveils Qwen-Powered Cabin AI Agent, Debuts on All-New BMW iX3 Long-Wheelbase

BMW has launched three cabin AI agents—“Car Expert,” “Travel Companion,” and “Encyclopedia Guru”—custom-built for the Chinese market based on Alibaba’s Qwen large language model. These AI agents will make their debut at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show. The system aims to enhance the semantic understanding and task execution capabilities of voice assistants, enabling a shift from passive responses to proactive decision-making. The all-new BMW iX3 Long Wheelbase is the first model to feature these three AI agents, with the upcoming new BMW 7 Series set to follow. Leveraging Qwen’s cloud-based reasoning capabilities, the “Travel Companion” works in tandem with AutoNavi’s automotive agent, integrating tens of millions of POI data points and spatiotemporal geographic information. This allows users to express complex travel requests in natural language and receive comprehensive itineraries that include distance, charging station availability, dining recommendations, and route planning. The “Car Expert” integrates a knowledge base of 200,000 entries of BMW-specific vehicle usage expertise, delivering professional-level answers comparable to those of a human technical advisor, thereby enhancing safety and convenience for drivers. Additionally, at the 2026 Beijing Auto Show, the BMW Group will showcase 16 new vehicles across its three brands—BMW, MINI, and BMW Motorrad—including four global debuts and eight China premieres. Among them, the all-new BMW iX3 and the all-new BMW i3 Long Wheelbase will make their global debut, with the former also featuring BMW’s new full-scenario navigation-assisted driving function for the first time.