IBM and BMW Are Using the Watson A.I. to Give Smart Cars More Personality

IBM and BMW announced Thursday that they have teamed up to figure out how Watson, the A.I. most famous for winning Jeopardy! in 2011, could be used to make driving better. Could this finally make KITT from Knight Rider a reality? The companies said they want to explore the potential of Watson "personalizing the driving experience and creating more intuitive driver support systems for cars of the future." That sounds an awful lot like the talking car that helped David Hasselhoff get out of all sorts of hairy situations in the '80s. BMW will have some researchers work out of IBM's $200 million Watson Internet of Things headquarters in Munich as part of the agreement. The hope is that pairing their resources will allow the two companies to make driving more fun for human operators until autonomous vehicles take over for their human drivers.