In the Near Future, Your BMW Will Make Restaurant Reservations For You

It's basically the next best thing to having a chauffeur.

Most everyone is aware by now that texting while driving is a bad idea — but as cars evolve into self-driving supercomputers, making a restaurant reservation on your smartphone may become obsolete. Bloomberg reports German automaker BMW is unveiling a new digital device called ConnectedDrive that includes a function to search for and book reservations at nearby restaurants, then guide drivers to their chosen destination. The cloud-based technology is expected to come online in the next several months, at which point snagging a dinner reservation could be as easy as saying "Table for four at a steakhouse, please" during your evening commute.

The move is part of a sprint by car manufacturers to upgrade their in-vehicle applications to compete with existing technology like Apple CarPlay and Google's Android Auto. In 2011, BMW took its first foray into the restaurant world by integrating Yelp into its navigation interface. Meanwhile, car designers are taking cues from food photos on Instagram as inspiration for new paint color palettes.

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