German automotive giant BMW announced on Wednesday that it will soon integrate AI functionalities from Chinese AI maker DeepSeek into its vehicles in China. The CEO of BMW, Oliver Zipse, announced the same at the Shanghai auto show, Reuters reported.
With this, BMW joins other Chinese manufacturers, including Geely, Zeekr, Dongfeng, and additional automotive firms, in using DeepSeek’s AI. Zeekr recently announced that it integrated its in-house models with DeepSeek-R1 for ‘smart cockpit’ capabilities.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2025, Chinese automotive manufacturer Geely introduced the ‘Full-Domain AI for Smart Vehicles’ technology. “The advanced AI developments built on this system include an end-to-end large voice model, AI digital chassis, smart cockpit, and intelligent driving technology,” the company said.
Recently, it was also reported that the company is utilising the DeepSeek-R1 for human interaction and driving capabilities.
Global giants like Toyota, Volkswagen, Ford, and General Motors, among others, have also incorporated AI systems for various purposes, including infotainment, driver assistance systems, autonomous driving modes, navigation systems, and more. Last December, Mercedes-Benz announced that it is using OpenAI’s ChatGPT in its ‘MBUX’ voice assistant.
Moreover, DeepSeek has been widely utilised across various industries and sectors in China. Last month, the New York Times reported that officials in courtrooms are using DeepSeek to write legal documents in “minutes”. Moreover, the model is also being used by doctors and officials searching for missing individuals. The report added that several companies are “encouraging” employees to use DeepSeek for design and customer service.
Recently, Reuters also reported that DeepSeek plans to release R2 “as early as possible”.
The company initially intended to launch it in early May, but is now considering an earlier timeline. The model is expected to produce “better coding” and can reason in languages beyond English.
This will be a successor to the DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model, which was widely credited with disrupting the US stock market a few months ago. The model was also developed at a fraction of the cost and compute compared to AI models created in the US, while still offering comparable performance.
