BMW's new app wants to be your personal assistant for driving

While we're still several years away from truly autonomous cars, that doesn't mean your car can't be a little smarter about how you get from point A to point B.

BMW debuted Connected, its new app for car owners that learns your habits over time and is able to predict driving directions, during Microsoft's Build developer conference Thursday.

The app, which is available now for iOS users (no word on when it may be available to Android), is mostly centered around navigation. You can see estimated travel times to your next destination based on current traffic conditions and send directions from your phone to your car. Once you've arrived at your destination, the app will send directions back to your smartphone for "last mile" guidance from your parking spot to your destination.

It also connects to your calendar to pull in specific locations from your schedule, which will automatically appear within the app.

The app is powered by Microsoft's cloud-based Azure platform so it will also get smarter over time. Eventually, as you use the Connected app more, it will be able to predict your next destination based on your habits and saved locations so you may not even need to manually enter where you're going into the app before you leave.

Eventually, BMW anticipates adding more intelligence into the app. In a demo video shown during the keynote at Microsoft Build Thursday, the company showed off how a car may be able to reroute you in real-time based on current traffic conditions or warn you about hazards on the road ahead.

Navigation aside, you can also use the app to remotely lock and unlock your doors, sound the horn, turn your lights on or off and start your car's ventilation.