BMW makes some of the most performance oriented cars on the market. But when it comes to technology, BMW has to catch-up Mercedes-Benz. In July 2020, BMW will release its most comprehensive vehicle software upgrade to date, with new and improved features for vehicle connectivity and navigation. These features will be included straight from the factory with every BMW vehicle that has Operating System 7, such as the new BMW 5 Series.
And for certain compatible BMW vehicles built before July, already in customers’ hands, these new updates can even be added with a free over-the-air software upgrade, available from third quarter onwards.
BMW Maps offers a completely new navigation experience: Faster, more intuitive, and more accurate. Destinations can be entered more easily. New cloud-based route calculation brings a significant improvement in performance. BMW Maps also provides contextual information for points of interest, such as ratings, business hours and images. Connected Parking also supports the search for parking spaces with additional services.
The BMW Digital Key, which has just been announced at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, turns an iPhone into a fully digital – and secure – vehicle key.
The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant is getting a new design and has been enhanced with numerous intelligent functions. For example, the virtual character now turns towards the person talking and can distinguish between addressing the driver and the passenger.
Since 2018, the Remote Software Upgrade has enabled BMW drivers with compatible vehicles to keep their vehicle up to date with the latest software, just like with a smartphone. The new functions can be downloaded and installed over-the-air. This is particularly convenient and extremely fast: even for extensive upgrades, hardly more than 20 minutes of installation time is required.
In the future, BMW customers will be able to use the connectivity of their vehicle for convenient third-party. This data link will happen through the secure BMW CarData system, without any direct access by third-party services to BMW vehicles. Customers stay in full control over the data that is shared, with whom, and for how long. A CarData report of the data released to third parties is available for customers to download at any time via the ConnectedDrive portal. The report contains a detailed list of the telematics data stored in connection with the vehicle and a glossary explaining key terms.
