View Single Post
      02-12-2020, 10:37 PM   #13
claykin
Brigadier General
United_States
1579
Rep
4,545
Posts

Drives: various BMW
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Florida

iTrader: (0)

Quote:
Originally Posted by LogicalApex View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by claykin View Post
As BMW takes steps to integrate more smartphone functionality to iDrive, it becomes easier to find fault with BMWs implementation. IDrive 7 came with a lot of promises, but many (so far) haven't panned out. The BMW Assistant who isn't as smart as V1 of Google Assistant from 3+ years ago..... Remote software update which seems to be a day late and a dollar short..... Downloadable apps, which for the most part are curiously MIA..... Enterprise Email integration which is frustrating at best..... And that too many button taps are needed to accomplish the same thing that can be done in iDrive 6 easily.

And Live Cockpit Pro.....oh my, an LCD littered with some useful and some useless data. Important gauges that became less important than useless data. This thing desperately needs a way to deeply customize for drivers all the way thru gadget geeks. That customization is sorely missing.

BMW will have an impossible time trying to keep up with smartphones. Best bet for them is to keep it simple (more like an evolution of iDrive 6) and continue amazing Carplay and Android Auto (finally starting 7/20) integration. They should offer best in class wireless phone charging, a tray large enough to hold the latest phones, and work when those phone are in a case. And blow some A/C on the phone or add a fan, like my Anker and Samsung chargers offer. Not terribly complicated and customers will appreciate it.

I feel iDrive 7 is BMW responding to Merc and Audi. I've used both of the competitors new systems and IMO they stink. Gosh that new Audi MMI system with dual screens is not only horrible, it's slow and I feel a safety problem as you need to keep looking at the LCD. Audi feels the haptics address the need to look, but they're sorely mistaken.
Realistically, they can't afford to turn over more and more functionality to CarPlay as the market is heavily moving toward deeper technical integration. If they put more and more of the heavy lifting on CarPlay and AA they risk losing competitive edge and that can cost them long term. Especially when compared to Tesla who is driving the cart in this area...

They just need to see the Techical aspect of their cars as needing the same level of quality and luxury that the rest of the car gets. They need to expand customization as you mentioned, but they also need to offer updates and new features. They also need to find ways to blend CarPlay and AA or BlueTooth connections seamlessly into the car experience.

Hopefully they get this stuff sorted out!
I'm not expecting bmw to turn over critical system functionality to Carplay or AA. If you dig into many of the iDrive 7 user frustrations, they surround the same things currently handled better by Carplay/AA.

Maybe if they let those go and just keep the core iDrive entertainment functions, then their engineers can spend more time on things like Live Cockpit customizations, getting reverse assist right, etc....

Tesla looks cool, but their UI lacks in many areas. The Model 3 needs self driving because trying to use that UI would otherwise cause an accident.
__________________
2023 840GC | 2021 740i | 2019 X3
Appreciate 0