BMW owners unable to access CarPlay due to apparent subscription service outage
A number of BMW owners are unable to access Apple's CarPlay from their in-car infotainment systems after the German marque's ConnectedDrive subscription service suffered an outage early this week.
While BMW has yet to comment on the apparent outage, owners believe CarPlay was made inaccessible when ConnectedDrive went down on Monday. Other drivers outside of the U.S. claim CarPlay has been unavailable for over a month.
The ConnectedDrive subscription service manages car infotainment, mobility and remote control systems, and serves as a gatekeeper to connectivity features like CarPlay. Some surmise that without confirmation of paid monthly dues, a car's network-connected head unit will not authorize access to select apps and services. It appears CarPlay is among those products impacted by the downtime.
Multiple reports listed in a Reddit thread spotted by 9to5Mac seemingly support the theory.
Interestingly, some BMW owners claim the ConnectedDrive outage also affects cars not covered by the subscription service, or more specifically older models in which the feature was offered as a factory upgrade.
When BMW introduced CarPlay to its lineup in 2016, the carmaker charged customers what amounted to a $300 activation fee. The company last year revealed a new pricing structure that gates CarPlay behind a subscription plan facilitated under ConnectedDrive.
Don Smith, technology product manager for BMW North America, pitched the strategy that charges customers $80 a year after 12 months of free access, as a win for price-conscious consumers.
"This allows the customer to switch devices," Smith said in an interview at the Detroit Auto Show in 2018. "A lot of people buy [CarPlay] and think its okay, but sometimes they stop using it or switch to Android."
BMW is one of only a handful of carmakers that charge for CarPlay access.
BMW has not addressed the issue publicly and it is unknown if the company is working to resolve the complication. Customers who have sought assistance from dealerships say service technicians are citing a system-wide problem with ConnectedDrive, but have found no further information on the matter.
While BMW has yet to comment on the apparent outage, owners believe CarPlay was made inaccessible when ConnectedDrive went down on Monday. Other drivers outside of the U.S. claim CarPlay has been unavailable for over a month.
The ConnectedDrive subscription service manages car infotainment, mobility and remote control systems, and serves as a gatekeeper to connectivity features like CarPlay. Some surmise that without confirmation of paid monthly dues, a car's network-connected head unit will not authorize access to select apps and services. It appears CarPlay is among those products impacted by the downtime.
Multiple reports listed in a Reddit thread spotted by 9to5Mac seemingly support the theory.
Interestingly, some BMW owners claim the ConnectedDrive outage also affects cars not covered by the subscription service, or more specifically older models in which the feature was offered as a factory upgrade.
When BMW introduced CarPlay to its lineup in 2016, the carmaker charged customers what amounted to a $300 activation fee. The company last year revealed a new pricing structure that gates CarPlay behind a subscription plan facilitated under ConnectedDrive.
Don Smith, technology product manager for BMW North America, pitched the strategy that charges customers $80 a year after 12 months of free access, as a win for price-conscious consumers.
"This allows the customer to switch devices," Smith said in an interview at the Detroit Auto Show in 2018. "A lot of people buy [CarPlay] and think its okay, but sometimes they stop using it or switch to Android."
BMW is one of only a handful of carmakers that charge for CarPlay access.
BMW has not addressed the issue publicly and it is unknown if the company is working to resolve the complication. Customers who have sought assistance from dealerships say service technicians are citing a system-wide problem with ConnectedDrive, but have found no further information on the matter.
Comments
That alone would have me walking out of the dealer showroom.
Oh, did I mention that you can’t even get CarPlay unless you also buy their $2k navigation package?!
I have a 2006 BMW 330i and pretty soon need a new car. It ain’t gonna be a BMW for sure. Next one will be an Audi (etron sportback) or Tesla Model Y.
That said, I would not buy a car without a dashboard either - so 3 and Y were off the list anyways.
Vorsprung durch Technik!
https://www.motor1.com/news/26995/audi-motto-celebrates-40th-anniversary-vorsprung-durch-technik/
Some car features are necessities for consumers:
1. Air Conditioning
2. Cruise Control
3. Leather Seats
4. Car Play
Manufacturers simply need to realize what is important to consumers i order to sell cars.
This is a greed play. Pure and simple.
Essentially, you are renting your BMV for life.
Avoid BMW.
Therefore, many developed their own navi- and infotainment systems and integrated it with the car to a level that Apple/Android can’t match.
The reason is their intrinsic fear for Apple as it tries to become a force in the automobile world - thereby enforcing their UX onto cars - reducing the role of the carmaker to a casing manufacturer.
I am not saying what’s right or wrong, but I can understand their reluctancy. And when greed comes into place, we should respect the real champ...
We see the exact same thing with HomeKit - people want their devices to work with HomeKit because of all the additional benefits this simple layer of compatibility brings. (Automation, Siri, Ease of use etc.)
Though it offers NFC connections of Android phones, you do have to physically connect an iPhone to one of two USB ports, though, which is a bit of a pain.
But it works great. The sound quality of Honda’s speakers is good.
It is obvious that Toyota put a LOT of time, resources and effort into developing their inhouse system.
It is equally obvious that their inhouse system is crap.
I thought it worked off of the iPhone like an Apple Watch without LTE.