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      08-14-2019, 02:34 PM   #55
LogicalApex
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Drives: 2020 BMW 530xe
Join Date: Jul 2019
Location: Farmington, NY

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2020 BMW 530xe  [0.00]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Obioban View Post
Indeed-- I have no expectation BMW will add Waze support. But, really, that is kind of the underlying problem with iDrive, eh?

iDrive is, generally, kind of up to date with some features of a phone the year you buy the car. Each year that passes it gets more out of date and less supported.

CarPlay (and one day android auto) is driven by the phone-- so if you have a car that supports it, 10 years from now you'll still have all the latest apps/features through carplay.

CarPlay (and one day android auto) also doesn't require you to have an otherwise useless data plan for your car, since it uses the phone data you're paying for either way.

There's just no comparison in my mind-- iDrive starts out not as good, and then gets worse every year you own the car while carplay (and one day android auto) get better, while being cheaper to use.

Having wireless carplay in almost all my cars now feels like living in a happy, alternate future, where actual software engineers make user interfaces and everything works as I'd hope/expect-- all with no additional effort (phone stays in my pocket) or expense (data plan for the car).
There is no question that CarPlay (and AA) will support a wider amount of applications and be updated more frequently as a result. This is a major reason these systems are great additions to the landscape.

But there is no guarantee that a car that supports CarPlay today (or AA for that matter) will support it even 2 years from now. Apple doesn't charge for CarPlay so they can release an update that requires new support in the car head unit that breaks compatibility. There isn't enough of a longterm track record for us to know how long any of this stuff will work...

Ideally, BMW CarPlay subscription means they will continue to support it longer than other manufacturers, but there is no proof of that. One thing I can be sure of is that the cars where it is "free" they most certainly won't extend much support to older models update wise as they won't make any revenue for their investment in supporting it post first sale.
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