Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBingoBalls
That's the issue, there is no proper platform with iDrive - the biggest thing that came out of iDrive 7 - 8 was "remote software update" which doesn't really do anything (many hoped it would be on the same level as Tesla's remote updates). Everything else was just a UI change which is the same from iDrive 5 to 6.
Maybe I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing with iDrive 7 and 8. To me, iDrive is easily the best in-house infotainment system, because it's just that, infotainment - it does what it needs to do well outside of the UI changes. But other than that, they're no real difference where I would say I want iDrive 7 or iDrive 8. Moving to Android Automotive should help BMW properly set up a platform for all things digital and all internet-related things.
If you have a problem with BMW not really having a platform with iDrive today, this news should make you happy because it should act as the first step for actually creating an in-house infotainment platform.
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I agree with you that iDrive is fantastic, but the problems here are all BMW’s fault.
For instance, you take the upset people like me have who are on the iDrive 7 “Lite” island and I think we’re the best embodiment of the problem. BMW markets these versions as platforms, but they aren’t actually platforms. They then lose the ability to deliver on them properly as they treat them as the thing they are not — platforms.
BMW doesn’t market “Service Packs” which appears to be their actual platforms. These determine what hardware is in place to support the features exposed via iDrive. Instead BMW markets iDrive 7 or iDrive 8 or whatever. Leading to confusion and disappointment. So I was disappointed to learn that iDrive 7 on my G30 came after it did on the X5 MY wise, but lacks Remote Software Updates which is marketed as a universal iDrive 7 feature… It is also wild that the X5 with iDrive 7 has more features than the G30 LCI with iDrive 7 that launched much later… But it doesn’t fully implement SP18 on the G30 LCI like it does on the G05 X5…
BMW would do themselves a lot of good, for instance, by properly separating their “Service Pack” platform and their infotainment “iDrive” such that they can offer upgrades between versions to keep their cars consistent and to offer owners new features on a common platform (also would cut their IT costs as well).
This is what I mean by how lost they are. They appear to have no clue how to develop their software and even though they have an in-house team it all looks like they’re just buying a vendor solution and lightly skinning it. They don’t have the source code or expertise to tie it together across “versions” or “platforms”.