The BMW Connected North America app for iPhones and Apple Watches is now available. It offers “intelligent” concierge style features connected to compatible BMW infotainment systems. The apps can be downloaded from the Apple App Store. The apps feature suggestions for leaving time for destinations, estimated arrival notifications to friends/colleagues/family, mapping, places to go and integration of information from the calendar and/or other iPhone apps.
BMW in its news release stated, “Putting consumers and their personal needs at the heart of this vision, services will be available anytime, anywhere – in or outside of the vehicle.”
Leave at the Right Time to Arrive on Time
Based on traffic conditions, the driver will be notified when it’s time to leave, on an iPhone or Apple Watch. As BMW Connected learns the driver’s typical travel times between frequent destinations, notifications are provided when the trip will take longer than usual.
Family and friends informed of the likely arrival time from the iPhone or inside the vehicle by sending a pre-formatted text message auto-populated with your arrival time.
The iPhone app works with other apps installed apps. Drivers can search for or destinations in BMW Connected, a maps app or a third-party app and add then can be added to the BMW Connected profile. Calendar events with addresses are automatically imported to simplify daily planning. Nearby authorized BMW centers, convenient fueling and charging stations as well as parking locations are available with one click.
Frequent and recent destinations are learned and stored for quick future access and estimated travel times are shown at a glance. As learning continues, BMW Connected starts to predict your next destination to surface current travel times for easy decision-making.
To start in-car navigation the driver connects the iPhone to the BMW or send the destination in advance. BMW Connected allows easy access to all places both in-car and on the iPhone to quickly re-use destinations and check drive times.
BMW Connected completes the journey by providing an easy way to start ‘last mile’ walking guidance from the parking spot to the final destination on the iPhone.
BMW Connected is the seamless integration with vehicles equipped with BMW ConnectedDrive. BMW remote features such as locking the doors, flashing the lights, beeping the horn and starting climate control can be initiated from the app.
For BMW plug-in hybrid models, users can view battery state of charge, electric range and hybrid range.
BMW created the Open Mobility Cloud for the backhaul of the app using Azure and Azure Services. The service utilizes many Microsoft services, including HDInsight, Windows SQL, IoT Event Hubs, Machine Learning, Apps Insight and more. With these kinds of intelligent tools, the more frequently users make use of the digital services, the more effectively they can be personalized.
BMW offers many connected apps for its iPhone/iOS customers including:
- Amazon Music Player
- Audible
- AUPEO! Personal Internet Radio
- BMW Connected Classic
- BMW Driver’s Guide
- BMW i Driver’s Guide
- BMW Genius
- BMW M Laptimer
- Deezer
- Glympse
- Google Services
- GoPro
- Rhapsody
- Pandora