Archive for BMW

The Number One Reason Why I Will Not Buy A BMW….. They Now Charge For Apple CarPlay In Canada

Posted in Commentary with tags on July 24, 2019 by itnerd

You might recall that BMW started to charge for Apple CarPlay in the USA (and before you ask, Android Auto is a no show on BMW vehicles). Then the problems with a subscription setup became clear when an outage with BMW’s Connect Drive systems left people without access to CarPlay. Well, that less than brilliant idea appears to be coming to Canada as the BMW ConnectedDrive website now has these two options if you want CarPlay in your new BMW here in the great white north:

  • 12 months (1 year): $100 CAD
  • 240 months (20 years): $400 CAD

 

Cleary the $400 option is the one that you should go for if you plan on keeping your car for more than four years. But why should you have to pay for CarPlay at all seeing as Apple provides any car company who wants CarPlay everything they need for free? And other luxury and non luxury brands serve it up across most if not their entire lineup effectively for free to consumers. Thus this move by BMW Canada really seems beyond stupid, If they want tech savvy people like myself, loyal Apple users, and millennials with the cash to drop on an 3 Series or an X1 or X2 to give their brand a pass, this move will do it as it will send them to Mercedes Benz, Audi, Genesis or even Lexus who held out from providing CarPlay in their cars until they finally figured out that they were on the wrong side of that argument.

Face it, BMW Canada has shot itself in the foot. And one has to wonder how much bad press that it will take before they realize that this is the wrong decision and change course.

 

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BMW ConnectedDrive Outage Leaves BMW Owners Frustrated….. And BMW Isn’t Saying Anything About The Outage

Posted in Commentary with tags on May 10, 2019 by itnerd

German carmaker BMW has had an outage with their ConnectedDrive service for definitely the last few days. But there is evidence that it might have been offline for longer than that according to some tweets that I have seen and this Reddit thread that I have been following. And the reason why this is an issue is that ConnectedDrive is a subscription based service that among other things, gives you access to Apple CarPlay if you’ve forked over the cash. No ConnectedDrive, no CarPlay. So by having this outage, BMW is angering the exact user group that you do not want to ever get angry as hell have no fury like an Apple user who has been scorned.

This outage also highlights the fact that BMW’s plan to move to a subscription model was an ill advised idea. Though not for the reasons that I wrote about at the time that they announced it. And what doesn’t help is the fact that BMW is virtually silent on the issue. They haven’t said what’s going on, or what they are doing to resolve it. That’s poor customer communication on the part of BMW and I have to admit that it does little to make me buy or lease one of their vehicles given how they have responded to this outage.

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Chinese Researchers Find Flaws In BMW Infotainment Systems….. And Fixes Are On The Way From BMW

Posted in Commentary with tags , on May 23, 2018 by itnerd

Chinese security firm Keen Labs have been looking at a variety of BMW vehicles over the last year and have released a 26-page technical report that details 14 vulnerabilities that allow a BMW to be pwned via the infotainment system. The researchers have released their findings to BMW who are working on updates to fix this. Likely when the cars come in for service. Now some of these flaws are hard to exploit. But it is possible which is why some details have been withheld in the report.

This highlights something that I have been saying for a while now. Car makers really need to up their game when it comes to the security of the cars that they make because they’re now rolling computers that people are going to try and hack. Thus automotive manufacturers have to be looking for vulnerabilities constantly, and when they find them, fix them quickly. Then roll them out in a manner that is easy for every car owner to get. That way we are all safer as a result.

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#Fail: BMW Will Make Apple CarPlay A Subscription Service In The US

Posted in Commentary with tags , on January 17, 2018 by itnerd

From the “they really didn’t think this through” department comes news via The Verge that BMW in the US will charge $80 a year to subscribe to Apple CarPlay. They argue that this is cheaper than their price to add it on to your BMW which is a one time fee of $300 to get Apple CarPlay forever  because:

  1. The first year will be free. Thus you’re only paying $160 rather than $300 if you’re leasing for 3 years.
  2. It will make it “easier” if you flip between Android and iOS devices because you’re not paying for something that you’re not using. That’s an interesting argument as no BMW I am aware of ships with Android Auto. But BMW’s own services will apparently play nice with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. Eventually.

This is a really dumb idea and its clearly a cash grab aimed at members of “Team iPhone.” There are cars out there that come out of the gate with Android Auto, or Apple CarPlay, or both, and they don’t nickle and dime you to death for it. I think for that reason alone, the predictable blowback from iPhone users will make BMW rethink this. Also, you have to wonder if they let Apple know about this as I am pretty sure that the folks at Apple Park will be dialing up the folks in Bavaria if they’re not happy about this.

 

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Mercedes-Benz & BMW Get Probed By Feds Over #DieselGate

Posted in Commentary with tags , , on April 23, 2016 by itnerd

The news is out that Mercedes-Benz and BMW are looking into their own diesel vehicles to make sure that they’re not the next VW, and because the feds told them to do it:

Daimler said the diesel probe stems from communications it has had with the U.S. Dept. of Justice. This action also follows the filing of a lawsuit by a U.S.-based Mercedes vehicle owner charging the German automaker with allegedly using a device to affect its emissions tests. The suit, filed by Seattle, Washington-based law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shaprio, LLP, says the action is based, in part, on an article published in German magazine Der Spiegel, which claims that Mercedes admitted to designing the diesel-powered vehicles to shut off emissions controls in cooler ambient temperatures to protect the engine.

And:

BMW, too, has also looked at its own diesel certification process. BMW North America president Ludwig Willisch last month at the New York International Auto Show said the company had reviewed its internal emissions certification processes, and was satisfied that it had acted properly with regulators. Willisch added that BMW engineers could not replicate the performance of VW diesel vehicles the company tested prior to news breaking last September that VW had cheated. “We thought we were stupid in not being able to figure it out…now we know,” said Willisch.

The fact that the feds are looking at other car companies that make diesel vehicles is normal in a situation like this. There’s likely nothing here to see. At least one hopes so.

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BMW Patches Flaw That Allows Hackers To Pwn Cars

Posted in Commentary with tags , on February 2, 2015 by itnerd

You’d think that if you spend BMW type money on a car, you shouldn’t have to worry about having your car “pwned” by some hacker. Well, you might be one of 2.2 million car owners who could have their car “pwned” by hackers:

BMW said officials at German motorist association ADAC had identified the problem, which affected cars equipped with the company’s ConnectedDrive software using on-board SIM cards — the chips used to identify authorised users of mobile devices.

BMW drivers can use the software and SIM cards to activate door locking mechanisms, as well as a range of other services including real-time traffic information, online entertainment and air conditioning.

The security risk occurred when data was transmitted, BMW said, adding it did not impede the car’s critical functions of driving, steering or braking.

BMW said it was not aware of any examples where the data had been used to compromise the security of a vehicle.

The good news is that the fix is rolling out to cars now automatically and involves encrypting the connection in the same manner that your online banking is encrypted.

What’s becoming clear is that if as cars become rolling computers, car companies will have spend way more time and effort ensuring their cars are secure. Because the car thief of the future isn’t going to use a “Slim Jim” to break into your car. They’ll be using a laptop. And that assumes that their intent is to steal your car, which it may not be. That’s scary.

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