So far, BMW has delivered 8.4 million vehicles with Connected Drive. However, as of August 1st, the service will change. BMW Connected wants to transform the car into a “smart device”. Away from the app culture towards a user-centered application. BMW Connected, the smart way between people and cars?
Enjoy the Digital: BMW Connected
Out of the corner of pure apps, into the cloud. In the world of complete networking. BMW presents with BMW Connected the next level of digitization. And that is urgently needed. Because the next 5 years will be as important for the auto industry as the last 25 - if you only refer to the changes you are facing. No car manufacturer wants to become the Nokia version in the industry. Focus on digitization, networking and the user. The requirements are clear - but not banal at all.
The interface to the customer
BMW Connected is seen in Munich as an interface to the customer. That is why the term app is missing. Of course, a “smartphone app” is also a kind of “home base” for the connection in this case. But you want to go further than before. The user is managed centrally via “BMW Connected” in the cloud. Profile properties move seamlessly back and forth between smartphone and car (and of course the cloud). Air conditioning, seat adjustment, music streaming and much more - in the future, BMW will associate the things with which you are concerned when you get into a “strange car” with the user profile. Still on the road today in your own threesome, tomorrow in a strange city in a Drive-Now freefloater rental car? And still feel like you're in your own car. BMW Connected wants to be the solution.
Little digital helpers
But there is more to it than that. The “not so-called” BMW Connected app uses the smartphone to find out about upcoming appointments. Reads along as a secretary and reminds you in the morning about upcoming appointments, checks the traffic situation and reports on your mobile phone when it is time to leave. That you always have the elementary vehicle data in your own pocket, things like “where is the car” and “how much fuel (or electricity) is in the car” - of course.
But Connected Drive will represent more. At BMW, they want to focus more on the “user profile” than before. In the future, individualization will increasingly take place via software and service control in one's own environment. Just as you individualize your own smartphone, you will come to the point where you individualize your own car. And takes this profile with you from vehicle to vehicle. The mobile phone plays the “mediator role”. For example, if you can navigate, you only get into the vehicle with your smartphone, connect both via Bluetooth and the car recognizes the Connected Drive profile. The navigation asks briefly: Is the current address - coming from the appointment calendar or e-mail - the correct one - and then takes it over. Smart device on four wheels. The goal of “networked vehicles” only leads through the clear “user benefits”. You have to see an advantage. And one of the biggest advantages? To save time! BMW Connected wants to be exactly that friend - someone who stands by your side and, ideally, takes on the daily burdens. Helpful and smart.
Amazon Prime in the car?
But only steps one or two are helpful and wise. Step three is: entertainment. BMW Connected will be the first digital automobile service that bridges the gap to a completely different world! BMW Connected becomes an interface to Amazon Echo Offer. The digital assistant who listens to the “activation word” Alexa will in the future - in the very close (!) - For example, start the auxiliary heating in your own BMW. Standing in the kitchen, it works like this: “Alexa? Please activate the auxiliary heating in the BMW to 25 ° ”. The Amazon cloud service will process this information and the linked vehicle will be addressed via “BMW Connected” and the auxiliary heating will be started. And now it is also clear why BMW no longer speaks of an APP, it simply goes well beyond the solutions of a “normal” app.
But Alexa (aka Echo) will only be the first step. Amazon Prime livestream content, via the web, directly in the car? Your own BMW music program? And BMW Connected as a DJ? It is no longer a reverie. It is tangible.
BMW will bundle the previous digital services under this roof and thus focus on solutions for the user, optimized for the user, based on user data.
Launch in selected European markets.
BMW Connected has been on the US market since March 31, 2016. From the beginning of August 2016, BMW Connected will be rolled out in the following countries: Germany, Austria, UK, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Luxembourg. The version of BMW Connected presented in Europe already takes into account feedback and requests from American users. With this version, new functionalities are already available, which customers also receive in the SA via update. Customers, their experiences and their wishes are important tools for adapting BMW Connected even better to requirements.