BMW upgrades ConnectedDrive

BMW has announced that it has restructured and upgraded its ConnectedDrive in-car Internet system. Beginning now, it has begun rolling out a set of three optional media packages that will bring new levels of online connectivity to its cars.

The three Media package options cost an extra £990, £1,400 and £1,990 and add increasing levels of online connectivity.

The first package includes sat-nav and BMW’s Emergency Call. Should you have an accident, the car senses the car’s location, how many people are in the car and the severity of the impact, then automatically calls a BMW operator to report what’s happened and allow them to coordinate the appropriate emergency response.

Emergency call will become mandatory for all new cars sold in Europe by 2015. However, the EU wants to introduce a standardised low-tech version that just automatically calls 112, effectively outlawing BMW’s more high-tech system – a situation that the firm is working to rectify.

Next, the Media Package Business Plus adds online services and remote services. These include the facility to access apps like music streaming service rara, which gives access to a library of 17 million songs while on the move, plus a Mobile Office App which lets you dictate and send emails and text messages using just the SIM card built into the car.

The system also allows BMW to send software updates to the car and diagnose faults remotely.

The most hi-tech Media Package Professional system includes a more detailed sat-nav that includes highly detailed real-time traffic information that uses mobile phone data.

The firm claims ConnectDrive won’t add any more to the new price of a car – aside from the cost of adding the sat-nav option.

Instead, BMW plans to recoup the cost of developing the system – a figure in “the three-digit millions of Euros” according to one BMW insider – by selling apps developed by BMW and third party firms, through a bespoke BMW app store accessed either in-car or on a special owner’s section of the BMW website.

BMW has said that the system is extremely secure – Simon Euringer, head of ConnectedDrive told us that it’d cost more to hack the system than to buy it in the first place – and that it can be updated by BMW to reflect changes in legislation.

Euringer added that the new ConnectedDrive had been developed to enhance its new i cars. The i ConnectedDrive includes an intermodal route planner, which lets you know if taking the tube or train is a quicker way of travelling that driving.

He confirmed this will be added to ConnectedDrive for regular BMWs in the future. He also said that the firm was also able to do a special ConnectedDrive for M cars, which could include functions that include copying the car setup of one of BMW’s DTM drivers when you take your car on a track day.

ConnectedDrive is currently available in 11 countries, with the goal to get the system into “around five million BMWs” by 2017, in 24 countries.

Buyers who don't require sat-nav, but would like to benefit from online connections can add Internet and Online Entertainment, priced at £95 and £325 respectively. Both are valid for a one-year period. The latter allows connection to streaming music services, although a £9.99 monthly charge is expected after the year is up, to cover charges levied by the music industry.

As part of the deal, BMW picks up the bill from the in-built SIM card, even if you drive the car abroad, so there are no extra roaming charges.