Android Auto (Google Assistant) vs Apple Carplay (Siri)

BMW U-turns on Apple CarPlay subscription fees in UK

BMW to make CarPlay standard on most models for the lifetime of the car, reversing the decision to charge customers after the first 12 months

BMW has reversed its controversial decision to charge Apple CarPlay users £85 a year, the firm is set to announce today.

First launched in 2018 with the brand’s latest ‘7.0’ operating system, customers received a years free subscription to the service which lets users synchronise their iPhone with the car’s infotainment system. However, after 12 months owners were asked if they wanted to let the subscription lapse or pay £85 for a year’s access.

Now, a BMW spokesperson claims, the system will be free for the lifetime of the car on all models operating the latest infotainment. Models that aren’t, such as the i3, i8 and runout examples of the outgoing 2 Series and 4 Series, will need to pay £235 for a lifetime subscription - a £60 discount on before.

Customers who have already paid for a year’s subscription in models now not affected will be offered free unlimited subscription instead, it is claimed.

 
BMW U-turns on Apple CarPlay subscription fees in UK

BMW to make CarPlay standard on most models for the lifetime of the car, reversing the decision to charge customers after the first 12 months

BMW has reversed its controversial decision to charge Apple CarPlay users £85 a year, the firm is set to announce today.

First launched in 2018 with the brand’s latest ‘7.0’ operating system, customers received a years free subscription to the service which lets users synchronise their iPhone with the car’s infotainment system. However, after 12 months owners were asked if they wanted to let the subscription lapse or pay £85 for a year’s access.

Now, a BMW spokesperson claims, the system will be free for the lifetime of the car on all models operating the latest infotainment. Models that aren’t, such as the i3, i8 and runout examples of the outgoing 2 Series and 4 Series, will need to pay £235 for a lifetime subscription - a £60 discount on before.

Customers who have already paid for a year’s subscription in models now not affected will be offered free unlimited subscription instead, it is claimed.

Lol
 
BMW detours on Apple CarPlay subscription plans

Apple’s CarPlay is a worthwhile feature to help drivers stay focused on the road, but actually getting the software on a car isn’t the easiest process.

For starters, CarPlay is not a standard feature for every trim level of every automobile out there. While some companies offer it as a standard feature, others regulate its availability and keep it pinned in higher-priced models. And then there’s BMW, which, up until very recently, actually charged a subscription for access to the feature.

BMW’s CarPlay support arrived in 2016. The company initially charged upwards of $300 for the feature, and then changed lanes and decided to go with an $80-per-year subscription option instead. To be fair, BMW did offer CarPlay access for free for the first year after buying a new model, but then the customer would be expected to pay the $80 annual fee to keep accessing it.

 
BMW will no longer require a subscription to use CarPlay in some cars

BMW began offering Apple’s CarPlay service on its cars in 2016. The German car maker decided to charge $300 to include the feature, which then turned into a $80-a-year subscription. After complaints from consumers, the company seems to have rethought its strategy on the availability of CarPlay, which now should no longer have any extra cost to users.

According to the British specialized AutoCar website, BMW has reversed its decision to charge for the use of CarPlay. Until now, customers could try the service free for 12 months when buying a new BMW car. After that, they would pay $80 a year in the US or £85 in the UK. A BMW spokesman said that the fee will no longer be charged for all cars that run the latest version of the ConnectedDrive infotainment system.

If your car doesn’t have the latest version of ConnectedDrive, you’ll still have to pay to use CarPlay, but BMW will charge a one-time fee of £235 for that. Eligible consumers who have already paid for the annual subscription won’t get a refund, but they will be exempted from future charges automatically. These changes will become effective first in the UK and then will be rolled out in other countries.

 
BMW Won't Charge You A Ridiculous Annual Fee To Use Apple CarPlay Anymore

Earlier this year, BMW was widely called out for the pettiest of price gouging by charging owners $80 a year to use Apple CarPlay, a feature that is often included in infotainment packages on much cheaper cars elsewhere. To save some face, BMW has decided to not do that anymore.

At least since 2016, BMW has charged its customers $300 up front for Apple CarPlay connectivity with its infotainment systems, and currently the website says that charge is for 240 months, or 20 years, of the service.

On 2019-and-newer cars with the latest BMW infotainment system, the first year of CarPlay was free, followed by a reoccurring annual charge of $80 to continue the service. Surprisingly, it’s actually uncommon among other automakers to continually charge people for CarPlay after any initial option charge.

Anyway, the annual charge is gone now as BMW attempts to course correct, according to Autocar, with The Verge following up and reporting the change applies to U.S. customers as well. From The Verge:

It was a questionable decision from the start, considering no other automaker makes its customers pay for the use of CarPlay. A BMW spokesperson noted that the change will apply to both US-based and UK-based customers. Anyone who owns 2019 or 2020 model year vehicles and current BMW-Apple CarPlay subscribers will shortly no longer have to pay for a monthly or annual subscription, the spokesperson said. However, this process may take several weeks to complete for existing accounts.

 
UK and US: BMW removes Apple CarPlay subscription fees - Team-BHP

According to a media report, BMW has removed the subscription fees for Apple CarPlay in the US and the UK.

BMW charged US$ 300 for a lifetime access to CarPlay and later revised the fee to US$ 80 annually, with the first 12 months offered for free.

It is said that BMW has decided to do away with the subscription fee and all models with the latest infotainment system will come with lifetime CarPlay access for free.

Reports suggests that Apple does not charge car makers to use CarPlay, but costs are incurred when integrating it with the car's infotainment system.

While most manufacturers included this cost in the price of the vehicle, BMW decided to add it as an option in their cars.

 
Comment Of The Day: Gotta Have CarPlay Edition

 
Finally! BMW set to introduce Android Auto functionality from mid-2020

BMW has announced plans to introduce Android Auto to its range of vehicles from mid-2020.

The functionality will allow buyers to connect their Android smartphones wirelessly with vehicles equipped with the BMW Operating System 7.0.

The Munich-based firm (which already offers Apple CarPlay) says Android Auto will be “integrated directly” into the vehicle’s digital cockpit, meaning customers will be able to view information not just on the central control display but also in “intelligently adapted form” in the instrument cluster and head-up display.


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Finally! BMW set to introduce Android Auto functionality from mid-2020

BMW has announced plans to introduce Android Auto to its range of vehicles from mid-2020.

The functionality will allow buyers to connect their Android smartphones wirelessly with vehicles equipped with the BMW Operating System 7.0.

The Munich-based firm (which already offers Apple CarPlay) says Android Auto will be “integrated directly” into the vehicle’s digital cockpit, meaning customers will be able to view information not just on the central control display but also in “intelligently adapted form” in the instrument cluster and head-up display.


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Mat 'Stick of Truth' Watson will be very very very glad about this news!
 
BMW Confirms Android Auto Introduction

German carmaker BMW has confirmed it will be offering Android Auto connectivity in its vehicles from July 2020.

As it stands, BMW only offers Apple CarPlay connectivity for its vehicles and worse, it charges customers for the privilege. In a country such as South Africa where Apple sits behind Samsung and Huawei in terms of ownership reach, the lack of Android Auto connectivity is a dour point. At the launch of the new BMW 1 Series in Munich, we had a chance to chat to some of the tech engineers who mentioned that Android Auto would come at some point.

 
Android Auto surpasses 100m on Google Play

Android Auto has surpassed the 100 million download mark on the Google Play Store and is going strong with a 4/5 rating from more than 800 thousand reviews.

Android Auto was released to the public five years ago and has over the years gotten better with the inclusion of Assistant support as well as a more streamlined and responsive UI.

 
My Apple Carplay works beautifully and the Waze integration is pretty excellent. The only thing I don't like (and this may be vehicle specific) is this:

If I'm listening to music off my phone (iPod mode) and Waze gives a voice direction, if I adjust the volume at that exact point, it adjusts the volume of the voice navigation and not the music. This possibly makes sense, however it did result in me thinking it wasn't working at all because I had turned the sound fully down, mid-navigation. From there on, all voice navigation was at the same volume (zero). Only by chance did I happen to turn the volume up while it was giving me an inaudible navigation prompt, which in turn made it louder and I noticed it was actually prompting me.

It makes sense to have two separate volume controls, so you can adjust how loud the voice is relative to the music, but it's not the most elegant solution.
 
My Apple Carplay works beautifully and the Waze integration is pretty excellent. The only thing I don't like (and this may be vehicle specific) is this:

If I'm listening to music off my phone (iPod mode) and Waze gives a voice direction, if I adjust the volume at that exact point, it adjusts the volume of the voice navigation and not the music. This possibly makes sense, however it did result in me thinking it wasn't working at all because I had turned the sound fully down, mid-navigation. From there on, all voice navigation was at the same volume (zero). Only by chance did I happen to turn the volume up while it was giving me an inaudible navigation prompt, which in turn made it louder and I noticed it was actually prompting me.

It makes sense to have two separate volume controls, so you can adjust how loud the voice is relative to the music, but it's not the most elegant solution.

There isn’t really a better solution though, short of on screen controls.

It did annoy me at first as well, but the you realise soon enough that you either mute it permanently or you pretty much find the sweet spot once and never again.

Assuming the car has automatic volume adjustment it works well.

I might be wrong, but it’s been my perception that the navigation voice (at least for Siri) is linked to the overall volume and not an independent control so the “master volume” adjusts all of it together.

Also noticed that on different cars the volume slider is actually different so this is left up to the manufacturer where I thought it was all part of Car play, so possibly the two volumes are also different from car to car.
 
There isn’t really a better solution though, short of on screen controls.

It did annoy me at first as well, but the you realise soon enough that you either mute it permanently or you pretty much find the sweet spot once and never again.

Assuming the car has automatic volume adjustment it works well.

I might be wrong, but it’s been my perception that the navigation voice (at least for Siri) is linked to the overall volume and not an independent control so the “master volume” adjusts all of it together.

Also noticed that on different cars the volume slider is actually different so this is left up to the manufacturer where I thought it was all part of Car play, so possibly the two volumes are also different from car to car.

Not sure if it works differently depending on the vehicle or their integration. Using bluetooth, it seems to link the two volumes but when I was using USB they worked independently. It isn’t an issue per se, but it would be nice to have an actual toggle rather than just waiting for the voice before adjusting volume.
 
Not sure if it works differently depending on the vehicle or their integration. Using bluetooth, it seems to link the two volumes but when I was using USB they worked independently. It isn’t an issue per se, but it would be nice to have an actual toggle rather than just waiting for the voice before adjusting volume.

How do you use CarPlay over Bluetooth?
 
My Apple Carplay works beautifully and the Waze integration is pretty excellent. The only thing I don't like (and this may be vehicle specific) is this:

If I'm listening to music off my phone (iPod mode) and Waze gives a voice direction, if I adjust the volume at that exact point, it adjusts the volume of the voice navigation and not the music. This possibly makes sense, however it did result in me thinking it wasn't working at all because I had turned the sound fully down, mid-navigation. From there on, all voice navigation was at the same volume (zero). Only by chance did I happen to turn the volume up while it was giving me an inaudible navigation prompt, which in turn made it louder and I noticed it was actually prompting me.

It makes sense to have two separate volume controls, so you can adjust how loud the voice is relative to the music, but it's not the most elegant solution.
My Android Auto works in exactly the same way. Not really intuitive and can cause much confusion if you're not aware of it.
 
Sorry I was inaccurate. There are wireless CarPlay devices I believe but mine was just a Bluetooth connection.

Okay so not using car play at all, just directly over Bluetooth.

Kind of makes sense as it’s a single audio stream form a device then.

Over USB it likely receives it as two different sources.

Which actually means that thing where it plays navigation on the front speakers but keeps your music playing in the back is probably handled by the head unit.
 
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