AppleInsider Staff
Since 2016, BMW has offered Apple CarPlay integration as a one-time add-on option, but that will soon change, as the German car maker is switching to a subscription model for 2019.
Currently, BMW offers CarPlay as a $300 option on car models with built-in navigation systems. Starting next year, however, BMW owners will need to pay $80 per year for the luxury, reports The Verge.
Don Smith, technology product manager for BMW North America, revealed the new pricing strategy at the Detroit Auto Show on Tuesday, framing the subscription model as a more flexible alternative to single purchase activation.
"This allows the customer to switch devices," Smith said. "A lot of people buy [CarPlay] and think its okay, but sometimes they stop using it or switch to Android."
The new plan grants free access to CarPlay for the first year of ownership on a new BMW model, after which the $80 per year fee comes into play. Smith points out that, for a three- or four-year lease, the subscription plan is less expensive than BMW's current one-time fee. However, customers who purchase outright could pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for CarPlay over the course of a car's lifetime.
BMW is one of a handful of carmakers that charge for CarPlay access. The German firm jumped on the CarPlay bandwagon in 2016, and later that year debuted the first car to employ a wireless variant of Apple's infotainment system.
Apple provides auto companies access to CarPlay software if built-in infotainment systems meet a certain set of criteria, mainly relating to touchscreen and connectivity hardware.
Smith said BMW plans to diversify its virtual assistant integrations in 2018 with the addition of Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa.
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73 Comments
Subscription for what? Updates to fix BMW software? This is stupid. CarPlay and Android-whatever can co-exist and does on aftermarket stereo systems. BMW needs to take a computer class and get out of the 19th century. As for having Google Assistant or Alexa, that's the first thing I'd disable.
Wow.....double dip much? That is a crock!
What an obvious money grab. Their rationale makes no sense - if users want to disable car play they could just put an option for this in the settings menu. It's already a joke that it costs $300 to enable a software feature.
As an owner of two BMW motorcycles, I give BMW a big SCREW YOU. BMW will do anything and everything to suck more money our of their customers. The ONLY thing reliable with their cars is the warranty. That's it, because a 50-cent part will disable the car, and they'll charge you thousands of dollars to replace it.
Exactly WHAT does subscribing get the consumer? Continued fixes and/or updates? Or is it literally just to use it?
My BMW's are my final purchases from that blood-sucking company. My business partner bought an $80K BMW a few years ago (against my recommendation) and got rid of it not even two years later as it spent more time in the shop than it did on the road.
This is so dumb. They should just charge you $49 if you want to change it (from CarPlay to Android or, more likely the opposite) for the 5min it takes to flash a new ROM. Good luck with that, BMW. Tesla updates a ton of stuff for free—clogging the purchase path isn't worth it when you're headed into an electric fight with combustion engines...