Quote:
Originally Posted by Cranester1983
So what's the point of the Remote software upgrade function then - clearly doesn't work
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Because as a buyer you think "gosh, that is great - BMW really has their tech, design, & performance sorted!"
Then ownership meets reality - this is on such a low priority it is likely non-existent. The truth is they barely hold on to service continuity with remote commands alone. The most consistent excuse is Azure problems (that is if the, "oh did you get an iOS update?" excuse isn't used - yes, every month, they have a beta program, that is not a reason for service outage) which are not actually Azure "problems" at all. How many companies run off Azure IaaS services today? Well, most everyone in the top 2,000. That would not be the case if Microsoft constantly created service outage issues would it? No, it would not.
I do not believe this is an app thing, it's a simple authenticated connection to backend and passing of even simpler command. You can use the app on all sorts of platforms and I've run the gambit during an outage - they all don't work. I believe it is due to a minimal implementation of backend - once you get out of queue as an active user, things get bad. This is capacity 101, not an "Azure issue." Azure is expensive when used at an enterprise Infrastucture level, really expensive, but when driving a huge element of revenue, it gets money. Sadly, we are using a packaged in service that rarely gets reactivated after initial purchase packaged timeline runs out. BMW has to keep it around to compete in the market. But to be clear it is a parasite of new vehicle sale revenue not the other way around so likely and politically internally looked at as a leech of reported revenue accomplishment.
Likely this is cost vs risk - more Azure resources in more of Microsoft's data centers providing geo coverage in addition to more OTA bandwidth is really expensive. On top of that there is a combination of handling encryption and continuity with OTA data services (can't remember if this is ATT or not). Placing the type of cost and horsepower behind a large data package being sent on an on-demand basis like a software update would cripple an already hindered infrastructure and cost-restrictive bandwidth allocation. This is why it has been made available in UK in spots (smaller than Texas.)
In short, it is not worth the increased operating cost as it does not seem to have any impact on sales. I agree also, I'm convinced it doesn't.
Sad part is, they are right to a degree, I am picking up my third concurrent BMW (X5 delivered this week from Spartanburg and my 9th overall) today. I just switched my wife back from Land Rover as it is even worse with them and BMW has better options.
Now, do I tell everyone who asks about BMW of the failing tech? Sure do, but I don't know if it matters in the grand scheme. There are car companies who get tech really right, but they are also not something I would want to drive in the first place. Tech aside I don't think I would drive anything else (unless I get into super car territory, by that I mean I will be in BMWs for life
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I will say it would be easy to simply code to have data services trigger a hiding of the upgrade option in the iDrive UI until available. This would be smart as this just generates a ton of bad impressions. But then we don't get the 50%+ customers having that wow experience I described above. Even worse is the damaged credibility when you call into the Connected (so much irony in that name, aye?) service line and get a different reason for outage on each call (I have, between three calls I kept getting entirely different root causes.)