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      07-02-2020, 12:31 PM   #22
antzcrashing
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Drives: 2018 BMW 440i GC
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Originally Posted by Zodiac View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by antzcrashing View Post
Awesome. BMW has great software. Not quite as innovative and out front as Tesla, but solid software with great features
I own BMWs for like 16 years straight (starting from E39, then jumping through E65, E60, E90, F10, F13 to G11 now) and I am wondering where does this conclusion of yours is coming from?

While BMW software is quite OK, from my point of view it is simple and far from having 'great features'.

To have a properly personalized car, that can do as simple task as remember your drive settings, you have to code stuff on your own (or use some external specialists), as 99,9% of the dealers will tell you 'it is not possible to do that' and even if you do that coding yourself, you end up with features that makes the software look like some beta version, just with minimal set of features enabled to get by.

Not to mention the OTA software upgrades, which I believe came in only because of Tesla showed the automotive industry 'how it is supposed to be done'.

The other thing is that they ALWAYS ditch the software in your car if new version is up. Most of the time, you get minimal updates that fix issues you never know existed and then its game over. You cant add new stuff without aftermarket addons, even the 'car key' seems like to work only on new vehicles, even though BMW knew for quite some time what hardware will be required and that they can update it remotely.

So I cannot say anything good about BMW software, besides that it works fine most of the time.
My car is the 2018 440i and most of my statement is based on that car. I am also involve with software as my profession. My car has blindspot detection, lane departure warning, highway breaking, adaptive cruise and idrive with nav. These features are well implemented and intuitive. When the car is making "decisions" in the adaptive cruise and associated warnings, they are almost always spot on, its logic is well done. Occasionally a false positive which amounts to a red car ahead light but no breaking when going around a tight corner in a garage, but nothing problematic. The software updates they do have been non-destructive and infrequent. Although over the air would be nice. The User interface for the idrive is intuitive. I can tell that bmw puts a lot of development effort and spending into software, as its so important in modern cars.

Tesla is the only example of a more advanced software tech in a luxury car, but I think they are doing things too fast and there are headaches with that. My coworkers tesla landed in a ditch when the auto park failed. That's a true story, he is an engineer himself so he should be capable of operating it.

Bmw has well tested, well featured software. That's why I am interested in seeing what they do with the i4 and self-driving tech, because it may be out later than others but it will be safe
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