BMW’s ConnectedDrive is a grouping of comfort, infotainment, and safety features available on its products. The idea is that ConnectedDrive features are interrelated and together serve as a ‘virtual assistant’. ConnectedDrive is a combination of applications and mobility services.
The head-up display, traffic sign recognition, ‘Surround View’, night vision, active cruise control (with the ability to stop the vehicle and go when conditions warrant), are examples of the safety aspects of ConnectedDrive. But features that provide internet based services including Google Panoramio and Local Search are under the ConnectedDrive umbrella as well.
BMW does understand that its customers have an affinity for smart phone technology in general and iPhones in particular. They have created apps for the phone to provide drivers with remote functionality with ‘My BMW Remote’ and ‘BMW Connected’.
There are additional new services through ‘BMW Live’ which uses a smartphone as an internet enabled and Bluetooth. ‘BMW Live’ will offer RSS news feeds, weather information and a number of Google services to be read out loud through the car’s audio system using another product called, ‘BMW Text to Speech’.
While all the bells & whistles are nice, where these services become important is with the i3. Having an enhanced knowledge of traffic, the availability of transit options, parking, and charging stations, are vital to making the most out of the i3’s range. That’s where ConnectedDrive will earn its laurels.
