[Donser]

Is anybody familiar with the following option and what they do?

- BMW Online
- Advanced Real Time Traffic Information
- Conceirge Services
- Remote Services
- Internet
- BMW Apps
- Convinience Telephony w/ extended Smartphone connectivity

Apparently, I missed these on MY 2014 build and would like to know anybody's experience on any of these options. Can they still be added? On the pricing sheet I have, all option bundled cost $850. Any of them must haves?

[gspannu]

Originally Posted by Donser

Is anybody familiar with the following option and what they do?

- BMW Online
- Advanced Real Time Traffic Information
- Conceirge Services
- Remote Services
- Internet
- BMW Apps
- Convenience Telephony w/ extended Smartphone connectivity

Apparently, I missed these on MY 2014 build and would like to know anybody's experience on any of these options. Can they still be added? On the pricing sheet I have, all option bundled cost $850. Any of them must haves?

I am answering this from a UK/European perspective, but I guess it is very similar in the US.

BMW Online: Lets you get latest news, weather, search for POI, see photos of destination (via Panoramio), get email from any server, etc... Essentially, it is a customised internet interface developed by BMW. BMW keep adding features to this; as the interface you see on your iDrive screen is a customised rich content web page. BMW can modify the pages at their back office (and add/ remove features) and the new features becomes available automatically in your car. It is quite future proof in that sense.

Advanced RTTI: Implements an updated version of Real Time Traffic into your navigation screen. This will aid navigation too find alternate routes, duration of delays, average speeds, etc... RTTI has been around in UK/Europe for quite a while; and is useful if you do a lot of congested road driving. Read more here.

Concierge Services
You can make a call from the car (using the car SIM, not your mobile phone) and it connects you to BMW help desk. You can ask them to send you directions for anything, say a restaurant or an address. BMW use Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yell, etc... and search for the place on your behalf and then send the destination to your car remotely. You can also ask the help desk to make hotel bookings, restaurant reservations, book cinema tickets, etc...
Some places in UK/Europe, you can make a hotel reservation via Concierge; and BMW help desk will send a message to the car and the BMW key itself can be used to open your hotel room. This kind of total end-to-end interface is still not very common, but is available.

Remote Services
Allows you to send an address from Google maps directly to your car. You search for a address on Google Maps, hit send, choose car manufacturer (BMW), then put in your id. Google send the destination to your car. You then go to Navigation and select this as your destination.

Internet
This is a full blown (well, as good as it can get on a 10 inch screen) web browser. You navigate using your iDrive controller.

BMW apps
These are dedicated apps by BMW that provide an interface to polar services like Glympse, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Napster, etc... are all integrated and you can access these directly using iDrive. An example of Twitter/ Facebook is that you can tweet/post your location, or destination, or temperature or your estimated arrival time. The app automatically picks up data (location, destination time or distance, etc..) and embeds this in the text of your tweet/ post. You can also dictate emails, send text messages, etc...
BMW plans to really increase their presence in this segment; and see this as a major growth area. There are new apps being developed and added and BMW plan to launch something a BMW iDriveStore; something similar to App Store or Google Play - so you can buy these apps/ subscriptions to what you wish.
There is already a music service available that BMW offer - letting you listen to unlimited music for 3 years. All data is transferred via the SIM in your car - so nothing to do with your personal mobile phone.
In addition, if you have the BMW iPhone adaptor; you can use a special BMW interface to navigate your iPhone playlists.

Convenience Telephony w/ extended Smartphone connectivity
This allows 2 phones to be connected to the car simultaneously. You can make/ receive calls from any of the two phones via in-car bluetooth. You can also hear music via bluetooth. The main difference is that earlier cars only allowed one phone at a time. Also, you could only use either USB or bluetooth for music in the earlier version, this extended version allows simultaneous USB.bluetooth use. [Not very sure about the last line, but thats what i believe it does]

As for must haves, very subjective. I have ordered all except Internet.

I have had some of these services in my 3 series Coupe since 2009.
I highly recommend Remote Services (and use it almost every time). If I cannot find anyones address, I normally call up and ask the person to send me their address via Google maps - so very helpful.
I also use Concierge to ask BMW to send me locations or to find me places, especially in new areas. e.g. find me a nice Michelin star restaurant and book a table for three.

[gorban]

I've ordered everything but the concierge service. I've never had navi in my BMW 's so I am really looking forward to this.

Btw, if you have an iPhone, with the lci you will be able to use Siri Eyes Free. Just press and hold the speech recognition button on the wheel and you can communicate with Siri.

[Donser]

Does anyone know if any of these option can be added after delivery? I spoke to my dealer and he's saying no but not certain. They admit that they know very little about the LCI stuff. My SOS button works so the car has signal to call BMW.

[gspannu]

Originally Posted by Donser

Does anyone know if any of these option can be added after delivery? I spoke to my dealer and he's saying no but not certain. They admit that they know very little about the LCI stuff. My SOS button works so the car has signal to call BMW.

I very much doubt it.
These features could not be added post delivery for previous cars (I mean pre LCI). I have a Pre LCI car and have tried very hard to get features added; even tried coding it myself, but no success.

I do not think the LCI cars hardware is any different, so very unlikely...

[Donser]

I was going through my idrive menu and I have a line that says connecteddrive. In it, I see BMW online eventhough it says it's not included in my options. When I tried to access, it says I need to call BMW to activate. Has anyone used this? Is it worth the subscription?

Originally Posted by gspannu

I very much doubt it.
These features could not be added post delivery for previous cars (I mean pre LCI). I have a Pre LCI car and have tried very hard to get features added; even tried coding it myself, but no success.

I do not think the LCI cars hardware is any different, so very unlikely...

[Technic]

Originally Posted by Donser

Does anyone know if any of these option can be added after delivery? I spoke to my dealer and he's saying no but not certain. They admit that they know very little about the LCI stuff. My SOS button works so the car has signal to call BMW.

Please contact forum vendor BimmerTech for details and pricing of the ConnectedDrive services activation in your F10.